Local Walk

Left home to walk down the River Cynon towards Abercynon, up to the " Giant's Tooth " then back towards Mountain Ash via the mountain route. My main aim was to see if I could find some Marbled Whites which I found about this time last year near the Giant's Tooth.
Not much was seen going down the river the best being two juvenile Dippers. After crossing the main road, then under the old stone railway bridge and starting the climb upwards I started coming across scores of butterflies which were mainly Gatekeepers which were my first local ones of the year. On reaching the top of the path I wondered downhill towards the Giant's Tooth to look for the Marbled Whites fortunately connecting with two on the Cynon Valley side. I didn't go on to the lower path which is on the Merthyr side where I found the bulk of them last year. No Dark Green Fritillary's today though.
It was then onwards and upwards again towards the " Tumpy ". Still dozens of butterflies which were mostly Meadow Browns and really good numbers of Cinnabar Moths.  Further up the mountain where the path becomes more rocky I found another local first for the year 2 Graylings ( that's butterflies Rob not fish ).
Bird wise I did get a year tick totally out of the blue a Wood Warbler.
Back down in the valley I stopped for a drink of water on the old Lletty Turner's bends when I saw a flash of intense blue to my side. Grabbed my camera back out of my rucksack and snapped a few quick shots off of what turned out to be a Banded Demoiselle.

 A Surfeit of Siskins

 Dipper

 Gatekeeper and below Banded Demoiselle