New Species - Oak Snake Fly

I had an invertebrate expert come over to see what he could find on site and desdpite our day being curtailed by rain he found a lot of invertebrates. While I wait for confirmation of the species he noted I can show the species that he was most excited by - an Oak Snake Fly. Snake Flies are apparently rarely seen as they spend their time high up in the tree canopy hunting aphids and mites. This one had conveniently come down to a hawthorn hedge and posed while I took photos. Impressive creatures and rarely recorded.

Playtime for the fox cubs

They were definitely enjoying themselves racing around, ambushing each other and dreaming of capturing birds.

Exciting new species - Green-winged Orchid

A Green-winged Orchid (Anacamptis morio) was last seen on this part of The Narth in 1987 and one has appeared in flower in the West Field. It is a species I have longed to see here. I certainly spread a little seed last year but that can't have produced this flower as they take years to get to the flowering stage. I also did a few years ago but whether this is from introduced seed or buried seed we may never know. I suspect the latter because this is not an area I would have cast the see in and also it has been a good year for GWOs flowering as evidenced by the hundreds that have appeared close to Trellech that by coincidence I was looking at just before I found the one here.

Greater Butterfly Orchid

We first had a butterfly orchid in 2022 - just one. There were two in 2023, none in 2024 and one in 2025. Now one has appeared with just basal leaves at the moment. We can hope for another one but it is not all certain.

Fox cubs on the patio

Great fun last evening watching a couple of fox cubs on the patio and peering through our glass door with us standing the other side. I would say playing but at one point one of them caught a rabbit despite being quite small. Photo is of one of them hiding in the rhubarb patch.

Bluebells in our fields

The Bluebells are now out in profusion in all our fields. This is the West Field show. A lot of sources consider the Bluebell a woodland flower but it is outstandingly happy in our meadows. I suspect that it likes undisturbed ground and so has hung on in woodlands where the ground is less likely to be disturbed over the decade/centuries but it seems equally at home in undisturbed meadows.

Orchid update

We reached 277 orchids today and I've been trying to work out how this relates to previous years. It's not straightforward. The last few years have seen a peak of 945 orchids in 2023 followed by a crash to 312 in 2024 and a recovery to 723 last year. The numbers in the previous years at thgis date were 158 in the peak year, 128 in the crash year and 160 in the recovery year. Those numbers are not really that different when you consider the year totals which are so different. Also with weather changing and spring coming earlier year on year the extra 100 or so orchids could be explained through being a week or so ahead at this stage. So I am drawing no conclusions as to final numbers yet. Here's a photo of a clump of Common Spotted Orchids - eight in total.