La Brenne -Sixième et dernier jour

The last day and the hot spell had broken, just a mild 26C expected today. In fact everything felt much fresher.

How can time fly past so quickly it seemed that we had only just arrived - just shows that we must have been enjoying ourselves

Mothing at Tony's

A big thanks to Tony Williams who set up a moth trap at his own house, filled it with moths and then allowed us to check the contents. There were hundreds of specimens of an unknown number of species, I just photographed those that were more amenable whilst the others did the correct thing and created a list.

Privet Hawk Moth, Sphinx ligustri

Coxcomb Prominent

Garden Tiger Moth

Large Elephant Hawk Moth

Fox Moth

Privet Hawk Moth, Sphinx ligustri

Swallow Prominent

Finally - a beetle

Stag Beetle

La Boudiniere

As soon as we parked I could see plenty of Common Privet, Ligustrum vulgare in flower and I was optimistic that we would find Black Hairstreak. We did - the most worn out specimen that I have ever come across - I immediately thought "Too late"

A bit tatty

Out in the meadow a nice find - Migrant Spreadwing or Southern Emerald Damselfly, Lestes barbarous

Pearly Heaths were everywhere as were Adonis Blues

A nice stand of Pyramidal Orchids - well worth recording.

Meadow Clary, Salvia pratensis

A nice Brown Argus

So I returned to the mini bus to further investigate the Privet and I was rewarded by a fresh Black Hairstreak dropping in - result!

Lurais

Lunch by the river at Lurais proved very rewarding, two life tick dragonflies and a damselfly. First up was a Small Pincertail, Onychogomphus forcipatus sometimes known as the Green-eyed Hook-tailed Dragonfly. Second, a Yellow Clubtail, Gomphus simillimus

Small Pincertail - living up to its name

Small Pincertail

Yellow Clubtail

Finally, in the long grass on the banks of a quieter back stream, lots of Blue-eye Damselflies. Very smart, sometimes known as the Goblet-marked Damselfly.

Le Breuil

This site was a path adjacent to a limestone quarry and a great habitat for Orchids. I managed to record Violet Limadore, Fly Orchid, Burnt Tip, Pyramidal, Bee and Monkey Orchids. Oddly enough as we started to walk along the path it rained.

Violet Limadore

Fly Orchid - nearly over - just in time!

Burnt-tip Orchid - bit of a small specimen but nice to see.

Monkey Orchid

Bee Orchid

Martizay

Back to the hotel via the Bee Eaters at Martizay, unfortunately a long way off and then through the fields of Prung where we had previously recorded Montagu's Harrier, Stone Curlew and Blue-headed Yellow Wagtail.

That was it - it was all over, we had recorded 100 plus birds seen and heard, including Golden Oriole and Black Woodpecker. Thirty species of dragonfly and damselfly were in the log - some really good life ticks included, nineteen species of orchid and just twenty eight species of butterfly rounded it off.

Bouquets

Naturetrek - everything spot on as normal.

Jason Mitchell our tour leader, excellent - great knowledge and a talent for educating us simple ones. Great sense of humour too.

Tony Williams for allowing us to use his garden - really great experience with the moths.

Brickbats - I was going to say French toggers but I did learn the art of keeping a hide window to yourself - so no complaints