This excursion owed most to the need to hit the road and see something after weeks of limited national birding options. I have seen any number of Bee-eaters in southern Europe (pictured below), where to my mind this is one of the most charming and evocative of summer visitors. So with up to seven birds present 110 miles from home in the East Midlands all this week, putting the beautiful EBE onto my British list offered sufficient motivation for a much needed day out.

Bee-eater in Cyprus …

Spain …

… and Portugal

It seems plain that small numbers of these birds have been roaming England this summer, being a species that is tipped to expand its range northward due to climate change. Indeed some passed through Oxfordshire in late May but were seen for around eight seconds by just one sharp-eyed patch worker. Since last weekend a cluster has been frequenting an active gravel extraction site East Leake Quarry (SK564248), a little to the north of Loughborough and fairly close by the M1 motorway.

East Leake quarry on a dull and damp day. The Bee-eaters favoured the large Ash tree in the centre

I arrived there late morning in drizzly conditions and was surprised by the number of birders cars parked in a roadside lay-by and an RSPB-stewarded field opposite. ‘Well if there’s this many people here the birds must be showing,’ I thought. But on reaching the viewing area close to the quarry (pictured above), I was told they had flown off around 40 minutes earlier. Recollections of recently dipped Marsh Warbler and Elegant Tern stirred inside me but there was nothing to do but wait.

After about 20 minutes a first European Bee-eater was called and pretty quickly five birds alighted into the trees pictured below, left. The right hand photo is intended only to convey how this tick for blighty was first seen by myself. The unfolding action was viewable just from a limited area, and this prompted some chuntering by people standing further back who seemed to expect an unrestricted view. I was reminded of last autumn’s Dusky Thrush twitch in the Peak District, so maybe such grumpiness is a matter of dealing with dour Derby folk.

First sighting

In the meantime Adam had arrived on site, and we stood around chatting about Oxon birding matters, insects and plants to occasional disapproving glances, until the Bee-eaters chose to show themselves more openly. Eventually, at around 12:45pm three of the birds settled in dead branches at the crown of the Ash tree featured in many of the published pictures on RBA (see here). Now everyone present could see them well, as had been the likelihood all along, and they proceeded to put on a bit of a show.

I just love the way multi-coloured Bee-eaters move and sound and nothing else resembles them. Time and again the three birds here would glide out from their perches like over-sized hirundines to catch, well presumably bees. This was the first time I have actually seen them perched with prey in their open bills, that they would then knock against the wood of the tree to stun or kill before swallowing. In the light I was not going to get good pictures and so I used my digiscoping kit with my camera set to its highest ISO rating.

Today’s European Bee-eaters

at East Leake quarry

The edited results (above) resemble water colours and I rather like them despite their obvious lack of technical merit. As always they show how these birds were seen and prove that I am not making all this up. Adam and I left at 2pm though the Bee-eaters continued to entertain their audience until mid-afternoon and were reported again in the evening. It had been a little incongruous to watch birds so suggestive of balmy Mediterranean landscapes going about their business on a dull and dour English summer’s afternoon. But this is likely to become an increasingly frequent sight here and adding EBE to my own British list was a thoroughly worthwhile experience.

Addendum: On 20th July the RSPB announced that one of three active nests being guarded had hatched chicks. This represents only the third British breeding record in the last 10 years. See here for details. By 2nd August all three nests had hatched young but shortly afterwards it was announced they had failed and the birds left the site.

The last three days have been the hottest of the year with southern England basking in 30 degree plus temperatures. So losing myself at a shady pond somewhere seemed a rather more sensible option than frying in my garden at home or indeed Pagham Harbour. Trying to secure more pictures of Downy Emerald dragonfly being the next item on this year’s insect agenda, I therefore headed off to the commercial forestry plantation Warren Heath in north Hants (SU774596), the best location I know.

Emerald dragonflies favour sheltered, acidic woodland pools such as this (pictured below) and rarely disperse far from the breeding site. Downies typically emerge over two weeks following the first prolonged warm spell in May, while the metallic green Brilliant Emeralds follow on three to four weeks later. The immature insects fly away at once into the surrounding woods then return to the pond as adults up to 10 days later.

A relatively cool venue on a very hot day

As I walked mid-morning down to two ponds at the southern end of this site, 2017’s debutant Silver-washed Fritillary butterfly appeared to one side of the track. The area just south of my destination had been felled recently, giving the immediate vicinity an entirely different character as it would. Then as the water surface came into view a first Emerald passed over my head and up into the trees above. And upon my reaching the eastern pond edge several more were immediately apparent.

