Avez-Vous un Cuppa?

Well yesterday I hit my target of 110 species in the city. The bird to pass the target was a Spotted Flycatcher at Watermead CP South! Cheers to Ken and Dave for finding it. Earlier in the morning myself and John Hague had another session of vis-migging from the mammoth. Although it was pretty quiet movement wise, we did record Yellow Wagtail , Hobby , 2 Little Egrets and small numbers of Swallows, Martins and Swifts moving through the valley.

Greater Knapweed near Saltby Saltby Airfield outcrop Two photos of the rare form Var.chlorantha Bee Orchid Over the last few days (Saturday and Yesterday)I have been completing a few plant surveys for the "Life on the Verge" wildflower project (see the Link). The areas I have checked out included near Pickworth in Rutland and around Saltby Village in Leicestershire. Although I'm a bit of novice when it comes to identifying most wildflowers, the guide supplied by the project helped greatly. The highlights I found included small numbers of Bee Orchids,Southern Marsh and Common Spotted Orchids at Pickworth and Pyramidal and Bee Orchids at Saltby. At the nearby former RAF Saltby airfield I also checked out the limestone outcrop here and to my surprise I found the best bit of Limestone flora I have ever seen in Leicestershire!! Highlights here included a record count of over 170 Bee Orchids and the cherry on cake for me was finding a single plant of the rare form Var.chlorant...