Summer solstice and Devonian dragons

The summer solstice is a day to celebrate - the longest day. All that daylight to do whatever you want in, so, as its all downhill from here until the winter solstice, I thought it would be for the best to make the most of it and headed west for a day in Devon visiting my parents, opting not to take drugs at Stonehenge as the sun came up. 

The problem for the keen amateur at this time of year is that there is so much going on you find yourself struggling to keep up with it.

The moth trap has been busy this week with newbies for the year as follow:
15th June: Buff Ermine, Buff Tip, Clouded Silver, Lychnis, Rustic, Scalloped Oak, & Small Clouded Brindle. The last named was also a new macro for the garden.
17th June: Plutella xylostella (Diamond-back moth) was a new micro for the garden.
19th June: Double Square-spot, Shoulder-striped Wainscot, & the micro Notocelia uddmanniana (Bramble Shoot moth).
The temptation of paying a second visit to the Short-toed Eagle, which I did on Friday afternoon, and the trip to Devon on Saturday, didn't leave a lot of time for other activities! The Eagle was watched hunting over the Wren's Warren area late on Friday languidly hovering, characteristically dropping its talons while doing so, before drifting off towards Kings Standing. Happy days.
So onto the weekend and a Saturday spent in glorious sunshine visiting Bowling Green Marsh and then Aylesbeare Common, all within throwing distance of Mum and Dads. Well not quite throwing distance as Bowling Green is six miles - Aylesbeare is only a hundred yards away though. First stop had to be Bowling Green since Dad still needed to see the 1st year Ross's Gull well.On arrival the bird was present in the roost though frustratingly out of sight behind a bank. Fortunately the gulls were milling about a fair bit and it wasn't long before the Ross's appearred on the water before flying around on several occassions and finally settling on the back of the spit. Unfortunately my camera was not up to the job hence the lack of piccies but the views through the scope were satisfactory. Several Mediterranean Gull were also here including a couple of stunning second year birds and a summer plumaged Spotshank was roosting with the Redshank, Barwit, and Blackwit at the back of the pool. Back to base for a most excellent luncheon including seconds of Asparagus quiche (a personal favourite), necessitating walking off via the dragonfly pools.

Whilst walking over to the pools and adjoining streams and runnels I kicked up a Four-dotted Footman - a new moth for me - along with numerous Small Heath and a couple of Meadow Brown. The main target though were the dragons and we were soon tucking into a veritable feast with Azure Damsel, Broad-bodied Chaser, and Emperor all easily seen. We quickly connected with one of our targets in the form of a superb Golden-ringed Dragonfly at the bottom of the pools, quartering its section of the stream to chase off allcomers and returning to the same perch in between forays. This was quickly followed by a Keeled Skimmer also pictured and a male Beautiful Demoiselle. However a bit more effort was needed to get our final target the Southern Damselfly. These are found in the runnels between the pools and are fairly weak flyers. The latin name (mercuriale) is from the black marking on the upper abdominal segments which is reminiscent of the helmet of the greek god Mercury, although they are only safely identified by examination of the anal appendages. Finally to round off a quality day a Hobby was watched hawking insects at close range over the pools.