I had not expected to find both Emerald species here on this day, but given the recent fine weather their flight periods are indeed overlapping, as they will into mid-July. It appears Downy and Brilliant Emerald are enjoying a good season in sunny 2017.  I found a spot where some photogenic natural perches were protruding from the water and sat down to stake them out. As any experienced odo observer knows securing images of perched Emerald dragonflies can involve a very long wait since they seldom do that at the water’s edge. When they do settle occasionally it is usually in nearby vegetation or up in the canopy. And so I have just three previous Downy pictures in my collection and none of Brilliant.

For the next couple of hours I watched the various individuals present carrying on with what their kind always does, patrolling the same zone over and over again fast and close to the water, while chasing each other about. There were no Four-spotted Chaser around initially and so they only had each other to compete with. The patrol flight is punctuated by frequent bouts of hovering though never for long. Hence I did manage to get some blurry flight studies, of which these (below) are the better ones.

Brilliant Emerald

Downy Emerald

According to Brooks and Lewington, males fly earlier in the day than other species and seldom occupy a territory for long before departing back into the woodland. The vacant zone is then quickly taken over by other males, of which several might time-share a relatively small area of the pond. All of this was borne out by my experience this time. It was very difficult to calculate just how many Emeralds might have been active here, though I certainly saw more than on any previous occasion today.

The lesson of all this is one just has to be lucky in finding perched subjects away from the water, and there is typically a very large area of vegetation in which to come across them. By early afternoon I tired of my unlikely goal and went for a wander. Crossing over to the far side of the pond that was in sunlight, Four-spotted Chaser were in command of territorial perches all along the shore. Occasional Blue Emperor and Keeled Skimmer were also seen.

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

Next I followed the stream that feeds these ponds. Along it numbers of Beautiful Demoiselle (pictured above) were flopping about and glistening in the sunlight, mostly males. But I digress. The season’s first White Admiral butterfly was on the wing here, along with more Silver-washed Fritillary. Foxgloves were everywhere and this rather dapper long-horn beetle (below, right) made for something a little different. Having checked my field guide I believe it is one of several similar species in the genus Strangalia maculata, for what that’s worth.

Woodland Foxgloves

Yellow and black long-horn beetle

Eventually I returned to the original waterside spot with its protruding perches. But this side of the pond was now in shade, while the far side was in glary sunlight so the likelihood of securing meaningful pictures was receding fast. There were huge numbers of Large Red and Azure Damselfy everywhere at this site today, along with fewer Red-eyed and Blue-tailed. All of them were largely preoccupied with propagating their kind, that from time to time made practising with camera settings against the desired props more interesting.

If two’s company …

… and three’s a crowd

What is four?

The great enjoyment of a visit like this is just relaxing with the camera, recording whatever is seen without any particular agenda. Hoping to photograph perched Emeralds gave things a purpose, but once on site it was possible to spend hours just pottering around for no particular reason at all. Two days later I returned for more of the same.

This time I paid more attention to the woodlands away from the pond edge. A few times I caught sight of Emeralds heading off into the trees or flying above me, but on no occasion could I tell where they went. And so once more I opted to enjoy what was going on all around, rather than concentrating on what would be the frustration of attempting mission almost impossible. Along the feeder stream several Keeled Skimmer were active. The pre-mature males (pictured below) were still showing varying amounts of yellow in their colouration, and as always struck up some very pleasing poses.

Maturing male Keeled Skimmers

Also present here were two Common Goldenring that would glide up and down their patch at intervals looking equally mysterious and spectacular. For me this is the daddy of English dragonflies and always magnificent to behold. They mostly kept in shade but this male (below) took a few passing looks at one sunny stream-bed perch and so I staked it out. Before long the insect settled and that was job done. I just love Goldenrings!

Common Goldenring (male)

A second observer then arrived who said he had been monitoring Warren Heath for the last 15 years. He confirmed the valley in which we were standing was indeed a long-established Goldenring location, though numbers of this and other dragonflies here are no longer what they once were. He also said that in all that time he had secured just one picture of a perched Brilliant Emerald. So that set down a marker!

I next explored a little further, walking away into a grassy area and then upstream until the habitat became a little too off-piste to attempt without more protective clothing. The main interest here was teneral (newly emerged) male Keeled Skimmer that provided some similarly satisfying images (below) to the adults.

Teneral Keeled Skimmers (all pictures)

Lastly I returned to the pond where on its sunnier side Black-tailed Skimmer made up the midsummer mix for the site. I captured this male (below) in an appropriately blue light, then just stood and took in for a while the continuous drama of that dragonfly, Four-spotted Chasers, Blue Emperors and Emeralds all harassing one another and competing for local supremacy in the early afternoon glare.

Black-tailed Skimmer (male)

Later in the day I moved on to the long pond at Bramshill Plantation (SU746632) to the north of Warren Heath. There the water level was higher than on my visit a year ago (see here) and hence there were less extensive marginal areas in which to observe dragonflies. So I completed a circuit of the water body mainly in tree cover on the off-chance of coming across a perched Downy Emerald, once again without success. So the objective that had brought me to this part of north Hampshire will have to wait a little or perhaps much longer to achieve.

