Monday 5th May 2014 - Penny Hill Bank NR

Bank Holiday Monday's are a nightmare for traffic around Kidderminster (especially when it's sunny) as half the population of South Birmingham and the Black Country seem to head out to the Safari Park, Stourport on Severn and Bewdley next the Sea.  Needless to say this can cause some serious bottlenecks in the local area and it's because of this that I usually head out further south into Worcestershire away from the hordes.  Today was no exception and I headed to Penny Hill Bank Nature Reserve near Martley.

On arriving at the reserve I bumped into fellow blogger (and top local wildlife artist) Phil Mumby (http://www.philmumby.blogspot.co.uk/).  Accompanying Phil were his Dad & young daughter. I have to say it's great to see younger generations being encouraged to look at nature.  We stopped and nattered for a while (as you do) and Phil showed me where he had found a rather fetching ♀ Common Newt at rest.  Next to the newt was an equally stunning Glossy Glass Snail.   Also of interest was a Slow Worm that we found under one of the inspection sheets.




♀ Common Newt (Lissotriton vulgaris) & Glossy Glass Snail (Oxychilus navarricus)











After a while we parted ways and I continued my mooch around the site.  On the reserve itself there were good numbers of Greater Butterfly Orchid starting to show, although they were still only in bud.  An Early Mining Bee and a small number of Adela reaumurella longhorn moths were also noted on the reserve. A Noon Fly (Mesembrina meridiana) was also observed

Early Mining Bee (Andrena haemorrhoa)

Adela reaumurella (♀)

I then decided to walk part of the footpath above the reserve that runs next to the former landfill site.  This was the most productive area in terms of the butterflies with good numbers of Dingy Skipper on the wing. Three Green Hairstreaks were also recorded although none of them wanted to play ball and have their photo taken...ah well!  

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)