Birding Gary's Patch

Or should that be Insecting Gary's Patch? On Monday I found myself in North Walsham with a few hours to kill so headed off along the disused North Walsham - Mundesley Railway and Pigny's Wood, part of Gary's Patch. It was a lovely sunny afternoon, and i soon had a large list of Butterflies, but birds were in short supply. Upon reaching the steps down to Pigny's Wood I had 13 species of Butterfly all quite common but nice to see. Banded Demoiselle, Migrant Hawker and Common Darter were near the river Ant. Not far from the 'Old Oak'  I found a colony of Purple Hairstreak defiantly the butterfly of the day. I sat and watched c 12 for a while and managed a few pictures as they briefly settled between chasing and dancing around. Walking across the Meadow area towards the 'Barn' i spotted a Harvest Mouse in some tall grass, I've only ever seen them in captivity so was taken for a while until it spotted me. By the scrape I saw Broad-bodied Chaser and Black-tailed Skimmer, before watching a Green Sandpiper on the muddy margins. I followed the course of the River Ant back towards Bacton Road, seeing 2 Painted Lady Butterflies and a surprise Kingfisher, considering the over grown nature of the channel. All in all a rather nice couple of hours, with 18 species of butterflies on the wing and 8 species of Dragonfly/Damselfly, it was only the poor total of 20 birds that let the walk down.