Dog days - Are you sure?

Birders often refer to the days at the height of summer as dog days with the implication that there is not a lot going on. Think again! So, there is a bit of a lull, generally speaking, in bird movements, however there is shedloads going on elsewhere in the animal kingdom. The past week has seen me alternating between the home patch and Ashdown Forest, for a variety of reasons, and very enjoyable it has been too.
Starting with Dragons which are in full swing at the moment. Due to the weather and times of my visits sightings on the levels were fairly quiet with the larger hawkers not seen at all. Damsels remain present in large numbers with all the regular species seen and my first Common Darter was seen on Hankham Level in the form of an emerging individual. However it was two afternoon visits to Old Lodge that saw the best dragonfly activity with a total of sixteen species on the wing. Top of the pops was a Downy Emerald on the 12th with the other species recorded as follows: Emperor, Southern Hawker, Brown Hawker, Golden-ringed, Four-spotted Chaser, Broad-bodied Chaser, Keeled Skimmer, Common Darter, Emerald Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Azure Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Large Red Damselfly, and last, but by no means least my personal favourite Small Red Damselfly.

The two weekend visits were my second and third of the week to Ashdown as the evening of the 8th was the evening I chose to go Nightjaring with old friends Nigel Driver and Gary Howard. As is invariably typical for pre-arranged trips out the weather was probably the worst of the week with overcast conditions and periodic heavy rain not ideal, however a walk around Old Lodge produced Redstarts and Woodlark before moving over to The Pines, where a roding Woodcock was the precursor to first a female Nightjar, and then quality views of a male perched, churring, and in flight at close range periodically hovering over the path just above us. The evening was rounded off very nicely, thankyou, with a pint of Harveys' at The Hatch. Woodlark were also seen well on the 13th with close views of a family party, and a Hobby was watched hawking insects over the car park on the same date.

Back on the levels the birding highlights were few and far between with the best being a single Greenshank, 6 Teal, female Marsh Harrier, and 3 Raven on Sundays WEBS count.

The moth highlight of the week was the Brussels Lace, pictured left, trapped on the night of the 10th which was a new species for me. Another new species was the Dark Spectacle trapped on the night of the 8th which is pictured below. Numbers and new species for the year were as follow:
6th July: 32 macro's of 13 species included Dot Moth and Peppered Moth new for the year. 8 micro's of 5 species.
8th July: 39 macro's of 18 species included new for the year Common Carpet, Hoary Footman, and L-album Wainscot. 24 micro's of 4 species.
10th July: 33 macro's of 17 species included new for the year Sycamore. 31 micro's of 10 species included new for me Pyralis farinalis (Meal moth).
Finally on to mammals and plants. Foxes were seen on Down Level throughout the week with at least one particularly boisterous cub and Brown Hare was also present on Saturday. The final picture of the week has to be the Flowering Rush which was in bloom on Down Level on Saturday - absolutely stunning!