This is an account of my quest to capture uncluttered images of a special butterfly. In Oxford we are not only blessed with the potential for finding more than 40 species within an hour’s drive of the city, but also with having one of Britain’s scarcest and most sought butterfly gems on our doorstep. I am referring to Black Hairstreak that occurs only in old woodland sites stretching from the outskirts of Oxford, north-eastward through Bucks’ Bernwood Forest complex into Northants and Cambridgeshire.

Mission accomplished – premium Black Hairstreak

This is an elusive butterfly with a short flight period, usually in the first half of June but possibly in late May after an especially warm spring. They are not easy to locate since most colonies, typically of a few dozen individuals occupy restricted areas of the woods where they occur, seldom moving far. On some days BH do not fly at all, preferring to rest out of sight in tree tops where they feed on aphid honeydew. But depending upon the availability of that sweet, sticky secretion they will also come lower to nectar on wild flowers such as Bramble, Dog Rose and Privet that grow amongst the Blackthorn food plant. Then these butterflies can compensate for their more usual inaccessibility by being very approachable.

In their regular Bernwood Forest strongholds, Black Hairstreak have been monitored for many years by expert naturalists active within Butterfly Conservation’s Upper Thames Branch. But an almost mythical status arising out of great scarcity also attracts collectors who can remove eggs and larvae, as well as inappropriate attention from casual observers. By the latter I mean the peculiar field underclass that is interested only in taking pictures of Black and Brown Hairstreak, Purple Emperor and Large Blue. The conversation of such “butterfly tourists”, as I term them exhibits a lack of knowledge that matches their capacity for trashing habitat. And the result is pressure upon the most precious resource that the aforementioned butterflies represent.

One of Wednesday’s Black Hairstreak

Having myself become increasingly sensitive to that situation I dropped Black Hairstreak from my summer agenda in 2016. But this year I really rather fancied experiencing them again. Sightings began from 1st June just before last month’s mainly fair weather changed for the worse. Knowing Ewan’s yearly interest in these insects I tipped him off and he replied in the affirmative. My choice of location was BBOWT’s Finemere Wood reserve in Bucks. This is a well-known and monitored BH site over many years, so writing about it here can do no harm.

We met there at 10am on 7th June. Tuesday had been a cold and changeable day and this overcast morning had a definite hangover. No matter. We set off for what is known as one of the woodland reserve’s BH hotspots, and in still subdued conditions came across a first Black Hairstreak nectaring on Bramble flowers. BC UTB’s species champion, Stuart Hodges arrived shortly afterwards to fill us in on all things local BH. I have participated in his guided walks through this wood previously and nobody knows more about the butterfly than he.

We remained at this spot for some time, estimating that perhaps three BH were present. Usually in bursts of sunshine these butterflies would appear quickly around the Brambles before returning to the Hazel trees or tall stands of Blackthorn above. They were always restless, not settling for long and often leaning with closed wings sideways to the sun as BH do.

Black Hairstreak

Black Hairstreak

When I reviewed the above images at home my initial reaction was they were poor. So I turned to the editing suite to try to make them creative. But Hairstreaks are usually seen like this, constantly moving subjects flying jerkily against contrasting bright light and dark patchy backgrounds. They just don’t normally do uncluttered. On scanning back through previous seasons’ results those were all pretty much the same.

Eventually we moved on to check out another area of the wood that Stuart had cited as a hotspot. On the main ride we met a visitor from Dorset who had not seen Black Hairstreak before, and so took her back to the spot where we had been. It is always a pleasure to assist genuine and knowledgeable enthusiasts, as opposed to butterfly tourists in this way. Our guest was pleased to add a missing species to her British list and so be rewarded for a three hour drive. By this time conditions were mainly sunny and perhaps up to five BH were active.

In the early afternoon we visited another site where Black Hairstreak are being reported, finding a similar number again of always hyperactive butterflies. Here there was a lot of wild Privet growing amongst the Blackthorn stands, though the former was mostly still in bud. BH can be very tolerant of human presence when feeding on Privet, especially in cooler conditions and so I resolved to come back here to try for less cluttered pictures once that shrub is in more extensive bloom.

Wild Privet

Umbellifer

In the event things happened two days later. On Friday (9th) I spent three more hours at the second location. In changeable sunny and cloudy conditions I found about 10 Black Hairstreak in different parts of this wood but didn’t manage any pictures because none of them were settling. But I did make a thorough reconnoitre of the entire site to search out naturally occurring props on which butterflies might pose on a better weather day. There is something missing in each of the above two pictures. I was prepared for filling in the blanks to take some time but my goal was actually realised much more quickly.

