ORANGE-TIPS

Sunny periods in the morning of Saturday 11th, brought one or two orange-tip butterflies onto the wing. This male closed up its wings when the sun disappeared behind the clouds. When the sun emerged again, it slowly opened them up to reveal the bright orange-tipped wings, before flying off along the hedgerow.

This female orange-tip was surprisingly hard to spot resting on the hedge when it closed its wings up as in the photo above.

In a short walk beside the Firs Chase caravan site on Saturday morning, a male yellow wagtail perched on wires, 2 swifts flew over the houses, singing lesser whitethroat, whitethroat, blackcap and chiffchaff could be heard in various places. A handful of linnets and goldfinches were near the cemetery while 25+ house sparrows were chirping at three or four locations.

A common tern was flying amongst the boat moorings while 3 were seen calling high over Firs Chase the day before. Four swifts were also flying over Firs Chase on Friday too.

A late morning walk across the fields from Shop Lane on a breezy Friday 10th, provided views of 2 marsh harriers, sparrowhawk, 2 yellowhammers, 3 whitethroats, chiffchaff and 2 linnets.

The sunshine brought out speckled wood, holly blue, orange-tip and green-veined white butterflies along the path.

This group of brown-tail moth caterpillars were found clustered on a bush in their distinctive silken tent. The adult moths with their white wings and brown-tipped tail, should be on the wing sometime in July.