Chris Lansdell's Birding & Nature Diary

Sheringham area, 30 June 2018

A walk in Sheringham Park from Upper Sheringham to the clifftop near Dead Man's Wood and back. The weather was glorious but naturewise things were pretty quiet. It was good to note Purple Hairstreak from the top of the gazebo in the park and a Southern Hawker was along the clifftops, my first of the year. Ringlets, Green-veined Whites and Silver-Ys were out in good numbers.

Green-veined White

The view from the gazebo, Sheringham Park

After lunch in Sheringham I negotiated a quick visit to Beeston Common. Here, almost the first orchid I clapped eyes on was a gorgeous white Marsh Helleborine of the var. albiflora. A variation that I'd only seen once before and at this same site! There were plenty of more run of the mill Marsh Helleborines, a few Marsh Fragrant Orchids and a large number of Common Spotted Orchids.

Marsh Helleborine var. albiflora

Marsh Fragrant Orchid

Marsh Helleborines

Pyramidal Orchid var. albiflora in Lowestoft, 26 June 2018

A quick after work dash to Lowestoft to see another orchid variation that was new to me.
With precise directions from a friend I found 2 Pyramidal Orchid var. albiflora with ease and spent an enjoyable short time photographing them. There were several 'normal' coloured Pyramidal Orchids with them.
My very own 'orchid summer' continues!

Scotland/Cumbria trip, Day 5, 24 June 2018 - Loch Bran & Tebay Services

We had time to visit just one site before the long drive back south to Kidderminster. That was the beautiful Loch Bran south of Loch Ness. Here we found our main target Brilliant Emerald very easily with a female egg-laying at our feet as soon as we approached the water! We went on to see loads more, mostly patrolling males which really are 'brilliant'! Into the bargain there we also a few 'Highland' Darters including a pair in tandem, Four-spotted Chasers, Large Red Damselflies and Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Brilliant Emeralds

'Highland' Darter

Loch Bran

We had just one more place to do something on the way back where on the bank by the carpark at Tebay Services were an impressive display of big Northern Marsh Orchids with several Northern Marsh x Heath Spotted hybrids.

Northern Marsh Orchids

Northern Marsh x Heath Spotted hybrid

Scotland/Cumbria trip, Day 4, 23 June 2018 - Boat of Garten, Avielochan, Glenmore Lodge, Cairngorm & Loch Morlich

With our orchid work complete today was more of a casual birding day.

It began with a 06.00 start and a walk through Boat of Garten woods in the vain hooe of seeing Capercallie. Needless to say we failed but the early start was well worth it with some nice views of Crested Tit and a fly-over calling Parrot Crossbill.

Boat of Garten wood

Next stop, after some breakfast from the Boat of Garten shop was the small loch of Avielochan where we quickly located a pair of Slavonian Grebes plus plenty of Siskins (including great views on a garden feeder), Little Grebe, Common Sandpiper, my first Ringlet of the year and Common Blue Damselfly.

Siskins

Slavonian Grebe

The first of 2 extended visits to the Glenmore Lodge area was next with our target of Bumblebee Robberfly eventually located. Frustratingly the single individual we saw promptly flew off never to return! A lovely posing Red Squirrel, Northern Eggar, Serrated Wintergreen, London Pride and some 'nearly out' Creeping Ladies Tresses were also in the same general area and an Osprey nest with an adult and a chick were along the road between Aviemore and Loch Morlich. Viewing was very heat-hazy so we returned later for clearer views! Redstart and Goldeneye were also seen while poodling about before we headed up the road to the Cairngorm carpark. The railway was sadly out of action but a nice juvenile Ring Ouzel right by the cafe buildings was rather nice as was a Raven and a showy and very vocal Willow Warbler. We did a short level walk right from the carpark seeing Lesser Twayblade, Heath Spotted Orchid, Northern Marsh Orchid and Cloudberry.

Red Squirrel

Serrated Wintergreen

Northern Eggar

Ring Ouzel

Willow Warbler

Lesser Twayblade

Heath Spotted Orchid

Loch Morlich

Loch Morlich on the way back proved a good call with some lovely scope views of a pair of Red-throated Divers.

Yearlist = 222

Scotland/Cumbria trip, Day 3, 22 June 2018 - Bunloit, Carrbridge, Abernethy & Grantown-on-Spey

This morning we had a date at a location on Speyside with Mich Green so left the Fort Augustus area in time to relocate to Speyside. En-route we stopped at the roadside at Bunloit beside Loch Ness to see the most northerly Sword-leaved Helleborines in the UK. They had gone over as we suspected so we quickly moved on.

Meeting Mich and a few others near Boat of Garten Mich initially tok us to a site she has found near her home in Carrbridge while we waited our 'turn' to be allowed into the private site we had met at. The woods ner Carrbridhe were superb for Coralroot Orchid with big numbers being seen together with planty of Lesser Twayblades and Chickweed Wintergreen.
The site we really wanted to visit was next up and we spent a gloriously entertaining couple of hours at this really special place. c6000 Lesser Butterfly Orchids, c2000 Small White Orchids and c1500 Heath Fragrant Orchids sums how good this private 'garden' is! The real rarity here is Small White x Heath Spotted hybrid, the only one in the UK. Sean and Mike knew exactly where it was which helped. There were also a variety of different Heath Fragrant x Heath Spotted hybrids all of which differed from each other. I found Field Gentian and under the birches were both Common Wintergreen and Intermediate Wintergreen. Alpine Bistort was yet another new plant for me.

Coralroot Orchids

Lesser Twayblades

Chickweed Wintergreen

hybrid Small White x Heath Spotted

hybrids Heath Fragrant x Heath Spotted

Heath Spotted Orchid

Heath Fragrant Orchid

Alpine Bistort

Common Wintergreen

Intermediate Wintergreen

Small White Orchids

Lesser Butterfly Orchids

A bit further down the road we stopped at 2 different pools in Abernethy. The first one yielded some nice easy Northern Damselflies and the second one a couple of rather less easy White-faced Darters!

Northern Damselflies

White-faced Darters

To finish the day we visited a site near Grantown-on-Spey which hosts 2 more rare plants gowing under pines - the stunning One-flowered Wintergreen and Twinflower. More Lesser Twayblades were here too.