Monkwood and Grimley..29th June

Today myself and JK took the road to Monkwood Nature Reserve, jointly owned by Butterfly Conservation and Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. I was hoping to see my first White Admiral, and generally get the lie of the land there. With JK and his 'mobile library' safely on board we headed a few miles down the road.
It was a pretty breezy day, not exactly ideal for the inverts to come out to play, but on the plus side it proved to keep the ones that like to bite chunks out of you down to a minimum. After application of large amounts of DEET, we ventured off into the wood. A Ringlet was soon noted, which was at least encouraging that there may be something on the wing, assuming it had survived the storm of the previous day.
As it happened, within a few more yards JK spotted a resting White Admiral, which hung around just long enough for a nice look, and a quick record shot. In the bag ! so we turned around and went home.

White Admiral

Of course we didn't ! Moving on, we noted Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Large Skippers too. There were also several Silver Y moths flitting about, which was another lifer for me, but they are such restless critters, a picture proved impossible today.
However a moth was then spotted that neither myself nor JK could put a name to off the top of our heads, although we recognised its markings. I tried for a while, without success to get a record shot before a second specimen appeared that was both less worn and more sedate. It was an absolute stunner. When we eventually reurned to the car later on, the 'mobile library' was visited and it's identity revealed as Blood-vein Moth

Blood-vein Moth

Over the next couple of hours we visited the Pools in the wood ( to see what Dragonflies were about ) and the 'Green' down the lane hoping to see Marbled White butterflies.
There were 2 main highlights at the Pool. One was watching a couple of male Broad Bodied Chaser's zipping aound, presumably contesting the favours of the single female. A year first was also encountered in the form of a Teneral Common Darter.
I have had a great year with the Dragonflies this year, having also observed my first Emperor of the year 24 hours earlier, a male at Hill ditch.
At the 'Green' I added two Burnet moths, Six Spot and Narrow Bordered Five Spot to my year list but the breez and light rain prevented further pics.
After drinks and a cob, we relocated to Grimley New Workings. Within a couple of minutes I had a surprise second encounter with Red-veined Darter , which I had previously seen and photographed on the 4th June
A Hobby turned up and gave a great display and excellent views for a few minutes..my best birding moment for several weeks !
There had been a decent emergence of both Black- tailed Skimmers and Common Darters on the site, and I was somewhat taken with the rufescens Blue-tailed Damselflies but again conditions would not allow a pic.
A great day out, with some real quality species encountered..I'll leave a shot of Red-veined Darter from my earlier encounter to finish.

Red-Veined Darter, Grimley, 4th June 2012