Batman Begins

BTO batman Stuart Newson called the White Nuns into action yesterday evening for something of which the England cricket team are currently incapable, a brilliant few hours of batting. Fascinating stuff it was too, with Stuart ably leading the troops round the Nunnery grounds and down onto the Nunnery Lakes reserve, before we convened in my front room to analyse the results. Five species were recorded to a reasonable level of confidence: Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Brown Long-eared, Daubenton's and the real jewel in the crown, Barbastelle (which had Dave Leech dancing with joy - a sight worth staying up for in itself!):

Stuart has gone beyond the call of duty by not only galvanising us into action and organising the session, but by already producing a preliminary report on what we found!

Whilst all that was going on, late-working Kate Risely had the presence of mind to grab the moth she saw on exiting the building, which turned out to be a very early Garden Carpet.

Quality not quantity

Bucketloads of small brown moths are all well and good, but here at the RSPB we prefer a higher quality of Lepidoptera, such as this rather lovely Early Thorn which was in our trap yesterday.