Due to the increasingly hot weather, I thought a morning walk to the ponds behind and around Hadham Hall would be good for butterflies and dragonflies. However, it turned into a reasonable birding session. To start with a turtle dove was heard purring near the war memorial in the village before common buzzard was seen soaring over the hall. A whitethroat called from the undergrowth near a pond and plenty of martins and swallows were using the largest lake for drinking. An autumnal sight was a party of 50+ linnets perched on the wires east of the Hall. A little early for such a large group but perhaps they’d finished their first brood having enjoyed nesting in and near the rape.
As I arrived at the largest sand of water an emperor dragonfly was hawking over the water, shown here and numerous common blue, azure and blue tailed damselflies were evident. The latter being a new species for the parish records No sign of last week’s black tailed skimmers.
New butterfly for the year was noted in the shape of a gatekeeper along with all usual specimens as noted in the previous report.
Other interesting insects observed around the large lake were oedemera nobilis, a bright green beetle with swollen hind legs (male only) as shown here. Also a grasshopper, thought to be a field grasshopper, but in the process of being properly identified by an expert. Many soldier beetles were also seen, mostly feeding on pollen of the cow and hedge parsley
As I arrived at the largest sand of water an emperor dragonfly was hawking over the water, shown here and numerous common blue, azure and blue tailed damselflies were evident. The latter being a new species for the parish records No sign of last week’s black tailed skimmers.
New butterfly for the year was noted in the shape of a gatekeeper along with all usual specimens as noted in the previous report.
Other interesting insects observed around the large lake were oedemera nobilis, a bright green beetle with swollen hind legs (male only) as shown here. Also a grasshopper, thought to be a field grasshopper, but in the process of being properly identified by an expert. Many soldier beetles were also seen, mostly feeding on pollen of the cow and hedge parsley
As I left an unusual sight were 3 green woodpeckers on one telegraph pole, shown here in rather poor light.
other photos show the grasshopper, an immature azure damselfly, the oederma nobilis and the emperor dragonfly in flight.
other photos show the grasshopper, an immature azure damselfly, the oederma nobilis and the emperor dragonfly in flight.
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