Time for an update with some news of recent sightings around and about Dove Stone. Up at Binn Green plenty going on with regular sightings of Bullfinch, Siskin, Greenfinch, Treecreeper, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Jay and Coal Tit as well as Crossbills earlier in the week. Recent reports of both a Hobby and a Marsh Harrier in neighbouring areas; basically you never know what you're going to see here. Now is also a good time to be keeping an eye out for Osprey going over.
Binn Green gave us some good moths too last week with over 50 species being recorded in just a couple of hours. What's exciting for us is that quite a number of these moths are new species for Dove Stone. Although it's likely that Dove Stone is under-recorded it's also the case that this shows that we have the habitat and the foodplants needed for a good diversity of moths in an upland area. Highlights from the evening included Gold Spangle, Rosy Minor, Gold Spot ( possibly Lempkes. One of the diagnostic features is a more rounded gold / metallic area ), Peppered moth, Oak Eggar, Beautiful Scarce Y, True Lovers Knot and lots of Swallow Prominents.
It's also been quite good for butterflies recently too with both Large &Small Skipper, a rather worn Common Blue, Small Heath, Painted Lady, lots of Green Veined White, Small White and Meadow Browns and a high number of Gatekeepers, particularly around the banks of Yeoman Hey being seen. Also worth watching out for Large Red damselflies both around Yeoman Hey and Greenfield Res as well as around Chew Brook. More soon...