New Species - Pygmy Shrew

I often require a dead small mammal to confirm ID and a dead Pygmy Shrew turned up in the garden today. It is identified by size, tail length relative to body, hairs on tail and colour of fur and teeth so I am able to be confident of the ID. I took photos but they turned out fuzzy so I won't include one.

New Species - Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet

I have had a lot of Six-spot Burnets on site, particularly last year and this year so far. When I get a chance I count the spots but up to yesterday there has always been six of them. For the first time yesterday I counted and only got to five....... What we get here in Monmouthshire is the Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena lonicerae) rather than the Five-spot Burnet (Zygaena trifolii)which is thought to be extinct in the county. I am concluding therefore that this is Z. lonicerae (although it is difficult to tell them apart), For comparison I show above the Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet photographed yesterday (top) and a Six-spot Burnet photographed last Saturday.

New species - Quaking Grass

Another delightful grassland indicator species has appeared in the field in front of the house - Quaking Grass ( Briza media). I have only found a few spikes in one place so far but hopefully my eye/brain is now set to pick out this delicate little plant and I can find it elsewhere on site.

Butterfly orchids at Pentwyn

A highlight of the 'orchid season' down here in rural Monmouthshire are the butterfly orchids at Pentwyn. This year's display was particularly gorgeous and I chose a sunny day last week to check them out.

New Species - Large Red Damselfly

The damselfly was considerate enough to come into the house to allow itself to be identified and photographed. That's the second Odnanatid that has appeared since I had the pond dug and lined. There's only a very very small puddle in the pond itself and that is likely to disappear with a couple more hot days but nonetheless the damselflies seem to appreciate the new facility and are flocking to the site to stake a claim for later in the year. So overall I have identified three Odonatids on site - a Common Darter last year and Azure and Large Red Damselflies this year.

Orchid totals

In the end it has proved an excellent year for our Common Spotted Orchid population. My blog of 5 June had us at 27 orchids. Now we have reached a total of 43 (as of today 17 June - make that 49), a 33% (make that 53%) improvement on last year and that despite a plague of rabbits which I am sure have removed a few that would otherwise have come through. Most encouragingly there are two individual orchids well outside the previous area where I have found them. One is at the opposite end of one of the fields that has an orchid population and one is in a field where I haven't found orchids before. I am now hoping that we can get to 50 (make that 60) next year but that hope is I guess dependent on factors out of my control such as the weather. The photo is of the intrepid orchid establishing a bridgehead in the field that had none in the previous three summers we have been here.

New Moth Species - Mother Shipton

My hesitation in buying a moth trap is I think justified. It's not just the endless hours I would have to put into identification but also a new barrier I just found out about which is that unless you get up before dawn to collect the moths that are on the ground close to the trap then all you are doing is providing breakfast for the local bird population. However there is no excuse for missing out on identifying any day-flying moths on site and I can add one species to that list today. The photo above is a Mother Shipton (Callistege mi) whose larval foodplants include clover and Bird's Foot Trefoil (which is appropriately also in the picture).

New Species - Heath Speedwell

I found this growing amongst the Tormentil on the edge of the field right in front of the house. That makes eight different speedwells that are on site - for the record they are Slender, Germander, Common Field, Wood, Thyme-leaved, Ivy-leaved, Wall and Heath.

Big Year for Burnet Companions

One of the things I find interesting is to see what the big wildlife winners are in any year. This is based I guess on the interactions of weather, management systems and the species' particular strategies, and unravelling those complex interactions is beyond me. I can though report on those species that do exceptionally well here in any season. A very noticeable winner this year is the Burnet Companion moth (Euclidia glyphica). Most days I see dozens of them even when conditions are overcast rather than sunny. The population here is much bigger than in previous years. My moth book says that larval foodplants include "......Common Bird's Foot Trefoil......and probably other trefoils and vetches". That could be a partial explantion of the quantities on site this year. Lst year was a very big year for Greater Bird's Foot Trefoil and with the already large population of Common Bird's Foot Trefoil there was a vast amount of trefoil last year for the larvae.

The Pond - Year Zero

I have just constructed my first pond. Alas not big enough for Moorhens, but hopefully attractive to some insects and amphibians. Had my pond liner arrived a day earlier then I would have a pond with quite a lot of water in it as we had incessant rain all day on Wednesday but it is good to get a 'before' picture which I can supplement as the pond develops as a habitat. On that score I am going to add nothing but just let the habitat develop naturally and see what arrives.

Orchids coming through at last

I was fretting about the number of Common Spotted Orchids on our site this year as not only did there seem very few about but with a plague of rabbits and slugs some of the few that did appear were getting damaged. Up until the rain arrived on Tuesday I had counted only 15 in total (cf last year there 32). After a couple of days off searching due to heavy rain I took a walk around this morning and found 12 newly blooming orchids to take this year's total up to 27. With a bit of luck we might equal or surpass last year at this rate but even 27 seems respectable in the circumstances. The total, including both fields, has gone as follows: 2011 - 14 orchids 2012 - 11 orchids 2013 - 32 orchids 2014 (so far) - 27 orchids It will be interesting to see whether my fastidious management (including this year putting up cages to keep the rabbits at bay) helps to increase that total significantly over the years. The picture above is three of the new ones found today.

Wrens in the garage

I noticed a wren several times entering the garage by hopping under the door and so I knew to look for a nest. I found it cunningly concealed so it couldn't be seen from the outside even with the garage doors open. It is an impressive construction particularly when you consider the size of the wren and the size of some of the bracken and other things used to build the nest and the fact they were presumably taken in under the door. Look closely and you can see an adult bird in the nest.