Balls Wood and Hertford Heath

7/24/2021

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.

Female Black-tailed Skimmer

Male Southern Hawker

Male Banded Demoiselle

Brown Hawker

Common Darter

Female Ruddy Darter

Male Ruddy Darter

Female Ruddy Darter

Four-spotted Chaser

Female Emperor, ovipositing

Male Broad-bodied Chaser

A fairly widespread day flying Moth is the Silver Y taken here from below.

Balls Wood is great for other species including Hoverflies. The one below is a male Myathropa florea.

Another good species here is the Black & Yellow Longhorn Beetle, Rutpela maculata.

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.