There were still a few brief sunny interludes during the time I spent at the woods, but there weren't many butterflies around compared to the many seen on sunny days. I saw the usual species; gatekeeper, meadow brown, ringlet, peacock, red admiral, small and large white, silver washed fritillary and speckled wood but although I waited and watched, no hairstreaks today.
I did get chatting to a couple who had travelled down from Cheshire who were looking to complete their UK butterfly list, with only three more species to find. They had not found any more than I had in the wood today, but gave me some useful locations as to where to find some of the remaining nine species on my own UK life list.
As I was talking to them, I became distracted by a dragonfly which zoomed across the path ahead of us and then clung to a bramble stem in the vegetation at the side of the track. Being new to dragonfly identification, I took some photos and asked them if they could help tell me what species it was. A southern hawker, I was told, so I was able to add that to my list for the year. So my visit wasn't entirely in vain!
southern hawker dreagonfly
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