Crowle And Thorne Moors NNR,Monday 27th April 2015.

With some continued sunny weather Trace and myself travelled over to this superb NNR primarily to see if we could find and record any Odonata(See here http://www.LincolnshireOdes.blogspot.com ),but also to record any other interesting sightings as well.
 After a mini picnic it was onto the NNR and to be fair today birds took a back seat with a few summer migrants logged and a pair of Common Buzzard seen and it was insects that came to the fore.
 The first highlight was a new species of Ground Beetle for us both,Carabus granulatus and is a fairly large species with its distinctive ridged and pitted elytra and mettalic sheen...a cracker.Also noticeable today was the abundance of Green-tiger Beetles,with at least 100 individuals seen as they escaped us with that distinct short flight.They seemed to be on every open sandy part of the reserve we visited and are fantastic mini predators and those jaws!.
 There were quite a lot of butterflies on the wing today with Peacocks being the most common encountered species with at least 35 logged,but some nice variety also came in the form of Comma,Speckled Wood,Green-veined White,Small Tortoiseshell and a female Brimstone.
 Some nice species of Syrphidae were also recorded and included the very smart Sericomyia lappona and also a very brief Chrysotoxum sp. which i didn't see well enough to ID it properly.
 A very brief sighting of a female Red Deer added some variety to the days sightings logged and there were tracks all over the reserve where these large animals had walked,but no other mammals were observed on our visit today.
 A very productive visit today,with some interesting sightings logged,i'm sure it won't be long before we are back again.

Ground-beetle sp. - Carabus granulatus.

Hoverfly Sp. - Sericomyia lappona.

Tachinid Fly - Tachina ursina.

Harestail Cotton Grass.