Friday 25th May 2012 - Captains Pool and Penny Hill Bank

This morning I started the day by popping around to Tony's to check on the moth trap.  I had set it up on his waterside bit of land that he leaves as a wildflower garden.  I am trying to build a list of moths for Captains Pool as it is part of my patch so Tony very kindly lets me run it here (and plies me with the finest hot beverages too!)

On checking the trap I lost 2 macros immediately as the box had already warmed up enough for them to be active.  In the box there were 5 macro moths:  2 Treble Lines, 2 May Highflyer and 1 unidentified.  Also present was a Phryganea grandis Caddis Fly.  This moth like fly is Britain's largest Caddis fly and it's body is almost an inch in length and its antennae about the same length again.

Treble Lines (Charanyca trigrammica)

May Highflyer (Hydriomena impluviata)

Caddis Fly (Phryganea grandis)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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From Captains Pool we headed over to Penny Hill Bank NR near Martley.  Its one of the Worcestershire Wildlife Trusts lesser known reserves and is a wonderfully preserved fragment of Limestone grassland that is rich in wildflowers and insects. Click on below link for more info:

http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/reserves/penny-hill-bank

Whilst we were at Penny Hill there were a variety of butterflies on the wing.  We recorded good 10+ Dingy Skipper, 4 Brown Argus, 3 Common Blue, 1 Orange Tip, 1 Large White, 1 Small White, 1 Small Tortoiseshell and 2 Speckled Wood. 

Also of interest were 4 Burnett Companion moths and a Hairy Shieldbug.  Small numbers of Common Spotted Orchid were in bloom.

In the small pool behind the reserve we saw 2 Great Crested Newts and double figures of Smooth Newt.  A Beautiful Demoiselle damselfly was also present.

Brown Argus

Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)