Perfect Timing

My last early morning stint this week, and what a finále it was with fantastic views of a Little Owl and Green Woodpecker. My venue today was Pentylands and though it was cloudy to start with at 6:10am, the sun did come out and remained so until I left at 8:30am, when it started to rain. Perfect timing

Other highlights were a pair of Swallows feeding their 4 offspring, 14 singing Chiffchaffs, lots of juvenile Goldfinch's and dozens of Meadow Browns with a majority of them being males.

Here are a few images and a video from this morning:

Little Owl soaking up the morning sun.

Little Owl

Green Woodpecker

A male Bullfinch and Blue Tit

One of many Chiffchaffs singing here this morning.

Just a few of the juvenile Goldfinches along the hedgerows.

A juvenile Swallow waits patiently for food....

.....and it looks like its on its way.

A Meadow Brown

And another.

This is a male Meadow Brown........

......not to be confused with the Ringlet!

A Large Skipper (female) from above......

......and from the side.

And this is the male Large Skipper, with a completely different wing pattern.

A 5-spot Burnet Moth shares a thistle with a Dance Fly

A Yellow Shell Moth. Talk about difficult to photograph. There were at least 4 on my walk and none of them settled where I could get a decent shot of them.

A Beautiful Demoiselle. A few weeks ago there were hundreds. This morning just this one male!

A Timothy Tortrix (Aphelia paleana). Thank you to Nigel Sluman for the ID.

Ichneumon Wasp, Amblyteles armatorius. They do like feeding on umbellifers as does.............

..........this one as well a female Helconidea ruspator, Ichneumon Wasp 

Black-horned Gem, Microchrysa polita

Tiger Cranefly on an umbellifer

Bird Recorded: 1 Cormorant, Pheasant, 1 Lesser Black-backed Gull, Wood Pigeon, Little Owl, 3 Swift, 1 Green Woodpecker, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Skylark, 6 Swallow, Dunnock, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, 2 Common Whitethroat, 4 Blackcap, 14 Chiffchaff, 1 Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Long-tailed Tit, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Wren, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Chaffinch, 2 Linnet, 20+ Goldfinch, Greenfinch, 3 male Bullfinch, 2 Corn Bunting and 2 Yellowhammer.

Also: Ringlets, Meadow Browns, Beautiful Demoiselle, 4 Yellow Shell Moths (Camptogramma bilineata),  Ichneumon Wasp (Amblyteles armatorius), Ichneumon Wasp (Helconidea ruspator), Tiger Cranefly (Nephrotoma flavescens), Black-horned Gem (Microchrysa polita), 5-spot Burnet Moth, Timothy Tortrix (Aphelia paleana) and Dance Flies.