Wednesday 12th. June 2013

Another grey , windy morning , with the promise of light , followed by heavy rain after lunch . No likelihood of butterflies or Odonata in those conditions , so I stayed reasonably local this morning .
I headed for the Greensand Ridge , to see what reptiles were about , which turned out to be , not a lot , just four male Adders and a handful of Slow Worms . The wind was making the Adders very skittish and it looked as if I was not going to get one in the viewfinder . Then I came across this

specimen , no , not a headless / tailless individual , but both ends were tucked deep in vegetation . Thankfully , one of the others posed just long enough to get this shot , before his entirety disappeared

into the vegetation . It certainly has been a strange year for amphibians and reptiles , and I think that will apply to most of the wildlife when we look back on the year . As I left , spits of drizzle were already in the air , but I stopped on the Common for a look around on my way home . Can't remember if I mentioned it before , but the LTTit nest is still intact and all quiet , so hopefully I can assume that they fledged their brood safely . Not a lot on the wing apart from several male Common

Heath day flying moths , making short searches in the wind for females . Below them on the ground , good patches of the lichen Cladonia cristatella / British Soldiers (referring to Redcoats) and Devil's

Matchsticks are two of the common names . Having pushed up some time ago , the semi-parasitic Common Cow-wheat / Melampyrum pratense , a member of the Lousewort family , has

finally come into flower , now all we need are the Heath Fritillary butterflies , I wish . It is after all the food plant for the species . Other species seen , but also yet to come into flower , Wood Sage /

Teucrium montanum , a member of the large Labiate family , and in amongst the Brambles around an

old fire site , Common Toadflax / Linaria vulgaris , a member of the Figwort family . A bit non descript at the moment , but yellow and orange flowers will soon brighten things up . Close by , I found the relative of the Red-headed Cardinal Beetle that I posted a while ago , the Black-headed

version / Pyrochroa coccinea . With one eye on an ever darkening sky , I spent some time looking for

Brimstone caterpillars , and in a reasonably short time found about 15 , varying in size , which

hopefully will emerge through the remainder of this Summer , if it ever gets going . I look every year in the hope of finding a chrysalis , never being successful , but four of today's caterpillars were on a multi-stemmed Buckthorn , well off the beaten track , so I have tied markers around the braches that they are feeding on , in the hope that one will pupate , hanging under one of the leaves on one of those branches . Whether I will be lucky , we'll have to wait and see .
A left over from my orchid trip last week , I think it is a Latticed Heath , maybe .

And finally , like ShySongbird , I just can't make up my mind on the Rabbit / Leverett . I've looked at so many photos , the more I look at the more uncertain I become . Many thanks though to ShySongbird , Alan and Warren for their thoughts .