Hartslock

I hurried up to Hartslock today during a gap in the rain and as I arrived the site looked superb - sunny and humid - the flies were buzzing around everywhere. I caught a few Exorista rustica (agg.) and saw some Tachina fera, Eriothrix rufomaculata and Phasia obesa.

Then is started to rain and I hurried back to the car as the sky turned black. As I huddled in the car listening to Classic FM the thunder crackled around the hills and the rain bucketed down. It went over in about 20 minutes and so I quickly got back out into the field again and netted some more fies, including a potential Lydina aenea.

After about 20 minutes the sky darkened again and I made a dash for the car - this time heading home as it was 17:30 already.

Sadly, the poor weather during April & May has led to most of the rare orchids going to seed early. All Lady orchids were in seed 1 week ago, the hybrids are nearly all over now (just one plant with a few decent florettes) and there are just a handful of Monkey orchids in flower - and looking very pale.

For this reason I’ve decided to close the slope down and declare an end to the flowering season. The lower gate will be locked and the marker tapes will be removed to allow the orchids to seed and for the slope to recover from all the trampling. For those of you still desperate to get a photo of a Monkey orchid, the top gate will be left open but please stay on the paths (where the remaining orchids are visible) and resist walking over the slope because you won’t find much and you’ll probably just tred on seeding orchids.

Here are a few photos taken this morning on my walk round:

I popped up to the reserve in the afternoon today to look for new orchids and to see if I could help out any visitors. I found 1 more new Monkey orchid near the top of the slope - bringing their total to 448 plants, of which 136 have been spotted flowering or trying to flower. The number of flowering plants is likely to be much lower than the real number because it is very hard to count them all.

The most surprising thing was to find that all of the Lady orchids had gone over and even a few of the hybrids had gone to seed. Most hybrids are doing fine but I think the rest will start to go over in the next week - especially if there isn’t significant rain soon. Most of the Monkey orchids are flowering OK but a significant proportion of them have wilted and died - either due to being eaten by small animals or having aborted due to drought.

It seems quite clear to me that we just haven’t had enough rain during April & May and the small showers kept the orchids alive for a while but in the absence of some serious downpours the plants are starting to fail as the tubers decide to abort flowering to save the plant itself.

The drought has also contributed to the large worn patch of ground around the hybrids (see below).

Today 22 members of the London Natural History Society (LNHS) visited Hartslock for the orchids and all other wildlife. We had glorious, hot, sunny  weather all day and it seemed as if everything came out to be photographed.

Monkey, Lady & the hybrids are all flowering very well at the moment and will probably continue to flower for another 2-3 weeks more.

I personally saw Grizzled & Dingy Skippers, Green Hairstreaks (everywhere), Small Heath, Orange Tip, Brimstone, Large White, Peacock & Common Blue.  Club-tailed dragonfly, Banded & Beautiful Demoiselles were also on the wing.

Went up to the site today for a walk round - plenty to see, even though the wind was still a bit chilly. The hybrids and the Lady orchids are flowering very well, with a few still in bud. The Monkey orchids are all still in bud with onloy a handful looking like they might open some buds in the coming days - the rest (maybe 200 plants) should flower in 1-2 weeks, depending on the weather.

Lots of butterflies and other insects on the wing too - Orange Tip, Green-veined White, Brimstone, Peacock, Comma, Small Tortoishell, Dingy Skipper, Grizzled Skipper, Small Heath, Green Hairstreak, Common Blue, Small Copper, Pyrausta nigrita, Pyrausta purpuralis, Common Swift moth, Burnet Companion moth, Osmia bicolor (a solitary bee), Gomphus vulgatissimus (Club-tailed Dragonfly), Tachina ursina (a parasite fly), Dioctria rufipes (Common Red-legged robber fly).

Pretty good for birds too with Hobby, Red Kite & Buzzard all seen and Chiffchaffs in every hedge.

Just popped up to the reserve, after a 2 week holiday abroad, to check the flowering situation. Looks like the recent rain has kept everything alive but the cold has really delayed the flowering by about 2-3 weeks (depending on species).

Lady orchids are in flower and the hybrids are just starting to flower, with quite a few still in tight bud. All Monkey orchids are in very tight bud with only a few showing buds at all, so they are a week or two away from flowering.

Here are a few photos to show what is about:

The first part of the mapping, where we try to locate all previously recorded rare orchids, has finished - many thanks to Becca and all the other helpers!

The big news has been the massive increase in the number of hybrid Lady x Monkey plants - partly a real increase and partly due to some under-recording last year. This year we have mapped 299, 66 of which are in bud, but all in roughly the same area as they have always been. Only a few have been found in the woodland edge outside the orchid enclosure and a few possibly Lady orchid seedlings have come up in the path.

This increase in hybrids has not been at the expense of the monkey orchids though, as we have already recorded 418 of those. Last year’s record was 427 and we usually find another 10-20 new plants through May as they pop up and flower.