NEW ORCHID SPECIES!!! - Twayblade

Yesterday whilst looking to see if there were any more Common Spotted Orchids coming through I was astonished to discover a single Twayblade in the middle of the West Field. That makes five species of Orchid for the site now and this is definitely this year's surprise flora-wise.

Bee Hotel

We have a lot of holes in our old house walls and there are plenty of bees around using these holes. Earlier in the year there were Hairy Footed Flower Bees and their predators the Common Mourning Bee and later I expect to see Mason Bees. I decided to add a small Bee Hotel to the wall to see if it got used and after a month or so there have been 12 of the holes used with continuing interest from various bees. I'll have to get some photos of the bees and maybe be able to identify the species.

First Cuckoo

Heard today coming from the Whitebrook side. That's all.

Recent sightings

No photos unfortunately but I have now definitely seen a Red Kite overhead. There has been one about 2 miles South West for a couple of years but now one has been circling here. I thought I saw one a couple of times but couldn't get the binos on it to confirm, then last week some builders working at the top of the street got some video of one and then two days ago I saw one just outside the village at closer quarters. I also had a close encounter with a Weasel yesterday, right be the new dry stone wall that I thought might be attractive to them. I heard a rustle and saw some movement in a small nettle patch by the wall and kept still. A few seconds later this head popped out of the nettles and eyed me up from about six feet away. After a little while it dived back into the undergrowth.

New Species - Roe Deer

A female deer caught my eye the other day as it didn't look quite right for the usual Fallow Deer we see on site. I wasn't sure as the Fallow Deer do vary a lot in colouration but close examination of the photos shows that it was indeed a new species - the Roe Deer. In particular the rear shot shows the distinctive all white rump and tiny white tail. This is the front view shot.

New Species - Marmalade Fly (Episyrphus balteatus)

I am reasonably confident of this ID although the lack of eyes and antennae made it a a little more difficult. I found it in the house in a state of decay but the markings of this particular hoverfly are distinctive according to my excellent Hoverfly Guide (Ball and Morris). The photo is about 25x magnification. The wings were less than 1cm long.

New habitat - dry stone wall

There are plenty of dry stone walls around the place or rather there is a mixture of ex-dry stone walls and some garden stone walls. We have seen wildlife using the walls, notably bank voles and their predators weasels, but nothing recently. However we have started the process of restoring some of these long-gone field barriers by getting an expert to build a short section of proper dry stone wall where there are remnants of a previous wall. It's looking good so far and I'll commission a longer adjoining stretch next year.