Another weekend without any photographs.
Saturday was supposed to be rather windy, with showers at times, so I did the usual shopping run and followed up with some garden pottering. Turned out to be rather nice and perhaps I should have gone out somewhere. Still, glad I decided to not go to the Bird Fair as it seems to have been a rather muddy one.
The forecast for Sunday should have been pretty good, warm and sunny but there wasn't much around so I popped down to Amwell in the hope of going round Hollycross for the dragonflies. I wasn't expecting much and Barrys greeting along the lines "hope you've going to give us a laugh and cheer us up" more or less confirmed my suspicions.
I had apparently missed the local Peregrine and a few late Swifts had gone through so there were a few things about. Despite the rather good conditions of the lake shore and water levels there weren't any waders apart from a reasonable number of Lapwing and two mobile Common Sandpipers. A couple of times everything was put up by the two resident Sparrowhawks and one Hobby was hunting over the woods. The only other raptors were four Buzzards.
Didn't seem to be any wildfowl other than the summering birds, and only one Common Tern remained from the small breeding colony. Everyone had gone for the usual Sunday walk about leaving me with Ron so we spent some time chatting, but abut an hour after I arrived rain started to set in-not in the forecast and it gradually got heavier. This brought in an adult Common Gull-my first of the winter and a small flock of Sand Martins. Ideally it should have brought in a decent wader and we stuck it out for a bit but as nothing arrived we both decided that it wasn't worth getting wet so we called it a day. Naturally by midday it was warm sunny and dry.
Monday, 19 August 2019
Tuesday, 13 August 2019
Brief Views of a Little Bustard in Yorkshire
Earlier this year, a Little Bustard as present at Slimbridge for a few days, but I wasn't able to get there. It wasn't exactly showing well, apparently being a long way off in long grass and usually only the head sticking up from time to time was all most ever got. The fact that the Barnacle Geese were doing (and looking almost) the same wasn't a great help.
Earlier this week, a photo of a male Little Bustard appeared on social media and was soon pinned down to fields adjacent to the river Aire at Mickletown near Castleford. It had apparently been present for some time. Access arrangements were made and it showed quite well at times and plenty of photos soon emerged. Unfortunately work got in the way as it usually does and I was only free on Sunday. Not to worry, as despite an attack by a local Peregrine it was still showing very well on Saturday even if the weather wasn't great.
Colin and I arrived on Sunday morning to discover a large line of people along the permitted track and no bird. I was told that it had been seen first thing and then walked out of view in a low lying field north of us. The problem was twofold. At the top of the path, being higher, views were possible if it showed feeding along a grassy fence line, but the angle was bad and only a small area was viewable by a distant gate. Almost zero from the only space I could get. Further down in the crowd, more fence was visible but vegetation obscured any views and only the head and neck was likely to be seen.
To make matters worse, there were lots of tall people, many wearing hats and 90% of the time I couldn't even see anything at all. It took a long time and a lot of manoeuvring to get a position where I was able to see anything. Added to that new people were constantly arriving and some though nothing of pushing through and standing in front of us, so there were lots of words exchanged, and tensions at times got high.
Sometime around 1030 some of my mates departed, having observed from much further down the path, they had head and beak views but not much else. Around 11, Chinese whispers seemed to suggest that someone had seen it somewhere but directions were vague and contradictory. There seemed to be a language problem as well, as what those around me seemed to think we should be looking two posts left of a gate actually turned out to be behind two poppies! Needless to say by the time we found the poppies it had vanished from view. A bit later, a further sighting near a small willow bush caused confusion as directions involved several stumps. These turned out to be fence posts. I actually had my scope pointing in the right spot anyway, but never saw anything, although several birders thought they could see something moving in the area. The same thing happened a while later in the direction of a big patch of teasels. Unfortunately I had a big hat blocking that part and I ended up on a smaller patch, so by the time I realised this, shifted the scope slightly it had vanished. I think that all of these sightings, if genuine involved a very obscured bird feeding along the fence behind a lot of tall thick grass and may not necessarily have been the Bustard.
