July 24th 2009

Yellow-legged Gull on the boats off the visitors centre the only bird of note when Dave and I visited the pond this afternoon and despite the odd rain shower came away with some outstanding butterfly counts for the country park. Not one of the best places on planet earth to go butterflying but 14 species is not to be sniffed at.
Small Skipper 9
Common Blue 14
Small Copper 1
Comma 10
Painted Lady 80
Peacock 6
Red Admiral 7
Small Tortoiseshell 20
Gate Keeper 30
Meadow Brown 80
Ringlet 40
Speckled Wood 7
Green-veined White 4
Large White 100

Painted Lady
Disappointingly we could not find any Marbled Whites so we moved on to Draycote Meadows where there were at least 100 of them and another 100 Painted Lady plus 8 Six-spot Burnet. We also managed a Buzzard and 16 Swift. All the PLs look very fresh so probably going to be thousands on the wing soon if the weather holds up.

Six-spot Burnet

Earlier in the day as the heavens opened up I managed a quick shot of this dragonfly in the garden. Think its a female Emperor Dragonfly and a garden tick.
After another very heavy shower mid evening a Whitethroat turned up in the garden and 7 Sand Martin flew south.

Richard