Sunday 7th. July 2013

A quick catch up on a very hot weekend . Yesterday , I did the full butterfly transect at High Elm LNR , with 10 species being recorded , still way down . 4 species recorded good numbers , Meadow

Brown (160) , Ringlet (107) , Small Skipper (11 one pictured) and Speckled Wood (10) , but the others , Large Skipper (2) , Small Heath (2) , Common Blue (4) , Large White (1) , Small

Tortoiseshell (2) , Red Admiral (1 a really freshly emerged female-pictured) and a very fresh Dingy

Skipper . On the way round , passed a LTTit family feeding avidly , so much so that they didn't bother about me . Two Capsid Bugs , I think , landed on me , and although not mating , were

unwilling to separate from each other . Even when I placed them on vegetation , they stayed together . On Burnt Gorse , an Oak sapling was trying to be a Red Oak , but the leaf is wrong , more

 likely to be Sessile Oak . , and a moth that I thought would have been in the Carpet family , but can't

find it on UK Moths . I tried to get closer , but it flew . Many thanks to Marianne and Spock for identifying the moth as one of the forms of Silver Carpet , and to Spock again for suggesting that the Burnet Moth on the previous post was in fact a Narrow Bordered Five Spot . On the Orchid Bank , I found Terry Laws , who told me that he had a Fritillary fly by a little earlier , good news to my ears . After a catch up , we went our separate ways . Good to meet up again Terry .

This morning , I decided to visit the local farmhouse where the House Martins nest , having seen a couple of birds on my way home yesterday . I was well pleased to find at least 7 nests occupied and

all seemed to have well grown young . If this weather holds , they should be able to get another brood off , even though it will be later than usual . I think that was on the minds of the adults on the left ,

who returned several times without feeding their young , probably to encourage them out of the nest .

I then made a visit to Salt Box Hill below Biggin Hill Airport , the site ruined by the grazier's ponies . I did see one Marbled White and a couple of other species , but nothing like what it used to be . I think I mentioned that he had now left the area to graze down in the West Country , and subsequently sacked from that position . With the temperature still rising , my last call was back to High Elms , but to concentrate on just two species , Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral . I failed to find either , but did find Keith , of last Sunday's Black Hairstreak outing , and later his parents , who arrived not knowing that he was there . Just before spotting them , Keith found a large moth in the

grass , in the process of expanding it's wings . After much head scratching , Keith came up with Large Yellow Underwing , and although it had disappeared half an our later when we went back , I think he was spot on , once I had a look on the web . His parents were interested in seeing the Yellow Birdsnest , and after a catch up they left , closely followed by myself . Keith stopped on a bit , but didn't manage to find either of the two species that I was after either .

And finally , WELL DONE ANDY , LETS HOPE WE DON'T HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER 77 YEARS .