Crowle & Thorne Moors NNR.....What A Day!......Saturday 9th June 2018.

An organised meet up with Dave today,primarily for myself to count the Odonata on the Crowle side of the NNR and for Dave to see some Large Heath resulted in one of my best visits to this fantastic area.
 Because of the vast number of species observed and different families involved,i have decided to dedicate a paragraph for each notable species we observed and the other highlights involved.

Birds:

The obvious highlight for us both,was a bit of a frustrating one to be fair,as we had crossed the bailey bridge onto Thorne Moors and after a look on Will Pitts scrape we were heading back towards the bailey bridge when i heard that beautiful,tropical sounding song of a male Golden Oriole.It obviously made me stop dead in my tracks and we listened as it gave four bursts of song before going quiet.Unfortunately,it was on the Crowle side,so we quickly made our way back across the bailey bridge and around to were we had heard the bird,but sadly after spending a good 20 minutes we never heard it again or observed it,what a buggar to put it plainly,but a nice find all the same.
 Other highlights went to at least 2 male Cuckoo,1 on Thorne Moors and 1 near to the car park on Crowle Moors.A single juvvie Willow Tit was also nice on Thorne Moors.

Lepidoptera:

Some really nice examples of this huge family were recorded today on our visit and included a new species for us both in the form of a cracking Scarce Vapourer Moth larvae which Dave found feeding on a Bramble on the edge of Will Pitts Scrape,what a beauty and really nice example of this very rare moth species.Other moths observed included Silver-ground Carpet,several Brown-silver Lines,several Straw Dot,Lesser-cream Wave and two stunning Brown-china Mark.
 The obvious highlight amongst the butterflies included 26 Large Heath which showed nicely and others recorded included 2 cracking Red Admiral and 8 Speckled Wood.

Coleoptera:

Today was a really good day for Longhorn Beetles and we recorded 4 species,with a lifer for us both in the form of a Two-banded Longhorn,which flew in and conveniently landed on me,the other species observed were Four-banded Longhorn,Black-and-yellow Longhorn and Golden-bloomed-grey Longhorn.Other beetle niceities included Harlequin Ladybird,Green-tiger Beetle and Red-headed Cardinal Beetle.

Orthoptera:

One of my fave families of insects and today saw us finding one of my fave species,Bog-bush Cricket.Obviously all individuals encountered were still in the immature nymph stages,but great to see all the same,with us recording at least 12 individuals.The pleasing thing for Dave,was it was another new species,to his already big list of species seen during the day.
 Also observed from this family were several Field Grasshopper nymphs and Common-ground Hopper.

Syrphidae:

A good selection recorded today,as on most visits at this time of year,included a lovely Xylota sylvarum on Thorne Moors with the remainder of species including Sericomyia silentis,Leucozona leucorum,Eupeodes luniger,Eristalis intricarius,Anasymia sp.,Helophilus pendulus,Volucella bombylans and Syritta pipiens.

Odonata: Will be covered on my Dragonfly sightings blog.

Reptiles:

Only one species observed today,but what a beautiful species....Adder.Today we gained some fantastic views,as on our last visit here,but today it was the turn of the girls to show off,with 5 stunning females seen.This included 2 basking together.They certainly rate as one of the most stunning animals i have ever had the privilege of seeing and i have seen hundreds over the years.

Mammals:

Only a couple of highlights today and another new species for Dave,a lovely Doe Red Deer observed browsing in a field near to Will Pitts Scrape.It was nice to see one in the open for a change and she gave some lovely views.The only other highlight, was a lovely Fox watched near to the car park area.

What a cracking day and i look forward to my next visit to this superb area.

Doe Red Deer,Crowle Moor.

Xylota sylvarum,Thorne Moors.

Scarce Vapourer Moth,Thorne Moors.

Female Adder,Crowle Moor.

Look At That Face!,These Beauties Mean Business.

Two-banded Longhorn Beetle Taken With The S8.

Some Fine Habitat On This Fantastic Site.