Painted Lady

It's not been a great year for butterflies (except for Red Admirals surprisingly), but at least one species was added to this year's list yesterday with this Painted Lady seen on the Buddleia.

Dragonflies

There is still plenty of dragonfly action around the pond - in residence currently are Common Darters. At first I thought it was a different darter as the males weren't the usual brick-red colour that I associate with this dragonfly. However after lots of checking involving binos and scope I think it must be the Common Darter (Sympetrum striolatum). There was also a Southern Hawker in the house this afternoon.

Butterflies in 2016

Have been a bit scarce. I was particularly disappointed to see no Marbled Whites at all this year and there were few Common Blues earlier on. However the recent warm weather has brought out a good number of Common Blues and some Small Skippers as well. I managed to get both in one picture as they rested on some grass in the garden outside one of the fields that I left long this year. The best showing this year has been the Red Admirals which I have seen more of this year than in the previous five years we have been here. There have also been countless Meadow Browns but there always are. Gatekeepers are flying at the moment but again numbers perhaps down on previous years.

New Species - hidden in plain sight

In retrospect it seems bizarre that I didn't spot the Wild Angelica (Angelica sylvestris) as it is 2m tall and very big all round. My excuse is that I assumed it was Hogweed which is found spread throughout The Beeches. This is close by the Fleabane in the wetter part of the site and is another indication that our most damaged field is recovering well.

Fleabane back in numbers

A couple of Fleabane plants appeared a couple of years ago in the dampish corner of the field that I was restoring from its previous use as a quad bike track. I let them flower and seed and now I have a whole patch of more than twenty plants all in a tight area.

Orchid total reaches 123

A surprise with two Broad-leaved helleborines found in the meadow area of the West Field. Last year there was one helleborine under a tree in that field but it became the site of a major rabbit excavation and so has not reappeared. With these two last additions to the orchid count the 2016 total is 123, a massive rise on the count last year of 63. 120 of those were Common Spotted Orchids and just 3 were helleborines.

New species - Red-legged Partridge

I spotted this on our garden wall this evening. I have seen them in the area but generally on farmers' fields and not here at The Beeches before. Cool looking bird.

Almost a herd....

We usually get Fallow Deer in ones or twos, occasionally threes but five came skittering through today.

New species close by - Adder

No photo but a few weeks ago I disturbed a snake sunning itself at the edge of the field in front of the house. It slipped into my neighbour's garden and I didn't see enough to ID it although it was bigger and moved faster than a slow worm. Yesterday my neighbour found an adder 'digesting' in his wood shed so I think that explains my sighting.

Third waxcap species in July......

I expect the earliest waxcaps sometime in August but so far despite the long dry spell in July there have been three species that I would expect in September onwards. The last one is this Fibrous Waxcap (Hygrocybe intermedia) mashed up by my mower following H. citrinovirens and the rare H. ingrata earlier. Now it has been raining the last couple of days there may be some coming through shortly.