Dave had his moth trap out
last night but there were only four moths in the trap but all different. There was a Chinese Character, Brimstone
Moth, Scalloped Hazel and a Muslin Moth.
The Muslin Moth was new for me so it was worth the effort.
Brimstone Moth
Muslin Moth
Chinese Character
We then took a short break
before we went to Ketton Quarry for butterflies. It was quite windy when we arrived on site
but there were several sheltered areas within the complex. In the first area we had a Common Carpet and
Common Heath moths and there were several butterflies including Brimstone and a
couple of Green Hairstreaks. We
continued to cover several areas on the reserve and found nine species of
butterfly including both Dingy and Grizzled Skippers, although we only found
one Grizzled. We also had several Orange
Tip, three Common Blue, a Peacock, a Speckled Wood and three Small heath. Brimstone was by far the most common and we
had at least twelve. There were also several
Burnet Companions.
After some lunch we went back
with another guy who showed us where we might find an Adder. There were two pieces of tin on the ground
and he lifted both, the first produced nothing but under the second there was a
female Adder and a Grass Snake. Dave and
I didn’t see the Grass Snake as it shot off as he lifted the tin but the Adder
remained for a short while before moving off more slowly. This was my first Adder in the counties,
although we had looked many times at this site previously. We also had a Red Kite and a Buzzard.
Dingy Skipper
Green Hairsteak
Common Blue
Small Heath
We decided to call at Rutland
Water as Dave still had not seen Little Gull this year and the three
first-summers were still present yesterday.
On arrival we went straight to
lagoon three but there was no sign of the Little Gulls the feeding Common
Terns. There were a few Swifts over the
water and woodland to the north and we also found a couple Hobbies, one hawking
quite low over the water.
Common Tern over lagoon three
We moved to sandpiper hide on
lagoon four we immediately found two of the Little Gulls roosting on one of the
exposed spits. There were also several
waders feeding on another area of exposed mud that included four Sanderling but
as I started scanning further they all flew but came back shortly
afterwards. As I began scanning I
noticed what looked like a small Sanderling but when I got it in the scope on
it I realised that it was a in fact a summer plumaged Little Stint, which is a
good spring record for the counties.
There were also twenty Ringed Plovers and a single Dunlin. There was a Curlew on another
island and six Shelduck also on the lagoon.
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