Radley Lakes Thurs 25th June

Spent a couple of hours on site to check out what Dams/Drags were about. The place was buzzing with them. All the photo's were taken from the edge of Orchard Lake.

Blue Tailed Damselfly "Violacea"

Blue Tailed Damsel (Immature Male)

Female Emerald Damsel

Blue Tailed Damsel "Violacea"

Blue Tailed Damsel (Immature Male)

Female Emerald Damsel

Blue Tailed Damsel "Violacea"

Blue Tailed Damsel (Immature Male)

Blue Tailed Damsel "Violacea"

Dams/Drags Seen:-

Emerald Damsel 8+
Common Blue Damsel 1000's
Blue Tailed Damsel 12+
Red Eyed Damsel 10+
Emperor Dragonfly 8
Brown Hawker 4
Four Spotted Chaser 10+
Black Tailed Skimmer 20+
Ruddy Darter 40+

Cothill Fen NNR/Parsonage Moor BBOWT Reserve Wed 24th June

Spent an hour at these reserves to check out the Dams/Drags.

Small Red Damsel

Small Red Damsel

Dams/Drags seen:-

Small Red Damsel 10+
Azure Damsel 1
Southern damsel 7
Blue Tailed Damsel 3
Emperor Dragonfly 3
Four Spotted Chaser 5
Black Tailed Skimmer 2
Keeled Skimmer 10+
Ruddy Darter 8

Bernwood Forest Tues 23rd June

I decided to go to Bernwood Forest this morning in the hope of seeing Purple Emperor. Ewan was already on site but hadn't seen any and with the amount of people up and down the tracks the hope of seeing one on the ground was never going to happen.So I switched to photographing a few Grasshoppers instead.

Meadow Grasshopper

Meadow Grasshopper

Male Woodland Grasshoper

Meadow Grasshopper

Male Woodland Grasshopper

Butterflies seen:-

Small Skipper
Large Skipper
Small White
Purple Hairstreak 1
Common Blue
White Admiral 1
Small Tortoiseshell
Comma
Red Admiral
Silver Washed Fritillary 6+
Marbled White
Meadow Brown
Ringlet

Dragonflies seen:-

Migrant Hawker 1
Emperor Dragonfly 2
Brown Hawker 1
Broad Bodied Chaser 3
Ruddy Darter 2

Grasshoppers/Crickets seen:-

Meadow Grasshopper
Woodland Grasshopper
Common Field Grasshopper
Dark Bush Cricket
Roesel's Bush Cricket

Southern Migrant Hawker Otmoor 22nd June

My second attempt to try and see this species for Oxfordshire.Tried Saturday but unsuccessful. The individual seen today was in exactly the same place as the one seen at the weekend.The one seen today is different to the one in rogers picture from yesterday. The one seen today was a female.I'd say there were probably at least 3 individuals in the area, 2 males and a female. If you compare segments 8,9 and 10 of the males on geoff's photo's on the oxon dragonflies blog there are slight differences in my opinion.

Southern Migrant Hawker

Southern Migrant Hawker

Southern Migrant Hawker

Southern Migrant Hawker

Southern Migrant hawker

Hornet Moth from Saturday

Dry Sandford Pit BBOWT Reserve 16th June

Spent an hour at the reserve this morning to check out the Southern Damselflies.

Southern Damsel

Southern Damsel

Common Blue Damsel

Southern Damsel

Southern Damsel

Knapweed Broomrape

Knapweed Broomrape

Toadflax

Dams/Drags seen:-

Large Red Damsel 1
Common Blue Damsel 1
Southern Damsel 5+
Keeled Skimmer 2

Butterflies seen:-

Large Skipper 1
Small Skipper 1
Marbled White 10+
Meadow Brown 10+
Small Heath 2

Orchids Seen:-

Common Spotted Orchid
Pyramidal Orchid
Marsh Helleborine (just starting to flower)

Radley Lakes 15th June

Spent a couple of hours at Radley Lakes this morning to check out what Damselflies/ Dragonflies were around.

Emerald Damselfly

Blue Tailed Damselfly(Rufescens)

Emerald Damselfly

Blue Tailed Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Blue Tailed Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Emerald Damselfly

Common Blue Damselflies

Ruddy Darter

Ruddy Darter

Pyramidal Orchid

Dams/Drags Seen:-

Emerald Damselfly 8+ (Edge of Orchard Lake) 
Common Blue Damselfly (Many)
Blue-Tailed Damselfly 8
Red Eyed Damselfly 10+
Emperor Dragonfly 8
Four-spotted Chaser 7
Black Tailed Skimmer 7
Ruddy Darter 30+ (Tenerals)

Orchids:-

Common Spotted Orchid
Southern Marsh Orchid
Pyramidal Orchid

1 Grass Snake seen at edge of Orchard lake.

Daneway Banks Nature Reserve, Gloucestershire Sat 13th June

It's been along time since I've seen a Large Blue, In fact it was 17 years ago way back in 2003 at Collard hill in Somerset. I've always wanted to see them again but never got around to doing it. This year I was determined to see them again so today we headed to the Gloucestershire wildlife trusts Daneway Banks Nature reserve. We parked in a layby  just before the Daneway Inn then walked to the reserve. We headed to the top slopes at the eastern end of the reserve and it wasn't long before I found my first Large Blue for a long time. 12+ were seen during our visit mostly females laying eggs on wild thyme. While photographing the blues I was lucky to come across a male and female Downland villa bee fly, quite a rarity and a first for me!

Large Blue

Large Blue

Large Blue

Large Blue

Large Blue

Large Blue

Downland Villa Bee Fly

Common Field Grasshopper

Marbled White

Reserve sign

Butterflies seen:-
Large Skipper 3
Large Blue 12+
Small Blue 1
Common Blue 2
Small Tortoiseshell 2
Dark Green Fritillary 1
Marbled White 20+
Meadow brown 50+
Small Heath 1

Common spotted and Pyramidal orchids were in flower.

Reserve sign

After our walk at Daneway banks we had a quick walk through Siccaridge Wood which was opposite Daneway. The only thing of note here were 3 Greater Butterfly Orchids but looks like it would be a great place to visit in Spring.