After coming back into port (the marina) for a few days I managed to grab several hours at Brandon Marsh today in the good company of Alan Boddington and a very knowledgeable Dave Mount!
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| Summer plumage Black-tailed Godwit on East Marsh Pool |
Shortly after parking up I bumped into Bob Duckhouse and we both headed off to East Marsh Hide to check out a
Black-tailed Godwit. Probably the same bird that Fred Stokes had texted me about on Sunday morning. After locating the bird it was obvious that some better photographic opportunities were possible from the Wright Hide, so off we went.
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| Newly emerged Ruddy Darter! I first tweeted this as a Common, Thanks to Paul Cashmore for the ID correction! |
After lunch Alan, Dave and I decided to head off around the reserve on a butterfly and dragonfly quest and after checking out various pools, with
Red-eyed and
Blue-tailed Damselflies on Goose pool our first Dragonfly appeared,
Ruddy Darter.
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| Southern Hawker |
As we passed through Old Hare Covert towards River Meadow a small
Grass Snake cut across the path then two more dragonflies took the eye,
Southern Hawker, one of which was duly photographed. We inadvertently flushed an
Emperor Dragonfly a short time after which tantalised us for a short while before heading off and the hay meadow itself was awash with
Ringlet &
Meadow Brown Butterflies.
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| Newly fledged Blackcap |
The river held small numbers of
Banded Demoiselle, plus a tiny little chap hunkered down in the meadow sweet, which judging by the nearby parent was most likely a newly fledged
Blackcap.
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| Brown Hawker - My nemesis! |
To end the day I was quite happy to manage a photograph of one of my nemesis dragonflies when we came across the above
Brown Hawker, which actually landed!
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| Comma - One of a number of other species encountered today! |
Other species of note today included:
Comma (7),
Small White (3),
Red Admiral (3),
Small Tortoiseshell (5),
Large Skipper (11) and
Speckled Wood (1), plus
Black-tailed Skimmer Dragonfly (4).
