It was a good month for moths in the reserve Rose plume of note a very scarce moth locally. Others of note bordered beaty, V moth, tree lichen beauty, reed leopard, kent black arches, old lady and Evergestis limbata. Bird wise the young kestrels are flying about making a lot of noise and the green woodpecker absent for a while have returned with young. Roe deer are now very regular in the reserve which is new and an otter was caught on one of the camera traps in the heart of the reserve away from the river.

It was a good month for mammals some brilliant red squirrels in Aberfeldy, plenty of red and roe deer encounters in Scotland, Kashmir goats on the Great Orme and locally lots of rabbits and hares and a black rabbit in Scotland.

Despite the poor weather I have tried mothing and have got soaked several times, I have had some success Two new sites in the Brecks have been successful with 170 species at one site including white colon which was new for me and the usual special moths Tawny wave, goat moth, Lunar yellow underwing, marbled clover. A wet lakes produced Bordered grey and netted carpets and Scotland Saxon, Gold spangle, pretty pinion, Pint tree lappet, beautiful brocade, scarce silver y. My Garden was not particularly productive toadflax brocade the only moth of note.

After a week at home after damaging my wrist I was keen to get out so I headed out to Kent. It was a late start arriving at Oare early afternoon where the Bonaparte's gull was showing on the shore and I managed a few photos between the heavy showers. The sun almost came out but it was enough to get the local wall lizards to poke their heads out of the wall. Next stop was Ashford where some building land had annual beard grass which I had somehow never managed to see before so it was good to catch up with it. The site also held a large number of alien plants tree spinach, sunflower, Amaranth sp, black nightshade. I ran some moth traps in a woodland but conditions were very windy so the moth count was lower than expected and not a great deal of note Bisigna procerella, oak eggar, Oncocera semirubella and tawny-barred angle nigrofulvata the highlights.

I sat outside a café in Aberfeldy enjoying the sunshine while I had breakfast, then I headed to Cluny House Gardens. The gardens are lovely but my visit was to see the red squirrels there were plenty in the gardens including some inquisitive youngsters. There was plenty of activity near the feeders along with a nice selection of garden birds. but it was time to head home.

Chips – Coull’s Fish and Chips, Bewick – Haggis and Chips 8/10

Conditions were not too bad as I joined the BSBI Grasses, Sedges and Rushes trip to Ben Lawers, we drove up a track and parked to save some of the long walk in and began the walk which quickly became very steep, but we started to see a nice selection of Grasses, Sedges and Rushes. We made it to the top of Meall Garbh for a late lunch before a bit of a detour down the other side for the first real speciality Close headed alpine sedge with a bonus twin flowered rush but it was worth the effort. I was pretty tired by this point but fortunately it was mostly downhill from this point onwards. The next speciality was Scorched Alpine sedge and then a large flush full of Bristle sedge. The walk was pretty tiring but excellent, I learnt a lot and saw a lot of sedges (20 in total along with 10 rushes and 10 grasses). I was pretty tired but managed to take a wander to see Alpine campion on the other side of Ben Lawers. It was time for food then I set up the moth traps – it got quite cool, so the haul was not great, highlights were green arches, gold spangle, Scarce silver Y.

I had permission to trap at Meathop Moss (with battery traps only to prevent disturbance to nesting birds), the weather was not helpful, it was fine setting up, but the rain arrived and I got pretty wet. But I did catch some moths – Obliqued carpet, Rhyacionia pinicolana, garden carpet but a Bordered grey was the highlight. The rest of the day was a bit of a washout I managed to find touch me not balsam but only 2 in flower. I set up the moth traps in pouring rain, but it was worth the effort as shortly after dark I had a few netted carpets on the outside of the traps, there was little else and I packed up and headed for Scotland.

Chips – Sea Breeze Fish Bar, Dalton in Furness - Sausage and Chips – 7.5/10

It was a very early start and I drove through a misty East Anglia to Horsey for first light, Horsey was even more misty than my journey but despite this someone picked up a white distant shape in a bush which then flew, at least the Black winged kite was still there. Eventually the mist cleared, and the assembled group watched it preen in a tree in what was now perfect conditions although it was a little distant. I got a few record shots, before heading to work.

Once again I did some touristy stuff in the terrible conditions. I did manage to see tall sea lavender and some Kashmir goats on the Great Orme once the rain eased. I had an ice cream that almost blew away, then some fish and chips and headed home through the pouring rain. – A tough couple of days.

