small blue

Also on Bishop's hill, found at least 7 small blue one early evening along with several common blue - the size difference was large.


Aiming for wood white next and a nightingale would be nice - maybe will try Kineton woods for the latter.

Small blue males followed by roosting common blue with view of the superb Bishop's Hill

grizzled skipper

On Bishop's hill, a vast old spoil heap from a local quarry. Appears to be a superb habitat for insects and incredibly just a 5 minute walk from my rented house - all by chance - I had no idea it was nearby.

dingy skipper

Making the most of a new job based near Warwick. There are a few chalk grassland reserves closeby to my base at Bishop's Itchington that are good for butterflies.

The dingy skipper was the first to be found:

heath spotted orchid

I've been after this one for a while now. It's not at all a common species in Lincolnshire.

Managed to find a colony of 9 on a local heath, so it's continued existence seems a bit shaky.

A nice subtle beauty about them. A little like common spotted orchids in flower colour, but the lower tooth is small, the lower flower lip very wide and the spike generally more slender and not conical. Leaves were spotted and very slender. Nice.










heath spotted orchid

Some other nice flowers around such as this slender St. John's wort. A beautiful red tinge to the lower petals and check ou the black dots around the petal edges.




slender St. John's wort


...and the weedin' is good

Large Heath

On a very hot day, went in search of large heath as its getting close to peak flight period for these chaps.

Was not disappointed, stumbling into a good 30+ without any effort. They were busy nectaring on flowers by the path, including bramble and clover.

Other butterflies appear to be severely down in numbers this year, so it's good to see the large heath out in force. As they are a species of boggy places, I wonder if it was simply this fact that enabled them to cope with the heavy rain and flooding of last year that has knocked back all the others?.






large heath


large skipper


large skipper take off

The odd common hawker, odd black darter plus a few large red damselfly were also on the wing.

black darter

UFO

Unidentified orchids.

I think this is just a common spotted orchid. But if so, why on earth did it appear to be the only one amongst several hundred southern marsh orchids?




common spotted orchid


UFO

Same plant as above. Not sure what on earth this is - very narrow lower lips on the flowers, but not folded over like early marsh. Was close to the common spotted orchid, but does not appear to ba a hybrid of it (no spots on leaves).

southern marsh

Some of the southern marsh orchids at Saltfleetby-Theddlethorpe











southern marsh orchids

Also a pleasure to see large numbers of common butterflies, moths and dragonflies. Mostly small heath, common blue, azure damselfy, large red damselfly, 4-spot chaser.

A hobby hawked for a few minutes before heading for the saly marsh.


small heath


flag iris


flag iris in the fresh water marsh


4-spotted chaser