Summer is in full swing! Here are some images from the wood over the last few weeks.

The trail camera has captured footage of deer young, roe and muntjac. Are we allowed to use the “cute” word?

It’s interesting to see that the young from two species that are not closely related have similar stripey/spotty look to them.

A very early morning walk to try out a new(ish) camera yielded this image of a Green Woodpecker.

The warm dry weather has been great for butterflies, and there are lots on Oakley Wood – Whites (Large, Small and Green-veined) along with Meadow Browns and others can be seen wherever there are brambles in flower. The few buddleia bushes are magnets for Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies.

Apparently it’s a Painted Lady year – more abundant than usual

The real prize for me was seeing (and photographing) my first Hummingbird Hawk-moth in the wood, only the second I’ve seen in this country:

They are abundant in southern Europe where it’s hotter, so I image they will be come more common here as the climate warms up. I find them a fun challenge to photograph because, like real hummingbirds, they don’t land but just hover momentarily to feed on a flower (bramble in this case) using their long proboscis. Fascinating.

Chris