Northern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella) - 29th June 2010

I've been working across the Dumfries & Galloway region of Scotland over the past three days and though I didn't get any time to do any bird watching, though I did see 2 Red Kite where I was working today in Castle Douglas, I did spot these Northern Marsh Orchid whilst travelling along the A75. I didn't have time to stop when I first saw them but travelling back to the hotel last night the road was a lot quieter and I managed to pull over and examine them at close quarters.

After taking several shots with my camera I took one with my mobile and emailed it off to Mike Foley who replied the same evening with its identification and some furthe rinformation (thanks again.) Norther Marsh Orchids are usually found in marshy areas as their name implies, but are also found on drier ground such as road verges as seen here.

There must have been at least 50 plants in a 15 meter stretch of the verge between Castle Douglas and Twynholm.

Bee Orchids, Brochholes Nature Reserve - 27th June 2010

I took a call from Mike Foley just before 6pm saying he'd had a tip off about some Bee Orchids down at Brockholes and would we like to join him in finding them. We arrived about half an hour later to find Mike in the area having found one plant. We continued to search the area finding a further 4 plants and with Reece marking them Mike said he'd contact the reserve manager to inform her of their location. Having forgotten to replace the SD card in my camera I was only able to get a few record shots with my mobile, no doubt I'll be back in the next week or so to get some better photographs.

Brockholes Nature Reserve - 26th June 2010

Not much going on bird wise at the moment so I'm trying to learn a little more about other wildlife including Butterflies, Dragonflies and Orchids (as shown in previous posts). The Butterfly and Orchid books are on order so my identification of both should improve, if only slightly in the coming months. I spent the afternoon down at Brockholes not looking for anything in perticular but hoping that something new would pop up in the afternoon sunshine. Dragonflies included 4 Empreror, 1 Black-tailed Skimmer, Blue-tailed Damselfly and Common Blue Damselfly.

ABOVE BLUE TAILED DAMSELFLY BELOW BLACK-TAILED SKIMMER

Common Spotted Orchid were in abundance across the reserve, more so than last year from what I remember. Butterflies included Large White, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown and Large Skipper.

ABOVE COMMON SPOTTED ORCHID BELOW LARGE SKIPPER

ABOVE MEADOW BROWN BELOW SMALL TORTOISESHELL

Of course there where some birds around including this juvenile Whitethroat singing over by the fishing pond.

                          

I also spent some time trying to photograph the Sand Martin over the River Ribble with this being my best effort.

                           

St Bees RSPB & Maryport, Cumbria - 20th June 2010

I'd seen a short documentary on the BBC I think probably Springwatch or maybe even the One Show (yes I'm the one) about the Small Blue butterfly and how they had reintroduced it in an area in Sussex (I think), so when I read on Mike Foleys natural history blog that there was an area in Maryport where he had found them off we went. With it being a long trip we decided to call in at St Bees, somewhere we hadn't visited before but I'd read it was one of the best places in the North West for sea birds. Not having that much time we didn't walk the full length of the cliffs but we did manage most of the birds we had hoped for.
To our supprise Small Blue can be found here with a large area of Kidney Vetch, its primary foodplant growing on the cliffs near the beach. We spotted two Small Blue on our walk out and another 3 on our way back but with the steepness of the cliff and the Small Blue having a wingspan as little as 16mm they were proving very difficult to photograph. Sightings along the cliff face included Sand & House Martin, House Sparrow, Blackbird, Skylark, Rock Pipit, Linnet, Whitethroat, Starling, Raven, Jackdaw, Rook, Peregrine (check out the photo on Spudds Nature Blog), Razorbill, Guillemot, Gannet, Kittywake, Fulmar, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull & Cormorant.

ABOVE HERRING GULL BELOW SMALL TORTOISESHELL

As far as the Small Blue was concerned Maryport provided to be fruitful with 4 Small Blue showing during the half an hour period we were there. The numbers were down from Mikes visit but this may have been due to the slight breeze or the because the Kidney Vetch was begining to die off.

