A good Friday

The day started with a visit to Loynton Moss near Woodseaves to complete this weeks butterfly survey.  I'll be alternating with a volunteer to complete the weekly survey.  The butterfly coppice lived up to its name and the final tally was 2 orange-tips, 4 peacocks, 4 small tortoiseshells and 4 green veined whites.

If you're looking for a good butterfly site in Staffordshire, I'd highly recommend Loynton Moss.  Last year you couldn't move without the ground erupting with them.  With luck you'll also see purple and white-letter hairstreak.  Find out more about the nature reserve here - http://staffs-wildlife.org.uk/reserves/loynton-moss

Butterflies were evident everywhere today.  My next port of call was Tixall to check out the area for breeding lapwing.  Neighbouring the Broad Water on the canal at Tixall is Rawbones Meadow SSSI which was designated for breeding snipe with some habitat for lapwing.  Two male lapwing were displaying in fields on the opposite side of the canal.  The rest of my walk along the canal and back towards Tixall had limited highlights, although a displaying curlew was a surprise.  Numerous orange-tips and peacocks were evident along the walk.

An evening visit to Doxey Marshes beckoned following my work on the scrape wall yesterday.  Water levels had dropped about a foot which is a good start.  From here on the scrape will just get muddier and more birds should appear.  Tonight's highlights were 2 common sandpipers, 2 white wagtails, single yellow wagtail and little egret, 2 pairs of shelduck, 2 female goosander and a barnacle goose.  Two male lapwing were displaying and occasionally fighting over the scrape.  One of them appeared to always be 'on top' and in between displaying would display to a nearby female and dig out a nest scrape.