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High summer at Ballachurry Reserve - Meadowsweet and Woundwort
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This week's visit to the Reserve on Friday afternoon took place on the hottest day of the year so far! It was 24 degrees by all accounts. (Saturday has probably been even hotter) In places there was a cooling breeze but in sheltered spots it did indeed feel like high summer! I arrived at 1.20 and stayed a couple of hours. Here is what I recorded:
Birds:
SC209694 ( Hide) Hybrid Duck and duckling ( now nearly adult size); juvenile Moorhen.
SC209694 ( elsewhere) Wren; female Blackbird;
SC208694 female Blackbird; Sedge Warbler;
SC208695 juvenile Blue Tit
Butterflies:
SC210694 Red Admiral
SC209693 3 x Meadow Brown
SC209694 unidentified Whites flying; 2 x Small White; Meadow Brown x 3; Small Tortoiseshell.
SC208694 unidentified Whites flying; Meadow Brown x 3; 2 x Common Blue males together; Small Copper
SC208695 unidentified White flying; Speckled Wood; Large White
SC209695 Meadow Brown; unidentified White flying
Other:
SC209694 unidentified brown Weevil
SC209694 Melanoleuca species or possibly Cortinarius Fungus NEW RECORD ( only 1 so could not pick for detailed study/ ID)
SC208695 Marmalade Fly
Sc208695 Soldier Beetles
SC208694 Gorse Shieldbug
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mother duck
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seems to be a hybrid between Mallard and farmyard variety
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her duckling is growing up fast now
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Moorhen chick - no sign of parents or siblings
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Sedge Warbler in the reed bed
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| Wren |
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Common Blue
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a Large White I think - can just make out black going round corners
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One of many Meadow Browns
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another Meadow Brown nectaring on brambles
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Red Admiral
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Small Copper
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despite being small, it saw off any larger butterflies that approached
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brambles providing welcome nectar
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same Small Copper on greater Birdsfoot Trefoil
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Speckled Wood enjoying the dappled shade
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Small Tortoiseshell, also enjoying bramble nectar
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Meadowsweet surely at its best now
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spot the hide!
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by zooming in I can see that the roof has revived slightly
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a large area of the meadow has Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil
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there is also Meadowsweet and Purple Loosetrife
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I'm sometimes asked if these are orchids but their pungent smell proclaims them to be Woundwort
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Unidentified brown Weevil in the thistles
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difficult to photograph
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more Greater Birdsfoot Trefoil
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Soldier Beetles in the Hogweed
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Rowan berries ripening already
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a shady corner of the path - spot the fungus
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Possibly a Melanoleuca or Cortinarius Fungus
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certainly a new record for the reserve
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Hemp Agrimony coming into flower
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A Marmalade Fly.
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There were lots of flies on the reserve but I failed to photograph them as they were mostly buzzing round my face! It was quiet from a birding point of view - most were keeping cool in the undergrowth I think. However it was definitely butterfly weather - eight species altogether. No sign of any Ladybirds or their larvae on this occasion.
With thanks to Karen and Mick Rodger for help with fungus ID.
please click on photos to enlarge them
