Little Owls are in! "Yea"

What is this?

Butterflies are out,   Yea!    well,  just about.

Butterflies 26th june

Ringlet.  Butterflies are hesitantly creeping out again.

Large Skipper

Small Skipper

Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

A ragged but nevertheless Painted Lady

Holly Blue

Spotted Flycatcher

The Eyecatching flycatching Flycatcher.

Another Bee Orchid this (one is special)

This is another Bee Orchid,  not just another Bee Orchid,   but a special one.   It doesn't have a (Bee)   instead it has 6  sepals,  it is known as Ophrys Apifera Peloric 2.   This local plant which was found  in 2007,  that is if it is the same one, if not I have found a second,  when it was submitted to the british Orchid society, was told by the expert there that he had been looking for one of these for 25 years.  

Little Owl chicks

Little Owls

Hmm! That looks like a tasty worm,  bit too much for one bird.

Hey!  come back with that.

Phew! that was a close shave.

Yellow Shell

Bee Orchids The Valley 8th june 2012

Two years in the valley with hardly any Bee Orchids.  Last year there were none because of the dry weather,   but, this year we have had plenty of rain, therefore the bulbs were able to expand and bring the Orchids into flower.    I found six sites today in the valley with Bee Orchids,  four sites on the Berwick wood side and two sites on the Hornchurch CP side.    Numbers at each site were;  9,  3,  1, 2, 9, 7.   And thats wandering round in bad weather,  there must be more.   All the sites were known ,  and two forms still exist there of the known eight.   Ophrys Apifera  the type,  and Ophrys Apifera Belgarum, a variety.  The first four are Typ, and the rest are Bel.   It is five years since I found the Belgarum plants,  and they are still in that form in the same place.   All the plants look extremly healthy and most have just started flowering.    This is Bee Orchid week. 

Type

Type

Type

Belgarum,  marked across with yellow bands and   usually lack the furry side-lobes.

Belgarum

Belgarum

Belgarum

Belgarum

Belgarum

Roller and Shrike photos by Russ Sherriff

Photos by Russ Sherriff, Yorkshire.  He only went there to see the Puffins.

Garden Warblers feeding young in nest in the valley

Fledgling Goldcrests in Norfolk

Bonnie and I spent the Jubilee holiday in Downham Market with the grandchildren to see the local carnival which ends up on The Howdale, an old green.      After a while I sneaked off to the Churchside cemetery next door which is now a small conservation area and found these little beauties.    Other birds included a pair of Tree Creepers.

Goldcrests

Funny way of getting around up here.

strange clothing too