Hairy dragonfly

A very busy day! Up at 4.50am, so that I could be at Thorpe Wood in time to do the last breeding bird transect of the season. I have to say I'm quite glad to be finishing - dawn is very early and the wood is very dark now that all the leaves have emerged. There were far fewer tits in evidence - I suspect that they may have been foraging quietly in the upper canopy and therefore unrecordable. But I did see and hear and garden warbler, which is the first time I've recorded this species from Thorpe Wood.

After a quick stop for breakfast I headed out to Stanground Wash to do my regular photographic monitoring. It was beautifully sunny, but very breezy. The grass on the washes was quite long, but the railway bank has been grazed extremely hard by a very large population of rabbits. In some areas the ground almost shimmered with them, and there were large patches of eroding bare soil. Not surprisingly flowers were sparse - only common stork's-bill was blooming in any quantity.

I was back home by eleven, and then shortly after I took Pete to Swaddywell Pit. While he was searching for insects, I pottered around with my camera, though it really wasn't a good day for macro-photography. This hairy dragonfly Brachytron pratense was sheltering from the wind in some tall vegetation, and allowed me to approach very closely. I'm always fascinated by the amazing eyes of dragonflies.

We finished by four, and then dropped into Sainsbury's to buy food for a barbecue with family and friends. Pete and I threw together a set of salads and breads, and we finally sat down to eat at about eight. By this time I was feeling fairly shattered, but enjoyed a couple of hours of food and conversation, before retreating to bed relatively early, leaving all the younger generation to continue their merriment into the small hours.