Indiana Dave and the quest for the Butterfly Orchid 31st May.

-

Great Butterfly Orchid

Another Greater Butterfly Orchid,

and another Greater Butterfly Orchid!


Following a quick check at Wanlip Meadows LWT in the morning,I noted that the Garganeys were still on the scrape.
Moving on to Cloud Wood LWT, near Coalville I went to look for some orchids, but in particularly to check to see if any Greater Butterfly Orchids were in flower.
Walking through the wood, I spotted a few Common Spotted Orchids coming into flower along the rides.
Moving further round the wood, I soon spotted a few Greater Butterfly Orchids just off the path. Treading careful, I counted at least sixty flowering orchids and as you can imagine I took quite a few photos of this elegant flower.
Looking around the surrounding area, I also found at least five Common Twayblade and good numbers of Early Purple Orchid, of which the majority had gone over by now.
Whilst photographing the orchids, I received a text message from Jim Graham to let me know that he had just seen five Corn Buntings at Orton-on-the-Hill.
So I decided that after checking the rest of the wood, I would go over to Orton-on-the-Hill to look for the Corn Buntings.
Checking out the rest of the wood, I spotted a few more Common Spotted Orchids and a single Broad leaved Helleborine which was slowly coming into flower.

Driving over to Orton, I met Jim by the roadside in the usual spot for Corn Buntings just out of the village, which overlooks the surrounding cornfields.
Over the next half an hour or so we watched up to three Corn Buntings singing on nearby telegraphs wires and bushes (Jim had seen at least five birds earlier).
I took a few record shots of the Corn Buntings, and it was pleasing to know that Corn Buntings a threatened species nationally was still occurring locally not to far for home.

Comments

Russ Malin said…
Is Indiana Dave a time travller? June 31st? That means I've missed my 40th in the Brecks !! Damn.....unless of course you meant May :)
2 June 2008 at 16:54
davidearlgray said…
Hi Russ, sorry my mistake and yep I did mean 31st May!
2 June 2008 at 17:25
The Drunkbirder said…
Indiana Dave and the lack of meaningful posts!
3 June 2008 at 08:53
davidearlgray said…
Top Trumps to you John! ;-)
3 June 2008 at 21:41
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ring-billed Gull OMFL!!!

-
Image
Meeting up with Neil Hagley this afternoon at Shawell Balancing Lake almost the first gull I looked at was an Adult Ring-Billed Gull . Just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating I ask Neil to have a look at this gull in my scope and he came to the same conclusion. GET IN!!! So over the next half an hour we ticked off all the salient features of the bird and then phoned out the news. As this was probably only the sixth record for Leicestershire and Rutland as you can imagine I took quite a few digishots of the gull. Joined later by the Groby crew (Allen, Andy F and Paul) just before the Ring-billed Gull flew off towards the tip, it wasn't long before the group picked at least 3 Yellow-legged Gulls and 3 Caspian Gulls (2 Adults and 1 2nd-winter bird) in the large gull flock. So to put this sighting of the Ring-billed Gull in context, it's probably only the sixth time it has been recorded in the county.It was a county tick for myself, Neil and the Groby crew and Ring-billed G
Read more

A few bird photos over the last few months...

-
Image
 Over the last year I bought myself a new Leica lens (100-400mm) for my Panasonic Lumix G9 Camera, so here's a few photos I have taken over the last few months. First up the long staying Lesser Yellowlegs at Frampton Marsh RSPB. Next up the Northern Waterthrush at Heyford, Essex...    and finally for the time being one of the Yellow-browed Warbler at Oakthorpe, Leicestershire in Early January 2024.
Read more

Cut End Seawatch, Lincs 16th Sept 2009.

-
After finishing my early shift at the general, I drove over to Cut End, which is the Witham/Wash river mouth(Basically were the river meets the sea!), near Boston, Lincs. I was told that the the best time to go was around hide tide with a north-east blow to push the birds close towards the river mouth. Arriving at the Cut End Hide at around 5.00pm in the middle of high tide, I joined the group of birders who watching the sea. My sightings of the next couple of hours included: 16 Arctic Skuas, 1 Bonxie, 1 Fulmar, 10+ Sandwich Terns, at least 30+ Eiders, a single Common Scoter (10 metres off the hide!) and good numbers of the usual waders. Scanning the nearby salt marshes I also picked up at least 7 Marsh Harriers , and over 40 Little Egrets . Although I couldn't pick up the long staying King Eider at this site due to the choppy conditions I was pleased what I had seen at this new site for me and would visit it again as soon as possible. As I walked back to the car the final sightin
Read more