Three Counties Wildlife: June 2014

Monday, 30 June 2014

More insects...

Popped over to Trinity Hill near Axminster at lunchtime for a walk today. Loads of large skippers and meadow brown butterflies flying at the moment along with a few other insects but otherwise very quiet.

Large Skipper: R. Harris

Agelena labyrinthica - lurks inside a funnel of web
and rushes out to drag its victim back to
the safety of it before devouring it: R. Harris

Agelena labyrinthica: R. Harris

Pachygnatha degeeri, only 3mm long: R. Harris

Common Blue Damselfly: R. Harris

Meadow Grasshopper: R. Harris

Local Red Kites...

There seems to have been quite a few red kites around the Chard area over the last couple of weeks, including a sizeable number noted in the same field as the white stork between Chard and Ilminster in mid-June. Dave Helliar has seen one or two local birds too, including this individual at the weekend near Tatworth.

Red Kite: Dave Helliar

Never tire of seeing these wonderful birds. Would be great if they started breeding locally again.

Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Spiders...

As we move into mid-summer many of our native spiders are maturing and becoming more noticeable. Here are a few seen on my patch in Chard this week:

Araniella Sp. possibly cucurbitina: R. Harris

Agelena labrynthica: R. Harris

Enoplognatha ovata, male: R. Harris

Scotophaeus blackwalli: R. Harris

Tegenaria Sp.: R. Harris

Tetragnatha extensa

A few other insects seen too:

Large Skipper: R. Harris

Strangularia maculata: R. Harris

Also the first Spear Thistles and Great Willowherb coming into flower now.

Spear Thistle: R. Harris

Great Willowherb: R. Harris

Monday, 23 June 2014

Local Round-Up - late June

Time for a quick round-up of what's been seen locally during the last week. Thanks to Dave Helliar for supplying photos of the Portland Hooded Crow, which has been hanging around the Bill area for over a week now plus a few butterflies too:

Hooded Crow, Portland Bill: Dave Helliar

Silver-studded Blue, male: Dave Helliar

Ringlet: Dave Helliar

Marbled White: Dave Helliar

A few plants and insects from me too - surprising how many things you photograph over the course of a week just walking your patch:

Two-spot Ladybird: R. Harris

Seven-spot Ladybird: R. Harris

Harlequin Ladybird: R. Harris

Bombus pascuorum: R. Harris

Lesser Spearwort: R. Harris

Yellow Oxalis: R. Harris

Foxglove - if this was rare, you'd travel
a long way to see it! R. Harris

Foxglove: R. Harris

Mexican Fleabane: R. Harris

Orange Hawkbit: R. Harris

Enoplognatha ovata, male: R. Harris

Agelena labyrinthica - this is normally all you see of them
as they sit and wait at the funnel entrance.

Agelena labyrinthica - caught this one in the open: R. Harris

Common Green Grasshopper - not so common anymore.

Sericomyia silentis

Scaeva pyrastri

Friday, 20 June 2014

Small, Green and Rare...

Probably the best way to sum up the Fen Orchid Liparis loeselii, one of our rarest and most difficult species of orchids to find. It's distribution in the UK has declined over the last 20 years being found now only in fens and wet dune slacks in two locations, one in Wales and one in Norfolk. I took a day off yesterday to go and search for it and after practically crawling around on my hands and knees for an hour, I found these two! Their cryptic colouration helps them blend into the surrounding vegetation and the tallest spike was only 6cm high. I did find another about 10ft away and to be honest, I didn't look too hard after that. I think I was very lucky indeed.

Fen Orchids: R. Harris

Fen Orchids - just about going over: R. Harris

Flower close-up: R. Harris

There were lots of other fantastic plants there too, including thousands of the following...

Early Marsh Orchid, spp coccinea: R. Harris

Marsh Helleborine: R. Harris

Pyramidal Orchid: R. Harris

Bee Orchid: R. Harris

Restharrow: R. Harris

Ragged Robin: R. Harris

Meadow Thistle: R. Harris

Viper's-Bugloss: R. Harris

Unfortunately I ran out of time here - could easily have spent the entire day walking the dune system. Loads of insects out too including good numbers of Dark Green Fritillaries. But I had a another appointment that I didn't want to miss with another rare and most peculiar looking orchid.