Family Affair

Sunshine, 28°, light SSW.

Pretty quiet out there along the Bunk today apart from insects on the wing.

The usual birds around including 3 Herring Gull and several Black-headed Gull.

Dragonflies: Beautiful Demoiselle, Banded Demoiselle, Common Blue Damselfly and Azure Damselfly.

Butterflies: Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Speckled Wood, Marbled White, Meadow Brown & Small Heath.

Moths: Alan’s grandson found an Elephant Hawkmoth in Alan’s garden and his granddaughter found a Banded Demoiselle.

Banded Demoiselle found and photographed by Emily Dawson

Brimstone Moth courtesy Alan

Elephant Hawkmoth found by Thomas Dawson

Banded Demoiselle ↕

Painted Lady

Several Painted Lady butterfly in Cholsey today. There were hundreds of thousands moving north along the eastern Mediterranean earlier this year and then west in Europe and have recently reached the UK.

Tony Rayner had a Painted Lady in his garden today and also caught 9 Elephant Hawk-moth in his moth trap.

photo courtesy Alan Dawson