The outside temperature gauge is saying 29.8 degrees C as I write this. The grass is brown and yet as I look at the Buddleia in the front garden, there are more butterflies and bees than I have ever seen on it. I do wonder if plants are making more nectar than normal to attract them, because of the stress they are under in these hot dry conditions.
Mike and I had a walk along the West Scrub Breeding Bird Survey route yesterday. The first meadow has a lot of ragwort and thistles in it, which were full of the energetic gatekeeper butterflies, which never seem to stay still in the sunshine, as well as other colourful butterflies, such as red admiral, peacocks, burnet moth and a few painted ladies. There were plenty of other insects as well, such as cinnabar caterpillars and several species of hoverflies The median wasp, I took a photo of, had its proboscis deep in the flower and was not bothered how close I came. The dragonflies and damsels were very active as well. There were lots of female common darters, as well as black-tailed skimmer, broad bodied chaser both male and female. Emperors were patrolling higher in the air.
The previous day, while Mike met a prospective volunteer-we can always do with more, I wandered down to Redlands. The flora is very different from this time last year, when it was wet, teasels grew well and so did the ragwort. There were lots of gatekeeper butterflies to be seen and also some very busy common blue butterflies going about their business. My highlight, however, was a Beewolf. A solitary wasp, which used to be very rare with scattered populations in southern England. I only realised what it was when I obsidentified my photo when I arrived home. They are also known as bee-hunters, as they hunt and paralyse bees, take them back to their burrow, lay an egg on the bee, so their larvae can feed on them. The insect world is a nasty place!
I bumped into a volunteer and she had been down by the ramp on the Meadow Trail. She had been taking photos of dragons, such as southern hawker. She had also been taking photos of butterflies. One of which made me very jealous-a purple hairstreak. They do make me smile! We only have occasional sightings, as they tend to be difficult to see as they live higher up in oak trees and only come down occasionally to drink.
The dragonfly spot of the month has to be one we saw on a work party today, in the heat, near Pumphouse Pit, putting in Kingfisher boxes and doing some work on the sluice. We had our coffee break in the hide to cool down. The 1st 2 volunteers into the hide saw 7 cattle egrets on the island just in front of the hide before they flew off leaving the vocal terns behind. When we were all in the hide, Mike suddenly pointed to a dragonfly with a bright blue saddle and greenish eyes patrolling up and down in front of the hide. This is known to mainly being a migrant, although now breeding in a few places in England, called a lesser emperor. There have been sightings on the northern Pits the last 2 years. However, we did see 2, so are they breeding here? Time will tell.
The rain on Sunday hasn’t done anything to the water levels on the Heronries which about 2 feet down from only the last 2 months, so the islands have reappeared and so have the little egrets. I saw 7 a few days ago. Green sandpiper and lapwings are also using the sandbanks.
The rain did affect our Open Day! However, the volunteers enjoyed the day. The photographers took some atmospheric pictures, and we had time to socialise. The group of dignitaries also seem to enjoy their walk around and stayed the whole morning talking to many of our volunteers.
Well, that’s it for now. I always like to hear about your sightings.
Let me know on friends@paxton-pits.org.uk
Best wishes
Ann
Ann Thomas 10.7.25