Micro moth and more on the after work doorstep

Well after the washout that was Sunday, I was feeling somewhat short changed about my time in the field at the weekend.. On Monday evening the weather held off enough for an hour on a somewhat soggy and tree littered local patch walk. It was all pretty fruitless and dull, til just near the end of my wooded section I spotted my first Green Veined White Butterfly of the year. It was obviously freshly emerged and wandering what the hell was happening as it was meant to be the end of April.

Green Veined White

Tuesday was another yukky day but news of a Male Whinchat 10 minutes up the road from home ensured an after work 'twitch' to a nearby Sheep field. The Whinchat was a great looking bird, I had only seen females previously so I was well chuffed. The poor light ,rain and distance meant I could only get a crappy record shot, but it looked great in the scope.

Duff record shot male Whinchat (needs a click ! )

It scooted around with a nice male Wheatear, and 2 Curlew of vastly different size occupied the same field, but the idea of a cheeky  Whimbrel was ruled out. Also during the observations, a Peregrine flew by and settled on a nearby pylon.

On Wednesday I only had about 30 mins spare but was determined to get out and see SOMETHING. I decided to walk some set aside on my local patch , as the temperature had upped quite a bit and I was thinking about butterfly possibilities.  There was a lot of invertebrate activity, a discernible increase to that on Monday. I happened upon my first 14 Spot Ladybird of the year, and got a handful of stings trying to photograph it. Also on the nettles were a few Weevils, including a couple having a bonk.  An emergence of St Marks Flies had occurred too.However what caught my eye was a tiny moth like creature that flitted by and settled on a blade of grass. It's little wings seemed to glisten a bronze colour, and it's antennae seemed ridiculously long. By coincidence I had succumbed that morning and pre ordered the new book on British Micro Moths, it's impossible to resist their charm, daunting as they seem at this point. I managed to get a few shots for an attempt at ID later.This was further helped by a local moth expert Patrick C the next day ( thanks go to him)

Adela reamurella

I will add the Weevil and Ladybird pics to my Flickr soon