I finally had some free time to do the rounds of the Patch today. First stop was the Trap Grounds where there was a fine male Reed Warbler in full song with the female flitting about in the base of the reeds. I know that they've already raised one brood as I saw them feeding a fledged juvenile bird several weeks back so perhaps they're on their second brood now. There were a couple of Brown Hawkers holding territory over different parts of the pond and several Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies as well. By the pond with the screen (which was looking rather scummy now in the heat) there were a number of Damselflies and a male Broad-bodied Chaser.
In Burgess Field I was amazed at just how dry it was. I know that we've not had any rain for some time but two weeks ago the grass was still fairly green whereas now it was brown and dry. There were still plenty of butterflies with 6+ Marbled Whites, lots of Ringlets and Meadow Browns and literally dozens of Essex Skippers. This last species must have just come out but they were everywhere you looked. With any luck with this good weather butterflies will have a good year - they really need it after the last two which have severely depleted numbers for many species.
You can't really see from this angle but Essex Skipper can only be distinguished
from Small Skipper by the fact that the underside of the antennae are black rather than yellow.
Finally a stroll along the Castle Mill stream found a Brown Hawker and an Emperor as well as the usual assortment of Damselflies.
I've been running the moth trap religiously each night and in the good weather catches have been very good. It's difficult to know what is noteworthy as it's the first time that I've properly run a trap. However I was pleased to catch a couple of migrants which were new for the garden, namely a
Dark Sword-grass and a
Diamond-back Moth. It's interesting to note how now a larger proportion of the catch is micros which quite frankly do my head in though I am starting to get quite good at ID'ing the commoner ones. In the
Garden Moth Challenge I'm languishing somewhere in the middle of
the table whereas Steve Goddard up in Wolvercote is currently 6th - a splendid effort.
The migrant Dark Sword-grass moth
Rather than bore you with a non-descript micro photo, here's one of my favourite
macros - the lovely Buff Arches or "chocolate moth" as Luke (my seven year old son) calls it.
As you can see from above, there's been precious little on the bird front to report and I'm afraid that that's not likely to change in the near future. I did notice getting on for twenty post-breeding Lapwings hanging out on the meadow and the usual summer Black-headed Gull flock was starting to accumulate. Come August and it's worth looking through it for Mediterranean Gulls. We may soon start to pick up the odd returning Common Sandpiper along the Thames - there's usually several sightings that we get there in the autumn even if there are no floods.
Whilst part of me is really enjoying the hot weather, part of me is secretly longing for a good prolonged period of rain so that the floods can return.
