The moth trap help 29 species, nothing rare but a few nice moths dusky brocade, buff arches, burnished brass of note. I headed for home via a couple of stops both looking for small flowered wintercress I drew a blank in Yorkshire in an extensive search at Figham Pastures and at Mountsorrel Marshes in Leicestershire but I did find some tufted sedge before heading to Bedford Purlieus, here a wander round produced some pale sedge.

I started the day at the Wykeham raptor viewpoint, a cracking goshawk was the highlight but we also saw kestrel, red kites and common buzzards along with some nice crossbills. I headed to Bempton just as news of the albatross’s return, perfect timing and it showed well flying round one of the viewpoints several times. I had a good wander to see the rest of the seabirds before having a cold drink and ice cream and headed for the accomodation.

I headed to Ribbleshead arriving in glorious weather, here at a little reserve I was looking for northern spike rush, it grew in the damp areas of the reserve and plenty of it was found. chimney sweeper moths a nice selection of orchids and Ribbleshead hawkweed also of note. I did some touristy things, popped in to see thistle broomrape then travelled to Wykeham raptor viewpoint for a few hours but saw nothing but buzzards and siskins. So I headed to Robin Hood's Bay where I was based for a couple of nights.

I ran the moth traps at work quite a nice haul 48 species with lilac beauty, dotted footman and blackneck of note but the star was a goat moth my second in a few days.

With Moth traps running in my nature reserve and in the garden on what was a very warm night produced a good haul, 90 species in the nature reserve, and 60 at home. The pic of the home traps was the lackey and the pick of the nature reserve traps was rosy footman, v moth, silky wainscot, Chilo phragmitella.

After the drive back from Wales I attended the BSBI and LNHS meeting at Staines Moor, conditions were good and we had a nice walk although one lath was overgrown and we had to find an alternative route. Several nice plants including field pennycress, pink water speedwell along with lots of hybrids but the highlight was a nice patch of Bristle club rush.

I left work early afternoon and made a stop at Daneway Banks I was after cut leaved selfheal I coul dnot find the classic white flowers but I did spot a pale lilac flowered candidate, or it could be a hybrid, I will investigate further. It was incredibly hot and the butterflies were moving very quickly but I did see a large blue during my search along with a common lizard and slow worm. I headed into Wales for some chips then headed into the Wye Valley. Here I was to meet James Hunter for some moth trapping, this site has some really scarce moths so with good conditions we were hopefull. Two other moth trappers were present and they were very helpful and we shared sightings during the evening. The moth catch was excellent with well over 100 species in our traps and 150 counted by our counterparts. The catch included some nice moths Blomer's Rivulet, Dusky Plume, Least Black Arches, Rosy Footman, Ruddy Carpet, Red necked Footman and some real rare moths Oecophora bractella, Dichomeris ustalella, Scarce Hook-tip . A top moth night.

Chips - Kibby's, Chepstow – Hot Dog and chips – 6.5/10

With Moth traps running in my nature reserve and in the garden on what was a very warm night produced a good haul, 90 species in the nature reserve, and 60 at home. The pic of the home traps was the lackey and the pick of the nature reserve traps was rosy footman, v moth, silky wainscot, Chilo phragmitella.

I feed the badgers, foxes, muntjac and hedgehogs in my garden every night but tonight I was still in the garden when the first badger turned up and it was still light enough to use the camera at high ISO with no flash although grainy I got some nice photos. The first badger is pretty tolerant of me and I had ages watching her feed. Fully fed she deaparted and I put some more food down and one of the other badgers turned up and I managed a couple of photos before leaving it in peace.

I headed for the Sefton Coast, first stop Crosby was for Dune Wormwood and Slender Spike-rush both located fairly easily before heading to Ainsdale. Here the extensive dune system took a bit of searching for my target species, the first sharp club rush round a pond and eventually in the saltmarsh saltmarsh flat sedge. The last site was extremely dry all the plants were struggling and I only found one rather shrivelled plant of Long Bracted sedge and a few rather poorly looking bristle club rush plants.