By midday I was getting a bit tired, hungry and very thirsty. Backache and leg cramps were kicking in as well, and I was starting to feel like giving up and trying again some other time when hopefully it would be a lot more obliging. However around 1230 someone behind yelled that it was in front of the gate and I swung the scope round and finally got to see the thing. It was only in view for 10, maybe 20 seconds but it was good enough and a big relief. Unfortunately only a small percentage of the assembled crowd was able to get on it, and many couldn't even see the gate anyway.
Apparently there were a few sightings later in the day but I know many left disappointed throughout the day. To make matters worse, despite expectations that it would stick around there was no sign on Monday and a search of the fields by locals and the farmer failed to locate it. Hopefully its still around somewhere.
We spent an hour or so in the early afternoon at RSPB Fairburn Ings just to unwind a bit . This is one place where Willow Tits are still reliably seen, and a place we hadn't been to before. It turned out to be a lot bigger than expected and there were many miles of track around the many pools left over from coal mining. We initially went round a small loop around a pond dipping area, taking in several feeding stations. While we had several big tit flocks, a Treecreeper and some Tree Sparrows we near saw or heard Willow Tits. Brown Hawkers and Common Darters were frequent, along with a few Emperors. A walk east along what was called a river path to one of the larger lakes didn't produce a great deal. More tits, a few Willow Warblers and some wildfowl on the lake. I did wonder if the path, which followed a ridge along what I assumed to be a spoil heap might have some interesting plants-orchids were mentioned on the guide map, though I didn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Earlier this week, a photo of a male Little Bustard appeared on social media and was soon pinned down to fields adjacent to the river Aire at Mickletown near Castleford. It had apparently been present for some time. Access arrangements were made and it showed quite well at times and plenty of photos soon emerged. Unfortunately work got in the way as it usually does and I was only free on Sunday. Not to worry, as despite an attack by a local Peregrine it was still showing very well on Saturday even if the weather wasn't great.
Colin and I arrived on Sunday morning to discover a large line of people along the permitted track and no bird. I was told that it had been seen first thing and then walked out of view in a low lying field north of us. The problem was twofold. At the top of the path, being higher, views were possible if it showed feeding along a grassy fence line, but the angle was bad and only a small area was viewable by a distant gate. Almost zero from the only space I could get. Further down in the crowd, more fence was visible but vegetation obscured any views and only the head and neck was likely to be seen.
To make matters worse, there were lots of tall people, many wearing hats and 90% of the time I couldn't even see anything at all. It took a long time and a lot of manoeuvring to get a position where I was able to see anything. Added to that new people were constantly arriving and some though nothing of pushing through and standing in front of us, so there were lots of words exchanged, and tensions at times got high.
Sometime around 1030 some of my mates departed, having observed from much further down the path, they had head and beak views but not much else. Around 11, Chinese whispers seemed to suggest that someone had seen it somewhere but directions were vague and contradictory. There seemed to be a language problem as well, as what those around me seemed to think we should be looking two posts left of a gate actually turned out to be behind two poppies! Needless to say by the time we found the poppies it had vanished from view. A bit later, a further sighting near a small willow bush caused confusion as directions involved several stumps. These turned out to be fence posts. I actually had my scope pointing in the right spot anyway, but never saw anything, although several birders thought they could see something moving in the area. The same thing happened a while later in the direction of a big patch of teasels. Unfortunately I had a big hat blocking that part and I ended up on a smaller patch, so by the time I realised this, shifted the scope slightly it had vanished. I think that all of these sightings, if genuine involved a very obscured bird feeding along the fence behind a lot of tall thick grass and may not necessarily have been the Bustard.
By midday I was getting a bit tired, hungry and very thirsty. Backache and leg cramps were kicking in as well, and I was starting to feel like giving up and trying again some other time when hopefully it would be a lot more obliging. However around 1230 someone behind yelled that it was in front of the gate and I swung the scope round and finally got to see the thing. It was only in view for 10, maybe 20 seconds but it was good enough and a big relief. Unfortunately only a small percentage of the assembled crowd was able to get on it, and many couldn't even see the gate anyway.
