Mike's Natural Musings: An Excellent Day out at a New Reserve.

Friday, 2 May 2014

An Excellent Day out at a New Reserve.

As Roger and I pulled into the car park we were rewarded with a superb view of a little owl sitting on to of a stack of bales. Needless to say neither of us had a long lens with us. Only a few minutes previously Roger had mentioned that, although it was regularly seen at this spot, he had never been lucky. We were at Hatfield Moors NNR near Bawtry. It was a reserve that I had never visited before and had a good number of adders showing well in February/March. Unfortunately I was unable to get at that time so was keen to make my first visit. Hatfield is part of the Humberhead Peatland complex of reserves and represents the largest area of raised peat bog in lowland Britain. The reserve is in two parts: an area of woodland (largely birch) and lakes and a larger area of peat bog on the edge of which the adders can be found. It was the lakes and associated wooded area that interested us today, though, as this was where the newly emerged large red damselflies were to be found. We had an excellent day of steadily improving weather, although there was always a chill to the air. We found several large reds and also several butterflies were on the wing: green veined white, speckled wood and brimstone. We also managed to find and photograph green and birch sheildbug as well as a couple of yellow-tailed moth caterpillars.

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