A day botanising, 4 June 2017

With a distinct lack of birding activity Jus and I decided on a day targeting a few plants and general wildlife on Sunday. Even our plans to pop into Ipswich for the previous days Rose-coloured Starling were thwarted by it pissing off!

Nevertheless we still headed south popping into a roadside nature reserve for Man Orchid on the way down. The verge here has become a bit overgrown and numbers are down on last year. We saw c35

Man Orchid

Next up was a river valley site I'd tried and failed at last year for Beautiful Demoiselle. This time, armed with detailed directions we scored within minutes. It was interesting to see them alongside Banded Demoiselles and this may just be unique in the UK. Certainly this is the only site in East Anglia for Beautiful. Apart from Bullfinch and 2 Large Red Damselflies we didn't see much else.

Beautiful Demoiselles

Banded Demoiselle

The previous evening we'd arranged to meet a contact who'd agreed to show us the only East Anglian Fly Orchids. He shall remain nameless, as will the sensitive and private site but he was good to his word and we were amazed to see c80 plants in 2 woodland clearings! Indeed the whole wood was superb with c20 Bee Orchids, 6 Greater Butterfly Orchids, Common Spotted Orchid, Pyramidal Orchid and Adder's Tongue all seen. Several Burnet Companion moths were flying and I found a single Blackneck too. Butterflies included Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and the first Meadow Browns of the year. Birdwise it was just Great Spotted Woodpecker, c3 Willow Warblers, Garden Warbler, Mistle Thrush and a couple of Common Buzzards

Fly Orchids

Greater Butterfly Orchids

Bee Orchid

Common Spotted Orchid, a strikingly pale specimen

 Crab Spider on Common Spotted Orchid

Burnet Companion

Blackneck

On the way home we called into Theltenham Fen were there was a fine display of incarnata Early Marsh Orchids, Southern Marsh Orchids and Yellow Flag Iris.

incarnata Early Marsh Orchid

 Southern Marsh Orchid

    

Fen fun! 2 June 2017

A quick pop into a local fenland site after work for my annual pilgrimage to see the UKs only Early Marsh Orchids of the form 'ochroleuca'. Worryingly despite a thorough search I could only find 6 plants this year. Also up were a few Common Spotted Orchids, Southern Marsh Orchids and one specimen that would once have been 'Pugsley's Marsh Orchid' before they were determined not to be a species in theor own right. I was also able to find a patch of Common Butterwort, a very scarce plant in East Anglia.

'ochroleuca' Early Marsh Orchid

Common Butterwort

'Pugsley's' Marsh Orchid

I was lucky enough to bump into Chris Bishop releasing moths that he'd caught the night before and he kindly added a few moths to my list including some nice scarce ones - Flame Wainscot, Reed Dagger, Oblique Carpet, Pinion-streaked Snout and May Highflier.

Flame Wainscot

Reed Dagger

Oblique Carpet

 Pinion-streaked Snout 

 

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.    

Garden Spotted Flycatcher, 26 May 2017

Our run of Spotted Flycatchers in the garden continues, this being the 6th year on the bounce we've recorded them here in Pulham Market. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they don't so time will tell. This individual was doing circuits of our graden near the house and our next door neighbours calling a great deal and obviously setting up a territory. Also in the garden this afternoon we had Chiffchaff, 2 Song Thrushes, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Orange Tip and a huge Hornet.

Turtle Dove at Weybread GPs, 24 May 2017

I checked part of my patch at Weybread this afternoon, mainly for odonata but had a bit of a surprise. A singing male Turtle Dove in the large willow that overlooks Lily Pad Pit! It sat singing for some while allowing me to get some photographs before flying backwards and forwards a couple of times. The local Swallows were going mad and a glance upwards revealed the caue of their consternation - a large female Sparrowhawk. Also around Lily Pad Pit were 7 species of odonata - Red-eyed Damselfly, Common Blue Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Banded Demoiselle, Four-spotted Chaser and then a Hairy Dragonfly which was my first at the site. Back at my van a young Treecreeper showed very nicely for a protracted period and 2 Common Terns flew noisily over.

A walk down to the mill gave me a pair of Grey Wagtails, 2 more Hairy Dragonflies, Red-eyed Damselflies, a handful of Banded Demoiselles and a couple of Green Nettle Weevils.

Earlier I'd visited an ancient meadow site where I was delighted to find a wide variety of Green-winged Orchids including the specimen below which appears to be 2 colour morphs in 1 and several of the variation 'alba'. Also there were some nice Adder's Tongue my first Silver-Y of the year, Common Blue, Large White and Small Copper.