Butterflies and Others

Young water vole.

Tortoiseshell butterfly above: Silver Studded Blue below, and Speckled Wood below that.

Discarded grass snake skin.

Swimming mole! This was a big surprise.

Wildflower meadow containing many butterflies, including this Marbled White. Also a Burnet moth.

Scorpion fly clearing up a dead bee.

Red Admiral butterfly.

 Elephant hawk moth

 Gatekeeper

 Common shrew

 Baby grass snake (Brown Moss)

Swallows

I am really struggling to get more than swift glimpses of water voles at the moment. They seem very shy, so whether this means numbers are down on their usual August peak, or whether there's a predator about, I don't know. So the best I can give you this week is a misty video clip, caught by using a trail cam.

Winding Down, with Adders

Above, droppings, and below, very clear water vole prints.

I've been to the brook several times this last week and seen nothing, though the voles are definitely around - there are as many prints and droppings as ever. I know from past years this is a usual pattern, though, and sightings-wise, I probably won't get much now till next spring.

Still, it's been a cracking year for wildlife here, with good numbers of water vole signs around the usual sites, plenty of hedgehogs, and for the first time in my life I've seen slow worms and adders. The slow worms were in Ravenscar, but the adders were over in Staffordshire, just over the border. I had a guide with me as I wouldn't have known where to look, and he showed me and my son the right spots where snakes like to bask. We were privileged to find two individual females, plus several common lizards including this dark juvenile (apparently young common lizards are nearly black).

Also saw my first holly blue butterfly, my first drinker moth, my first sexton beetle and my first tiger beetle. None of these is rare, but it's nice when you get a personal first.

Back at Wybunbury

 Vole from Edgeley Road.

 Grass snake - one of two on Wybunbury Moss last week.

Large Red damselfly, also from the Moss.

Fantastic day's wildlife spotting

Water voles from Edgeley Road

Below, photos from a morning at Wybunbury Moss reserve

Sundew

Eyed hawk moth? emerging from its pupa.

Two common lizards. We saw five altogether. 

Beautiful grass snake.

And finally, a water vole tries to steal my bag: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZoG1qrvtWo&list=UUnxzCfi9DQN0pH40VIkLeGg&index=1&feature=plcp