The first Small Copper butterfly we’ve ever recorded at the Triangle. It has been on or close to this small dried-up dock plant for two days now.I showed our local MP, Rupa Huq, around the reserve. Here she’s getting an idea of what the volunteers get up to!
Small Red Damselfly, from the pond belowA pond at Bramshill. Reedmaces in foreground, water level well down in current drought. Succession (sere) from open water – floating pondweed – emergent plants e.g. rushes, then reed and reedmace, then willow bushes, finally birch-oak mixed forestBlack-Tailed Skimmer on his lookout perchCommon Darter: he too constantly returned to this perchBrown Hawker female, ovipositingThe ‘beach’ on the Long Pond, BramshillEmperor Dragonfly on reedmaces at end of Long Pond, Bramshill. Zipping about were lots of blue/azure damselflies, common darters, and black-tailed skimmers, and a few bluetails.The Long Pond, Bramshill – perfect dragonfly habitat. Open water with floating weed, bordered by beds of rushes, reeds, willow and alder bushes. Conifers in the backgroundCommon Fleabane – a handsome yellow composite in forest ditch, Bramshill
Aston Rowant, full of chalk grassland flowers and insects, the Cretaceous escarpment above the Oxford Clay (Jurassic) plainMale Adonis BlueFemaleSilver-Spotted Skipper Hesperia commaSphecid digger waspMeadow Grasshopper, a fine insectHarvestman cf Platybunus triangularisRed Kite overhead … and a moment later, a Raven, calling loudly, too
Black Darters in wheeL The pools were very low from a month of drought, and many of the dragonflies correspondingly distant, but this pair came obligingly close.Keeled Skimmer male sunbathing on boardwalk. Some definitely like it hot. Ask me about poikilothermy sometime, I’ll explain it to you.Thursley Common boardwalk, bog, pools, pines, birch scrub, distant hills. A Hobby flew up, its back rather uniformly grey-brown. Seen soaring later from the side, its moustachial stripe was conspicuous.Bordered Grey Moth, Selidosema brunnearia (a Geometrid) in heather, its caterpillar’s favourite foodBeautiful Golden Y Moth, Autographa pulchrina (a Noctuid), hiding in heatherRobber fly on bell heatherSmall Sand Wasp, Ammophila pubescens, continually in motion on a sandy path
Right at the end of the walk, a huge leaf-green Emperor Moth caterpillar (Saturnia pavonia), whorled with black tufts on each segment, walked briskly like a self-propelled cylindrical concertina across the boardwalk. Just as I grabbed my camera and leant up close, it fell down the gap between two planks and disappeared into the thick green grass below. It was a sight to behold, as long and thick as a finger.
Miller Moth (Acronicta leporina), a big insect with a chunky body, found crawling and fluttering about on leaf litter atop the mound in Gunnersbury Triangle. The wing edge is chequered, and there is a black V made of a crescent next to the small kidney-spot on each forewing.
Purple Hairstreak found in pond (worth a look at full size, click and see)Bug Day pond dipping – water level alarmingly low(Prob. Southern) Hawker Dragonfly Nymphs, Pond Snails. We also saw plenty of Ramshorn Snails, a flatworm, a leech, small diving beetles, damselfly nymphs, water fleas, Greater Water Boatmen (Backswimmers), young newts (with 4 legs and gills) and more.Identifying Birch Catkin BugsCream-Spot LadybirdDevil’s Coach Horse (Ocypus olens) – a Rove Beetle (Staphylinidae), splendidly fast and wrigglyThe magnificent Fibonacci spirals of a Teasel flowerheadUrban Green-Veined White on BuddleiaYoung Entomologist at Work
