The Deskbound Birder: Lesser Butterfly Orchid

Showing posts with label Lesser Butterfly Orchid. Show all posts

Wednesday, 29 May 2019

Titchfield Haven, Rough Bank and Chappetts Copse - 26th-29th May

A much needed free weekend after a very busy period at work saw Tobias and I venturing to Posbrook Flood and Titchfield Haven on 26th May. A Squacco Heron has been presented at Posbrook Flood since 24th May and as this was a British tick for me I was keen to try for it. Parking at the Bridge Street car park we walked south along the canal path to the main viewing area looking east to the rather obscured floods. A Treecreeper showed well as it fed its chicks in a hole in an oak at a height of only 1.5m, this entertained Tobias for a while. We eventually had rather brief views of the Squacco Heron as it fed in the reeds and grasses of the flood and a brief view as it took flight and flew to the back of the flood and into deep vegetation. Tobias was bored and wanted to go and look for Terns at Titchfield Haven and so we drove round to the coastline. It was extremely windy and the wind and kite surfers were out in force and after watching them for a while we wandered onto the reserve. From the Meon Shore hide we watched around 15 Common Tern at close range but the numbers of Black-headed Gull in the colony seemed very low. There was little else to be seen but we enjoyed a couple of Avocet and an Oystercatcher incubating its single egg. We decided it was time to head home.

Treecreeper - Canal Path, Posford Flood

Common Tern - Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve

Oystercatcher - Titchfield Haven Nature Reserve

On 29th May I had a survey to do in the Cotswolds and after this was completed I popped to Rough Bank, a Butterfly Conservation Reserve. The weather was pretty dreadful and I only stayed a short while but it is a superb site. Highlights were Lesser Butterfly Orchid, White Helleborine, Small Blue and Adonis Blue. The butterflies were all sheltering atop of grass blades in the cold and windy conditions.

Rough Bank Butterfly Conservation Reserve

Greater Butterfly Orchid - Rough Bank, Gloucestershire

Another day, another survey and another bit of Orchid twitching. Firstly, I popped to a site on the outskirts of Guildford where at least 30 Man Orchid were at their peak of flowering, a species of Orchid that I had not seen before. Their stunning stiff flower heads topping the surrounding vegetation and making them conspicuous in the sward.

Man Orchid - Guildford

Sainfoin - Guildford

View from the downland at Guildford

I then went to the Hampshire Wildlife Trust Reserve of Chappetts Copse where adjacent to the small car park were two Bird's-nest Orchids. A short way along the main ride were half a dozen tiny Fly Orchid. The star here is Sword-leaved Helleborine, a rare and declining species in the UK which has one of its strongholds in the copse. The white flowers of the plant speckle the otherwise dark floor of the beech woodland in profuse numbers. I wandered amongst the plants for a short while before heading back to the office.

Bird's-nest Orchid - Chappetts Copse, Hampshire

Fly Orchid - Chappetts Copse, Hampshire

Sword-leaved Helleborine - Chappetts Copse, Hampshire

Chappetts Copse

Sunday, 10 June 2018

Cotswold Weekend - 9th and 10th June

We spent the weekend at our cottage in Cowley in the Cotswolds with our good friends Trevor and Julie Codlin. Trevor and I ran the moth trap on both Friday and Saturday night recording a good range of spring and early summer species. On Sunday we headed out looking for butterflies. First we visited Daneway Banks Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reserve where we had reasonable views of recently emerged Large Blue. Speaking to a chap who we met at the reserve who worked on the Large Blue Recovery Project it would appear that the peak count of Large Blue at this site has been 63, we were perhaps a week or two early for such large numbers.

Large Blue - Daneway Banks GWT Reserve

Common Blue - Daneway Banks GWT Reserve

Daneway Banks GWT Reserve - We found our first Large Blue in the far area of grassland in this image

We then headed for Three Groves Wood GWT Reserve only a few miles away but it seemed like an eternity as we weaved through the narrow Cotswold Lanes. The main target here was Marsh Fritillary and we soon found up to 13 of these beautiful insects as they fed on the numerous yellow composites flowering in the grassland.