Saturday morning (10th) was gloriously sunny with only very light cloud in the skies, and so I headed back here again. During the visits described in this post Black Hairstreak have mainly been encountered in small groups of three or four individuals. Today I was pleased to locate one such cluster very close to flowering Privet in a sunny place. So I staked out this spot waiting for butterflies to settle on the pungent smelling flowers and did not have very long to wait.

Black Hairstreak

From time to time what was possibly the same BH returned to the Privet, but never settling for long and inevitably favouring darker recesses when it did. But occasionally over the next two hours it would settle on protruding flowers against lighter backgrounds. Then my camera would go to work mostly with disappointing results. The images (above) were all captured using my Nikkor 300mm telephoto lens that I have always found to be suited to insect image capture.

Ultimately three butterflies became active at once and the longer I remained the more they seemed to become accepting of my presence, as insects do. Picture taking aside it was a superb experience to be so close to these rare and beautiful little jewels, and best of all was that I had them completely to myself. Now I decided to have a try with my macro lens. The BH allowed me to take hold of the twigs on which they were nectaring and manoeuvre them into a favourable light, whilst using the camera on auto focus with my other hand.

Close Black Hairstreak encounter

“Shine on … illuminated” *

Almost all my macro work was over exposed and out of focus with one exception (above, left). Some people may object to this but I must stress that BH when nectaring are practically impervious to disturbance, as is well known. Also since my selected Privet was overhanging a public bridleway there was no need to wade into or flatten habitat, which in any case is something I take care to avoid doing. The other close-ups, taken into the sun were achieved with heavy editing (* lyric © I Astbury / B Duffy).

Black Hairstreak appear to be having a good year in 2017 as is usual following a warm May. The images in this post took around 12 hours in the field to secure over three days. I am very pleased with my insect observations so far in the early summer. After success in recording female Hairy Hawker (see here) and emerging Clubtail (see here) dragonflies, the Black Hairstreak butterfly has provided another long-sought result. Just over a week from the first emergences these most transient of butterflies are already showing signs of wear and tear. They will no longer be with us by the end of June.

After reading online this morning that some attractive teneral forms of female Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly could be seen in the New Forest I decided to go and have a look. It is getting difficult now to find new and different odonata to take pictures of but there are still immatures (teneral) and females of some species that I have yet to record.

This being a snap decision the late departure would mean braving traffic congestion between the A34 / M3 junction and the M27. That obstacle took 40 minutes to negotiate but afterwards it was a clear run to a site I have visited in each of the last two seasons (see here and here). The B3078 road from the end of the motorway to Latchmore Brook (SU182124) had an extra “aawww factor” on this occasion since many of the New Forest ponies had foals.

I arrived on site just before 1pm and donning my wellies set off for the SBTD stronghold in a bog just to the north of the brook. The first odo to show themselves predictably were Banded Demoiselle, closely followed by Large Red Damselfly. At one small pool a Broad-bodied Chaser (below right) was holding territory, while two males were competing for the next, larger area of water that I reached.

Keeled Skimmer

Broad-bodied Chaser

A short distance beyond that spot lay the bog, glistening in the early afternoon sunshine and full of attractive wild plants. This habitat is created by water run-off from the higher ground of Hampton Ridge on its northern side. Now two more blue dragonflies were encountered: first an early Keeled Skimmer (above, left) of which there will be many at this site come mid-summer, then a magnificent Blue Emperor (below right) suspended lazily from a resting place in Gorse.

Large Red Damselfly

Blue Emperor

While I was watching the latter a first male  Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly appeared. These always have a ghost-like quality as they drift weakly over the bog surface, only to vanish in an instant when the light changes. They are valley mire specialists favouring disturbed habitat that has been grazed and trampled by livestock.

As the pictures below (left and upper right) show, males are predominantly dark brown, with segment 9 of the abdomen blue with two small black dots, and part of segment 8 also blue. Markings on the thorax develop from a straw colouration on emergence, through green and turquoise to deep blue when mature; so I was observing fairly young specimens today. The larger Blue-tailed Damselfy (bottom right) has a rather more sharply defined blue tail that is contained within segment 8. I found several male SBTD at this particular spot but none of the teneral females I had come here hoping to see.

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly

Scarce Blue-tailed Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

By mid-afternoon conditions, frustratingly became more overcast. Then it seemed the longer I stayed here the less I found. Each time I began to walk away the sun would emerge, usually weakly again but not for long before being enveloped by cloud once more. A cool breeze also grew and everything stopped flying. Eventually I did put up an unfamiliar insect that looked like a teneral female SBTD, but it flew off ahead before disappearing into cover. In four hours on site I had gained some reasonable pictures but not captured anything new before the grey stuff rolled in … and that is so often the way with insect watching!

But should any reader be suffering from insect fatigue … Aawww!