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

Violet Limadore

 

Violet Limadore

 

Fly Orchid - nearly over - just in time!

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

Monkey Orchid

 

Monkey Orchid



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

 

 

Black Hairstreak

At the turn of the year, when I decided that I would try to complete the list of UK butterflies, I thought that the Black Hairstreak would be the hardest to get. Of course I didn't factor in the miserable weather we had whilst we were in Scotland making the Chequered Skipper a dip. So when we set off for Oxford yesterday morning I wasn't optimistic that the day would be successful. As we travelled round the M25 the skies were leaden and it was raining hard, not really June weather at all and certainly not conducive to a butterfly hunt. As we passed through Stokenchurch cutting on the M40 the clouds lifted and there were patches of blue, by the time we reached Bernwood Forest things had brightened considerably.

Sitting in the car park we realised we had a bit of a problem, Bernwood Forest is huge,  where exactly do we find these elusive butterflies? We had expected to gain info on the site but the only people present were dog walkers - a bit of a dilemma. A phone call to Leigh Prevost and we had an exact location and we were on our way. Thanks Leigh.

Finally, just after mid-day, Martin located our first specimen, halfway up a tall privet bush, not really accessible and difficult to photograph, just as we were getting sorted a bee took exception the to the butterfly and saw it off. Never mind - a result  and the wait began for another.

During the afternoon we saw at least six specimens, none of which came close, save for one tatty specimen and that didn't hang around long. So we obtained what I would call record shots - not those captured where everything is in clear focus and the background is clear - still beggars can't be choosers and the list now stands at 53. Looks like the next journey will be northwards.



My first Black Hairstreak

The only one to come down to our level and it is well worn!

So in the last week I have been lucky enough to add three lifer butterflies and the Terek Sandpiper - am I happy? Not really - this morning I missed the 10  Bee Eaters in East Sussex!