Catchup Time Pt.3 - 7th to 13th June, 2023

Header image (while this post is current) - immature male Black-tailed Skimmer at Heather Lake on 11th June, 2023  

I'm slowly winding my way through previously unpublished material. Here are some more of my sightings from the month of June.

Wednesday, 7th June          Sence Valley Forest Park

Having had a taste of this place two days earlier, where my range had been curtailed by Lindsay's limitations, a return solo visit was made in order to more thoroughly cover this extensive facility.

Having parked the car, I entered at the southern end of the site and immediately spotted a female Mallard with five chicks on the tree-covered River Sence below.

Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) (female with chicks) - Sence Valley FP

Goss Water seemed devoid of any birds as I passed and so I continued, crossing the bridge over the Sence and turning left to get to Usborne Pool. Nothing was in the area of the seat at Usborne Pool so I made my way round the edge of the pool to the right of the seat. Here I had more luck in the form of a few damselfly sightings, with a reasonable view, although nothing was close.

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male) - Sence Valley FP

For the damselflies, love was definitely in the air!

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male+female in cop) - Sence Valley FP

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) were busy too, as can be seen in the video clip below.

A Red-eyed Damselfly was chilling out on the pond algae.

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas) (male)  - Sence Valley FP

Other observations by Usborne Pool included this Common Blue butterfly.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (male) - Sence Valley FP

I was photographing this tiny beetle, when it opened its elytra to reveal a striped abdomen - a feature that I'd been hitherto unaware of.

Alder Leaf Beetle (Agelastica alni) - Sence Valley FP

From Usborne Pool I turned back and passed alongside Horseshoe Lake, noting nothing of interest. 

Continuing to the bridge over the Sence at the inlet end of Horseshoe Lake I had hoped to find Banded Demoiselle to photograph, but failed in that respect. However, I spotted a Broad-bodied Chaser flying around. It was only when it landed and I managed to photograph it that I found that it only had three wings. The fact that this had seemed to be flying effortlessly is testament to the dragonfy's ability to operate all wings independently of each other.

Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa) (male) - Sence Valley FP

From here, I took the path that runs parallel to Blower's Brook until I reached the bridge, where I turned right and then left after a while to access the new area of Sence Valley FP. I took the path that ends at the track that runs between the A447 and Heather Lane, seeing nothing of interest until I reached that track. On the track, I found a Black-tailed Skimmer that preceeded me up the track, allowing photographs from time to time. It was not until examining my photos that I noticed that this specimen had a deformed tip to its right rear wing.

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) (immature male) - Sence Valley FP

A little further on, the wonderful blue of Cornflower caught my attention.

Cornflower (Centaurea cyanus) - by Sence Valley FP

Reaching yet another bridge over the Sence, I headed north along the east side of the Sence, which forms the boundary of the FP. Almost immediately I was seeing butterflies.

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) (male) - Sence Valley FP

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) - Sence Valley FP

As I neared the north east limit of the reserve, I started seeing Banded Demoiselle down beside the water of the Sence.

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (female)  - Sence Valley FP

Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) (male)  - Sence Valley FP

I had walked a fair distance, and it was now time to head back to my car. As I crossed over the bridge where the Sence flows between Horseshoe Lake and Goss Water I noticed something rather strange happening. A female Banded Demoiselle was floating in the water and was being grabbed by several males. Whether their motives were driven by lust or, atruistically, they were trying to rescue her, I do not know. I'll let you make your own mind up on this one if you care to view the video clip below - please watch it full-frame.

 

This was an interesting end to my trip out.

 

Saturday, 10th June          Saltersford Valley Country Park

 

I still had not managed to get a shot of a Hairy Dragonfly this year, so I headed back to Saltersford Valley CP. Initially I did not have much luck and I was about to start a second circuit when I came upon a damselfly that had me baffled, momentarily, as to its identity. At first glance it looked to be primarily black and yellow! - it must have been a trick of the light.  The penny dropped, however, when I saw the red eyes. It was a female Red-eyed Damselfly. This specimen is exhibiting the most severe case of water mite infestation that I have ever seen.

 

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas) (female) -Saltersford Valley CP

Arriving back on the boardwalk, I found a pair of Azure Damselflies in cop. 

 

Azure Damselfly (Coenagrion puella) (male+female in cop) -Saltersford Valley CP

I was seeing Hairy Dragonfly but not managing to get flight shots. However, one briefly landed and I managed to get a partial shot, with the diagnostic thorax markings clearly showing.

 

Hairy Dragonfly (Brachytron pratense) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

Here are some of the other items that I photographed after this.

 

Red-eyed Damselfly (Erythromma najas) (male) -Saltersford Valley CP

Burnet Companion (Euclidia glyphica) - Saltersford Valley CP

Large Red Damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

Swollen-thighed Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) - Saltersford Valley CP

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (male) - Saltersford Valley CP

Sunday, 11th June          Heather Lake : Our Garden

 

It had been a while since I last visited Heather Lake. I fell out of love with this place when, in 2022, the western side of the lake became impassable, preventing me making my usual circumperambulation, on which the west side was often the most productive.

This was a relatively hot day and so it seemed like a good idea to see what Heather Lake had on offer.

By the inlet stream, which is nothing more than a trickle at the best of times, Common Blue Damselfly were much in evidence, and were so all round the lake too.

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (male) - Heather Lake

Common Blue Damselfly (Enallagma cyathigerum) (male+female in cop) - Heather Lake

There were several Black-tailed Skimmer there. I only found males, and these were in various stages of maturity. The females of the species retain their orange on the abdomen, but the males start off orange and then develop a pruinescence as they mature. The images below are, I hope arranged in increasing order of maturity, although even the last one does not seem to be fully mature. Sometimes one has to check on the anal appendages or secondary genitalia (as in that first image) in order to be sure of the sex of a specimen.

 

Black-tailed Skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum) (male) - Heather Lake

In the past, this has been a good location for Four-spotted Chaser, but this species does not seem to have had a good year this year. I only saw two on this occasion. In the first image, below, an Azure Damselfly seems to be chancing its luck!

 

Four-spotted Chaser (Libellula quadrimaculata) (male) - Heather Lake

The only other species photographed on this occasion was a Speckled Wood butterfly.

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) - Heather Lake

It was time to return home.

 

From my study, that afternoon, I managed to shoot some video of a Woodpigeon. In hot weather, some birds tend to work their throat to cool themselves off. This Woodpigeon is demonstrating this technique beautifully.

Tuesday, 13th June          Our Garden

 

I had been noticing that, whilst out in the garden, if I walked under one of the tall shrubs overhanging a path, I was getting annoyingly tickly cobwebs on my face. It never occurred to me that this was from anything other than spiders. However, on this day, Lindsay remarked "what's that hanging from the 'winged bush'? " I went to investigate and found a small caterpillar. This turned out to be the small larva of the Spindle Ermine micro-moth, and this is what they do - for whatever reason. Incidentally 'winged bush' is our name for the Spindle as the fresh stems have a 'winged' appearance.

Spindle Ermine (Yponomeuta cagnagella) (larva) - our garden

To round off that day's events, and to end this blog post, we were regularly being visited by Jackdaw at that time. However' it's been a while now since one visited, so here's a shot taken on this day.

 

Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) - our garden

The following day I was off to Norfolk for a few days, and this break has already been reported on, so my next 'Catchup' will start with the day after my return from Norfolk and will probably take me into the early part of July. That will still leave me with about two months left to sort through!

 

In the meantime, please take good care of yourselves and Nature.

 

Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard