Ober Water

We set out for Ober Water with two specific species to target: white-legged damselfly and small red damselfly, neither species we had seen so far this year. 

Roaming the boggy heathland, it didn't take us long to see our first white-legged damsels, both females:

Following a few more females, we also saw a male:

So first target species done!

But no such luck with small damsels, even though we saw many in this area last year. We scoured the heather and bog myrtle for hours, but no small red damsels .... 

We had resigned ourselves to not seeing one as we walked back to the car, but just as we reached the car park, I spotted a small piece of suitable habitat: boggy heathland with plenty of bog myrtle. Worth checking out? We did, and saw no small red damsels. Until the very last bush of bog myrtle, at the edge of the boggy heathland. 

First one, then a second, and then another one: three female small red damsels!

They really made us work for it today, but that made it feel like a real reward! Despite the focus being on these two damsels, we also recorded the butterflies we saw, but nothing special there. Here are today's tables (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Houghton Lodge Gardens

For some reason, we'd never visited Houghton Lodge Gardens, even though it's only about half an hour drive from home. Time to remedy that!

In terms of butterflies, the planted borders were very attractive to them.

We saw masses of red admirals, peacocks and commas.

The Japanese-style pond gave us our first golden-ringed dragonfly of the year ...

... and walking along the river Test, we saw loads and loads of banded demoiselles.

Throughout the day, there was a bit of a contest in terms of numbers of butterfly species and damseldragonfly species, but the butterflies were victorious in the end: 14 vs 11. Here are the tables (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Alners Gorse

Alners Gorse is regularly mentioned on several UK Butterfly groups on Facebook, so time we checked it out for ourselves!

The weather throughout the day was sunny with scattered clouds, so we should get a good haul in terms of butterflies.

And we weren't disappointed! Soon after entering the reserve, we spotted a few purple hairstreaks, and they readily posed for pictures.

Few silver-washed fritillaries as well, but sadly not the valezina form, which we were hoping to see (and which was seen by some other butterfly enthusiast today).

And then the highlight of the day for us: brown hairstreak! First a female:

And then, somewhat later in the day, a male:

Definitely a good day butterflying, and we will surely be back again. Although our focus was firmly on butterflies (17 species in all), we did see a few odo's as well. 

The familiar end-of-blogpost tables (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Hillier Gardens

Back in April, we saw four species of butterflies at Hillier Gardens; surely we'd see quite a few more in late July?

The weather was dry and partly sunny, and butterflies were out in force.

Masses and masses of peacocks and red admirals! And the first time we saw ringlets at Hillier Gardens!

Some damseldragonflies as well in decent numbers.

Brown hawkers were new for us at Hillier.

The usual tables for today (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Ipley Cross and Dibden Bottom

First visit this year to one of our regular sites in the New Forest: Ipley Cross and Dibden Bottom. 

Just after leaving the car park, we were welcomed by a very fresh-looking red admiral; hopefully a good omen?

Plenty of water still in Rushbush Pond, so that looked promising. Ipley Stream had dried up in places, and we didn't see a single odo where there was some water still. So focus on the pond!

Loads of common blue damsels skirting the surface, and many emerald damsels as well (first ones this year). The blue-tailed damsels were indeed blue-tailed (and not scarce blue-tailed) ... Black-tailed skimmer was by far the most common dragonfly, but we also saw broad-bodied and four-spotted chasers. Of course, an emperor was patrolling its empire as well. 

On to the large pond on Dibden Bottom! Still plenty of water, even though it has been much bigger in previous years.

Again, many emerald damsels, many black-tailed skimmers, a few emperors and several four-spotted chasers.

Walking across the heathland between the ponds, we saw a few large skippers ...

... but the absolute highlight of the day: the hundreds and hundreds of silver-studded blues everywhere. Sometimes, it felt we were walking through clouds of them; I've never seen so many together there (or anywhere else, for that matter).

The silver-studded blue population at Dibden Bottom is clearly thriving!

Today's tables (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):