Trip reports

Wednesday Walk to Bookham Common - by Peter Hambrook

Wednesday, 8 July 2009

A cool, wet morning was not really what was required for this walk as it switched off the butterfly and dragonfly activity totally. Fortunately the rain only continued until the eight of us had donned our waterproofs and sallied forth, when it eased off. It remained overcast for the first hour or so before the sun started to thin the cloud and for the last half and hour we had some sun and were starting to feel we were in individual saunas in our wet-weather gear!

Bird activity was fairly limited but song thrushes and blackcaps were quite vocal and a female of the latter species was seen. We also managed to see one of several chiffchaffs that were still holding territory. Young birds about including great and blue tits, large families of coots and moorhens and a robin. A mistle thrush gave us a good view and brief glimpses were obtained of a jay and a treecreeper, while a heron perched on a stump at the larger of the ponds. In the open areas were a few goldfinches and a greenfinch while quite a few swifts could be seen in the distance.

As the day warmed up and the cloud thinned some butterfly activity started and was kicked of in grand style when Nigel spotted a large butterfly landing in an oak tree. With binoculars we narrowed it down to either a white admiral or a purple emperor but once we got a scope trained on it we could clearly see the orange circles on the hind-wing that identified it as a female purple emperor - easily the best view I have had of one so far. Soon we were seeing lots of ringlets, large and small/Essex skippers, meadow browns, a white admiral, nice bright silver-washed fritillaries, a gatekeeper and small whites. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be warm enough for most of the dragonflies and only a few blue damselflies were seen.

Despite the slow start we had an interesting morning and stayed dry apart from the occasional cascade of drips from the trees when the breeze stirred them.

Peter Hambrook