A Stoat was hunting Rats which have tunneled into the manure heaps on the fields near Rindle woods. It caught a large rat which it dragged off towards the drainage ditch.

Numerous Winter Moths flying around this evening on Irlam Moss

Little Woolden Moss

1 Stoat along the track near the eastern entrance of the reserve with a dead vole or mouse in its mouth. It then saw me and disappeared into the grass verge only to reappear a minute later without its prey. It continued to hunt reappearing and disappearing a few times. Do Stoats stash their prey and return for it later?

Also, it was noticeably white along half its tail and pale around its face as though in partial moult towards a white winter coat.

Little Woolden Moss 09.45-15.00

Butterflies : Peacocks and Gatekeepers abundant. Also 8 Red Admirals, 7 Painted Ladies,

6 Small Copper, 8 Speckled Woods, 1 Small Skipper, 1 Large Skipper, 1 Comma, 1 Holly Blue,

3 Green Veined Whites, 4 Small Tortoiseshell and just 1 Meadow Brown.

Dragonflies : 1 Emperor, 7 Brown Hawkers, 1 Southern Hawker, 4 Common Hawkers (Including

coupled pair), 9 Black Darters and 4 Common Darters.

Lots of hawkers were flying over the pools, and were impossible to ID as they did'nt settle or come

close enough, most appeared around the size of Common Hawkers, but a couple were noticeably

smaller and could well have been early Migrants.

Lots of Clegs about too, they were really persistent and not deterred by insect repellent.

Lots of insects present on Little Woolden Moss today.

Butterflies: small copper, gatekeeper, skipper sp., meadow brown, small white, large white, speckled wood, painted lady, small tortoiseshell, peacock.

Odonata: common blue damselfly, emerald damselfly, banded demoiselle, black darter, common darter, four-spot chaser, southern hawker, common hawker, brown hawker, emperor.

Chat Moss - late morning

Butterflies:
8 Small Skipper
4 Painted Lady
3 Gatekeeper
2 Red Admiral
2 Large White
6 Meadow Brown

Huge numbers (literally hundreds!) of Cinnabar moth caterpillars on Ragwort. Easily the most Ive ever seen. 2 adults seen.

Numerous Black Darter dragonflies

Royal Fern - first record for me on the Mosses

Little Woolden Moss 15.00-18.40

Butterflies : 3 Small Copper, 1 Large Skipper, 1 Painted Lady, 1 Speckled Wood and 1 Green Veined White.

1 Ichneumon Suspiciosus type wasp.

1 "Philedonides Lunana" type micro-moth.

1 moth that greatly resembled a Small Fan Foot, but I could'nt 100% sure of ID.

Excellent day for insects for me on Little Woolden Moss today.

First damselfly of the year seen, in the shape of a single large red.

Also first orange tips of the year, in good numbers. Also small copper (single), small tortoiseshell, peacock (lots), speckled wood, large white and brimstone.

Good numbers of green tiger beetle.

Only two common darter for me on Little Woolden Moss. Beautiful spider, too, but I have no idea what it was; ground-dwelling species, about 1cm long, dark, with a grey water droplet-shaped marking high on the abdomen, this flanked by two curved rufous blothes, and a pair of cream dots beneath; also two columns of three cream dots on the lower part of abdomen. Laughably, I tried to draw this, but unfortunately I have all the artistic talent of the spider itself.

Couple of pipistrelle sp. along Astley Road when heading back, too.

Little Woolden Moss 15.00-17.45

Dragonflies : 1 Southern Hawker patrolling the woodland edge by the car park, another seen on the moss.

Also seen on the reserve were 5 Black Darters and numerous Common Darters.

Butterflies: 1 Red Admiral, 3 Speckled Woods, 1 Small Copper and 1 Comma.

A snooker ball sized Common Frog seen near the site of the former hide had a large growth on it's front leg, this seemed

to greatly inhibit the creature's movement, that's not good when there are crows about.

Is there a new pox epidemic amongst amphibians, it looks very nasty?.

