Saturday 11th July

Sunny, Patchy Coud, SE f2

At last, something different on the patch. A Tawny Owl was flushed from the Trans-Pennine Trail. I heard it before i saw it, and from the weak call, i would hazard a guess at it being a young bird from this year. That nicely takes my Cortonwood year list to the 100 mark.
Another first of the year, came in the form of a Migrant Hawker, also on the T-PT. Only 10 species of butterfly were recorded, with the most numerous being Gatekeeper.
Plenty of photographic opportunities arose, but after i took the picture below, the batteries died, and i didn`t have any spare ones.


Blotch mines on Oak

The thought of being cameraless didn`t bode well, so when i got back home i raided the kids wii remotes for the batteries. At least these`ll put me on till i get stocked up.
No sign of the Brown Hawker in the garden today, but i did notice the Leafcutter Bees have been busy ;



And the cause of this, is ;


Megachile centuncularis

The first sign of return ( bird) migration was noted this afternoon, when a Curlew went over calling, heading SW.

Friday 10th July

Cloudy/Showers ( am), Sunny ( pm), W f2>4

A couple of paint conversions from the patch this morning ;


Comma


Clouded Border


Serpentine mine on Birch

With a combination of the shite weather & nothing new/different at Cortonwood, i was beginning to feel like i was edging towards to " i can`t be arsed mode" again. But that all changed this afternoon, when this beauty of a Brown Hawker graced my garden ;



Other notables from the garden, were : Ringlet, Gatekeeper & Speckled Wood.

I`ve blagged a lift of a doctor friend of mine, to go and see Silver-studded Blues on Sunday, on the South Yorks/Notts border. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for that day isn`t very promising. Just my luck.......

Thursday 9th July

Heavy Showers, NW f2>4

Didn`t bother with the patch. There was no way i could get round without getting soaked from the waist down. So i opted for the wider & drier footpaths of Manvers. It`s been a while since i visited this particular area and to be honest, there wasn`t a lot to show for it. With the only notable being a single Ringed Plover.
On the way home, Mike phoned to say he was on his way to pick me up. We were going to checkout the reported Cornflowers, that i mentioned the other day. And what a disappointment that was.
Oh, don`t get me wrong, there were plenty of em, but they were in with a host of garden annuals, namely : Californian Poppy, Annual Flax & Toadflax.
Germinated from relic/dormant seed, my arse. They`d obviously been sown by the hand of man.
What a let down. So much so, i didn`t even give them camera time.

Wednesday 8th July

Sunny Spells, NW f4

Again, nothing different on the patch, apart from a couple of photographic opportunities ;

Six-spot Burnet : freshly emerged


Brimstone Moths : 2 pairs in cop




Serpentine mine on Hazel : species unknown


Regards the Cornflower twitch. It`s gone tits up. I should`ve been going this evening, but Mike phoned me this afternoon to tell me that John went on his own this morning. That`s one christmas card less to write ;-) Well it would be, if i had a christmas card list.

Tuesday 7th July

Heavy Showers, NW f2

Not a lot to entertain you with tonight, folks. Due to the weather, i didn`t visit the patch today. But i did have a brief stroll around the Knollbeck area. And this is what i have for you ;


Hadena sp, on Bladder Campion ;
This could be one of several species that feed on the seed pods of this plant. Needless to say, it`s come home with me to be reared through.


EDIT* Blotch Mine of Hymenoptera/Diptera sp, on Birch ;
Thanks to Charlie Streets for putting me right with this one.

Had a phonecall off my old mucka John ( Law) earlier, asking if i`d like to see & photograph Cornflower. But the weather`s gone downhill since, so we`ve put it off till tomorrow. They are flowering between Swinton & Rawmarsh, and apparently they`re growing where there was some drainage work done a couple of years ago, and it sounds as the though seeds must have been disturbed and woken from dormancy. Which is good news, as they are becoming quite a scarce plant.
At least that means there`ll be some blog fodder, tomorrow.

Monday 6th July

Thundery Showers, SW f2>3

Still plenty of butters on the patch this morning. Gatekeepers were abundant, and there were quite a few really fresh Comma`s around. The large Odanata on the other hand were only represented by Brown Hawker. Very surprised not to see a single dragon in the vicinity of the lake.


Comma


Gatekeeper

The only species new for the year, was a Clouded Border. I found this one resting on the underside of a leaf, along the Trans-Pennine Trail. I usually put the year ticks at the beginning of the update, but i thought i`d save this one ( my favourite of the day) till last ;

Sunday 5th July

Could`ve done without it being Pony Club today. Especially after attending a friends daughters 18th birthday party last night. I was a bit fragile, to say the least, this morning.
Anyway, Jakki & kids went round to the farm to get the horses ready. Me, i walked round about an hour later. On the way i walked across the Maize Field ( the one where i had hundreds of Painted Ladies last month), and it was no surprise to see that every Thistle was covered in P.Lady caterpillars. To say that there were about 2000 of em, would be a conservative estimate.
Also in the same field, were about half a dozen Peach-leaved Bellflower.

Unfortunately or fortunately, whichever way you look at it, the Pony Club afternoon jumping classes were cancelled. This was down to a very heavy downpour mid-morning and it was deemed too slippy to even attempt jumping. So, it was back home, earlier than usual.
I have had time to venture out, but my head isn`t up to it.


Painted Lady


Peach-leaved Bellflower

Saturday 4th July

Sunny, S/SW f2>3

My first visit to the patch since Wednesday, and the only new species for the year was a single Emerald Damselfly. Quite a few other Odanata were recorded : 6 Brown Hawker, 7 Black-tailed Skimmer, 4 Four-spotted Chaser, 5 Emperor & several Common Darter.
Still good numbers of butterflies about, with 12 species being seen.


Greylag


Small Skippers


Gatekeeper


Leaf mine on Alder ;
I`ve searched the internet for an id of this one, but as yet, i`ve come up with nothing.