Lamsdell Bird Ringing and Wildlife Blog: Crockford Bridge and Latchmoor Bottom

Friday 18 June 2021

Crockford Bridge and Latchmoor Bottom - 16th June 2021

We fancied a bit of time enjoying the New Forest and made our way to Crockford Bridge mainly for Southern Damselflies. Always a pleasant part of the south to visit, a single Green Hairstreak and three fresh Silver-studded Blues were seen on route from the enclosure car park to the stream. There was plenty of activity and many Southern Damselflies were seen, in the region of 120, at least 25 Keeled Skimmers, along with a good number of Beautiful Demoiselles, three fresh Small Red Damselflies, three Golden-ringed Dragonflies. Bumped into Stephen Rowland down south form Norfolk for the Sandwich Bay Dainty filed trip on Saturday.

Green Hairstreak

Silver-studded Blue

Keeled Skimmers

Beautiful Demoiselles

Southern Damselflies

Azure Damselflies, one of three amongst the large number of

Southern's

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Small Red Damselfly

By the time we made it over to Latchmoor Bottom it had become a little dull after a very bright hot middle of the day. Very little seemed to be active and finding any Scarce Blue-tails seemed unlikely, and as expected none were found. Only a few Keeled Skimmers were seen, along with a single Golden-ringed Dragonfly and Broad-bodied Chaser, where usually the area would be very busy.

Beautiful Demoiselle

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

About us

Chris and Denise Lamsdell

We have both been birders for about 40 years based in South Bucks near the West London reservoir complexes.

Since September 2021 we have been based in North Norfolk. We have done our bit of twitching in the past, but with other priorities this has become a much reduced activity with a preference for seeing new birds where ever our travels take us.

We both have been ringing since 2005. Our local group was the Runnymede RG while based in Buckinghamshire. Since moving to Norfolk we have started a new group called The Iceni Bird Monitoring Group, aimed at increasing public engagement through colour ringing projects on Black-headed Gull, Turnstone and Lapwing. We ring at several sites including Sculthorpe Moor, Sandringham Estate, Deepdale Farm and also monitor bird populations for the Norfolk Rivers Trust. We do ringing at home and support with foreign projects when opportunities allow. Chris also has an interest in Butterflies and Dragonflies and contains his limited photographic skill to them.