JMNR 21st July 2015

Whereas John Parlby had carried out his transect walk just before mid-day (see previous post), Nikki Mahadevan arrived at the reserve mid-afternoon, in much warmer conditions, to record 3 Comma, 11 Gatekeeper, 3 Green-veined White, 3 Large Skipper, 52 Meadow Brown, 43 Ringlet, 4 Small Skipper, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, and 2 Speckled Wood.
As if that wasn’t enough, there were also: Large Peacock caterpillars on nettles at the end of transect section 3; various moths – Narrow-bordered five-spot Burnet, Shaded Broad-bar, and a Brown China-mark was egg-laying on pond vegetation* at the Bottom Pond; Azure damselflies, Emerald damselflies, Large Red damselflies, Brown Hawkers, Southern Hawker; a Juvenile Moorhen; and a fly Poecilobothrus nobilitatus.
* From the photograph this was the Broad-leaved Pondweed Potamogeton natans.