Apparently there were a few sightings later in the day but I know many left disappointed throughout the day. To make matters worse, despite expectations that it would stick around there was no sign on Monday and a search of the fields by locals and the farmer failed to locate it. Hopefully its still around somewhere.
We spent an hour or so in the early afternoon at RSPB Fairburn Ings just to unwind a bit . This is one place where Willow Tits are still reliably seen, and a place we hadn't been to before. It turned out to be a lot bigger than expected and there were many miles of track around the many pools left over from coal mining. We initially went round a small loop around a pond dipping area, taking in several feeding stations. While we had several big tit flocks, a Treecreeper and some Tree Sparrows we near saw or heard Willow Tits. Brown Hawkers and Common Darters were frequent, along with a few Emperors. A walk east along what was called a river path to one of the larger lakes didn't produce a great deal. More tits, a few Willow Warblers and some wildfowl on the lake. I did wonder if the path, which followed a ridge along what I assumed to be a spoil heap might have some interesting plants-orchids were mentioned on the guide map, though I didn't find anything out of the ordinary.
Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Broxbourne and Danemead.
Though a bit late in the year for some of the butterflies I popped into the Broxbourne complex for an hour or so on Sunday morning.
I started off at Broxbourne west car park and did the usual circuit around what is now the grazed heathland. Birds were in short supply apart from a few tit flocks and several loud Nuthatches. A few crests and Chiffchaffs were heard, but the only warbles actually seen were two juvenile Garden Warblers which was a bit different.
Butterflies were out in force with lots of Meadow Browns, Skippers, Peacocks and whites, and a few lingering Ringlets. Didn't see any blues which was a it odd, and there were only a couple of rather tatty Silver Washed Fritillaries and one slightly better individual.
No Purple Emperors or White Admirals as expected, though i do wonder if they are still around since the area was opened up and much of the sallow trees and scrub had been cleared. The small oak trees were scanned but I only managed to see one Purple Hairstreak.
The pond has become very shaded and I only saw a few Common Blue damsels here. I did find one Southern Hawker and a few Migrant Hawkers, one of which posed nicely.
Danemead was much the same, including, weirdly, yet again a Garden Warbler showing quite well.
No fritillaries which was a bit unusual, but there were a few Painted Ladies in the meadow. The Spittlebrook actually had some water flowing for once, though the adjacent pond had dried up. I had hoped that there would be a few epipactis helleborines (broad leaved is the expected orchid here) in flower but I couldn't find a single plant in any of the usual places. Not sure if its slugs or deer but I haven't seen any here for a few years now.
I started off at Broxbourne west car park and did the usual circuit around what is now the grazed heathland. Birds were in short supply apart from a few tit flocks and several loud Nuthatches. A few crests and Chiffchaffs were heard, but the only warbles actually seen were two juvenile Garden Warblers which was a bit different.
Butterflies were out in force with lots of Meadow Browns, Skippers, Peacocks and whites, and a few lingering Ringlets. Didn't see any blues which was a it odd, and there were only a couple of rather tatty Silver Washed Fritillaries and one slightly better individual.
No Purple Emperors or White Admirals as expected, though i do wonder if they are still around since the area was opened up and much of the sallow trees and scrub had been cleared. The small oak trees were scanned but I only managed to see one Purple Hairstreak.
The pond has become very shaded and I only saw a few Common Blue damsels here. I did find one Southern Hawker and a few Migrant Hawkers, one of which posed nicely.
Danemead was much the same, including, weirdly, yet again a Garden Warbler showing quite well.
No fritillaries which was a bit unusual, but there were a few Painted Ladies in the meadow. The Spittlebrook actually had some water flowing for once, though the adjacent pond had dried up. I had hoped that there would be a few epipactis helleborines (broad leaved is the expected orchid here) in flower but I couldn't find a single plant in any of the usual places. Not sure if its slugs or deer but I haven't seen any here for a few years now.
Framton Marsh Waders
After a bit of a break for a couple of weekends, I had a very busy couple of days.
