Common at its absolute best

With this beautiful summer weather the common is at its most lovely right now. If you can visit it in sunshine, the detour to Scouts' Pond is well worth it, if only for the dragonflies. Last week's Black Tailed Skimmer is still there, but there is another species too, busy laying eggs. I think it is a Common Hawker, but I've sent it in to iSpot for confirmation. (No response from iSpot this time, but James Emerson of Norwich has posted a comment that it is in fact a female Emperor, and taking another look at my identification guide I see what he means - many thanks James!)

It's all happening on the insect front: as well as the dragonflies, the common is loud with the singing of grasshoppers. Still lots of ringlet butterflies, which are still infuriatingly fluttery from the photography point of view. On School Common I did find a meadow brown, which was much more obliging:

Not much happening with birds today, although one reed warbler and the reed bunting were still singing. A family of long tailed tits was above me on School Common, and I got a few pictures, one of which is this:

I was also pleased to find a female bullfinch on the Jubilee boardwalk: with any luck they have bred. It's also nice to hear a Stock Dove in the vicinity.