22nd - 28th July.

 July 22nd and in the afternoon went back to Pulpit Hill mainly looking for butterflies and found 15 species.

A good start when a pair of silver-washed fritillaries led me into the woods passing another common woodland species, the speckled wood. In the clearings peacock were feeding on the thistle heads along with ringlets and meadow browns. Holly blues and gatekeepers, large whites, red admiral and brimstones also seen here. Passing an impressive beech before coming out on to the chalk hillside and its many wildflowers and more butterflies including  chalkhill and common blues, males and females all very active, small heaths, small coppers and large skippers too.

 

Had a few days in the garden and on Saturday morning, 25th, had the now increasing mixed tit flock come into the garden and with them a few chiffchaffs and we had one fly into the house, once around the kitchen and out through the open back door and carried on feeding in the fennel close by.

Monday 27th and met Don at Missenden Abbey in the rain and watched the lake there for an hour. Good numbers of swallows and house martins, adult and young continually feeding over the lake. Coot, moorhen, mallard and tufted ducks with young also an adult and juvenile little grebe present. A heron flew in. A juvenile grey wagtail came close and too close to it's moulting parent.

 

Went back Tuesday morning but to the lake at the far end and found more tufted duck with young and also mallard and Canada geese with gosling.

At home watched a young dunnock sunning itself.

Later that afternoon a walk past a barley field with a few poppies growing through it, looking how they all used to I guess.

Stewart.

Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

20th - 22nd July.

20th July noticed solitary leaf-cutter bees using more chambers in my new bee hotel, saw comet Neowise, late and luckily from the garden. Good views through the binoculars.

Up and out early  on the 21st and sitting quietly a fox cub came close for a while. sat and scratched and then slowly walked off.

After breakfast went to Pulpit Hill and out on Grangelands  chalkhill blue butterflies  were everywhere, must have picked a good day. Mainly males and many still drying their wing after emerging, one walked onto my finger. Found several paired pairs but no single females.

 

Good numbers of peacock butterflies on the tall marsh thistles in a wet area in the woods there and found just one silver-washed fritillary very mobile searching for bramble flowers. After lunch a short walk from home to check on the violet helleborines and  just beginning to flower. Passed a herd of suckler beef cows and their calves, tightly resting together, tails swinging trying to keep the flies at bay.

Wednesday 22nd a morning walk from The Lee towards Swan Bottom and beyond, found more violet helleborines and again just beginning to flower and also growing by the side of the road. Field scabious growing well and looking perfect along the side of the footpath.

Came across a lone female common blue on the path and further on a holly blue, also on the ground picking up minerals from the soil I guess.

 

Later at home, heard and saw briefly newly fledged wrens around the garden, not sure how many or where they came from but do have wrens in the garden regularly. Stewart.

Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

14th - 18th July.

Tuesday 14th, a morning's  walk to Shardeloes along the Misbourne, not a lot seen but did pass a group of starlings busy feeding in a grass field and also adult swallows were busy fly catching and flying into the trees above us to feed their noisy young . On our way back to the car this song thrush came close eating presumably the inside of a snail.

 

In the afternoon from home passed chiffchaffs busy feeding in amongst the leaves on the trees above me. Weather had turned chilly and cloudy, a few butterflies were seen including a small skipper, and others feeding on ragwort.

 A few 2nd generation common blues seen.

16th and a good start to the day, two more southern hawkers emerged from the pond. One had already flown leaving behind its now empty larval case. The second dragonfly we watched for 2 hours as it dried its wings and flew.

17th and after lunch a migrant hawker, an immature male, came into the garden, settled and sunned itself on a nettled-leafed campanula.

Later a paired pair of green-veined whites were seen fluttering about in the garden.

The following morning the female green woodpecker flew in briefly.

An afternoon walk from home, more butterflies seen including more 2nd generation common blues and small coppers. Watched  large hay-making machinery at work. Frist a smaller tractor was spreading the hay to get as much dried in the sun as possible and later a larger machine rowed up ready for the baler to bale its large bales of hay.

