Plenty of banded demoiselles around this month, nothing out of the ordinary with the regular wildlife present, a trail camera not collected for a few months did have Mandarins on the river, but they were from an earlier month. Several photos of teal on the trail cams. The Oystercatchers have been around a little bit, a goat moth the best of the poor catches from the moth trap.

With the fairly poor mothing conditions mothing has generally been pretty poor, a few nice moths this month include Choristoneura hebenstreitella in the garden, goat moth and reed leopard also of note. The scarce micro moth Aethes deaurana was spotted in Devon, and a day trip to Wiltshire produced some excellent Narrow bordered bee hawkmoths, this month’s moth highlight.

A good month for mammal sightings locally, nice water vole at Fowlmere the highlight but sightings of foxes and several deer species, plenty of local hares and rabbits along with voles and mice.

It was a very early start to get to Woolbeding common as the sun was warming things. It was not long before the first honey buzzard was spotted but it was closer to Southampton than the small group of assembled watchers. But things improved one much closer then a couple of close passovers, showing very nicely. Very happy I headed off.

I headed to Sizewell early doors, popping into see the Ochreleuca Early Marsh orchids, not as good a show as previous years. The Southern marsh orchids starting to flower as well. At the coast it was warm and sunny nothing of note but a few ladybirds spotted including a nice cream streaked. I gradually worked my way back inland stopping at a couple new sites looking mainly for ladybirds. Plenty of the common species but nothing of note. I popped into Weeting but the Stone curlews nest had been predated and seem to have departed. Several common curlews were present amongst the lapwings but not much else. I popped into see the Military orchids and then one more site for ladybirds which produced a nice red headed ladybird and I called it a day.

I made it to a rather windy Monk Wood reserve in Worcestershire, the sun was just hitting the rides but the wind was making things difficuly. Even though the wood whites were everywhere, but I was after the drab looper. I had one wizz past in the wind, and as I was trying to photograph a beautiful demoiselle one landed right in front of me and I got a few photos before it blew away in the wind, I had some lekking yellow barred longhorn moths in a sheltered spot. I spent the rest of the morning looking for Dicranocephalus medius and ladybirds in the Wyre forest, I had no luck but managed to find a mating pair of 14 spot ladybirds. The highlights were a club tailed dragonfly and an Alabonia geoffrella moth.

I was in Devon first thing to search for boat bug, I tried Hopes Nose but despite an extensive search I could not locate any. I did find Dock bug, meadow ladybird, a painted lady and 16 spot ladybird. I moved to Dawlish Warren to look for Aethes deaurana, it only took a few minutes to locate one in the car park. I took a walk round and managed to find a nice cirl bunting. An ice cream finished the morning and I headed off as I had other non wildlife things to do.

I picked up James Hunter and we headed to Hampshire, first stop awesome orchids, an excellent display of sword leaved helleborine, with a supporting cast of white helleborine and birds nest orchids. Next stop was for Heath Spotted Orchid var concolor which was located after a brief search. But the main event was stil to come on Salisbuty Plain. A wall brown was quickly spotted, then several marsh fritillaries. It was not long before we located a Narrow bordered bee hawkmoth our main target and eventually one showered very well for photos. With news of the Hudsonian Godwit not too far away we headed off, but made a quick stop to locate some Mat grass fescue. At Titchfiled Haven the Hudsonian Godwit was quickly located and showed well if a little distant. Mid afternoon we made it to Oaken wood where we had plenty of wood whites to finish the day.

With good weather Andrew Jewels and I headed to Sussex. The Coombe Valley seems to have an established population of 13 spot ladybirds, and after several failed attempts both jointly and on our own we were keen for another try. The 3 hour session in the valley was very productive with some nice beautiful demosilles, painted lady and small tortoiseshell. We had plenty of ladybirds, spotted marsh ladybird, a few water ladybirds, meadow ladybird, 7, 14, 16 and 22 spot ladybirds and harlequin ladybirds all seen during our search. Eventually Andrew spotted a 13-spot ladybird and after a photoshoot we headed back to the car for lunch. We tried another spot but the habitat was not suitable so we finished in Sussex and headed back to the Lee Valley, here we took a look at a couple of sites finding several striped shieldbugs as well as arboreal and ivy ladybirds. Finishing off an excellent insect day.

With poor views of the spotted sandpiper on Friday night, I popped back to Grafham water for another look. Its was showing on arrival if a little distant walking away from me down the shore so I moved well infront of it and waited. I had it all to myself as it gradually came closer, another birder arrived who clearly could not see the bird I gestured may times but he did not see me or the bird and he flushed it just as it was getting to the perfect range for photos! I mentioned poor fieldcraft and the birder left and I started the process again this time no one flushed the bird and I got great views without disturbing the bird. Another birder arrived and I got him on the bird and I headed home.

An early start, I headed to Fowlmere RSPB on the way rabbit and roe deer were spotted. Brown hare and fallow deer were viewed from the approach road. In the reserve I quickly spotted a muntjac but the water voles took a lot more effort to find and one even posed for photographs. The mammal traps in the village only held wood mice, a grey squirrel nearby made 8 mammal species before 8am. I headed to Kent where James Hunter and I set off for a day out, our plan was mainly for orchids with 6 species seen in flower which is good for this early in the season. The nice weather had brought out the butterflies again 6 species including some very fresh Duke of Burgundy including one interesting aberrant individual. We popped into Canterbury but there was no sign of any Beavers. After some chips we headed to a small woodland pond where after a lot of waiting and searching we found some Alpine newts along with some Palmate newts/b>. A red fox made it 10 mammals for the day.

Chips – Sealand Fish Bar, Canterbury - Battered Sausage, Chips and Mushy peas - 7/10