We were heading up to Radley where our two trainees were joining George Candelin to get some experience at Sand Martin colony ringing so we decided to do some visits for Black Hairstreak at some of the nearby Oxfordshire woodland. Initially we visited Waterperry Wood where there are some blackthorne near the northern entrance, where once the sun came out we had a couple of Black Hairstreaks, unfortunately just a little too high to photograph without a zoom lens. There were a few odd common butterflies around though.
Large Skipper
Small Tortoiseshell
Speckled Wood
After this we tried Whitecross Green Wood where we saw several, some, as usual a little high up, but one or two came lower down. There was the odd tatty one, but some looked freshly emerged so some more of these, also other species beginning to emerge.
Black Hairstreaks
Marbled Whites were just starting to emerge
as were White Admirals
Red Admiral
The Sand Martin ringing was not overly busy through a combination of a small bank with less birds, though there is another colony now at another nearby location, and a rather windy evening making the net very visible. It was also not helped by seeing a Sparrowhawk that went through a few times carrying away one of the Sand Martins on the third attempt.
Totals:
Sand Martin - 11