Sunday 2nd October 2022

Species: Common Blue (2)

Common Blue - Tucking Mill 02-10-2022

It's been a year of record temperatures across most of the country and here in Bath the start of October was particularly mild by historic benchmarks. A sunny and warm Sunday was enough to tempt me out for what I thought would be my final butterfly survey of the year.

Muntjac Deer - Tucking Mill 02-10-2022

I headed out towards the embankment that adjoin the fields owned by Wessex Water. This is normally busy with insects through the summer, but today it was eerily quiet. Through a gap in the trees, I could see a Muntjac deer was grazing at the edge of the woods oblivious to my presence. 

Common Darter Dragonfly- Tucking Mill 02-10-2022

My next stop was Horsecombe Vale, a wooded valley with a brook meandering through the middle. No butterflies here either, but a Common Darter Dragonfly whirred past me to settle on a bramble leaf.

My last stop of the day was the fields above the cycle path. After a while I located two Common Blue butterflies basking in the afternoon sun near the footpath.

Hornet - Tucking Mill 02-10-2022

It was while I was photographing one of the two Common Blues that I was distracted by the low hum of a Hornet. At one time, a long time ago, this sound would have sent a shiver down my spine, but I have learnt over the years that these large, wasp like insects are pretty docile when encountered away from their nests.


It flew past me, low over the grassland and directly into a spiders web. The web was wrapped around a dead thistle and as I approached I could see it had worked its way into the middle of the web, and was happily devouring what it found there. I presume this to be an item of prey rather than the spider itself. (See video above).

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