Finally back to the patch properly, after a week of work stuff! It was a fantastic day and there was plenty to see. A LESSER WHITETHROAT, rattled in the car park and NUTHATCHES were calling in the trees around there. A nice surprise was to find a family of SPOTTED FLYCATCHERS by the moat. (click on pics for bigger image)
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| To be honest I'm not sure what this! but I quite liked it |
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| Young Chiffchaff |
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| Obligatory Chaffinch! |
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| Meadow Brown |
With the warmth of the day I was really hoping for an improvement in butterfly numbers, early on there were several Meadow Browns and a Large White plus a few Small Skippers, as I went further on, more species were added first a Comma, just after a SPARROWHAWK sent a YELLOWHAMMER diving for cover. Next several Ringlets were found in the long grass of the meadow and a possible Essex Skipper, I 've only identified a couple of these with complete confidence in the past. Moving passed the shallow ponds there were several Azure Damselflies a Beautiful Demoiselle, a couple of Four Spotted Chasers and an Emperor Dragonfly, I was really enjoying the insects today!
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| Comma |
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| Possible Essex Skipper? |
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| Flower sharing |
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| Ringlet |
In the wood the first butterfly I saw was my second record of Silver Washed Fritillary, after my first last year. Unfortunately or fortunately, not sure which, it was disturbed by another! The butterflies kept coming with White Admiral next, I forgot the Gatekeeper just before I entered the wood!
I found a clearing and stood for a while, there was a large Dragonfly patrolling the area as it got closer it revealed itself as Golden Ringed, my first for a couple of years!
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| Silver Washed Fritillary |
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| Golden Ringed Dragonfly |
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| Azure Damselfly |
My walk was coming to an end but there was still time to add Large Skipper, Red Admiral, Small White and later a Small Tortoiseshell plus Broad Bodied Chaser. So the birds took a bit of a back seat today, I'm sure they didn't mind and possibly 13 species of butterfly, I think is the most I've had in one day at Sissinghurst
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| Broad Bodied Chaser |
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| Large Skipper |
6 comments:
Alan ,
Nice mix of species posted today .
Your first shot is Salsify/Tragopogon pratensis.
Really great shot of the Golden-ringed Dragonfly
, and that Broad-bodied chaser is a late one .
Essex and Small Skippers notoriously difficult , need to be there really .
Your SWFritillary is a male and was probably driven off by another male .
Good to hear the Golden-ringed Dragonflies (and SWFrits) are back.
Adam
Alan,
Greenie has beat me to it with the salsify and also the congrats on the great photo of the Golden ringed Dragonfly. With the great variety reported I feel another visit to your patch comming on soon.
Mike
Hi Greenie, Thanks for the ID, there were lots of things on the wing today. I think there is a good chance it was Essex but as you say they are very tricky :-)
Hi Adam, It was good to find both of those, it was a great day to be out.
Hi Mike, Thanks, I'm not great on flowers at all, it's a must try harder subject for me! If you pay another visit, I hope you find plenty to keep you interested, another day like yesterday would be good :-)
An excellent post Alan, what a day you had! Lovely photos throughout but my favourite has to be the one of the S-w Fritillary, beautifully lit and a butterfly I have never seen myself.
A possible 13 butterfly species in one visit is quite something!
Hi ShySongbird, Thank you, I would have liked to have stayed out longer! I was really enjoying the walk, I think there was more to see. The Fritillary was a surprise, I thought last years one may have just been a one off :-)
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