Friday 1st. June 2012

The way the Broadband connection is playing up , even the provider's engineers can't work out what's happening , it will be a miracle if this post gets completed , but here goes .With a bit of brightness this morning , I set off to do the High Elms butterfly survey , sure in my own mind that things would be better than last time . Truth was , that by the time I finished doing the Conservation fields I had seen far more day flying moths than butterflies , which once again is disturbing . Over the whole transect , butterflies only just outnumbered the moths by four . A single

Cinnabar moth , a favourite of mine , wasn't willing to show any more than closed wings , but Burnet

Companion , 14 recorded , and I'm sure many more were sheltering down in the vegetation . The biggest surprise were 9 Yellow Shell moths , all found in the grass , but when disturbed , headed straight for the nearest trees , and as far from the viewfinder as they could get . Finding butterflies , of any species was really hard work , and finding Orange Tips next year was made even harder ,

when I found that the edges of the path where I had found their eggs on previous visits had been mown , thus destroying the eggs , and this is a Local Nature Reserve . The species tends to fly along the edge of woodland /rides/paths , laying their eggs on the foodplants found there rather than going into the woodland . I emailed the Ranger when I got home and he agrees it has been done by contractors far too early and will make sure that it doesn't happen again , but it doesn't help next

year's butterflies . Once I reached Burnt Gorse , the species list started to grow , but still just a single Green Hairstreak was recorded . A very fresh Speckled Wood was also recorded here , but after

leaving the area , very little else was added to the list . The 29 individuals recorded produce 11 different species , but the majority in ones and twos . On the way round , I did do quite well with

orchids , finding three Man Orchids spread around , the Orchid Bank produced lots of Common

Spotted Orchids , many of which had come into flower since my last visit . The Common Twayblade seems to be having a really good year , they are all over the Orchid Bank , but I found no sign of the

Bird's Nest Orchids in their usual places yet , but whilst looking for them did find several White Helleborine already in flower . The stars of the show though , were two Bee Orchids , with their

flowers in great condition , found within a metre of each other on Burnt Gorse . Many years ago , this

species could be found with ease here , but recently they have become few and far between , so it was good to find these today . Birdwise , nothing out of the ordinary was found , but on the end of the Orchid Bank , the constant calling from a hole in a tree could be heard for quite some distance .

The juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker didn't show very often , but I managed a shot when he did . On the way back home I spotted House Martins at their usual site and along the lane found Greater

Celendine / Chelidonium majus , a member of the Poppy family , as opposed to it's Lesser cousin in the Buttercup family , in flower . And finally , my neighbour knocked yuesterday evening as she had a bird in her front garden that couldn't fly . It was a juvenile Jackdaw , and every time it flapped it's

wings it went backwards , like an ice skater in reverse . The parents could be heard nearby , so it was left where it was . It must have sorted things out , as later I saw it in a bush a couple of houses along , still with parents in attendance .