Monday, 30 May 2022

Kingsley again - late may

 A day time visit...




Lots of noise from a tree revealed this great-spotted woodpecker nest...




Day flying moths: Common Heath...


and a pug of some sort (presumably)...


Mayflies loafing by the stream when the temperature dropped a bit...


Reasonable numbers of Beautiful Demoiselles.. 



Late may/early june is beetle time. Garden Chafer is one of the smaller chafers...





Wednesday, 25 May 2022

22 May 2022 in East Hants

A good variety of dragonflies now on the wing at Shortheath common including 4-Spotted and Broad-Bodied Chasers, Downy Emerald, Large Red Damselfly.

Azure Damselfly...

Red-Eyed Damselflies - as always on floating vegetation...



Beautiful Demoiselle...


This Hawthorn Shield-bug landed on me while I was eating my lunch near Binsted...


At Shalden a large number of White Helleborines are in full flower...



While the buttercups had a variety of visitors including a saw-fly (??)...


and a couple of Mother Shipton moths...




Alton Natural History society Nightjar walk - 24 May 2022.

 18 members of the Alton Natural History society had a successful visit to Kingsley Common at dusk on 24 May. 

When I did a brief recce in advance, I found that there seemed to have been a significant hatch of mayflies, with many flying over the heath. 

This Cormorant was on the pond...

While this Dartford Warbler was found calling on the heath - announcing its presence by its call.


The first Nightjar started churring remarkably early at 19:45 - well before sunset. Later we recorded the presence of at least 4 in total with two churring birds, and 3 flying together often close to where we were standing. 

It was a fine but fairly cold evening - churring was somewhat limited with birds more involved in flying, issuing their brief flight call. We also heard wing clapping. 

A small supporting cast added to the interest: a Woodcock flew over a couple of times. We could hear a distant cuckoo initially from the Broxhead (SE) direction then later more from the south west. A distant Peacock was also calling somewhere to the north.