Trafalgar Estate, Wilts

Trafalgar is a private country estate used mainly for fishing but it has a public footpath running through the middle. It is a haven for dragonflies and butterflies and some interesting wetland wildflowers grow there as well.
We started by walking along the paths that separated river from pond where we saw river water-crowfoot, purple loosesrtife, wild angelica, which attracted many insects including Helophilus trivittatus, Myathropa florae and the large hoverfly, Volucella inanis, pink-water speedwell, gipsywort, russian comfrey, wall lettuce and a fantastic orange balsam growing on the edge of the river. A young family of reed warblers chattered cheerfully in the reeds nearby, eagerly awaiting the food that was to be brought by their mother. With a couple of buddleias lining the path there were plenty of butterflies around including red admirals, commas, peacocks and a painted lady. We eventually got to an open stretch of river which was surrounded by reeds on one side but on the other was a water meadow. Here, banded demoiselles thrived and I got a good photo of the female which has clear wings, an emerald green body and the characteristic white blotches on the tip of the wings which distinguish it from a beautiful demoiselle. Unfortunately we didn’t see any other dragonflies other than some blue-tailed damselflies though before we have seen beautiful demoiselles there.
A buzzard and sedge warblers were heard and I found a Figwort sawfly, Tenthredo scrophulariae and also a digger wasp, Ectemnius cavifrons.