Thursley Dragonflies and Woodland Butterflies

Colin and I spent Sunday in Surrey with the intention of seeing a few dragonflies. My year list up to that point was 13 which was ok, and by the end the day we had seen a total of 19 species. We also managed to see a decent selection of butterflies and plants as well. The only drawback was the heat which by early afternoon had risen to the point that we had to call a halt.
The morning was spent at Thursley, and based on our previous visit a couple of years ago, we did a circuit to include the heath running up to the south-eastern woodland and then came back via the boardwalk. This enabled us to cover most of the habitats and so pick up the greatest number of species.
The first thing was spend a bit of time around the Moat Pond. The lily pads held Red Eyed, Common and Azure Damselflies. One or two Emperors and Brown Hawkers were also present but Emerald Dragonflies are the main target. There were several Downy Emeralds, all very active and impossible to photograph. The first one we got good views of was assumed to be Downy at first but having got my eye in it proved to be a Brilliant Emerald.
Out on the heath, searches of suitable areas failed to find any Graylings but we did see a few Silver Studded Blues, though not the numbers that we tend to see in the New Forest. One Dark Green Fritillary was also seen, plus a few Whites, Large Skippers and a Brown Argus.

Large Red, Small Red, Blue Tailed and Emerald damselflies were abundant as were Keeled Skimmers, Four Spotted Chasers and Common Darters. One or two Broad Bodied Chasers, Black Tailed Skimmers and Beautiful Demoiselles were also seen.

Birds were hard work at times. We failed to find any Redstarts or Woodlarks which was disappointing and there weer no Hobbies, Martins, Cuckoos either which tend to be seen most visits. There were two or three singing Tree Pipits, several families of Stonechats and lots of Dartford Warblers-we found pairs/family groups in at least three different locations.

Having recently got a nice Olympus 60mm macro lens for the GX8 I am trying to spend a bit more time photographing plants, partly for identification purposes. Having an interest in carnivorous plants, the Round Leaved Sundews were a special target. I also accidentally took a rather poor photo of an Oblong Leaved Sundew as well.

Most of the insects on the heath proved too difficult to photograph, but everywhere we went  small wasps could be seen in the sandy spots and they were pretty easy to get. Not sure yet what they were but I did watch some dragging prey back to their burrows.

We spent an hour or so after lunch at Oaken Wood (Botany Bay). It turned out to be a bit late for the Wood Whites (though one had been seen the previous day) but there were a lot of other whites flying, plus Large Skippers and Speckled Woods along the main ride. Silver Washed Fritillaries weer everywhere and it soon became apparent that this is also a pretty good place for White Admirals-we saw good 20 or so. Met a local who had rescued a fresh Purple Hairstreak that appeared to be either very fresh with weak wings or rather poorly. He had seen at least a dozen Purple Emperors and sent us to a suitable spot, but mentioned that activity had dropped off rapidly due to the heat. One was still flying but it never really settled.