I had a few things to do in Wales so I planned a visit to Porthmadog, low tide was lunchtime so I headed onto the saltmarsh a littel in advance and a low tide I was in position and found plenty of welsh mudwort in the mud on the edge of the receding water, time was short and I took my photos as the water started to rise again and I left the saltmarsh. I drove into Cheshire got some chips and headed to Flaxmere a small nature reserve picked at random to do some moth trapping (I had secured a permit last minute) conditions were Ok, quite windy but reasonably mild otherwise. I ran the traps all night the total was 72 species, nothing rare but some nice species true lovers knot, ghost moth, small angle shades, peach blossom, clouded buff, small fanfoot, brown silver lines the highlights.

Chips - Oh my Cod, Frodsham – Cheese onion fryit and Chips – 6.5/10

I met up the Andrew Jewels for a few hours of ladybird searching, out first site was pretty quite a gorse shieldbug the highlight cream spotted, 14 spot, adonis the ladybirds but the best find was a Cylindrical Sinodendron an awesome looking beetle. We tried a different site and had much more sucess with a nice selection of ladybirds eyed, striped, pine, harlequin, 7 spot, Rhyzobius litura and the pick a red marsh ladybird. Corn spurrey was noted growing along the path along with some common fiddleneck.

I was following up on some info about on slender Tufted sedge and small flowered wintercress but an extensive search for both proved fruitless, I did have a nice muntjac. I headed for home via a roadside nature reserve where a good display of crested cow wheat was in full bloom along with a few sulphur clover plants.

I was following up on some info about Black grass actually on my commute to work. So on the way home I took a walk and easily found a large patch of black grass along with a nice selection of other arable weeks. Plenty of butterflies and a few moths along the way as well.

I took an afternoon trip into Suffolk to a small fen land nature reserve, here gorws a rare orchid, Early Marsh Orchid form ochroleuca and they are doing well with almost 30 in pristine condition along with a scattering of other orchids. I stumbled across a field full of ox-eye dasies and another full of poppies and Phacelia in full bloom.

I met James Hunter and Alan Lewis in the Brecks, our target was grey carpet a very elusive moth. Our first site we quickly located one despite the strong breeze. Our second site drew a blank but nearby a site had a few, all very happy we started on some botany. A very nice selection of plants were encountered on our tour round the brecks. tower mustard, tall rocket, flixweed, field mouse ear, wall bedstraw, breckland wormwood, small alison, slender sandwort, sand catchfly, annual knawel, perenial knawel, hoary cinquefoil, russian cinqefoil, maiden's pink, blue fescue, purple milk vetch, smooth rupturewort the highlights. It was time forr chips before heading to our Breckland moth trapping site. Conditions were sub optimal but we had a great night with over 90 species, varied coronet, Pale shouldered brocade, Green Oak Tortrix, Fox moth, clouded buff, Small Scabious Plume, Cream Spot tiger, lobster moth, rosy marbled and blackneck the highlights. We just got the start of the heavy rain as we packed up in the early hours.

The moth traps only held a few species, (the temperature rapidly dropped overnight) the pick horse chestnut and fox moth. I headed into Dorset and at a nice downland reserve, here I found the cracking wood tiger moth along with Alabonia geoffrella. The only other wildlife interest was a stop in Hampshire for Bulbous foxtail also mudwort, blue water speedwell and a few other plants. Pretty tired I headed home after a quick nap.

I headed to Cornwall overnight my first stop was the Lizard where I had one target twin headed clover I tried two spots and after a long search found it (only single headed due to the recent drought). Plenty of other nice plants in the area thyme broomrape, fringed rupturewort, rosy garlic. I was unsucessful searching for Cornish Moneywort and I cracked my head on a sharp tree beanch cutting my head open as well as giving it a massive knock. Sennen was busy but I found some quiet areas in the dunes with Lady's bedstraw and after 1.5 hours searching I found a cornish shieldbug. I had plenty of time so made a couple of stops for sand cat's tail, creeping forget me not, large quaking grass and an ice cream. I headed across Dartmoor for Ponies another ice cream, grabbed some chips in Exmouth , threw some moth traps down and totally exhausted got some sleep.

Chips - Krispies, Exmouth – Battered Sausage, cheese bites, Chips (battered) and pea fritter – 9/10

I popped to see the Suffolk Small Flowered Tongue Orchid after work, it was in lovely condition and well worth the effort to visit.