July proved to be a singularly uninspiring month for birds with the ‘highlight’ being at least two apparently territorial Yellow Wagtails in an area of the village I have never had them before. This continues a good year for the species.
Lepidoptera though continued to impress. Still excellent
numbers of butterflies around. One large area of thistles in the bottom fields
was absolutely rammed with insects. These were mainly whites, Meadow Browns and
Peacocks but with good numbers of skippers and the first sightings this year of
Small Copper…
And Brown Argus…
The argus is only the third village record of this species
which is rapidly moving north.
The avenue of oaks along Greenhills Lane turned up Purple
Hairstreak as usual…
Peter also added a new site for the hairstreak, in a
large roadside oak at Warlaby.
I have also finally taken the plunge and bought a moth trap.
I thought I would ease my way in at the start so set the trap in John & Sue’s
little walled garden on a rather cool night. I ended up with 336 moths of 54
species, not quite the gentle introduction I was envisaging!
Highlight was probably Small Blood-vein...
This is a rather scarce insect in this part of Yorkshire
and my friend John, who has been a fanatically active moth-er in one of the
nearby villages for more than 20 years, has never seen the species
Other first records for Ainderby included Knot-grass,
Golden-rod Pug, Brassy Y, Honeysuckle moth, Campion…
Bulrush Wainscot...
Perhaps surprisingly Dusky Sallow was also a first...
I didn’t even have to rely on the trap for some sightings with this lovely Ruby Tiger in our back lobby, just catching the late evening sun…
Despite the fine weather dragonflies haven’t been
particularly in evidence so far but I did photograph this Broad-bodied Chaser at
the top of Greenhills Lane…
Our first village record was only three years ago but it’s now the most regularly seen chaser species.
I should finish with a couple of other interesting flying objects over the village...
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