Two new species in fact - first Grey Squirrels who have found the feeders after more than two years and are a daily nuisance starting at dawn. They are a pain for us but worse for the birds was the Sparrowhawk that visited this afternoon and took one of the young Blue Tits. I know that the Sparrowhawk has its own family to feed but I feel a bit bad providing a breakfast bar for Sparrowhawks (see picture above). I think now that it's summer the birds will have to manage on their own for a bit until the Squirrels and Sparrowhawk look elsewhere.
I have just one spot where I found Marsh Bedstraw about three years ago. I am always amazed at how a very little management makes such a great difference to flowers. Give them the opportunity and they will spread. A few plants three years ago is now a big bed of this delicate Bedstraw, so much nicer than the gross, blowsey Cleavers (aka Goose Grass).
I spotted this rather fetching damselfly whilst walking in a field close to the Wye. The photo is a bit ropey )just snapped on the phone) but the insect was stunning. It's a new Odonatid for me.
Today I found my hundredth 2016 orchid here at The Beeches. Ninety nine of them are Common Spotted Orchids and one is a Broad-leaved Helleborine. A great result for wildlife management as is shown by the graph above. Starting in 2011 with 14 orchids and only 11 in 2012 we have therefore achieved a nine-fold increase in six years. The managemnt in fact consists only of two things - cutting for hay after the orchids have flowered and protecting the orcids from predation by rabbits. Now that we have reached 100 I think I may not bother any more with the rabbit protection.
There was lots of Dragonfly action in the pond recently with multiple mating pairs of Azure Damselflies (photo above) and a couple of Broad-Bodied Chasers as well. Even more exciting was the newt that made a brief appearance. I wasn't expecting a newt to find this small pool some distance from any other standing water. I thought frogs were much more likely but no sign of them this year.