 

Stewart.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

7th - 11th July.

7th July Mistle thrush enjoying the wild cherries growing next door along with blackbirds, wood pigeons, crows, often watched blue tits tucking in as well. Foxes no doubt enjoying the fallen ones.

Later walked around Wilstone reservoir, a pair of great crested grebe close to the bank with presumably just one remaining chick looking well fed.

Good numbers of young coot at the waters edge.

Passed young herons on way to hide, where large numbers of adult coots  were on the spit out in-front and also in the sun black-tailed skimmers, joined by an immature ruddy darter.

Leaving the hide good numbers of butterflies in the meadows as we continued on around. Canada and greylag geese tightly grazing the path along the jetty side. Back home noticed a solitary leaf cutter busy sealing up a chamber in my new bee hotel.

Early on the  8th a male sparrowhawk flew in and took a young great tit.

After lunch a hummingbird hawk moth fed on the lavender.

Red admiral on the buddleia.

A morning walk on the 11th in local woods found good numbers of violet helleborines, a long lived orchid and multi-stemmed plants are thought to be hundreds of years old.

An evening walk experiencing the sun go down along with meadow brown butterflies settling down for the night.

 

Stewart.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

1st - 5th July.

July 1st Watched a female green woodpecker probing the lawn for ants and grubs, a good start to the day.

Weather changeable, managed a walk later passing fields of flax, a fairly unusual sight in the countryside around here.

Joined the footpath to Pednor.

Came across a battered, broken antlered buck muntjac, been in too many fights over the does.

On way home passed goldfinches topping up on minerals, eating from a heap of rock  salt at the side of the road. Early Friday and a male sparrowhawk shot through the garden and grabbed a juvenile great tit. A magpie hangs on to the feeding station pole and picks at the last bit of the fatball.

 A walk on Saturday and saw our first hummingbird hawk moth of the year feeding on bramble flowers.

Heard common whitethroats, blackcaps, chiffchaffs along with blackbird, song thrush and yellowhammer singing en route.

Winter barley looking well and beginning to ripen.

Sunday 5th and thought about removing some duckweed from the pond, had to stop, first small netfull contained several very small newt efts along with tiny damselfly larvae and a tiny frog all hiding in the duckweed.

A warm afternoon and the honeybees were enjoying the common mallow in the garden.

Stewart.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.

Dragon Fly : Emergence of a Winged Wonder.

Having seen the dragonfly larvae beginning to crawl out of the pond I read about the emergence of dragonflies and read that after selecting a stem to use they will, on warm summer evenings crawl out after sunset and have flown before sunrise. A good plan to avoid getting eaten by, in a more natural setting, passing coots and moorhens, when it would be at it's most vulnerable.

So, up at 1am and shone a torch out of the window, (my small pond is only 3ft from the house), I saw the larvae had crawled a foot out of the water and was hanging on in the windy conditions. Decided to set the alarm for 4 and hope I wouldn't have missed the emergence. At  4 o'clock and the larvae was in exactly the same location and condition. The weather was far from warm, being cold, cloudy and windy but surprised to hear and see bumble bees busy on the honeysuckle. Made a cup of tea and sat and waited. 09.15 the larvae split and the emergence started, noticed it was a Southern Hawker Dragonfly.

09.40 it pushed itself further out and hung up-side-down.

10.00 it flipped itself and at 10.05 it was out.

 

10.30 the wriggling and twitching of before it emerged, continued plus now pumping, as it's body and wings began to expand.

 

This continued all afternoon, noticed at 14.12 that it's body and wings were changing colour, getting darker and at 17.40 it first opened it's wings.

The weather was still chilly, cloudy and windy which I guess why it was taking so long. Later it closed it's wings  again and that's how it spent Monday night. Tuesday morning it was still here, wings now fully open and fully developed.

Here it stayed all day, wanting to see it fly off we checked continually. 9 o'clock it was still here but at 10 it had left. It would have been a bonus to see it rev up and take to the air but I can't complain. Stewart.
Images Copyright : Stewart Dennis.