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My blog will predominantly feature a selection of photographs and reports of recent wildlife photographic trips, mainly in the UK

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Bittern, Fishers Green, January 2023

Balls Wood and Hertford Heath

7/24/2021

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It's a quiet time of year for birds so over three visits between the 18th and 22nd July I have spent some time at Balls Wood and Hertford Heath near Hertford, looking for Butterflies and Dragonflies. The recent hot spell ensured there was lots of action! Starting with Dragonflies and Damselflies I managed to see 10 species and the ponds on the Heath are a particularly good place.  Here are some pictures of nine species with the missing one being Common Blue Damselfly.
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Female Black-tailed Skimmer

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Male Southern Hawker

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Male Banded Demoiselle

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Brown Hawker

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Common Darter

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Common Darter

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Female Ruddy Darter

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Male Ruddy Darter

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Female Ruddy Darter

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Four-spotted Chaser

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Four-spotted Chaser

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Female Emperor, ovipositing

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Male Broad-bodied Chaser

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Male Broad-bodied Chaser

A fairly widespread day flying Moth is the Silver Y taken here from below.
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Balls Wood is great for other species including Hoverflies. The one below is a male Myathropa florea.
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Another good species here is the Black & Yellow Longhorn Beetle, Rutpela maculata.
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And finally on to the Butterflies! A total of 18 species in all and I managed to photograph many of them including my first ever Purple Emperor, which was sadly some distance away. Other major highlights were Purple Hairstreaks, Silver Washed Fritillary and White Admiral.
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Purple Emperor

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Distant Purple Hairstreak

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Ringlet

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Red Admiral

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Speckled Wood

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Meadow Brown

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Gatekeeper

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Brimstone

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Brimstone

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Small White

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Green Veined White

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Large Skipper

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Silver Washed Fritillary

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Silver Washed Fritillary

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Comma

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Peacock

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White Admiral

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White Admiral

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White Admiral

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A superb site to visit and I will hopefully manage another trip very soon.
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