April 19th 2011

Draycote was disappointing this morning with only one Black Tern remaining from yesterday’s influx. The only other birds worth mentioning were my first Lesser Whitethroat of the year, 3 Wheatear, 3 White Wagtail, Grey Wagtail, 8 Whitethroat, 14 Buzzard, 2 Teal, 4 Gadwall and 2 Yellow Wagtail. Also on the down side were the amount of visitors pouring in today due to the school holidays with nothing remaining on the banks for long so don’t bother coming if you are not early.
On the plus side this warm spell has brought out plenty of butterflies with a total count of the six areas I checked being 1 Comma, 8 Peacock, 6 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Speckled Wood, 15 Brimstone, 2 Green-Veined White, 1 Large White, 39 Orange-tip and 1 Small White. There were 3 Holly Blue in my garden when Bob dropped me off home and a Green-veined White appeared later.



Green-veined White and Large White by Bob Hazell and have included a female Orange-tip as a useful comparison kindly sent to me by Terry Southgate as I always get confused at the begining of the season.

Over the next 9 days there is a space station fest with 26 passes forecasted with two classed as excellent and nine as good. If the weather is favourable the best could be.
April 23rd start 22:12pm peaking at 22:17pm and out of view by 22:22
April 25th start 21:26pm peaking at 21:31pm and out of view by 21:36
April 26th start 20:16pm peaking at 20:21pm and out of view by 20:25
April 27th start 20:40pm peaking at 20:45pm and out of view by 20:50
The shed will be traveling west to east.

On Saturday 23 April BR Britannia Class 4-6-2 no 70000 Britannia will steam haul the Cathedral Express from Paddington to Stratford on Avon and return and is due to pass Fenny Compton at 11:50, Leamington Spa 12:00, stop at Warwick 12:04 to 12:07 before arriving in SOA at 12:37pm. Unfortunately times may change due to last minute engineering works so will keep you up to date the best I can.

Richard