Weekend Lepidoptera

Last Saturday evening I headed off to South Landing at Flamborough as they were doing a Storm Petrel ringing session, I haven't been to one of these evenings for a few years so I thought it would be good to do again, it would also probably be the best opportunity to get a photograph as well, they were coupling the session with a Mothing Night which was just as well as they unfortunately didn't manage to catch any Petrels, the Moths however were quite fascinating and I saw many new species for me, over 100 species were recorded and some I managed to photograph are below:

Snout

Small Fan-foot

Brimstone Moth

Plain Golden Y

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing

Flame Shoulder and Riband Wave

Common Footman

Uncertain

Clouded Border

Light Arches

Burnished Brass showing off its metallic finery

I was most impressed with this one, Buff Arches

Green Pug

Latticed Heath

Peppered Moth

Mottled Beauty

Sunday afternoon I went down to Chambers Farm Wood in Lincolnshire where some mighty fine Butterflies have been showing well in the week, it was a nice sunny afternoon but a little breezy and although there were a good few Butterflies about it wasn't what I had been hoping for, there were plenty of Comma's and Ringlets, a few Large Skippers and some smaller ones proved to be Essex, Purple Hairstreaks were coming down low but not low enough, best of the afternoon were several White Admirals and although I saw a couple of Purple Emperors they were just fly bys, no sign of any Silver Washed Fritillaries and no Hummingbird or Broad-bordered Bee Hawkmoths in the Butterfly Garden.

Gatekeeper

lots of Comma's

Large Skipper

and Essex Skipper

White Admiral kept high up at first

but eventually came down

Ringlet underwing

a few Dragonflies as well, Souther Hawker

and Brown Hawker

The Summer lull

Typical of this time of year it's pretty quiet at the moment, I went off to Blacktoft Sands yesterday afternoon after work, a few Waders are passing back through now, Black Tailed Godwits, Green Sandpipers, Ruff etc plus several Spotted Redshanks in various states of moult, one or two young Bearded Reedlings were flitting around the reeds and calling, the young Montagu’s Harriers have reportedly fledged in the last couple of days but I only saw the male this evening, the Marsh Harriers put on a good show as usual though and up to eight Little Egrets graced the site.

communal preening

lots of Lapwing

Black Tailed Skimmer

distant male Monty's

Sweet Raptors

I went up to Wykeham on Sunday morning for some Raptor watching, despite it being ideal conditions it was rather slow going, a couple of juv Goshawks showed early on and there were plenty of common Buzzard and Kestrel sightings, a Honey Buzzard eventually put in an appearance mid morning although it was fairly distant, it was on show for 10-15 mins or more, even did a bit of wing clapping, also of interest a Turtle Dove flew through and there were a few Crossbills about. Early afternoon I dropped down to my other site down in the valley but I only added Sparrowhawk and a couple more common Buzzards, I then took a steady drive back through Troutsdale, Spotted Flycatcher and Grey Wagtail at Hilla Green were about the best of it. I ended up at Fen Bog late afternoon but it had clouded over a bit so the hoped for Butterfly session didn’t happen, there were a handful kicking about though including a couple of Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries and also a Golden Ringed Dragonfly zipping around.

a "small" number of Butterflies at Fen Bog, Small Heath

Small Skipper

and Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary

Fen Bog

Old Moor

I had a run down to Old Moor Wetlands this morning for a male Little Bittern that had been found there in the week, a Yorkshire tick for me, the early risers had the best of the bird today it having shown really well early on but it had flown to the back of the reedbed by the time I got there, I got several decent flight views during the rest of the morning but no chance for any pics, it finally went to ground for the afternoon as per usual. I had a wander around the rest of the reserve which was relatively quiet, a Little Egret was on Field Pool and a partial eclipse American Wigeon on Wath Ings was notable, not many Waders around yet, then finished off at Broomhill Flash where I finally caught up with another rare Duck for the year.

Yankee Wigeon

Summer Nights

I did the annual pilgrimage up to Wykeham for the Nightjars last night and it just seems to get better every year, the first birds were flying around just after 10 o-clock and showed really well with it still being relatively light, at least three pairs in the vicinity now and there was lots of rival churring, wing clapping and general chasing each other around, also several Woodcocks roding and one or two Tawny Owls calling.

the favourite perch was a bit awkward

but they also landed in more open positions as well