Riding Tandem

Sitting by the pond I was hoping for a few different dragons to fly-by just for a change. These are Common Darters ovipositing as were many like them. There were also Southern Hawkers, at least two with the males being very territorial and inquisitive like many hawkers are. I think their curiosity helped me get the extras

Not quite the shot I was looking for today as I had gone with the dogs to Grafton Woods  an ancient woodland with coppice and large oaks famous for it's Brown hairstreak butterflies. Rare here as it is the only colony in the West Midlands, elusive - for sure but today as on other days this year I would say nearly 'non existent'. The wood was full of butterfly twitchers and it wasn't looking good. I met John Tilt the Reserve Manager who is responsible for the wood's maintenance doing the coppicing etc and he seemed to think the long spell of hot weather had a lot to do with the lack of sightings. There is very little Hemp Agrimony around now and the butterflies use this to nectar on. Someone did say they had possibly seen a distant sighting up in the trees ....