Grizzlies and a day roosting Heron

I was out with Pete Watson today and we decided to do a repeat of the trip we did this time last year to Twyford Woods in South Lincs for the Grizzled Skippers then back to Whisby Country Park for Nightingales, armed with a bit more info on the Butterflies, we’d not been looking in the right place last year, we headed south from a sunny Yorkshire but as we got to the Woods we ran into the edge of a thick band of cloud and it was quite cool, however with blue skies beckoning we headed off for the Sanctuary area but it was to be late morning before the sun got out enough to warm things up and spur the Butterflies into action, they weren’t easy though, very quick and easily lost but we eventually got good views of at least two, we also had the bonus of a Dingy Skipper as we returned to the car, it was all about the Butterflies this morning really but there were also a lot Warblers singing in the area including my first Garden of the year, several Buzzards and a Raven graced the skies and a Cuckoo, another year tick, flew over. After a late lunch and a phone call from Mark informing us of a Night Heron at Attenborough NR on the outskirts of Nottingham we changed our plans and went to see that instead, it was a nice adult male with breeding plumes but just typically sat in a bush sleeping, preening and occasionally scrambling about until it abruptly flew off, other highlights on the reserve were a booming Bittern, a few singing Cetti’s Warblers, a pair of Little Ringed Plovers and several Red Crested Pochards. 

Wild Strawberry, the food plant

so of course the first one we saw was on a Daisy

Dingy Skipper on the way back

Attenborough NR

the Night Heron high in a bush

obliging Red Crested Pochard