Crowle and Thorne Moors NNR.

An all day visit to this fantastic area today with Dave and Adi,to see what we could find,resulted in one of the best days out this year up to now.The best bird sighting had to be the amazing sight of 20 Hobby watched hawking dragonflies over Thorne Moors,not only a personal high count,but also an equal Yorkshire record to boot as well!.Several birds gave superb views as they caught and dispatched the dragonflies on which they were feeding,excellent!.The only other bird sightings of note where a couple of singing male Tree Pipit on Crowle Moor.Another reason we had made the effort today was to see what interesting insects we could find and today did not disappoint.Butterflies were well represented and good counts of Large Heath,with 53 and Large Skipper with a staggering 179 where the highlights.Moths were also seen in a good diversity,with the highlights being 3 new micro species for myself in the form of Argyresthia goedartella and the locally distributed Aethes rubigana and Metendothenia atropunctana and also a couple of the beautiful Large Emerald.Dragonflies were seen in the expected good numbers,with several first records of the year for myself which included Common and Brown Hawkers,Black and Ruddy Darter and Emerald Damselfly,in all recording 11 species.The best insect find of the day went to yours truly,with a superb species of beetle Sinodendron cylindricum,this species belongs to the Lucanidae family of beetles which includes the Stag Beetles,a cracker looking for all the world like a mini Rhinoceros!.What a day!!.