This week has been somewhat of a moth and butterfly week starting with a visit to Charlecote in Warwickshire with David Brown the Warwickshire recorder with Ringlet, Brimstone, Large Skipper, Meadow Brown, Cinnabar Moth, Speckled Wood, Chimney Sweeper and Marbled White being recorded. The highlight of the field trip for me though was a House Martin nest in the eaves of a low barn alongside the route we were taking. I had watched the House Martin flying to and from the barn while walking back along the pathway and couldn't resist a little peak inside to be greeted by three young hanging over the side of the mud nest.
After the field trip we went off to inspect the result of moth trapping over the previous night which allowed for a couple of snaps of Elephant Hawk Moth which proved to be so docile that one I am sure would have happily stayed in my hand for the drive home.
A quick visit to Upton Warren on Wednesday evening to see if I could actually manage to coincide my visits to the time when the Hobby are hawking turned out to be totally the opposite. I didn't manage to be there at the same time as the Hobby but we did meet up with a gentleman setting up three moth traps and after a quick trip home for some provisions for a more prolonged stay ended up being there until nearly 2am with quite a long list of moths being compiled. The temptation was to stay longer but with daylight and work looming and with a bat walk to help lead on the next evening common sense had to prevail, although by the end of the bat walk the following evening I was quite happy to not partake in any more late night / early mornings for the rest of the week.
Friday daytime during a break allowed the chance to sit on a log in the wood yard at the Lickey Hills watching a mixed flock of some 50 birds with around 30 Long Tailed Tits and the rest made up of Coal and Blue Tits. Long Tailed Tits always make me smile with their 'Billy Bunter' appearance and chases through the trees. Friday evening brought some good views of a juvenile Water Rail at Upton Warren and some nice long views of Sedge Warblers, but still no Hobby even though they had been seen earlier in the evening.
With the weekend finally arriving we decided to take a walk in Chaddesley Wood with an eye out from Butterflies and Birds and we were treated with large numbers of Speckled Wood, Ringlet and Comma Butterflies.
On this visit I had decided to take the larger camera gear as well as the small compact and as the likelihood of a Comma Butterfly letting you get close enough to take a snap with a compact was nil it proved to be a good decision. However my hat seemed to be more of a lure than anything with this Comma as it seemed to take a liking to my Tilly and spent a lot of time landing on my head rather than somewhere that I might have a chance of getting a photograph. However once that hat was removed (something I wasn't over joyed about with the sun beating down) it finally behaved by landing on foliage at last.
The Tree creeper (the real reason for taking the larger camera as mentioned on a previous entry) however didn't behave. They were around and they were going up the trees close enough for good views but not quite close enough for even a reasonably long lens to get anything worth keeping, they also stayed within the shade of the deeper wooded areas which didn't please the camera. So another entry solely with photographs of butterflies - and a couple of moths from the garden.
Scalloped Hazel Moth (above) Cinnabar Moth (below)
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