Another Burnet Companion

Heysham Obs
Birds
Singing male Coal Tit and two juvenile Bullfinch on reserve circuit missing out the reedbed area.

Insects
A fresh Burnet Companion moth along with (?the) Silver Y and a Cinnabar along the reserve entrance slope.  Butterflies comprised Large Skipper, Small Heath, Speckled Wood and plenty of Common Blue in windy conditions

Plants
Quite a few Bee Orchid near the classroom on the flat 'upland' area and Common Spotted Orchid starting to come out

Midnight mothing but little else

Heysham Obs
Sorry about the lack of coverage - there are just a lot of things going on at the moment, not the least nestboxes to check in other areas, holidays in Scandinavia and work!

Moths
A session at Middleton NR produced two of the local speciality Silver Hook, along with the first two Double Dart of the year - this species is still common here (mainly via the hut trap) despite falling by the wayside in most of the rest of the country.  The first Silver Y of the year was photographed on HNR by Janet on 12/6/12.  Thanks for this, Janet:

Ringing recovery

   Lesser Redpoll

   L458922           3                  15.10.11                                              Sandwich Bay (Kent)

   Controlled         5                  02.05.12                                              Heysham 423 km

I wonder how far to the south this bird wintered as it was presumably still on autumn passage at Sandwich.  We await one from France with a genuine 'wild bird ring', but unfortunately the presumed French-ringed cagebird also caught this spring has proved to be untraceable