River Eau And MSQ.

A trip out today with Dave firstly to Susworth and then to MSQ,got us a few nice highlights despite the cold,mostly cloudy weather again.The best bird of the day was a 1st summer Whooper Swan in a cereal field at Susworth with 7 Mute Swans.I am guessing this bird hasn't moved due to the cold spring weather or the fact that it's breeding grounds are probably buried under 3 foot of volcanic ash by now!.The only other sightings of note here where several Green-veined White.

 So onto Messingham,where the best sightings were my first Hairy Dragonfly's of the new season and a disappointing 3 species of butterfly which included 4 Orange Tip's,a new species of beetle for myself(Oulema melanopus,see above photo),a species of leaf beetle which feeds on grasses and sometimes cereal crops.We also managed to find several moths which included a couple of Mother Shipton,Common Carpet and a new species of Micro moth for myself(Ancylis badiana,see above photo).Not a bad day,but it was somewhat spoilt by the news from Frampton of the Oriental Pratincole,i just couldn't bring myself to drive all that way through Sunday traffic,oh well it might stay.