Hare, There and Everywhere

 I was watching a leveret this morning as it ran down a field edge. It turned round and started running towards me, coming within 10 yards of me then stopped. I even managed to get my phone out to take a video of it before it scooted off. A nice encounter.

Leveret close encounter

Not many interesting birds about today (although I flushed a Hobby from second field edge - must have been either drinking or bathing). Butterflies, dragonflies and insects in general were the main fare.

Butterflies

Painted Lady

Red Admiral

Large White

Green-veined White

Meadow Brown

Gatekeeper

Ringlet

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

Small Copper

Dragonflies

Brown Hawker (5)

Emperor (3)

Black-tailed Skimmer

Migrant Hawker

Ruddy Darter - my first of the year 

Gatekeeper upperside

Gatekeeper backside :)

Gatekeeper underside

Meadow Brown - hundreds this morning

male Small Skipper

Painted Lady

I spent a while photographing dragonflies in flight and managed to get recognisable images of Migrant Hawker, Brown Hawker and Emperor. Only the Emperor ones were good enough to keep though.

Emperor dragonfly

Black-tailed Skimmers are easy to get at the Mere. I have loads of photos of them but something just makes me take more...

female Black-tailed Skimmer

The light was a bit weird on the female BtS and at first I thought it may be a Broad Bodied Chaser but the body just wasn't fat enough. The black lines along the abdomen confirmed it as BtS though.

The Coastguard helicopter put everything up into the air as it went over pretty low down. I hope there weren't any horse riders near or they may have been a bit upset.

Cormorants flushed by the helicopter

As I was togging the dragonflies a dead pike floated by. No marks on it as usual so cause of death is unknown, again as usual. Unfortunately I see quite a few dead pike in the Mere - I can't help but think fishermen are responsible but I have no evidence to support this view.

A late pike