Sunday 17th.August 2008

Family get together today , especially to see my beautiful niece Diane . But before heading off , had time , spurred on by Steve's posting of Small Red Damselfly yesterday ,to quickly visit the three sites where I recorded them last year , and came up with none .

The farm lake was my first stop . Very quiet for dragon/damselflies , just the odd Common Darters and Common Blue Damselflies , but not what I was looking for . I did manage to find a male Ruddy Darter which posed nicely for me , and eventually found a Migrant and Brown Hawker . Sad news for the Little Grebes , a single youngster now with one adult feeding it , and the other adult seemingly exiled to the far side of the lake . The Coots are still nine , their single loss not making such a dramatic impact on their number .

Butterflies were few , Common Blue and Brown Argus being the only non singletons . I was talking recently about the difference in underwing between these two species , and had the opportinity to photograph both . The Common Blue , shown first has those two spots under what

I call the 'boomerang' marking on the forewing . The Brown Argus does not have any spots
under the 'boomerang' marking . Size is also a factor in identifying between species , but a small Common Blue can be the same size as a large Brown Argus . Obviously the fore and rear wings are not always spread to make the identification from the underwing . The Six Spot Burnet moths are still doing what they always seem to be doing .

Over at Spring Park Pond , just two Common Darters , but on this small pond the Moorhens have managed to raise three young . On the Purple Loostrife around the edge of the pond , an Autumnal Comma

was enjoying the nectar and the early morning sun . Before leaving , I noticed that some moron has put a reasonable sized Goldfish in , lets hope there aren't more . In the meadow , I heard the tinkling of Goldfinches , feeding on the seed heads of the gone over flowers .

My last chance was Keston ponds , once again no luck . Still numbers of Red Eyed Damselflies , but no Small . The floating vegetation is dying off now , so I don't think they will show now .

I had to cross the Common on my way home and stopped briefly at the Ash tree . An estimated 5/10 Purple Hairstreaks are still showing , but not low enough for photos , and not the time to wait for them to come down .

When I got home , there was tinkling in the back garden on the feeders , with a family of young Goldfinches having a meal before heading off to a face painting party , watched over by a very dapper Robin in his new feathers .