July 13th 2008

I was disappointed to find very few moths in my garden trap this morning due to a cold night and it was still a bit parky as we searched the valley finding only a few Linnets, Lapwing but plenty of Hares.
Started to warm up a treat at Draycote Water as we walked to valve tower with Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Grey Wagtail, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Sand Martin 20 while butterfly's were represented by Marbled White, Large White, Comma, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Gatekeeper.
After breakfast in Long Itchington we were treated to a very close Hobby flying over the village in front of car on our way to Brandon Marsh and near Ryton Woods we spotted a probable Goshawk but were unable to find anywhere to park safely. Brandon Marsh was pretty quiet with us finding a single Marbled White and Common Hawker so we moved on to Draycote Meadows Nature Reserve which was full of butterfly's. There were at least 70+ Marbled Whites and 20+ Small Skippers amongst the hundreds of Ringlets and Meadow Browns plus many Narrow-bordered Five-Spot Burnets (day flying moth). Also seen were Buzzard over and our first Southern Hawker of the year by the entrance.
Back at Dave's and his trap yielded a number of interesting looking moths including

Early Thorn

Leopard Moth
The Bumbling Bears were also out butterflying today and did well with Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak and Silver-washed Fritillary so something to go for.


Richard