North Yorkshire....

A day out in North Yorkshire today with Chris to visit the superb Fen Bog,had us enjoying an excellent and productive 6 hours on site,with several highlights being observed.Birdwise,the highlight was a 1st summer Hobby,which was watched harrassing a Kestrel and gave great views perching on a cliff face on a few occasions,also in this area were breeding Curlew,Snipe and Whinchat,the male Whinchats being particularly stunning!.Dragons had been the main reason to visit and we managed 4 species,Golden-ringed,Four-spot Chaser,Keeled Skimmer and Large-red Damselfly,the Golden-ringed Dragonfly's put on an excellent showing!.Butterflies where also well represented,with 3 special species,Dingy Skipper,Small pearl-bordered Fritillary and Large Heath and they all showed well,the Large Heath's being of the northern race 'Polydama'.Other butterflies observed included Small Heath,Common-blue,Small Tortoiseshell and Large White.A few day flying moth species where observed today also and included the lovely Chimney-sweeper Moth,Beautiful-yellow Underwing and Small Argent and Sable.Bog plants where represented by some nice species which included,Bog Asphodel,Round-leaved Sundew,Common Butterwort and the lovely smelling Bog Myrtle.The only mammal sighting,although a significant one,was the finding of Otter spraint on a rock in the middle of the wooded stream on the site,i would have loved an encounter with the animals!.So all in all a very good day in some gorgeous weather and with some good company.

MSQ....

An early morning start today to the reserve to look for any Otter activity drew a blank,but plenty of other interesting sightings and photographic oppertunities were had.Bird wise,the only sightings of note included 1 brood of Willow Tits,1 Green Woodpecker,close views of a Common Buzzard being mobbed by a couple of Carrion Crows,a single Lapwing chick on the Orchid marsh near the car park and at least 1 Cuckoo.I still have yet to see a Turtle Dove here this year yet,a real shame as they used to be reguler breeders.
It was more productive on the insect front,with lots of dragons on the wing and several butterfly species,with personal highlights today including my first records of the year for Meadow Brown,Large Skipper and Wall.We also encountered several day flying moths which included Silver-ground Carpet,Yellow Shell,Cinnabar and my first records of the year of Silver Y and Straw Dot,Roger also managed to find a stunning,fresh,Elephant Hawkmoth,a real beauty!.I managed to find a new species of Micro Moth today,Pammene aurana which is a local species and its larva feeds on the seeds of Hogweed.There are also lots of Grasshopper nymphs starting to emerge and i saw two species today Field Grasshopper and Common-green Grasshopper.
Plants and flowers of note included Southern-marsh and Spotted Orchid and hybrid White and Pink Campion.

An enjoyable 9 hour visit today with some nice Company as well in the form of Mike,Roger and Claire.

Norfolk.....

A trip today,with Chris and Colin to a few sites in the Norfolk Broadland area resulted in us having a pretty good time!.The first port of call was the excellent Strumpshaw Fen,where our targets were to get Chris his first Norfolk Hawker and Swallowtail.Both were found easily after a bit of usefull info from Mr Eades.The first Norfolk Hawker was seen along a track down the side of some adjacent waterworks near to the reserve entrance and showed very well,with the waterworks also holding a singing male Grey Wagtail.We carried on down this track coming to the garden we had been told about to see Swallowtail,after a short wait we saw our first,albeit briefly,but better was to come!,when we all walked a short distance past the garden a Swallowtail flew in and landed at our feet on a Meadow Buttercup and posed for photo's,talk about jammy!!.Also in this area Adi found a female Cochchafer,which we all got piccies of and another Norfolk Hawker was watched hunting.Also,while walking around the reserve we enjoyed the explosive Cetti's Warblers,only getting frustratingly brief views of them,a couple of Chinese-water Deer,a distant hunting Barn Owl and several Marsh Harriers,which included a food pass by one pair,excellent stuff!!.So onto the next site,the fantastic How Hill.Here we observed more of the same as Strumpshaw,but got much better views of Norfolk Hawker,4 Swallowtail of which 2 flew across the grassy area near to the car park,at least 3 Cetti's Warbler,a couple more of the ubiquitous Marsh Harriers and some interesting plants which included Milk Parsley and Water Soldier,the 2 plants connected with the reserves 2 speciality species.This reserve is an absolute gem,with a good variety of habitats!.
 Our last place of visit,was another fenland reserve,Catfield Fen,here we enjoyed more of the same species as the other reserve's but also added Hobby and Grasshopper Warbler to the bird list for the day.So after a long 8+ hours in the field,it was time to make our journey home,but what a fantastic day we had! and a big thanks again to Chris for driving.