Common Spotted Orchid
Northern Marsh Orchids
Yellow Fieldcap
Plenty of colour in the clearings
Latticed Heath
I cannot identify this caterpillar
I wonder what is going to come out of this?I was back at Widdrington tip this morning. The Orchids are the highlight at the moment. Only two species in the Alder wood but the count today of Northern Marsh Orchid exceeded a thousand spikes and there is almost as many Common Spotted Orchids coming into flower. There are many other plants in the clearings in flower. I only saw 3 Butterflies species; Wall, Large and Small White but there were a few moths around with Latticed Heath, Silver Y, Ruby Tiger, Cinnabar and many micros kicked out of the vegetation as I was walking about. I only managed to photograph the Latticed heath.
I saw my first lowland Cuckoo this year and a fine Roebuck.
7 comments:
I really must go here, especially if all of these day-flying moths are about. The flowers are delightful too.
We could do with more flower meadows like that down here in VC55!
The caterpillar is a Drinker moth, and the cocoon looks to be one of the burnets, presumably either Six-spot Burnet or Narrow-bordered Five-spot burnet.
Cheers,
Mark
Great set of photos, Nigel.
From that angle the caterpillar looks like that of the Drinker moth.
There are loads of those caterpillars up at East Chevington on the path to the hide but like you I haven't found a guide that can identify them so assume it must be a moth. Over to the moth enthusiasts......
Nice city you've found. I wish there were more.
Thanks all for the comments and the ID from Dean and Skev. Emma, pick a nice, calm sunny day. There is a pull in west of Widdrington village roundabout at NZ246958 and follow the farm tracks. The reason these meadows and woodland are here is because of the former opencast workings. New habitats have been formed and are excellent for wildlife possibly through accident rather than design and because of this they escape herbicides and pesticides and no farmers to flail the hedgerows to bits. PCF thats a great blog you have. I've never had a good look around Prestwick carr.
Hi Nigel, I think your Common Spotted Orchids are actually hybrids!
Probably Common spotted x Northern Marsh due to there size!?
Hope this helps?
Cheers,
Dave.
Thanks Dave, they are the largest I've seen.
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