Trip reports
Greenfield Valley - birds & butterflies
Saturday, 19 July 2008
We quickly saw probably the last of the swifts for this year, together with house martins and a perched grey heron on one of the pools. Little grebe, mute swans black-headed gulls and mallard were on the next pool and then after some searching we were rewarded to two or three fleeting glimpses of the dipper and also the grey wagtails. The group took a look at Basingwerk Abbey ruins and jackdaws were next viewed together with a feeding flock of long-tailed tits.
Then as we progressed up the valley, with intermittent rain and very occasionally sun, nuthatch and goldcrest were observed and further up the valley a speckled wood butterfly was flying and was recorded by some of the group. As we made our way through the Battery pool area, a large white butterfly was fluttering by and on the adjoining pool a pair of Mute Swans with a Cygnet were seen. Whilst the group watched a pair of grey wagtails, Sue detached herself from the group to look for any butterflies that might be about and, albeit it was cold windy with occasional rain, she returned to say she had seen meadow brown, gatekeeper and two small skippers.
The group then went to the area that Sue had seen the butterflies and we succeeded in recording gatekeeper and small Skipper. When we returned to the car park, Rob called us over as he had a moth in his car - it turned to be a silver Y moth, which we released.
All in all, during the morning, 26 species of birds, 5 species of butterflies and a moth were seen and the target bird for the day, the Dipper, was seen. Given the weather conditions, a very successful trip was enjoyed by all who attended.
BR and SR