Another visit to Felbrigg today produced the first Purple Hairstreak of the year with one in the oaks on the east side of the lake. Checking the wall I found a few more exuvia and a few teneral Common Darters were flushed from the lakeside vegetation as I walked round.
Good numbers of butterflies were evident in the meadow to the south of the lake including Small Coppers, Common Blue, Large & Small Skippers, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Green-veined Whites.
Walking round to the north end of the lake I heard a familiar call and swinging round I picked up a Green Sandpiper, my first of the year, flying in over the lake. It briefly pitched down in the stream but as a party of school children were then walking along the adjacent boardwalk, they quickly flushed it and it flew off high to the west.
Checking the brambles near the boardwalk I found my first Gatekeeper of the year which briefly paused to feed before flying off across the meadow.
Also in the same area a Black-tailed Skimmer and a rufescens form Blue-tailed Damselfly posed for photos too.
A trip to West Runton late afternoon was rewarded with a Quail calling away from the weedy field by the farm buildings, and then after a Hobby flew low west over the field causing it to go silent for a while it eventually sang again from the adjacent barley field.
Todays two year ticks brought the patch year list up to a very respectable 153 species for the first six months of the year, and given that I had recorded just 3 more by this point last year, maybe beating 2010's record total is achievable with a very good autumn, tho I think I'd settle for finding a patch first instead.
