First Grassland Fungus of the Season

First up it's the Pink Domecap (Rugosomyces carneus). Conveniently fruiting right outside the back door.

Deer in the garden

Four youngsters marauding around today, eating any plants, stealing apples, typical teenagers. I managed a close up photo of this young buck.

Orchid totals

A good result at 307 Orchids - a 33% increase on last year's total. As usual the vast majority are Common Spotted. One definite Heath Spotted and a couple I am looking at closely that are either Heath Spotted or a hybrid. One Twayblade (but a different one to last year's single Twayblade) and that was damaged by the frost so didn't flower. Only 20 Broad-leaved Helleborines this year vs 23 last year - the three near the bottom of the South Field didn't show this year. A number of the Common Spotteds didn't flower after coming upand I think it was the weird weather that caused that. Still I'll take 307.

Marbled White

I think this is my favourite butterfly and for the second year running there seem to be plenty about here. I managed to photograph one resting on some grass. If the weather stays nice they should get some breeding done.

6 Spot Burnet - back in numbers

There has been a lot of rain in the last few days but the sunshine of earlier in the week has brought forth a rash of lepidoptera including a lot of 6 Spot Burnets looking fresh and bright and heading mostly for the Knapweed they seem to favour. Here's one on a Hawkbit.

Small Skipper - first of the year

It's been a good week for Butterflies and it's only Tuesday. Monday we had the first red Admiral of the year and today the first Small Skipper and the first Marbled White. The Small Skipper is a male and the sex brand gives it away as a Small rather than an Essex Skipper - as does the underside of the antennae which can be seen as brown rather than black. Roll on Wednesday.

Orchid update

It's been a good if somewhat strange Orchid season (so far). A lot of Common Spotted rosettes were seen early- for four years I have recorded the number of rosettes spotted by 28th May. The totals for 2017- 2019 were 61, 68 and 67 respectively. The total Common Spotteds for those years were 131, 204 and 206. This year the 28th May total was 208! Actually there are a number of factors in play- first of all this year the season for flowers is clearly ahead of usual- maybe by a week or even two. Secondly the dry April and the trend through management to reduce grass volumes, has kept grass growth low so the rosettes are much easier to spot. As of today the Common Spotted count is at 268 so that is a healthy increase of 30% and there is still a chance of spotting a few more but at the end of May I was wondering how many there might be based on that huge increase from 2019. The only slightly negative factors are that I have only recorded 17 Broad-leaved Helleborines so far and last year I had 23. There's still time though so I'll leave a final report until the end of June.

Young Fallow Buck at close quarters

I had a bit of a staring match through a glass door at a young Fallow Deer about three metres away. It allowed me to get this close-up photo but the light was fading so it is a bit grainy. I think he was genuinely puzzled as to what I was, but eventually he wandered off.

New Species - Common Bracken Sawfly

I saw this insect settled on a Bracken frond and took some photos without knowing whether it was a Bee, Wasp or Fly. It turns out to be a Sawfly and that is only the second species that I have recorded here (the other being the Giant Wood Wasp - which isn't a wasp!). I'm pretty sure this is a female Common Bracken Sawfly (Strongylogaster multifasciata) although there is a very similar and rarer Sawfly that it is difficult to distinguish. However the colour of the last Abdominal segment and the colour of the hind tibia lead me to the conclusion that I have got it right. I am busy removing Bracken at the moment but I'm sure there will be plenty left for the Sawfly's purposes.

Peacock caterpillars

I'm having to leave various stands of nettles as I do some clearing in the garden area. One lot had Small Tortoiseshell caterpillars and another lot Peacock caterpillars (photo above). I returned after a couple of hours and they had almost stripped the nettle they were on and were moving onto neighbouring nettles.