With the weather forecast
being reasonable today I decided to go to Ketton in the hope of seeing some
butterflies. When I arrived although the
sun was shining there was still a nip in the air due to the cool northwest
wind. I initially decided to check out
the area where there had been twenty plus Bee Orchids last year and where I
thought there were some spike beginning to show at my last visit. However today the suspected spike appeared to
have withered and there was no sign. I
continued down the track and continued around into the area where there was a
single Southern Marsh Orchid and a number of Twayblades. The surprise today was the number of Common
Spotted orchids since my last visit and I must have seen well over two
hundred. During the initial part of the
walk I had seen several Common Blues, all males, and a couple of Small
Heath. As I continued there was a single
Speckled Wood but little else insect wise and so I decided to go through the
wood and check on the Yellow Bird’s-nest.
There were plenty of them but very few more than shoots and they had not
progressed much since the last visit.
Over the gate I found several more Southern Marsh Orchids with two
looking rather stunning.
Spear Thistle
Nettle-tap
Southern Marsh Orchids
Whilst I was looking around
the area for more I noticed a rather pale month flying and saw it land and was
able to catch it in a pot to establish that it as a Grass Wave and I also
found my first Red Admiral of the year feeding on a faeces.
Grass Wave
Yellow Bird's-nest
I walked back through the wood
and on through the valley. There were
more Twayblade and numerous Common Spotted Orchids alongside the path and there
were also several more Common Blue and Small Heath butterflies. As I reached the end of the valley I found a
Large Skipper and my first Meadow Brown of the year juts the other side of the
gate. In the small quarry I saw a couple
of male Common Blue and Small Heath and a female Adder was seen briefly before
she slipped away into the longer grass.
I continued further into the
larger quarry area and found a Vapourer moth lava on the top of a grass stem.
Vapourer lava
Common Spotted Orchids
There were few insects other
than an odd Common Blue and Small Heath but two Red Kites flew over.
When I got back to the small
quarry two others looking for butterflies had seen both Grizzled and Dingy
Skipper and a Brown Argus. I did see a
Dingy Skipper and a second Red Admiral before I walked back through the valley
with them.
Dingy Skipper
It was now a little warm and
there were more insects on the wing with another Meadow Brown, several more,
male, Common Blues and Small Heaths and there were also several Burnet
Companions. I left the other two to
continue and I walked back along the track seeing my first female Common Blue
and two more Dingy Skippers. When I
reached the small quarry I also found a single Grizzled Skipper but there was
no sign of the Brown Argus.
Burnet Companion
I walked back to the car and
after some lunch went to Rutland Water where I met Ken in the Bird Watching
Centre.
At Rutland Water Ken and I
walked to shoveler hide on lagoon three but there appeared to be far fewer
birds, particularly close to the hide.
We find a single Green Sandpiper and the two Shelduck still had four
young. A couple of Reed Warbler also
provided some brief views and a Hobby flew in a remained to feed for a short
while. Other than about a dozen Common
Terns there was little else so we moved to bittern hide where we had further
brief views of Reed Warblers and a single Sedge Warbler. A first-summer Little Gull appeared to fly in
off lagoon four and remained to feed amongst the terns.
Common Tern over lagoon three
Grey Heron over lagoon three
Juvenile Pied Wagtail
We walked back to sandpiper
hide on lagoon four and found four first-summer Little Gulls, which was a
surprise as there had only been three. There
was also seven Little Egrets feeding on the lagoon and we also found a single
Little Ringed Plover and Ringed Plover and a Hobby provided some distant views.
Common Tern over lagoon four at Rutland Water
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