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Monday, 23 July 2012

Long wander

I set out this morning to cover many miles of the parish boundary, beginning on the west side of Bishop's Stortford. In all, 6 hours to the house and then a few more around Hadham Hall. Still several footpaths and boundaries to survey. In all, I recorded:
40 species of bird, 13 butterfly species and 7 dragon and damselfly species. Highlight bird was undoubtedly discovering a spotted flycatcher was indeed a pair and feeding young. Not many of those in Herts. Plus, cormorant and a fine male sparrowhawk. Butterfly wise, it was a case of what I didn't record rather than what I did. No blues at all, no peacocks, only 2 small tortoiseshells and 10 gatekeepers. These are worryingly low numbers, considering that I had 15 marbled whites, a butterfly considered as uncommon for East Herts! Dragonflies were: 5 emperors, 5 brown hawkers, 1 migrant hawker and 4 black tailed skimmers. Damsels were common blue ( 100's) and over 25 blue tailed. All damsels I netted to check for azure were common blues, but I am sure that azure were present.
Photos from the top:
Common blue damsel in hand
Common blue, dorsal view
Black tailed skimmer, male
Black tailed skimmer female
Heat hazed spotted flycatcher
Comma
Small tortoiseshell
Green veined white
Marbled white
Gatekeeper
Small skipper
Battered red admiral
Narrow bordered 5 spot burnet moth
Puffball ( note £ coin for size reference)
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