Thanks to volunteer Phil for his update - and his dedication. Glad that you finally found your elusive butterfly!
Anyone reading my article from 26 August will know about my search for the elusive brown hairstreak butterfly. On Friday, after 3 late summers of searching, I finally caught up with one on a day that had started very cloudy and drizzly and I’d written off as a non-butterfly day.
Rounding the corner to go down to Jupps View for lunch, with the sun now appearing for a while there was a female very nicely perched on the brambles to the left near the master ash tree. Astonishingly it stayed in this small area for about 15 minutes allowing me to show it to a few visitors. It wasn’t exactly a prime specimen but was certainly good enough to show its markings on both the upper and under wings and bright yellow ends to its antennae.
Naturally this sighting turned what had promised to be a rather quiet day into a very special one for me.
Elsewhere on the reserve the water had virtually disappeared at West Mead and was much lower on the North Brooks so waders were in short supply – just a few lapwings and a solitary ruff. The duck numbers were a little down, but as well as the fairly numerous teal there were a few mallard and I picked out a shoveler, a juvenile shelduck and my first pintail of the season. A huge flock of several hundred Canada geese mixed with the Highland cattle and a smaller flock of greylags was also to be seen on the North Brooks
Marsh harrier, peregrine and hobby were present on the North Brooks, buzzard and kestrel to the South.
The distant cattle seen from West Mead and Winpenny duly had a flock of birds nearby, but these proved to be starlings and not the yellow wagtails of recent weeks.
With the sun out more in the afternoon a number of dragonflies appeared including brown hawker, emperor on Pipe Pond, and a possible pair of migrant hawkers near where I’d seen the brown hairstreak but too active to positively identify. A very busy clouded yellow butterfly once again refused to perch for a photo and some small whites perched on the ragwort, looking very attractive even if gardeners do regard them as a pest.
To continue my colleague Gary’s theme from earlier in the week I’d seen several charms of goldfinches of up to 50 birds throughout the day. There were few other small birds to be seen, perhaps keeping cover in view of the strong southerly breeze However, sitting on the café terrace at the end of the afternoon I saw a huge charm take flight at the bottom of Upperton’s Field. The attached photo from last year give some idea what it looked like but on this occasion there were many more birds - I’d guess somewhere between 200 and 300.