© Victoria McMillan
Sunday 6 July 10.30am was overcast, windy and threatening rain and did not bode well for seeing butterflies or dragonflies on our annual walk. I was fully expecting to have to cancel however, the day could not have turned out to be so different.
Arriving at our usual meeting point on the Causeway my spirits rose when I saw 5 people waiting to join the walk. Shortly after more people arrived and we set off with 12 interested people plus Philip, butterfly identifier; Christina Bessant, dragonfly identifier; Josh Kalms, HMWT People and Wildlife Officer and myself.
As we began our walk, we immediately saw a good number of Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies, both male and female and tenerals (newly emerged adult damselfiles, often paler in colour with milky coloured wings which change colour as they mature).
Many more of these species were seen on the walk, together with Banded Demoiselles (3 male and 1 female); a Four-spotted Chaser dragonfly laying her eggs and a male Broad-bodied Chaser.
Our walk became even better when we spotted our first butterflies - a Large White and a Large Skipper.
We walked into Meadow 3 and saw absolutely nothing but as we began to criss-cross the field, we were rewarded by seeing a variety of butterflies. Ringlets, Gatekeepers, a Common Blue, a Painted Lady, Meadow Browns. One of the main highlights of our walk was to find a Peacock butterfly sleeping on a piece of grass (so that only the dark underside of the wing was showing). We photographed, stared at, discussed and finally moved on and in all that time the butterfly slept.
Walking on to Meadow 2, in addition to many of the varieties of butterflies we had already seen, we found Green-veined Whites and Small Whites. Our walked continued out of the meadow onto the river path where we saw Speckled Wood butterflies.
In addition, on Stockers Lake we saw water skaters and in Meadow 3, Cinnabar Moth Caterpillars enjoying a piece of ragwort, together with soldier beetles and grasshoppers.
During the walk we were very pleased to see hoverflies and lots of bees, especially on hemp agrimony as well as other flowering plants.
Below is a full list of our sightings together with a variety of photographs taken by, Vicky, Peter, Christina and Philip.
Damselflies/Dragonflies
Common Blue Damselfly
Blue-tailed Damselfly
Banded Demoiselle (3 males and 1 female)
Four-spotted Chaser
Male Broad-bodied Chaser
Butterflies
Large White (3)
Large Skipper
Red Admiral
Ringlet (2)
Gatekeeper (8)
Common Blue
Painted Lady
Meadow Brown (6)
Peacock
Green-veined White (2)
Small White (6)
Speckled Wood (2)