7th June

Another exceptionally quiet week for birds, Reed warbler was still singing in the Magic Garden and a Hobby was seen over the river but that was about it. Even the House Martins have abandoned our house. They even took down the partially constructed nest they had already built!

Instead it was insects that again provided the highlights. I photographed this Four-spotted Chaser in the Magic Garden…

It’s a relatively common species but only the second one recorded in the parish.

Rarer were the two species found by friends. Peter photographed this superb Broad-bodied Chaser on his garden pond in Warlaby.

This was a first record for the parish. This species used to have a uniquely southerly distribution but has been expanding northwards in recent years. I walked along to Peter’s garden when it reappeared but unfortunately missed it by a couple of minutes but did see my first Banded Demoiselle of the year and was shown one of the young garden residents…

In some ways even more unexpected was this Green Hairstreak photographed by Hazel in her garden…

Another first parish record. I have never seen Green Hairstreak locally away from the fringes of higher ground, typically spotting them on Bilberry at Sutton Bank or on the old racecourse at Richmond. So this great sighting means we have added three species of hairstreak to the parish butterfly list in the last four years.

I’ll finish with this little through-the-window clip of Bullfinch doing an impression of a hummingbird…

It spent a good half hour dropping to hover in front of the flowers, picking seeds with surprising delicacy given the size of its bill.