May 24th 2009

Limited time today as Dave needed to be back by 11am for entertaining duties so gave the pond a miss and went looking for Narrow-leaved Helleborine an orchid species we’ve not seen in the county before and found 4 spikes plus Early Purple and the just flowering Common Spotted Orchid.

Narrow-leaved Helleborine
The wood was cool at 8am despite the glorious sunshine, so insects were thin on the ground in the time we had but still saw Pebble Hook-tip moth, Red Admiral and 20+ Speckled Wood butterflies, a Frog Hopper species Cercopis vulnerata, Scorpian Fly species Panorpa germanica and female Broad-bodied Chaser. On top of all this we were lucky enough to have a Goshawk glide through the canopy above our heads

Broad-bodied Chaser
Back home and at 2:02pm I was on the mobile to Mark Phillips trying to get him on to a Red Kite and Honey Buzzard soaring together over my garden which drifted off north just as Mark and son Mason arrived five minutes later. We carried on searching finding the palest Common Buzzard I have ever seen and had given up on any hope after 20 minutes when the Red Kite appeared overhead and before drifting north joined amazingly by a dark phase Honey Buzzard (the first like yesterdays was pale). Mark and Mason are pretty chuffed to have a raptor watch point on there doorstep.
I spent rest of the afternoon in the garden finding 4 more Common Buzzard and 2 Sparrowhawk while butterflies in garden were Large White, Orange Tip, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and Holly Blue.

Richard