A couple of insects

With walks being few and far between recently, I enjoyed a walk with Bec on Sunday. On the bird front there was a family of MARSH TITS and several young GREEN WOODPECKER in the woods SKYLARK and YELLOWHAMMERS sang out in the fields and the odd SWIFT drifted over but generally it was quiet as to be expected here at this time of year.
So the focus was on the insects, finally butterflies were noticeable and not for their absence! They included SMALL and LARGE in both SKIPPERS and WHITES, several SPECKLED WOOD, RINGLETS, SMALL TORTOISESHELL, MEADOW BROWN, COMMA and 2 WHITE ADMIRALS. The pond in the wood had good numbers of damsels and dragons, including LARGE RED DAMSELFLY and BROAD BODIED CHASER. The first of the highlights came when a GOLDEN RINGED DRAGONFLY was found patrolling a ditch in Bull and Birches wood, the second highlight was found on a private part of the estate a SCARCE EMERALD a new species for me and another reminder of just how surprising this place can be.

Scarce Emerald

Scarce Emerald

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

On the moth front finally numbers are really picking up and there have been a couple of new additions to the site list Steve has been doing almost all the recording, he found the RDB species OLIVE CRESCENT recently and a Kent rarity GREAT OAK BEAUTY making the Sissinghurst list now 438 for macro moths. The number of species found in just one night has peaked so far at 101!! I've managed just one visit in the last week a couple of moths from that visit are below.

Pine Hawk-moth

Coronet