Summer at Oppy Wood

The weather forecast wasn't great, so I decided to avoid a long trip today and popped in at a nature reserve nearby, Oppy Wood, just in the outskirts of Hull. This is a recently planted woodland, with plenty of paths, glades and meadows. It can get quite wet, but today the paths were all dry. It actually finished spitting by the time I got there, the clouds slowly broke and let some sun shine. It was quite warm and humid and insects were plentiful. On the western side of the reserve, near the ditch, an azure damselfly. I saw an unidentified darter and a larger, brown dragonfly (possibly a four spotted chaser, but they didn't settle for photos). Another frustratingly unidentified insect was a large female leafcutter. Male Eristalis intricarius and Volucella pellucens hovered on the glades over buzzing clumps of flowering brambles.
I found copse snails, Arianta arbustorum, resting on nettles, creeping thistle and hogweed leaves in the company of White-lipped and Kentish snails. All the ones I picked up, without fail, emerged rapidly from their shells as soon as I put them on my hand, in contrast to Kentish Snails, which remained inside their shell.
 There were quite a few Small Tortoiseshells on the thistles by the entrance, and a Comma. I started seeing Commas two days ago, and I've seen them every day.

Male Small Skipper on Creeping thistle

A male Volucella pellucens resting

Green-veined white

Rabbit

Goat's beard, Tragopon pratensis

Female Dronefly, Eristalis tenax

Ringlet

Azure damselfly

Copse snail, Arianta arbustorum 

Kentish (left) and Copse (right) snails, demonstrating different behaviour when picked up.

Comma

Large Skipper

Burnished Brass

Butterfly List

1. Meadow Brown
2. Ringlet
3. Speckled Wood
4. Red Admiral
5. Small Tortoiseshell
6. Comma
7. Little Skipper
8. Large Skipper
9. Green-veined White
10. Small White