Messing with Insects at Messingham

A Brilliant Day's Insect Hunting at Messingham Sand Quarry.

I was up at 4.30 this morning to get an early start to Messingham.  Partly because I wanted to catch the damselflies when they were fairly inactive and also to avoid the possibility of it being crowded.  As it was when I arrived at 6.15 mine was the third car in the car park.  I was really good to be back at Messingham again; my first visit since 2015.  It was already warm and birds were singing loudly everywhere, especially reed warblers singing from deep in the reed beds.  Annoyingly none showed themselves.  Willow warblers and chiffchaff were also vocal and I heard my first cuckoo of the year.

Damsels were fairly inactive at first and I took my first photograph at 6.30.  As the day warmed up, though they became very busy and there were thousands of them whirring around like living jewels.  They were nearly all blue-tailed or azure and I saw no common blues, at least not to identify.  There were a few large reds though and some variably coloured females: rufescens with a pink thorax and infuscans with a green thorax rather than the normal green/blue.  The big dragons didn't appear until the day really got warmed up and I managed to photograph some pristine four spotted chasers.  Two hairies were seen but these were up in the trees and impaoosible to photograph.  I was pleased to obtain photos of male and female common blue, the only two I saw, and a single speckled wood but otherwise butterflies apart from orange tip were thin on the ground.

By mid-day I had walked 5 miles and was ready for a break so headed home for some post processing and a nap.  A brilliant morning though.

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Azure female

Azure male

Azure mating pair

Blue-tailed female, rufescans

Blue-tailed

Blue-tailed

Blue-tailed

Blue-tailed

Blue-tailed mating pair

Blue-tailed mating pair

Common Blue

Common Blue

Common Blue

Four spotted Chaser

Four spotted Chaser

Four spotted Chaser

Four spotted Chaser

Large red damselfly

Scorpion Fly

Scorpion Fly

Scorpion Fly

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood

Long Jawed orb weaver

Mute Swan

Mute Swan