BEAUTIFUL NEW HYTHE DEMOISELLE

I spent half an hour again today searching the stream for a New Hythe Beautiful Demoiselle. I think I found two. I've pictured one of the little beauties above and below.

The weather was more suitable for damsels on the wing today, it was sunnier and less humid than it was yesterday. Some of them though had other things on their minds, like the pair of Blue Tailed Damselfies (i think) below.........................

.....................and this pair of Banded Demoiselles below, who were also intent on making sure there would be another generation waiting in the wings for next year.

Another species to put in an appearance was the Red Eyed Damselfly below. It was a bit of a distance shot but those eyes stood out like a sore thumb even in the bright light.

The sunshine also brought out a couple of Orange Tip butterflies, the male of which also had a certain basic instinct on his mind. I should have given this post an X certificate I think, don't let your kids see this!

I think she has made it quite plain that she wasn't in a 'romantic' mood but he chooses not to understand. He hovered above her with his undercarriage lowered...................

................... and with wings flickering and no doubt whispering sweet nothings in her antenna, he gently descended to try and change her mind.............

.................But the lady wasn't for turning, and he settled for a bit of nectar instead.

**Thanks to Marianne and Greenie for pointing out that the female Orange Tip was actually playing hard to get and rebuffing the males advances and not, as I first thought, the exact opposite. It's just as well i'm not a butterfly, I could get into real trouble if I was! I have now re-written parts of this post and re-classified it from an X certificate to a PG.**

NEW HYTHE DAMSELS

I'd heard that there were some Banded Demoiselles and a Beautiful Demoiselle around the stream that flows quite fast alongside the road at the bottom of Lunsford Lane. This stream actually flows around 'our' lake, which I can't access any more, and then eventually becomes the Millstream in the country park.

Although the sky was grey, it was actually very warm, so Ithought i'd pop down there and see if I could see them.

There were probably half a dozen stunning male Banded Demoiselles along the small stretch of reed fringed water. They weren't very active, but that suited me just fine and I was able to get a few shots of my favourite damselfly.

I also found several of the metallic green females who all seemed to favour the far bank vegetation this afternoon making it difficult to get a close up. They aren't as eye catching as the males I don't think but a nice looking damsel in her own right I think.

Unfortunately there was no sign of the Beautiful Damselfly, although I bumped into Alan Woodcock and he had seen it about 40 minutes earlier. I'll try again tomorrow if I get the chance.

There were a couple of Hairy Hawkers patrolling the stream along with dozens of Blue-tailed Damselflies like the one above. As well as a few like the one below which I presume are the immature form rufescens which IF i'm right will mature as pale brown infuscans-obsoleta according to my book. I find this stuff quite confusing, so please correct me if i'm wrong.

New Hythe Lakes 12th July

Because the weather was wet and i'm a wimp I didn't go out until 13.30 this afternoon. It was still warm and the air around the lakes was heavy with the smell of rain on dry grass and parched earth, lovely!
A flock of at least 100 Woodpigeons were in the air as I looked towards the North Downs in the distance. I thought they might have been put up by a bird of prey but a scan through the binoculars found the culprits to be a couple of black labradors bounding across the farm fields over the river.
Once again the tide was at it's highest and not much was to be seen on the river. I decided that this would be another butterfly day and despite the lack of sun there were plenty to be seen.

GATEKEEPER

Gatekeeper numbers seemed to be up since my last visit and I was soon able to get a picture as I walked through the damp undergrowth.

SMALL WHITE

I always find it more difficult to pin down a large or small White for some reason, they just keep on flying through. So I was pleased to finally get what I believe is the small version in my sights at last.

I made my way along the southern end of Brooklands lake past the small group of Common Spotted Orchids, now finished flowering, which I found a few weeks ago. They are the only Orchids I recall seeing on this part of the site although I expect there were others. A Kingfisher called loudly here but I was unable to see it unfortunately.

MEADOW BROWN

Now here's a thing. I know it's Gatekeepers which have the two small white dots in each eye, but this one was bigger and surely is a Meadow Brown. Isn't it?

RINGLET

Still good numbers of Ringlets but I've only found them along the path between Brooklands and Abbey Mead and the start of the railway path, which is where I found this one. Also along this path were a family of at least four Wrens which I would have loved to get a picture of but Mum would have none of it.

