DARTERS AND SKIPPERS

On my walk to the Strood seawall on Saturday 14th early afternoon, I took a little detour along the footpath on the edge of West Mersea that encircles the Firs Chase caravan site. It should've been a detour lasting only 15 minutes but actually took me over an hour to complete. I got very engrossed in the butterflies along the route and ended up noting 12 species, which isn't a bad tally.

The hazy sunshine was also good for dragonflies and several ruddy darters such as this female pictured above, were seen. They certainly look like some alien creature if you get close enough to their face. The feature on the head that looks like a set of big head-phones are the compound eyes which help give the dragonfly ultra keen eyesight. Some of these darters would rest on a plant and then dart upwards to catch a fly before settling back down again. One or two colourful males with their dark red bodies were also seen. After a short period hunting over fields and beside hedges, these darters will return to the water to breed.
A much larger southern hawker was also seen hawking back and forwards after insects over a field.

One edge of the wheat field was not sown with any crop but deliberately left as a sort of set-aside. This has allowed patches of poppies, large daisy-type scentless mayweed, mallow, thistles, wild oats, grasses as well as lots of other field margin plants. It was a good place for insects to sunbathe or look for food, especially in the shelter of a tall hedge nearby.

There was a good variety of butterflies along the sheltered path where there were some flowering buddleia bushes. This comma with its small white "comma" mark just visible in the middle of the lower hind-wing, was one of several seen. Jostling for the same flowers and resting spots were the much more colourful peacock butterflies and one or two red admirals. Holly blue added a bit of colour and there were large whites and small whites also seen.

Lots of brown butterflies were on show both along the path and low down over the fields. This widespread butterfly is the male of the hedge brown, or gatekeeper, with its brown brand marks in the middle of the forewings. There were also lots of meadow browns flitting over the field and also feeding on the bramble flowers. Speckled woods are also a common feature along hedgerows now and one or two were noted.

The smallest of the butterflies here are the skippers and this Essex skipper shows the black on the tip and under the tip of the antennae, which separates it from its cousin the small skipper. I didn't get down on my knees to check all the skippers antennae that I saw, but it is quite common to see both skippers in the same grassy areas. Essex skippers were first identified as a separate species nearly 120 years ago here in this county of Essex and they can be found in many south-east counties of England. One small copper caught my eye low down in the grass near the seawall as did a fleeting glimpse of the small heath.

The jangling song of a corn bunting carried over the fields as it perched on some telegraph wires. The large house sparrow flock of at least 70 birds were tucking into the near ripe wheat ears. Every so often the flock would all dash back to the safety of a nearby bramble bush.
Over the fields near the houses the swifts, house martins and swallows circled around.

The search for waders along the Strood never took place as time ran out but I had been rewarded with plenty of butterfly action instead.