The previous weekend was rather wet over much of the country following several extremely hot and rather unpleasant days. This resulted in a large influx of Wood Sandpipers along parts of the East Coast with three figure numbers reported from some sites. Many other wader species also arrived in decent numbers, and since it was going to be a very high tide around the Wash, it seemed to be a sensible idea to go and see some of them.
In recent years, RSPB Frampton Marsh seems to have become best place for passage waders and up to 26 species had been recorded in the first days of August, including the almost resident but generally elusive Long Billed Dowitcher. The 8m high tide on Saturday morning meant that there would be a massive number of birds on the reserve and we were able to arrive just as the waters were starting to drop.
Starting around the centre, Common and Green Sandpipers could be found all over the big lagoon, and there were likely to have been 10+ of each present. On juvenile Little Ringed Plover was also seen. There are four Black Necked Grebes there as well, though I only found one adult and one juvenile. They remained at some distance and my attempt at shooting through the scope wasn't overly successful with rather soft images at an equivalent focal length of about 3000mm.
Heading down to the sea wall where we were told that most of the action was taking place we stopped off now and again. Yellow wagtails were flying around with many tens of adults and juvenile birds associating with the cattle on the grazing marshes. There were several Wood Sandpipers on the pools here though mobile and sometimes flighty. Someone had reported 15 here but I was only able to count 6, maybe 8 though visibility from the road wasn't ideal. Trying from the higher sea wall wasn't much better due to distance and the increasing heat haze, but the six Whimbrel on the salt marsh were a bit easier to see.
Continuing along the wall, which was covered in thistles, measles and Painted Ladies we were able to check out the massive flocks of Black Tailed Godwits and Knot for other species. Dunlin were present in good numbers bit it was clear that many were flying out to the Wash and we were told that a Peregrine had flushed many, taking the Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints with them. People were searching for the Dowitcher though Im not sure if it was seen while we were there, but we did pick up
maybe a dozen Spotted Redshanks, many Redshank, Ringed Plover Ruff, Snipe, Avocet, Oystercatcher, and a few Golden and Grey Plover, Turnstone and Bar Tailed Godwits, so we ended up with twenty species of wader here.
Ducks were starting to come out of eclipse. Mainly Mallard and Gadwall of course with some Teal, Wigeon Pochard and Tufties. I was able to find one Garganey but there were supposed to be several around. Much easier were the eight Spoonbill being big and white.
By the time we stared the return walk back to the car it had got rather warm and I was shattered (not helped by a bad few days at work and a very tiring day at Hyde hall Flower Show with Sarah on Thursday). As a result, while I checked the ditches for dragonflies it was bit of a struggle and apart from a few Common Darters and one Emperor. The intention was to return to the central hide after a bit of lunch and search in earnest but in the end decided it wouldn't gain much if anything so I suggested returning home via Therfield Heath and the ulterior motive of a county tick.
By the time we got there in the early afternoon it had clouded over a bit and the breeze had picked up. Walking through Fox Covert I could see many White Helleborines so it looked like it had been a good year, but I couldn't see any other orchids.
Out on the hillside Chalkhill blues were out in abundance among the Autumn Gentians, Harebells, Burnets and thistles. Large and Essex Skippers were present but the hoped for Dark Green Fritillary was a bit harder to find and took much searching as they were pretty much over.
Colin found two Spotted Flycatchers which were a very nice bonus and meant we needn't visit Sandon Church afterwards (the pair there have been successful with two fledged youngsters). Also a bonus was the two Silver Washed Fritillaries in the woods on the way back.
The previous weekend was rather wet over much of the country following several extremely hot and rather unpleasant days. This resulted in a large influx of Wood Sandpipers along parts of the East Coast with three figure numbers reported from some sites. Many other wader species also arrived in decent numbers, and since it was going to be a very high tide around the Wash, it seemed to be a sensible idea to go and see some of them.
In recent years, RSPB Frampton Marsh seems to have become best place for passage waders and up to 26 species had been recorded in the first days of August, including the almost resident but generally elusive Long Billed Dowitcher. The 8m high tide on Saturday morning meant that there would be a massive number of birds on the reserve and we were able to arrive just as the waters were starting to drop.
