Painted Lady day

Spent the day up on the reserve showing visitors around and the day was marked by clouds of migrating Painted Lady butterflies (see right). Every few seconds one passed by, heading north-west enroute from North Africa to who knows where.

One Lady orchid still looks very good as do half of the hybrids and most of the Monkey orchids. But recent bad weather does seem to have battered and dried a few of the flowers so they won’t be around for much longer I think.

Other highlights included a Green Hairstreak and some Dingy Skippers; lots of Small Heath and Common Blues. Courting pairs of Brimstones were also common. A few White Helleborines seem to have avoided the rabbits and deer too, in the Beech wood on top of the hill.

We also seem to have acquired a very friendly racing pigeon, which I found sitting at the top of the hill on the water trough. Not being a pigeon-fancier I decided to leave it to rest … but if you are missing a pigeon then you now know where it might be! 😉