Friday June 21

A largely sunny morning with a very light breeze was ideal for a three Richards walk about today. My two companions thoroughly enjoyed the morning with several Hares and a young Roe Deer topping the bill as far as they were concerned.

We spent a very long time listening to a very annoyed tacker, which eventually showed itself to be a Lesser Whitethroat. Presumably we were near its nest. The Willow Warbler sang nicely, and a Reed Warbler somewhat more reluctantly.

As I had suspected the pool has again drained away. I tried to show them the Bee Orchid, but walked past it twice before finding it. In the process however I stumbled on another species of orchid, this time Pyramidal Orchid.

Pyramidal Orchid

So in the course of two visits the orchid list for the site has sky-rocketted from nought to two. Amazing.

We saw quite a few butterflies, including Large Skippers, Small Heaths, Small Tortoiseshells, Brown Arguses, Common Blues, and Meadow Browns. The only species to add itself to the year-list though, was a single Ringlet.

Ringlet

At the Flash field there was still plenty of water, and just enough of an edge to support a single Little Ringed Plover. The Shelduck family remain intact, and we heard a calling Little Owl.

At around this time we realised we were running late for our lunch date, and so we had to put a bit of a spurt on. I did however have time to discover a new day-flying moth for the site (I'm pretty sure) in the form of a Chimney Sweeper Moth, but the dratted thing refused to land and I had forgotten to bring my sweep net. So confirmation may have to wait for another day.