June birding

June is often a quiet month for birding and with long spells of hot dry weather in the capital, it was particularly slow. I usually turn my attention to insecting instead but even that was hard at times with dried out waterways and vegetation.

Beam Parklands

I visited my local patch five times in June and walked up into Beam Valley CP a few times as well. The Cuckoo was still calling and warblers such as Blackcap, Common & Lesser Whitethroats started singing again after raising their first brood. Small and Essex Skippers were both found after a bit of searching along with a few other common butterflies but the only dragonfly seen was Black-tailed Skimmer.

Pair of Black-tailed Skimmers

Dagenham Chase

I managed a respectable 14 visits this month. From the middle of the month there were clear signs of the autumn migration commencing with a rise in the number of Lapwings on The Slack (reaching 20 by the end) and the first returning Black-headed Gulls. The water level is severely low at the moment but they are proposing to start pumping water into it this week.

I spent a lot of time searching all the elm trees for White-letter Hairstreak but to no avail. Although there are a lot of elms, there's very few mature ones as the rest have succumbed to Dutch Elm Disease. 

Last year I saw a lot of damselflies on Crowfoot Marsh but haven't found any this year and I suspect it's because of the dogs that go into the water. If the dogs have been treated with a particularly toxic anti-tick/flea treatment it washes off in the water and kills off all the insects.

Despite all this I still managed to find a reasonable number of insects here this month. After finding the first Marbled Whites in the area last year, their colonisation continues and this year they've expanded their range out of Fels Field.

Black-and-Yellow Longhorn Beetle

Marbled White

Red Admiral

Ringlet

Rainham Marshes

I went to Rainham three times but only did the loop around the reserve once. I was particularly targeting dragons and damsels and managed six species, a fairly low total as it was a struggle to find any damselflies. I was especially pleased to find and photograph Norfolk Hawker as that was my main target for the day.

Norfolk Hawker

Ruddy Darter

Small Red-eyed Damselflies

I also had a wander around the country lanes outside of Rainham Village hoping to find some partridges. I didn't manage any but instead saw a Barn Owl which was probably bird of the month.

Goresbrook Park

This small park is a couple of minutes walk from my house but I rarely visit it as it's a bit hopeless. A river runs through it - The Gores - but is hideously choked with Himalayan Balsam. There's been some attempt to plant trees and shrubs but they're mostly dead which is a shame as it could be a nice place with a bit more effort. I had a wander round looking for butterflies, most of which were feeding on a Buddleia.

Comma

South London

I ventured south of the river a couple of times, first to Epsom Common to look for Black Hairstreak. It was just my second visit to this site, the first being many years ago to see a Little Bittern. It's a fairly easy journey on the train but there are some very specific instructions to follow to get to the hedge the hairstreaks live on. 

As we got there I saw one fly past and then never saw any more for the whole time we were searching. We met a few other people who were also searching but they hadn't found any although they had been seen earlier in the week. I'll give it another go next year. At least there were other butterflies and insects around and we got great views of White Admirals.

Variable Longhorn Beetle

White Admiral

The following week we went to Crossness where the Ruddy Shelduck was located on the foreshore. It was one of the hot days so we only walked part of the route and took a bus  back to Abbey Wood station.

Ruddy Shelduck

Small Red-eyed Damselflies

The dry summer has taken its toll on my garden and everything is looking like it belongs in the Atacama Desert. However, the few flowers that are thriving have been a boon for insects and I found a few Small Skippers on the lavender in my front garden and, best of all, a Bee Beetle in the back garden, a really stunning insect.

Bee Beetle