May Highflyer

An irregular visitor to the garden trap and a species I haven't seen for the last few years this May Highflyer was one of only two moths trapped last night.
Easily overlooked it tends to have a paler panel across the wing with a distinct black dash in it.

May Highflyer

Small Rivulet

An early date for the Small Rivulet, caught in the garden trap last night but the double dark lobe indentations in to the white cross-line are a classic identification feature to separate the Small Rivulet from the larger Rivulet.

Small Rivulet

Dipper fledglings - Chatsworth

Did a tour around Chatsworth this afternoon, there were several fledgling Dipper by the old mill. One landed no more than 2m away, more than filling the camera frame! Came across the pair of Common Sandpiper again at least three male Pied Flycatcher singing and 5 or 6 male Redstart along with the Mandarins noted below.

Dipper fledgling

Mandarin with first ducklings - Chatsworth

After commenting yesterday that I thought most female Mandarin would be on eggs now, I came across my first brood of ducklings on Swiss Lake this afternoon. I saw at least 8 males and 3 females on my walk round Chatsworth.

Mandarin duck and ducklings

Whinchat singing male - Beeley Moor

An early start this morning produced this fine singing male Whinchat near Beeley Triangle. Distant views just before the heavy rain commenced. It's surprising how far the song carries, particularly now the wind has died down a bit.

Whinchat - male

Red Chestnut

The Red Chestnut used to be a regular Spring visitor to the garden moth trap but has become scarcer in recent years to the extent that I did not record it at all last year. This one is rather worn so has probably been on the wing for a while.

Red Chestnut

Wet Hare day

I don't think this Hare was any happier about the weather than I was. It appeared to spend most of the day asleep or at least dozing.

Brown Hare

Lapwing

During a brief sunny spell before lunch I took a few Lapwing photos. The colours on the mantle and wing coverts are striking when they catch the sun.

Lapwing

Mandarin - Chatsworth

Several male Mandarin, but just this one pair on the river at Chatsworth this morning, the majority of females will now be on eggs. They appear to select trees which can be some distance from the river but I have never actually seen a nest. It was 6am and raining when I took the photos at ISO 3200.
A pair of Common Sandpiper and at least two singing male Pied Flycatcher and single male Redstart with the usual Dipper and Grey Wagtail.

Mandarin - male and female

Mandarin - male

Brown Hare boxing

Well, perhaps more playing tag. It really takes two to box I think.

Brown Hare

Poplar Kitten

Simon caught this Poplar Kitten in Darley Dale on Monday night. This is a moth I have never caught in Darley Dale although Simon has caught it in most years in the last decade. Hard to explain why, but I think the most likely explanation is that Simon is about half the distance to the large stand of Poplars planted at the Enthoven works. 
The Poplar Kitten is the rarest of the three Kittens in Derbyshire and Simon's is one of the few locations that traps the moth regularly which could support this theory. This is his earliest record by a couple of weeks.

Poplar Kitten (Simon Roddis)

Green Hairstreak - Big Moor

Met James mid-morning and went across to Big Moor where I finally caught up with Whinchat, a singing male. We also had a couple of Green Hairstreak butterflies which were our first for the year. The Green Hairstreak occupies widely varying habitats; we were on grassland with last years bracken, I can only assume there is Rock-rose or maybe Bird's-foot-trefoil in the area as I couldn't see any other food plants. Very different habitat to the Buckthorn scrub where it is found in the dales.
We had one Common Lizard which I would have loved to photograph it was the same colour  as the hairstreaks.

Green Hairstreak

Wood Warbler - Halldale Wood

A chance encounter with Roger put me on to the first Wood Warbler record of the year which Roger had located earlier in the morning. My favourite of our resident warblers the Wood Warbler has declined dramatically around Darley Dale in the past few years. In the early 2000's I would regularly encounter 5 or 6 singing males in Halldale with a similar number between Darley Dale and Rowsley but last year I recorded none and only had a single bird at Stanton in 2012. 
Hopefully this will be a better year!

Wood Warbler

Brown Hare and dandelions

Early this morning I came across three Brown Hares feeding in this field of dandelions. There is a tendency to think that the walled fields enclose the hares but one of the party showed how easy it is for them to move from field to field.

Brown Hare

Common Newt

James took this Common Newt photo at my pond this evening.

Common Newt