The Wrong Day!

It was the wrong day when I walked the stretch of the canal from Glasson-Galgate in the hope of a dragon or two, cloudy and an unwelcome breeze. After a 3 mile and 3 hour trek, I saw not a single dragonfly, with just two damselflies seen, and one bird of note, it was a walk all about the butterflies. The population of UK butterflies has now reached an 80% decline since the 1970's, but it's not the end of the world yet, and I've had some decent sightings recently regarding them as heartening.

Gatekeeper. Pete Woodruff.

On todays walk I encountered a nice 34 Gatekeeper, 4 Small Tortoiseshell, 4 Meadow Brown, 3 Painted Lady, 3 Red Admiral, and a Peacock. The only two damselflies seen were, a Blue-tailed Damselfly, and Common Blue Damselfly. The only bird of note was a Buzzard over the canal junction at Galgate.

Garden Butterflies.

Comma. Pete Woodruff.

A Comma spent a good 15 minutes nectaring on the Elecampane in our garden and was soon followed by a smart Red Admiral.

Picture Gallery.

I got more excellent finds and images in my inbox again, all best viewed enlarged.

Ruddy Darter. Martin Jump.

Martin has is second Ruddy Darter under his belt this week in Preston.

Buff Ermine. Ian Mitchell.

And with the help of a beautiful Buff Ermine, Ian continues to achieve excellent results of moths in flight.

The Odd Couple. Howard Stockdale.

Howards image shows the result of an Embden Goose which paired with a hybrid GreylagxCanada Goose. Having had a hatched chick out on the marsh this year, perhaps a cursory look might have some thinking Conder Pool now has its own Snow Goose!

And Finally....

Cuckoo Juvenile. Marc Heath.

Marc got an excellent image of a Cuckoo. In congratulating him, I confessed to never having previously recognised the juvenile Cuckoo had such brilliant markings on its tail feathers.