After a week of rain, today was cloudy and damp under foot, but also quite still and moderately warm.
The birding was predictably quiet, with many of the regulars feeding fledglings, and the Little Owl showing in its oak tree. The only signs of the turning year were about four returning Teal, and a fly-over Starling. The pool and flashes are so full of water that not a single wader was present.
Despite the cloudy conditions there were plenty of insects about.
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| Speckled Wood |
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| Meadow Brown |
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| Large Skipper |
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| An Ichneumon wasp probably Ophion scutellaris |
Many of the flower heads of umbellifers are often packed with insects, such as the ichneumon wasp shown above and a rather unassuming noctuid moth which I photographed with the intention of working it out later. I find moths really difficult, but after much deliberation I am reasonably sure that this little critter;
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| mystery moth |
is a Middle-barred Minor. This is new to me, assuming I have got it right, but to be fair my personal moth list largely comprises the thirty or so species which have made it through our bathroom window.
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