Hot at last

Now we have finally had some hot weather the insect life on the common has sprung into life. There are more butterflies around at last; mainly ringlets and meadow browns, with the occasional comma. The grasshoppers are singing away like crazy. I've seen a couple of dragonflies at Scouts' Pond, one being a ruddy darter, but the most noticeable species there is the common blue damselfly, which this year is present in large numbers.

I rather like this sinister view, with the strong sunlight casting a shadow from the insect on the back of a leaf:

And after numerous attempts, I was finally pleased to get a reasonable shot of one in flight:

Further on along the boardwalk were a couple of juvenile reed buntings, evidence of at least one successful breeding. The rotten weather this year has probably had a bad effect on breeding success, but at least one brood of one of our signature species has survived.

Damsels, not dragons

On a quick spin across the common this afternoon I wondered if there might be any dragonflies about, especially at Scouts' Pond. The answer was a resounding NO, although there were large numbers of those common blue damselflies you find everywhere. There was a dragonfly in the garden later on though, so they must be about.

The birdsong is starting to fade away now; a few desultory chiffchaffs and a couple of half-hearted blackcaps, and one reed warbler still going strong, was about the extent of it.