New spikes of common spotted orchid (a very pale spike - see below) and pyramidal orchid were seen on The Heath near the trig. point, early in the month. A hummingbird hawkmoth was taking nectar from my red valerian plants on the 2nd. I didn't see any chalkhill blues until the 5th, when a couple of males were seen east of the Therfield Road. None were seen on Church Hill until the 9th, but I did find a pristine (and therefore very late) male first generation Adonis blue butterfly at the bottom of Church Hill on the 5th. I found some peacock butterfly caterpillars eating nettles near my house - photographing them makes a change from photographing butterflies!
Common Spotted Orchid (Very Pale Specimen), Therfield Heath, 1 July
Peacock Butterfly Caterpillar, Royston, 2 July
Male Chalkhill Blue, Therfield Heath, 5 July
Holidays took me away from The Heath for over a week. When I returned on the 18th, in the middle of a heatwave, numbers of chalkhill blues on Church Hill had dramatically increased with probably 125-150 males fluttering in quite a small area there and several females in the grass (which, due to the bizarre weather conditions that we have had this year, was much higher than usual). Small and Essex skippers and gatekeeper butterflies were all on the wing now and I saw three male silver-washed fritillaries (the latest butterfly species to adopt The Heath as its home) in Fox Covert and Jubilee Wood. Small numbers of second generation brown argus butterflies were also on the wing. The only one of the 29 species that was left to be recorded on The Heath was the migrant clouded yellow, which I don't see every year. Incidentally, two colonies of small blue butterflies have been found on private land in the Royston area this summer by Butterfly Conservation members. If only they could spread on to Therfield Heath, this would make a nice round total of 30!
Female (top) and Male Chalkhill Blues, Church Hill, 21 July
Away from The Heath I found silver-washed fritillaries both at Rokey Wood (Reed) and at Scales Park, near Anstey. In the latter woodland I was lucky to see a female laying eggs on a tree trunk, presumably close to patches of the food plants (violets), as well as the spectacular duetting courtship flight of a male and female, up and down one of the woodland rides. I also found white-letter hairstreaks flying above an elm tree close to my house and purple hairstreaks at a new site between Reed and Barkway.
Moths and Dragonflies
I have taken an interest in finding and photographing day-flying moths, for possible inclusion in a Royal Photographic Society panel that I'm working on. July and August are the best months for finding these mini-beasts, but photographing most of them is far from easy as they like burying themselves away in the long grass. However, some like to nectar on the profusion of field scabious and knapweed flowers that are at their peak in July and one species, the brassy longhorn, is entirely dependent on the former plant and is surprisingly common in the Royston area. Six-spotted burnet moths were very common on my local wild flower meadow, with up to three being seen on each field scabious flower head, and I was also able to photograph dusky sallow and brown line bright-eye moths on knapweed heads.
Brassy Longhorn (Micro-) Moth on Field Scabious, Royston, 21 July
Six-spot Burnet Moth on Field Scabious, Royston, 23 July
Dusky Sallow Moth on Knapweed, Royston, 23 July
Dragonflies are far from numerous in the Royston area, mainly down to the almost complete lack of water here. However, in the second half of July I saw azure damselfly, migrant hawker, southern hawker, emperor and common darter dragonflies - all on or within half a mile of The Heath.
Things were very quiet on the bird watching front. There was no sign of spotted flycatchers in the woodland on The Heath, and therefore no evidence that any young had fledged. The begging calls of young buzzards were heard in several places and whilst I was at Scales Park I was left in no doubt by the resident red kites that I was very close to their nest site. Tawny owls could be regularly heard from the house, hooting or calling at night, and one was also heard in woodland in Reed, during the afternoon. Three little grebes (two adults and a juvenile) were on Mardleybury Lake on the 28th, providing evidence for successful breeding again here.
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