Starting around the centre, Common and Green Sandpipers could be found all over the big lagoon, and there were likely to have been 10+ of each present. On juvenile Little Ringed Plover was also seen. There are four Black Necked Grebes there as well, though I only found one adult and one juvenile. They remained at some distance and my attempt at shooting through the scope wasn't overly successful with rather soft images at an equivalent focal length of about 3000mm.
Heading down to the sea wall where we were told that most of the action was taking place we stopped off now and again. Yellow wagtails were flying around with many tens of adults and juvenile birds associating with the cattle on the grazing marshes. There were several Wood Sandpipers on the pools here though mobile and sometimes flighty. Someone had reported 15 here but I was only able to count 6, maybe 8 though visibility from the road wasn't ideal. Trying from the higher sea wall wasn't much better due to distance and the increasing heat haze, but the six Whimbrel on the salt marsh were a bit easier to see.
Continuing along the wall, which was covered in thistles, measles and Painted Ladies we were able to check out the massive flocks of Black Tailed Godwits and Knot for other species. Dunlin were present in good numbers bit it was clear that many were flying out to the Wash and we were told that a Peregrine had flushed many, taking the Curlew Sandpipers and Little Stints with them. People were searching for the Dowitcher though Im not sure if it was seen while we were there, but we did pick up
maybe a dozen Spotted Redshanks, many Redshank, Ringed Plover Ruff, Snipe, Avocet, Oystercatcher, and a few Golden and Grey Plover, Turnstone and Bar Tailed Godwits, so we ended up with twenty species of wader here.
Ducks were starting to come out of eclipse. Mainly Mallard and Gadwall of course with some Teal, Wigeon Pochard and Tufties. I was able to find one Garganey but there were supposed to be several around. Much easier were the eight Spoonbill being big and white.
By the time we stared the return walk back to the car it had got rather warm and I was shattered (not helped by a bad few days at work and a very tiring day at Hyde hall Flower Show with Sarah on Thursday). As a result, while I checked the ditches for dragonflies it was bit of a struggle and apart from a few Common Darters and one Emperor. The intention was to return to the central hide after a bit of lunch and search in earnest but in the end decided it wouldn't gain much if anything so I suggested returning home via Therfield Heath and the ulterior motive of a county tick.
By the time we got there in the early afternoon it had clouded over a bit and the breeze had picked up. Walking through Fox Covert I could see many White Helleborines so it looked like it had been a good year, but I couldn't see any other orchids.
Out on the hillside Chalkhill blues were out in abundance among the Autumn Gentians, Harebells, Burnets and thistles. Large and Essex Skippers were present but the hoped for Dark Green Fritillary was a bit harder to find and took much searching as they were pretty much over.
Colin found two Spotted Flycatchers which were a very nice bonus and meant we needn't visit Sandon Church afterwards (the pair there have been successful with two fledged youngsters). Also a bonus was the two Silver Washed Fritillaries in the woods on the way back.
Tuesday, 16 July 2019
New Forest and Dragonflies
On Saturday, we had a trip down to the New Forest, with a stop off at Longham Lakes.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a Scarlet Darter at Longham, which seems to be favoured for this species as there have been some reports here in the recent past. Unfortunately it wasn't seen the next day-we might have tried, but the M27 was closed all weekend apparently which put us off. Pity as apart from a large number of the scarce but frequent red Veined Darter, several Vagrant Emperors were also seen. having failed at Donna Nook it wasn't good news.
Earlier last week, the Emperors were reported again, and also apparently there were some Lesser Emperors around. We often visit the New Forest at this time of year so it was worth combining the two sites.
Had some traffic issues on the way down and I decided to come off at the end of the M27 and bypass the very slow A31. After driving through Fritham, to the north of the A31 we were approaching High Corner Inn and decided to pull over by a small copse for a break. Within a minute or so we had a Tree Pipit and a pair of Dartford Warblers, calling Curlew to the north of the road and a fine male Stonechat. The first of many Silver Studded Blues was found, though it was rather cool and breezy at the time, and Colin had a large dragonfly go past.
