Hundred up, Pedal Power, True Blue, and return passage

The hundredth species of macro for the garden this year was on the outside of the trap on the morning of the 4th July in the form of a Miller, which, I can reveal with the assistance of my new moth spreadsheet, to be only the 5th record of this species for the garden. This was quickly followed by the 6th record on the inside of the trap.
Due to the weather, and the fact that I very rarely run the trap on successive nights in order to give the moths a chance to do moth stuff, trapping only took place on the nights of the 1st and 3rd with the latter proving to be the best night of the year so far:
1st July: 35 macro's of 14 species including new for the year Dark/Grey Dagger, Scarce Footman, and Single-dotted Wave. 11 micro's of 4 species. For any non-mothers Scarce Footman is superficially similar to Common Footman, but to use birding terminology, has a characteristic jizz, with the forewings curled around the body as opposed to wings which are held flat over the body in Common Footman. The pictures below are of Scarce Footman on the left and a Common Footman from last month on the right.

3rd July: 67 macro's of 22 species including new for the year: Miller, Lesser Yellow Underwing, and Smoky Wainscot, a photo of which is also included on the right to illustrate its distinctive smoky hindwing. There were also 27 micro's of 8 species including a couple of new ones for me in the form of the thankfully straightforward Anasia coronata, and the slightly less staightforward Cnephasia stephensiana (Grey Tortrix). Most attractive micro of the week though has to be the Cataclysta lemnata (Small China-mark) which were on the wing on Hankham and Down Levels this weekend - a picture of a male is below.

Without a doubt the best way to get around the levels at this time of year (and the greenest bar walking) is by bike. This allows a lot more of the area to be covered as well as providing useful exercise so Friday and Saturday saw pedal power put to good use with rides out to Hankham Level and then working my way back to the main patch and on to home. Hankham Level is my old WEBS haunt and has some lovely corners so I spent some time there looking for dragons despite it being windy all weekend (and wet as well first thing Saturday and Sunday). Red-eyed Damselfly were very numerous hunting from their water lily helipads and my first Small Red-eyed Damselfly were also seen with 2 just south of the bridge on Friday. Both red-eyes were frustratingly out of camera range but were easily scoped while resting so I hope to get some pics for future posts. Ruddy Darter was new for the year hunting from its reed perches.

On Saturday the weather was so much cooler that most insect activity was restricted however given the numbers of damselflies in the grass I was able to spend some time photographing Blue-tailed Damselflies and managed to get pictures of most of the female colour forms.

In addition the other three blue damselflies were all seen over the course of the morning with Variable damselflies still very much in evidence along with the "bluer" Commons and Azures. The only hawkers seen over the weekend were a Brown Hawker on Down Level on Friday afternoon and a female Emperor on White Dyke on Saturday morning.

One of the pleasures in covering a local patch is that  things are constantly on the move, so no sooner does it feel like one season has arrived than you start to get a feel for the next. It was therefore no surprise to find the first waders on return passage at the weekend. The Black-tailed Godwit and Greenshank pictured left were on Down Level on Sunday, the Greenshank being present since Friday when there was also a summer plumaged Dunlin. On the breeding front the Redshank have been successful with at least one fully fledged young and the Lapwing have also managed to successfully breed though I don't know the total numbers, in addition a Mallard second brood, also on Down contained 7 ducklings. Various other residents included Kingfisher at Rickney pumping station and Bullfinches piping around the lanes. Swallows already seem to be gathering into groups ready for departure, with 16 assorted adults and juveniles on the wires at Rickney on Saturday. On the mammal front Brown Hare on Down Level and a Fox cub at the Hailsham end of White Dyke added a bit of variety to a late Sunday afternoon visit.

Finally, botany is definitely not one of my stronger suits, however, as with most things, I am trying to make a bit more of an effort this year, so it was pleasing to see Water Betony at Hankham Level on Saturday as this was a flower I had not noticed before. This is somewhat surprising given that it is nearly as tall as me and possesses striking deep red and yellow flowers. White water lily and Yellow water lily were both also in flower on Hankham.