Chips - Nana's Fish & Chips, llandudno - Fish and Chips - 7.5/10

I arrived in South Wales to horrendous weather so did not try to see some of the sea lavender’s and instead did some touristy things. Eventually the weather broke, and it was dry enough to see some plants and the Irish ladies tresses were on the agenda. Just slightly past their best so nice to see so many as I had only ever seen a handful in Ardnamurchan before. I had seen Tuberous thistle before but only in its desiccated state, there was no chance of that today as I dodged the showers to see it although hard to photograph in the very windy conditions. Time for chips then I risked some moth traps just two battery traps in the most sheltered spot I could find on the coast path. It was incredibly windy, but the rain held off. I had some sleep with the alarm set for 3.30 to check the traps. It was about 30 mins to late at about 3.15 the heavens opened, and I got soaked rescuing the traps and about 5 moths who braved the conditions.

Chips - Yallops Fish & Chips Mumbles - Fish and Chips - 7.5/10

I headed to the Brecks for the evening, the Breckland birthwort was well over flowering but the Perennial knawel was flowering nicely. After some chips it was off to a new site to moth trap. It started to rain heavily as I was setting up but it passed and the night conditions were a little breeze but warm. It was busy in the moth traps with a good selection of some of the Breckland specialities tawny wave, oblique striped, Dewick’s plusia but the highlight was a goat moth, a purring turtle dove assisted me in clearing up as the sun rose.

The car was still struggling but I made it to Perth via Meikleour for a look at the famous beech hedge. The banks of the River Tay hold a mass of introduced exotic plants cone flower, cabbage thistle, Krauss's Clubmoss, several bellflowers. The car issue was possibly resolved with some stuff from Halfords but I decided to head South just in case.

The weather improved a little but not enough to go high up on the hills for day flying moths, so I stayed low down until the afternoon. I saw some twinflower, one flowered wintergreen but had no luck with dragonflies in the rather windy weather. I headed to Loch Garten for a quick look at the Osprey before heading up Cairngorm for a walk. It was extremely windy, but I found a few plants before retreating just before the rain came. I had some car issues, Diesel particulate filter not working, I made it for some food then headed to my moth trapping site. The rain held off and I had a reasonable catch Saxon, pretty pinion, gold spangle the highlights.

I drove up overnight to Glenshee for the wildflower society meeting, we split into two groups one staying in the valley and one going high up. I headed up my target plant being a high-altitude specialist. We encountered the recently discovered Nordic moonwort at a new site followed by frog orchids, several clubmosses, lesser twayblade, starry saxifrage, yellow mountain saxifrage. A few mountain hares, a red grouse family and a large herd of red deer were of interest before we stopped for lunch high up at a spot with a cracking view. We continued up where a large stand of mountain bog sedge my target was growing; it was much nicer than I expected and it had the added bonus of Alpine cats tail growing nearby. The weather was now pretty poor, very wet and poor visibility, a couple of people went down the gulley so see some more alpine plants, I had seen them before so joined a group going back over Glas Mol to the cars. I drove to Beauly to join the Forestry research Pine Tree Lappet survey which still went ahead despite the terrible rain. There were more than a dozen stations 500m apart for trapping and I was assigned two to look after. Despite the heavy rain there was quite a lot of moth activity highlight were Lemsky’s gold spot, Grey Arches, Green Arches, Beautiful brocade. I did not catch a pine tree lappet but some were caught at other traps and I had a look at a couple during the night. It was a friendly group and I enjoyed the night.

After a nap I headed to Daneway banks for cut leaved selfheal which I had missed here last year but I was luckier this year with a plant in flower. A quick search for large blues in amongst the clouds of marbled whites was successful and I headed for home and some sleep.

I was in Plymouth at first light where the Plymouth thistle had not coped well with the recent hot dry weather and was mostly burn to a crisp. So I headed into Cornwall, the first site for Cornish moneywort near Bodmin I found the spot and it was plentiful but not quite in flower just a few buds, there was some nice Lesser skullcap present as well. I headed down to Porthgwarra where after a bit of a search I found the Perennial Centaury. A couple of choughs were about one showing well for photos but a painted lady was more elusive in the strong wind. Last stop was at Rosenannon moor for many stalked spike rush before I headed North, I got some chips and met Alan Lewis in the Black Mountains. Conditions were poor, cold and incredibly windy - our task to moth trap high up on the very steep hillside was not easy but we got some traps in the sheltered gullies but the Silurian did not grace our traps so all our hard work went unrewarded. Moths of note were Oak eggar and Aphelia viburnana.

Chips – Mardy Traditional Fish And Chips – Sausage and Chips 8.5/10