ERISTALIS ARBUSTORUM

The little hover fly above caught my eye, I think it's a male Eristalis arbustorum. I don't like it when it doesn't have a common name, or maybe it does.

RED ADMIRAL

I realise you wouldn't forgive me if I didn't include a Red Admiral in the line up today, so here it is. Not a very good picture, it just wouldn't open it's wings for a full monty shot but hey, sometimes less is more!

And finally...........

I stood on the Divers' footbridge desperately looking for an Emerald damselfly as seen and photographed by Terry Laws last week. I thought i'd found it, I was so excited to be probably only the second one to see it, but it turned out to be a female Banded Demoiselle. Lesson learnt!

FEMALE BANDED DEMOISELLE

Garden and New Hythe 10th July

I've noticed recently that something has been eating the leaves of one of the Acers in our garden. This morning while standing on the patio clutching a mug of coffee I saw the culprit. It was a Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile centuncularis) pictured below. I watched it land on a leaf and cut a semi circle off, deftly curling it up as it did so and then fly off with it.

LEAF-CUTTER BEE

These are fascinating little bees. They use the pieces of leaf to form a small cell where an egg will be deposited along with some pollen and nectar into a tunnel which will have been excavated into rotten wood usually. About a dozen or so cells are deposited in the same tunnel and then the tunnel is sealed with leaves and then abandoned. The eggs hatch as larvae and feed off the pollen and nectar, then they hibernate and pupate into bees the following year.

I managed to find where our bees were building their tunnels, they were excavating into a rotten branch in our old Cherry tree (see below). The Acer's not looking too good, but i'll happily put up with it.

LEAF-CUTTER'S TUNNELS

Other winged delights in the garden this morning were a Chiffchaff which silently flitted around the trees and bushes, and three Goldfinches which tinkled merrily away as they had a breakfast of Sunflower hearts. A juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker chose peanuts off the menu and surprisingly a Stock Dove down the bottom of the garden was a new tick. I checked the bird books because i'm aware of impostors in the Pigeon game but it seemed to be the genuine article.

Brown Hawkers and what i'm certain were Emperor Dragonflies criss crossed the garden, sometimes settling momentarily, but just the usual blue species represented the Damselflies although Carol has recently seen a Banded Demoiselle in the garden.

CINNABAR MOTH CATERPILLAR

I got itchy feet this afternoon and headed off for an hour down New Hythe lakes. I parked at the waterworks entrance and immediately noticed the Cinnabar caterpillars pictured above on their favourite plant, Common Ragwort.

A bit further on a footbridge crosses the Millstream and this is home to a few Banded Demoiselles, a female of which is pictured below. Bizarrely, I noticed that the males looked their usual blue colour on one side of the bridge but when they flew to the other side they appeared green! Honestly it's true and no, I hadn't been on the Pimms.

FEMALE BANDED DEMOISELLE

I didn't venture further than the Bittern corner of Streamside lake for reasons that I won't bore you with. Suffice to say the exuberance of youth, the barking of dogs and the consequences of lager feature heavily. But never mind, I amused myself taking some more pictures of Red eyed Damselflies (below) which I confess are becoming a favourite of mine.

RED EYED DAMSELFLY

And finally............

I couldn't help firing off a couple of rounds at this juvenile Great Tit. It seemed to want me to, it did everything except smile.

GREAT TIT

Christchurch, New Hythe and a poke in the eye with a sharp stick!

After a great weekend in Dorset I got home monday evening suitably exhausted and slightly sunburnt after three long days by the River Avon and three long evenings in the Fisherman's Haunt Inn. Well somebody's got to do it!
Today Carol and I had a nice walk around New Hythe lakes in the sunshine and then in the afternoon I was up a tree in the back garden doing my lumberjack impression when I managed to poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick, not recommended! The reason i'm telling you that is to explain the lack of text in this post it's a bit of a struggle using one eye, so apologies and I hope you like some of the pics. Up to the Banded Demoiselle are from Dorset and the rest are from New Hythe.

SMALL TORTOISESHELL



COMMON TERN


AND AGAIN

AND AGAIN

SEDGE WARBLER

BANDED DEMOISELLE

MEADOW BROWN

CINNABAR MOTH

COOT AND MUM

BLACK TAILED SKIMMER

AND AGAIN

BRIMSTONE