It's been a while since I was at Old Moor so I decided it was about time I spent another day there. It's a 70 mile round trip for me, so just wish I lived a bit nearer sometimes. Anyway, as much as the birdlife at Old Moor I also love to see all the other things that are there in abundance - the wild flowers, the butterflies, the dragonflies and with it being such a lovely sunny day yesterday I saw quite a few of all of these. Within five minutes of arriving at Old Moor this beautiful four spotted chaser was the first thing I saw in the grassy area just before you get to the new pond dipping area.
This was closely followed by a butterfly (green veined I think - didn't see the outside of its wings) sat on a daisy.
I had a wander down to the Wader Scrape where lots of BHG chicks were on the islands.
Just as you get to the turning off to the Wader Scrape hide a bird was singing in a tree (I think it's a willow warbler - can anyone confirm? It certainly wasn't chiff-chaffing!). It was there all day - every time I walked by it was there singing its little head off)
Walking down Green Lane the daisies looked lovely in the sunshine with little bits of dandelion clock presumably stuck to spiders web threads attached to them.
An orchid was just coming into bloom.
One of the paths I really like to wander down when I come to Old Moor is the path from the Wath Ings Hide to the Field Pool hide and then past there to the gate at the bottom. This time there were a pair of young blue tits flitting about above my head.
I think this is a dingy skipper on the clover
Back to the cafe now for a latte and a piece of flapjack - no visit is complete without it! Then it was off to the new Bittern Hide which I hadn't seen before yesterday - no bittern sighting for me, but the hide is in a great place and gives really good views of the lake.
There were plenty of common blue damselflies on the lily pads.
I saw so many other things whilst wandering round, but will leave it there for now! I'm just wondering when I will have time to come back - work does get in the way, but I have a day off on Tuesday.........!!
By the way, if you read this Nicola it was nice to bump into you in the Visitor Centre and have a chat about cameras!
See my Flickr photos here
https://www.flickr.com/photos/115745582@N04/
Thanks for that Aiki - I've bookmarked this thread now so will have no excuse for not having a good go at doing my own damselfly ids in future!
First of all, congratulations Christine on a very nice set of photographs.
Also to Aiki for a very clear and well illustrated description of the differences between the Common Blue and Azure Damselfly males.
I would just like to add one more thing that could help. Look at the ninth segment (next to last). This segment on the Common Blue is just plain blue with no other marking. On the Azure, and others of the Coenagrion genus, it is blue with a black mark. The shape of the mark varies with the species.
Thank you OH! Well there always seem to be plenty of the blue damselflies darting around the ponds, so perhaps with all this information from you and aiki I should make it a target this summer to get to grips with identifying them all!