June 3rd 2011

Coming home from Cubbington last night there were good numbers of moths out so we tried Lawford Heath with the bat detector and had Noctule and Common Pip, also lucky enough to spot a Tawny owl as it flew from one tree to another as we passed by. My own traps did well with 41 species from 115 moths.
Out with Dave to the Just So café to get our weekly fix of Naomi’s exceedingly good quiche then a look at Stockton Cutting where we did reasonable well with Sparrowhawk and Garden Warbler, White-legged Damselfly, Four-spotted Chaser, 50+ Bee Orchid, 12 Common Twayblade, 3 Greater Butterfly Orchid, and many Common Spotted Orchids.

Common Spotted Orchid

Bee Orchid

On the butterfly front there was not many species on the wing but we did find 5 Grizzled Skippers, 3 Brimstone and 2 Brown Argus amongst the many Common Blues.
Arrived home and had the amazing sight of a Brown long-eared Bat flying around the garden for ages – looked like a young one so may have been disturbed from its local nusery. Another cracking garden record was a Hummingbird Hawk-moth this morning for the second day in a row which I forgot to mention.


Snout - Bob Hazell

Green Pug - Bob Hazell

Purple Bar new for Dave's garden - Bob Hazell

Marsh Frittilary another cracking butterfly the boys had in Gloucestershire by Dave Ludlow

Richard