Wednesday 13th May
Now wasn’t Wednesday pleasant? My plan was to spend a few hours just chilling out at Troublefield; basking in the sunshine while Demoiselles and Butterflies decorating the skies.
But first I fancied scouting out a new area near Christchurch and having a quick jaunt around Ramsdown. Nothing doing, so back to my plan…which had already taken a diversion with a call from Doug asking if I was about. I was, so we arranged to meet at the meadow.
Not nearly as prolific as Monday, so I busied myself with a Beautiful Demoiselle while I waited.
A mating pair of Brown Argus provided the next challenge.
Pinning down Demoiselles while they’re fresh can be an enjoyable challenge, and getting them to remain still should they choose a perfect perch can be as frustrating. This male Banded chose to remain long enough to provide one of the better opportunities of the day.
Doug arrived shortly afterwards and we flushed through the undergrowth looking for something different. Thankfully we were rewarded with a female Broad-bodied Chaser.
That proved to be it for larger species, so we moved on to Dunyeats Nature Reserve. Barely through the gate we had a female Hairy ovipositing among the reeds, while a Downy Emerald disappeared across the heath.
By far the most prolific were the Chasers, with at least half-a-dozen ‘blue’ males battling across the water and several fresh Four-spotted decorating the heath.
Damsels were represented by Large Red, Azure and a few Common Blue, which provided another new species for the season, while back in the reeds Doug noticed an emerging Four-spotted Chaser.
A pleasant two hours sadly curtailed by the increasing cloud cover, but our first activity over water meant that Spring had finally arrived. Just in time for the following day’s washout!