Nearby we also stopped briefly near Moyles Court School to check out the Dockers Water stream, which looked interesting but it failed to produce anything apart from a few blue damsels.
Getting to Longham was a bit of a pain as traffic was bad and the roadworks where we park really held us up. By this time, the sun had largely gone in, though it remained warm. This didn't seem to cause many problems, though the larger dragonflies remained elusive.
Walking down to the south end of the lakes, we encountered a number of Ruddy Darters and several Red Veined. This was rather nice as I hadn't seen one for a long time-in fact my only photos are on slide film taken in the early 90's.
They were very skittish and I only managed to get a few shots of one of them. Searching the damp hollows at the south end produced a lot of Common Blue and Azure Damsels, Banded Demoiselles and more White Legged Damsels than I've ever seen before. Black tailed Skimmers and one or two Broad Bodied Chasers were present around the reedy pond with one (ordinary) Emperor. We were told that the other Emperors were only likely to be seen patrolling the large lake in sunny conditions.
Most of the expected butterflies were seen-Comma, Peacock, Painted Lady, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath and a few Common Blues, Brown Argus and Small Copper. On the way back Colin found a very mature Scarce Chaser, a nice bonus.
Traffic remained a problem and it was a rather slow journey to our final destinations of Crockford Bridge and Beaulieu Heat/Hatchett Pond. However the sun was now starting to come out, but so was the wind.
By far the commonest species at Crockford was, as usual Southern Damselfly, though the numbers were much smaller than in some earlier visits. Recent management work in scrub and vegetation removal might have had some effect. Small Red Damselflies were also seen frequently, as were Beautiful Demoiselles.
Keeled Skimmers are always nice to see of course but were very active and never settled. The same with Broad Bodied Chasers and the superb Golden Ringed Dragonfly-at least two were patrolling the stream but never stopped. Just about the only thing that did was the female Emperor laying eggs. Lots of Silver Studded Blues of course, plus one or two Dark Green Fritillaries.
Bill Last was also present on one of his moth and botanising weekends so we had a chat and exchanged notes. I had hoped that he had locations for the Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly that always seems to elude us here but he hadn't seen any for many years. so in the end we decide to try the west end of Hatchett Pond, but walked down from Beaulieu Heath, a much easier route.
Graylings were seen, but did their best to avoid the camera as usual. Half hour round the seeps and puddles at the ford failed to produce the Scarce Blue Tails again, and the only Blue Tail (a female) was seen near the car park. Apart from this. it was very much the same selection of species as at Crockford.
Despite the failures (and why didn't we find any Large Red Damsels?- I also missed Brown and possibly Southern Hawker as well) we ended up with 17 dragonfly species for the day, and also 17 species of Butterfly.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a Scarlet Darter at Longham, which seems to be favoured for this species as there have been some reports here in the recent past. Unfortunately it wasn't seen the next day-we might have tried, but the M27 was closed all weekend apparently which put us off. Pity as apart from a large number of the scarce but frequent red Veined Darter, several Vagrant Emperors were also seen. having failed at Donna Nook it wasn't good news.
Earlier last week, the Emperors were reported again, and also apparently there were some Lesser Emperors around. We often visit the New Forest at this time of year so it was worth combining the two sites.
Had some traffic issues on the way down and I decided to come off at the end of the M27 and bypass the very slow A31. After driving through Fritham, to the north of the A31 we were approaching High Corner Inn and decided to pull over by a small copse for a break. Within a minute or so we had a Tree Pipit and a pair of Dartford Warblers, calling Curlew to the north of the road and a fine male Stonechat. The first of many Silver Studded Blues was found, though it was rather cool and breezy at the time, and Colin had a large dragonfly go past.
Nearby we also stopped briefly near Moyles Court School to check out the Dockers Water stream, which looked interesting but it failed to produce anything apart from a few blue damsels.
Getting to Longham was a bit of a pain as traffic was bad and the roadworks where we park really held us up. By this time, the sun had largely gone in, though it remained warm. This didn't seem to cause many problems, though the larger dragonflies remained elusive.
