Crockford Bridge - 28th June

A cloudy afternoon with a little sun. Highlights were Southern Damselfly, Beautiful Demoiselle, Golden-ringed Dragonfly and Silver-studded Blue.

The car parks at Crockford itself were closed in order to decrease disturbance to breeding waders. We parked at Norley Wood car park and walked along the road to Crockford Bridge. A Robin sat on a post and watched us leaves the car park. The roadside had some Heath-spotted Orchids flowering along it. At Crockford Bridge we walked a little way upstream and started looking for dragonflies among the Heather and Bog Myrtle by the stream. The weather was not all that warm, but the sun did come out for short periods of time. Before long we saw several female and male Beautiful Demoiselle flying over the stream. A blue damselfly was identified as Southern Damselfly, a rare species in the UK and this stream is well known for it. We saw a few others here too. A larger species came by and settled – a Broad-bodied Chaser. This female was soon joined by a male. A Willow Warbler landed in a nearby bush and fed its young, which were hiding there. Another blue dragonfly came by – the slenderer bodied Keeled Skimmer – a heathland specialist. A few Large Skipper butterflies flew in the brief spots of sunshine and as we watched them a large dragonfly zoomed past and settled on a twig. It was a Golden-ringed Dragonfly – beautifully ringed black and yellow. It flew upstream a little then came back and settled almost at our feet, giving us great views. A little further on and we saw several Silver-studded Blue. Considering that it was a pretty cool and windy day we were doing very well for the flying heathland insects!
We walked further upstream, seeing Oblong-leaved and Round-leaved Sundew. Then we turned away from the stream and walked out over open heathland, seeing more Silver-studded Blues. A Heron flew up and a few Black-headed Gull explored the stream valley wetlands. We crossed the stream, walked past a wonderful display of Bog Apshodel and walked up the hill to an area of Gorse. Despite the wind, we got brief views of a couple of Dartford Warblers and a Stonechat here. Lyz found a bright green caterpillar with black, raised and hairy warts on it – the Emperor moth. We walked back towards Norley Wood seeing a Dunnock, some Lapwing and Stonechats. Back at the car park we found a few Autumn Hawk-bit flowers. Considering the weather we had done well to see what we had seen and considering the forecast we had done well to stay dry.