Abbey Meadows

Abbey Meadows

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Big numbers



Ringlet and Common Blue...Widdrington tip



Speckled wood and Vipers Bugloss...Old brickworks, Stobswood


Wood Vetch...Stobswood


Welted Thistle



Two out of focus moths...Old brickworks, Stobswood

Yesterday after the rain I went to Stobswood and Widdrington tip and as I entered the tip the first butterfly was a Small Heath, the first in sixteen years in this area, Sixteen years ago Speckled woods and Ringlets were not found around here but there were 6 Speckled woods and over 200 Ringlets. There was also 12 Common blues, 2 Large Skippers, 22 Meadow browns and a Painted Lady. Quite a few Moths kicked out of the grass but the two above I don't know what they are. Keeping up the big numbers I counted over 3100 Common Spotted Orchids within the confines of the old tip and this didn't include the many hybrids. At the brickworks I counted a record number of Viper's Bugloss with 940 plants. lots of birds around with 6 Sedge Warblers singing, 4 Buzzards (family group) and Redpolls with young were the best of the bunch. I could bore you further with the myriad species of grasses in flower at the moment.

4 comments:

Alan Tilmouth said...

The first I think is a Pterophoridae sp and probably not doable from this picture Nigel. The 2nd is Yellow Shell.

Kingsdowner said...

Impressive stamina shown in all that counting.

I think that's more butterflies than have been seen in the whole of the south-east in June!

Tim Sexton said...

The first moth is Platyptilia pallidactyla. There's more info on this and other moths online at www.northumberlandmoths.org.uk

abbey meadows said...

Many thanks for the comments and id. I'll have to visit that site more often Tim.
K Just a bit lucky watching butterflies between the deluges!