The weather throughout June & July was a big disappointment especially following such a fine spring and much of our wildlife suffered as a result.  During these months I often try and photograph my local butterflies, dragonflies & damselflies but this year numbers of most species appeared to be down and many early as a result of such a warm April.  Some like the Duke of Burgundy were so early that I missed them.  The only species I managed to improve on was the valezina form of the Silver-washed Fritillary this form is only found in the female of the species and confined to the southern part of its range.  Although quite rare, in a few southern woods as many as one in ten females may be of the valezina form. 



Silver-washed Fritillary female of the valezina form.

One bright spot in June was an abundance of Brown Hares on one of my local farms where they are never shot and are quite approachable.  The farmer has also given me unrestricted access to several of the fields until they are grazed in early winter.  During the second half of June I visited almost every day and was pleased to get quite a number of decent images.  At the moment the grass is too long and I am waiting for them to cut it for silage before I can get onto the fields again.



Brown Hare standing.



Brown Hare male courting female.



Brown Hare running.

In early June a good friend Frederic Desmette invited me up to try and get some photos of a Cuckoo he was seeing almost daily at the bottom of his garden.  Having waited there for most of the day I was within 15 minutes of driving home, almost 100 miles, when it appeared.



Cuckoo

I also managed a late visit to the Farne Islands where I had not been for almost 10 years and was amazed at the number of people who now visit the islands.  It really is a great place to photograph birds but the most disappointing aspect of any visit is the boats do not leave until 1000 hours and return at 1600 hours so you never get really great light.  I only managed one day on the islands before the weather changed for the worse.



Puffin in flight with sand eels.



Young Puffin emerging from burrow.



Common Tern in flight.

That day I managed to get many other images including Guillemot, Razorbill, Cormorant, Shag, Kittiwake and Grey Seal.

As the weather was on the turn we decided to head south to the RSPB Reserve at Bempton Cliffs where the forecast was a little better and managed a few Gannet images before getting caught in a thunder storm.



Returning to the visitor centre we were able to enjoy the resident Tree Sparrows around the feeders whilst drying out.

David