Wheel

A morning walk along to Moorside and down to Spring Wood brought a good selection of butterflies, including my first second brood Wall of the year, still lots of Peacock and Painted Ladies, a fair few Speckled Wood, Comma, Meadow Brown, Small Copper and Small White and a couple of Small Skipper and Red Admiral. I had been expecting a good emergence of Small Tortoiseshell over the last few weeks but apart from one or two individuals there’s been nothing, so I’m not sure what’s happened to them this year.

This “wheel” of female and male Common Darter passed me in the meadow and I was able to see where they landed and get close enough for a decent picture. Brown and Southern Hawkers were also parading the meadow but weren’t stopping.

In the afternoon I popped down to Valley Parade and it was a much better result  for City as they eased to a good 3-0 win over Oldham Athletic.

And in the middle of that I walked my thousandth mile of the year. I may recalibrate the challenge to a fifteen hundred mile target.