Fenland..07.05.11.

Woodwalton Fen entrance.

Mating Pebble Hook-tip's,Woodwalton Fen.

Coreus marginatus,Holme Fen.

A trip out of the county today with Colin deep into the heart of the Cambridgeshire fens,primarily to look for Scarce Chaser,saw us enjoying a varied array of wildlife and bird sightings,despite the wet start.We first visited Woodwalton Fen NNR,were avian highlights were provided today by,5 Grasshopper Warbler reeling away as we walked around this superb reserve,with us also enjoying views of 1 bird,followed by 3 singing male Nightingales heard singing that beautiful song as we continued are exploration of the reserve,with several Garden Warbler,a 'Yaffling' Green Woodie and a distant Cuckoo adding to the sounds of summer.Mammal highlights here were provided by at least 3 Chinese-water Deer,which included a barking male,startled by our prescence and a close encounter with a female from the Rothschild mere hide briefly as it munched on reeds,lovely animals.Insects were also well represented on our visit here and apart from the afore-mentioned dragons the highlights were a single Red Admiral and a couple of mating Pebble Hooktip which i found while sheltering out of the rain under a Silver Birch!.A superb place to visit and i would love to go back in better weather.So onto another reserve,the nearby Holme Fen,which is also part of the 'Great Fen' project to re-create some of the county's previous fenland habitat and link these two reserves together.Here bird highlights consisted of a single Hobby hawking insects,single Grasshopper Warbler and a Common Buzzard.It was mainly insects which provided the best sightings and we saw some nice additions to our already impressive list for the day,these included several Coreus marginatus,a species of Squash Bug observed on a couple of areas of Dock and at least 2 Peacock Moth,a new species for us both!.There were also quite a few butterflies on the wing here and included Holly Blue,Orange Tip,Speckled Wood,Peacock,Brown Argus and our first Common-blue's of the year.So all in all a superb day,despite the early rain,i certainly will be back to this cracking area!.