Walking down to the south end of the lakes, we encountered a number of Ruddy Darters and several Red Veined. This was rather nice as I hadn't seen one for a long time-in fact my only photos are on slide film taken in the early 90's.
They were very skittish and I only managed to get a few shots of one of them. Searching the damp hollows at the south end produced a lot of Common Blue and Azure Damsels, Banded Demoiselles and more White Legged Damsels than I've ever seen before. Black tailed Skimmers and one or two Broad Bodied Chasers were present around the reedy pond with one (ordinary) Emperor. We were told that the other Emperors were only likely to be seen patrolling the large lake in sunny conditions.
Most of the expected butterflies were seen-Comma, Peacock, Painted Lady, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath and a few Common Blues, Brown Argus and Small Copper. On the way back Colin found a very mature Scarce Chaser, a nice bonus.
Traffic remained a problem and it was a rather slow journey to our final destinations of Crockford Bridge and Beaulieu Heat/Hatchett Pond. However the sun was now starting to come out, but so was the wind.
By far the commonest species at Crockford was, as usual Southern Damselfly, though the numbers were much smaller than in some earlier visits. Recent management work in scrub and vegetation removal might have had some effect. Small Red Damselflies were also seen frequently, as were Beautiful Demoiselles.
Keeled Skimmers are always nice to see of course but were very active and never settled. The same with Broad Bodied Chasers and the superb Golden Ringed Dragonfly-at least two were patrolling the stream but never stopped. Just about the only thing that did was the female Emperor laying eggs. Lots of Silver Studded Blues of course, plus one or two Dark Green Fritillaries.
Bill Last was also present on one of his moth and botanising weekends so we had a chat and exchanged notes. I had hoped that he had locations for the Scarce Blue Tailed Damselfly that always seems to elude us here but he hadn't seen any for many years. so in the end we decide to try the west end of Hatchett Pond, but walked down from Beaulieu Heath, a much easier route.
Graylings were seen, but did their best to avoid the camera as usual. Half hour round the seeps and puddles at the ford failed to produce the Scarce Blue Tails again, and the only Blue Tail (a female) was seen near the car park. Apart from this. it was very much the same selection of species as at Crockford.
Despite the failures (and why didn't we find any Large Red Damsels?- I also missed Brown and possibly Southern Hawker as well) we ended up with 17 dragonfly species for the day, and also 17 species of Butterfly.
Thursday, 4 July 2019
Garden Orchids
These are only snaps with the the phone.
Epipactis gigantea is a helleborine that is widely cultivated. Ive had little success in the past with bare rooted plants but managed to obtain a large pot last year at Hyde hall flower show. This was overwintered in the pot and once the shoots appeared in spring (demonstrating that it was at least alive) I planted it out. The flower stem is only a few inches high-it should reach 12-24 inches but hopefully will improve with time. It might need more moisture than my garden can provide in the growing season but Im keeping my fingers crossed.
Ive tried a few slipper orchids-Cypridiums in recent years but with some disappointments. Ive failed with two different species so far, but the hybrid "parville" that I got at Chelsea last year has been successful. This year I purchased the species Cypridium regina which is supposed to be reasonably 'easy' and despite one stem appearing to die the rest are growing well.
Im hopeful that it will last some time and that I can find a suitable spot to plant it out eventually.
Epipactis gigantea is a helleborine that is widely cultivated. Ive had little success in the past with bare rooted plants but managed to obtain a large pot last year at Hyde hall flower show. This was overwintered in the pot and once the shoots appeared in spring (demonstrating that it was at least alive) I planted it out. The flower stem is only a few inches high-it should reach 12-24 inches but hopefully will improve with time. It might need more moisture than my garden can provide in the growing season but Im keeping my fingers crossed.
Ive tried a few slipper orchids-Cypridiums in recent years but with some disappointments. Ive failed with two different species so far, but the hybrid "parville" that I got at Chelsea last year has been successful. This year I purchased the species Cypridium regina which is supposed to be reasonably 'easy' and despite one stem appearing to die the rest are growing well.
