Darters On The Bog!

Another pleasant spell at Birk Bank bog. Nothing overwhelming, but with plenty of interest to keep me happy for a couple of hours, not least because I witnessed my first copulating Common Carder-Bee's on the boardwalk....A pity the bees were in shadow.

Common Carder Bees. Pete Woodruff.
 

As always, view the videos Full Screen. 

When I came across this pair, it took a while to work out what was going on, but enquiries confirmed what was pretty obvious to me....I'm grateful to Ben Hargreaves for his expertise help on this one.

There was much activity on the bog, with at least 20 Common Darter seen, including pairing and ovipositing.

Black Darter Immature Male. Pete Woodruff.

Also seen, up to 6 Black Darter were all black males with the exception of an immature male. The best and biggest surprise was a Golden-ringed Dragonfly, probably the last one of the year for me. I'm not aware of any September records in Lancashire for the species.

This Common Lizard was one of four I saw on my last visit here on 12 August.

The trek to Cragg Wood in the hope of finding Purple Hairstreak around the oaks along the way, and Golden-ringed Dragonfly on the River Conder, was the road to nowhere. But I did find a female and juvenile Stonechat, also a Buzzard overhead, with Chiffchaff and Coal Tit seen.  

I noted just thirteen butterflies in four hours, 6 Small Tortoiseshell, 4 Small Copper, 2 Speckled Wood, and a Peacock.

Some much appreciated quality and colour images for B2B. They were sent to me by Martin Jump and Ian Mitchell.

Brimstone. Martin Jump.

One of Martin's many extraordinary images, this one of the Brimstone butterfly coming in to land on Purple Loosestrife. 

Gold Spot. Ian Mitchell.

Fairly common throughout the whole of Britain, but takes nothing away from this attractive and colourful Gold Spot moth in Ian's trap recently.