ABOVE AND BELOW SMALL BLUE ON KIDNEY VETCH

MALE SMALL BLUE

FEMALE SMALL BLUE

BELOW A PYRAMID ORCHID ON THE SAME SITE AS THE SMALL BLUE

'Animal Rescue' - Stags Lodge - 19th July 2010

I was on my usual dog walk up at Stags Lodge this morning when I heard a high pitched squeeling. After searching the area I came across a Common Shrew that had got one of its hind feet tangled up amongst the grass. After rounding the dogs up and trying to keep them out of the vicinity of the Shrew I spent the next 15 minutes untagnling the grass from its leg.

I then set it free from where I found it having done my good deed for the day.

Not much going on bird wise at the moment but I have noticed all the Warblers have started calling again over the last few days, with Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler being the most prominent but even the Whitethroat have been calling on the odd occasion. Also a few families of Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tit, Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Chaffinch showing well as well as 3 Swallow feeding obove the grasses. On the pond the 5 young Coot are doing well and look larger than their parents to me at the moment. Also a young Grey Heron was fishing on the far side of the pond this morning.

ABOVE RED-TAILED BUMBLEBEE BELOW BUFF-TAILED BUMBLEBEE

BELOW YET TO BE IDENTIFIED BUMBLEBEE

Bees are about in numbers mostly Red-tailed Bumblebees but also small numbers of what I think is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee and a yet to be identified Bumblebee.
Butterflies are also showing with small numbers of Gatekeeper and in the wooded parts of the lodge we came across 2 female Speckled Wood (thanks to Rob for his help with the identification and thanks to Bill for spotting my incorrect identification of theMeadow Brown)

ABOVE MEADOW BROWN BELOW FEMALE SPECKLED WOOD

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Stags Lodge - 13th June 2010

The usual Sunday morning walk with the dogs this morning proved to be quite fruitful with plenty of birds calling across the park. A further search for the Common Spotted Orchid took the count up to 11 plants acroos the bottom field, I'm not sure how long these will last due to all the dog walkers (including ourselves) who use the are and on a second visit this afternoon we found dammage on the first plant we found. Birds (yes they're back!) included a calling Greenfinch, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff and a patch tick for us with a juvenile bunting (not sure were the adults were) on the tree line between the top and bottom field.

On the pond were the usual Mallards, 2 adult Coot with five young and two Grey Heron that were fishing successfully before one was chased off by one of the adult Coot.

Brockholes Nature Reserve - 12th June 2010

We spent a few hours down at Brockholes Nature Reserve mainly with the hope of seeing the Hobby that has been reported in the area over the past few days. Not being sure its where abouts we headed over to the northern end of the reserve to see what was about.

This male Common Blue was one of several we saw by No 3 and 4 pools.

This Common Spotted Orchid was one of many that are seen across the reserve

What I think is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

A Female Blue-tailed Damselfly, a photograph of a male can be seen on a previous post.

This Large Skipper was flying low over the grasses before alighting on this blade for a brief moment. I had never heard of a Skipper before and thinking it was a day flighing moth at first I emailed the photo to Mike for identification. After doing a little research myself I've found Skippers are a type of butterfly that appear moth like, I believe this one to be male.

Thanks again go to Mike Foley for his help on the above two photographs.

For those wondering why there are no bird recordings of late I assure you normal service will be resumed shortly.

Stags Lodge - 12th June 2010

Walking the dogs at Stags Lodge, CVP this morning I came across this Common Spotted Orchid (thanks for the identification Mike) flowering in the bottom half of the fields. A brief look through the field brought a further 2 plants which I've never noticed here before (probably due to my poor observation skills).

Also feeding amongst the many wild flowers on the feilds are Red-tailed Bumblebees. They live in social colonies of up to 200. They forage from a wide range of plants including dandelion and bluebell though here they seem to enjoy the buttercups that are in abundance here.

Dragonfly Pond, Cuerden Valley Park - 5th June 2010

ABOVE AND BELOW FOUR SPOTTED CHASER

ABOVE BLUE TAILED DAMSELFLY BELOW LARGE RED DAMSELFLY OVIPOSITING

ABOVE TOP COMMON BLUE DAMSELFLY, ABOVE IN COPULATION WHEEL, BELOW OVIPOSITING

Cuerden Valley Parks Dragonfly Pond is certainly worth a visit if you are in the area. Apart from the above species we saw 2 other Dragonflies but were unable to photograph them for identification.