A day out in the Brecks, 28 May 2017

I had a day to please myself today so headed west to the Brecks. My main objective was to see the Wood Warbler on territory on the edge of Brandon and it proved very easy indeed. I heard it singing from miles away so homed in on where it was and it showed very nicely doing circuits of a small area singing like mental!
I then had a long walk in Brandon Country Park where at least 4 Tree Pipits were singing plus a Firecrest. At the pond there was no sign of any Mandarins but a couple of 'feral' Yellow-eared Terrapins were basking and on the walk back I had Woodlark plus a couple of nice day-flying moths - Speckled Yellow and Mother Shipton.

Wood Warbler

Tree Pipit

Yellow-eared Terrapin

Pied Wagtail

Mother Shipton

Speckled Yellow

Before lunch I had time to pop into the Rex Graham Reserve for their Military Orchid open day. I counted c240 plants the vast majority of which were in tip-top nick. Also there were plenty of Common Twayblades, a rare occurence of a Southern Marsh Orchid growing on chalk and several Speckled Woods.

Military Orchids

Common Twayblade

 Southern Marsh Orchid - a rare example growing on chalk

A brief look at the roadside at Foxhole Heath failed to reveal any Spanish Catchfly but a Clouded Buff moth was a new one for me and several Cinnabars and Common Blues were out.