May 23rd 2010

Another cracking night for moths then out with Dave for an early morning walk from Draycote village to rainbow corner, Draycote Water where we though we were wasting our time until two Whimbrel arrived. The first came in giving us close flyby views and landed in rainbow corner while the second was over the valve tower along with Oystercatcher. Apart from a Muntjac and 4 Garden Warbler there was little else on show so with the temperatures in the high teens by 8am we moved on to Ryton Woods and Meadows and spent the rest of the morning enjoying good numbers of butterflies and day flying moths. Dave ended up with 3 butterfly and one moth tick so mission accomplished and a rough count was 20 Dingy Skipper, 8 Grizzled Skipper, 5 Common Blue, 3 Small Copper, 9 Green Hairstreak, 2 Peacock, 3 Small Heath, 5 Speckled Wood, 3 Brimstone, 2 Green-Veined White, 4 Orange-tip, 1 Small White5, Large White while moths included 3 Treble Bar, 5 Mother Shipton, 10 Burnet Companion and Small Yellow Underwing.

Richard