Im hopeful that it will last some time and that I can find a suitable spot to plant it out eventually.
Wednesday, 3 July 2019
Butterflies and Insects
I wasn't feeling all that great on Saturday and decided not to do much. However Sunday felta bit better and the weather, which had been very hot and humid was rather more tolerable so I thought about taking a walk around Aston End. In the end I managed to complete my usual five mile circuit and didn't feel all that bad afterwards.
Over the previous week, I was starting to get regular visits by Meadow Browns and also a couple of Painted Ladies, Gatekeepers plus the occasional white so I was expecting to see a lot. It can be a bit hit and miss as the walk takes in some busy lanes with high hedges usually severely hacked and slashed every year), large areas of intensive agriculture and horse paddocks. Also the river Beane valley is always bone dry with only the occasional winter run off leading to any sort of water flow. However there are several large areas of set aside, some wide field margins and a long roadside stretch that is sympathetically managed so it can be quite good. Unfortunately one huge uncultivated field that was starting to look like a decent bit of chalk downland has been out of bounds for many years (though I don't think it was ever in bounds but the gate was always open and there wasn't a nasty barbed wire fence to negotiate either).
I didn't find any Speckled Woods in the plantation which was a bit unusual so the first butterflies I found were Meadow Browns once I got past Aston End. This proved by far the commonest species and I probably saw several hundred in total. There were only a few Ringlets-far less than expected, and also some Gatekeepers and Small heaths. Marbled Whites were seen in various spots, maybe 30 in total and some rather faded Painted Ladies as well. There were plenty of Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals and Commas but for some reason, no Peacocks. Obviously with most of the fields full of rape seed Large, Small and Green Veined Whites were everywhere.
I had a hard time with the skippers, there weren't many and only one or two were approachable-one definite Small, and a couple of Large, though I would normally see some Essex here as well. Only one Common Blue was seen, and no Brown Argus or Small Coppers, though these are the species I used to see in the out of bounds field.
I wasn't very successful photographing the butterflies so I stuck the macro lens and spent a long time around the umbellifers trying to get decent images of the various bugs, flies wasps and beetles. Cant say for sure what any are, though I ought to be able to identify the longhorn as Ive photographed them before. Having mislaid an identification guide hasn't helped.
Over the previous week, I was starting to get regular visits by Meadow Browns and also a couple of Painted Ladies, Gatekeepers plus the occasional white so I was expecting to see a lot. It can be a bit hit and miss as the walk takes in some busy lanes with high hedges usually severely hacked and slashed every year), large areas of intensive agriculture and horse paddocks. Also the river Beane valley is always bone dry with only the occasional winter run off leading to any sort of water flow. However there are several large areas of set aside, some wide field margins and a long roadside stretch that is sympathetically managed so it can be quite good. Unfortunately one huge uncultivated field that was starting to look like a decent bit of chalk downland has been out of bounds for many years (though I don't think it was ever in bounds but the gate was always open and there wasn't a nasty barbed wire fence to negotiate either).
I didn't find any Speckled Woods in the plantation which was a bit unusual so the first butterflies I found were Meadow Browns once I got past Aston End. This proved by far the commonest species and I probably saw several hundred in total. There were only a few Ringlets-far less than expected, and also some Gatekeepers and Small heaths. Marbled Whites were seen in various spots, maybe 30 in total and some rather faded Painted Ladies as well. There were plenty of Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals and Commas but for some reason, no Peacocks. Obviously with most of the fields full of rape seed Large, Small and Green Veined Whites were everywhere.
I had a hard time with the skippers, there weren't many and only one or two were approachable-one definite Small, and a couple of Large, though I would normally see some Essex here as well. Only one Common Blue was seen, and no Brown Argus or Small Coppers, though these are the species I used to see in the out of bounds field.
I wasn't very successful photographing the butterflies so I stuck the macro lens and spent a long time around the umbellifers trying to get decent images of the various bugs, flies wasps and beetles. Cant say for sure what any are, though I ought to be able to identify the longhorn as Ive photographed them before. Having mislaid an identification guide hasn't helped.
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