Little Woolden Moss this afternoon
1 Common Lizard

Dragonflies:
1 Emperor
5 Common Darter
1 Black Darter

Butterflies:
1 Small Copper
1 Comma
1 Painted Lady



-- Edited by Steven Nelson on Sunday 2nd of September 2018 08:45:42 PM

Good day for insects on Croxdens, with the following all about (plenty of white butterflies and small dragons out of range for ID):

Common blue
Small white (these two making up the bulk of butterflies)
Speckled wood
Small copper
Meadow brown
Green-veined white
1 common blue damselfly
4 emerald damselfly
20+ black darter
2 common darter
1 or 2 brown hawker
3+ southern hawker
1 great diving beetle, in a small square water-logged hole cut into the peat (first time I've properly seen an adult). Several common backswimmers in there too.


Little Woolden Moss:

Common blue
Small white
Speckled wood
Red admiral
c10 black darter
1 common darter
1 brown hawker
1 southern hawker
1 common hawker
1 common lizard

Irlam, Chat, Little Woolden and Barton Mosses 16.00-18.00

Butterflies:
Purple Hairstreak- I found a colony in Oak trees along Twelve Yards Road. 4-5 individuals in one tree and a single individual in a nearby tree. This is a first for me on the mosses - and the 3rd colony Ive found in various places this summer! Im sure there must be others waiting to be discovered on the mosses.
Small Copper - 1
Holly Blue - 2
Common Blue - 10+
Gatekeeper - 3
Red Admiral - 3
Small White - 8
Large White - 5
Meadow Brown - 8
Speckled Wood - 15
Comma - 1

Odonata
Emperor Dragonfly - 5
Black Darter - 3
Black-tailed Skimmer - 1 male
Brown Hawker - 1

-- Edited by Steven Nelson on Thursday 26th of July 2018 09:35:07 PM

-- Edited by Steven Nelson on Thursday 26th of July 2018 09:39:28 PM

Several Green tiger Beetle showing well on the track at Little Woolden moss this pm also a few Orange tips and lots of chasers around the reserve.

Astley Moss Wood Mouse and Broad Based Chaser, Red Damsel, Green Viend White, Orange Tip and Speckled Wood 

1 female Red Damselfly - Astley Moss SSSI
5 Orange Tip butterflies - 2 Astley Moss , 3 Irlam Moss

2 small unidentified butterflies seen today - 1 at Little Woolden Moss and 1 at Croxden. Both seemed the same size and flight style and flying about 10 feet high and mostly silhouetted against the sky. Neither landed and flew quite fast. I managed a better glimpse of the one at Croxden through binoculars and it appeared plain light brown reminiscent of Large Skipper - but these aren't active until late May. Any ideas?

My first butterfly of the year today on Irlam Moss, a brimstone.

Irlam Moss

A reasonable sized but rather old and tatty Giant Puffball found today.

Peacock and speckled wood in good evidence on Little Woolden Moss today.

Plenty of black darters (including a couple of couple of copulating pairs), a few common darter (more on the path from Astley Road) and 3 southern hawker for the odonata also here.

More black and common darters on Croxden's.

Little Woolden Moss 12.30-16.30

With a strong westerly blowing and frequent heavy showers all insect life was seen around the car park and entrance.

1m Southern Hawker and 4 Common Darter dragonflies. 4 Speckled Wood and 1 Small White butterflies.

A few insects about on Little Woolden Moss:

2 large skipper
1 red admiral
1 silver y
4+ azure damselfly
1 banded demoiselle
1 or 2 four-spotted chaser


-- Edited by Shannon Llewellyn on Sunday 25th of June 2017 07:49:07 PM

Stoat hunting Rabbits by Astley Moss SSSI this afternoon, great to watch with Rabbits scattering everywhere and the Stoat eventually getting to within 8 feet of me, rearing onto its back legs for a few seconds and looking quizzically at me before shooting off again; brilliant!

Several large red damselflies on Little Woolden Moss today.

Brimstone and orange tip there too, and a holly blue (definitely 100% confirmed, this one!) at the end of the track from Astley Road.