A walk around Haigh provided me with good views of yellowhammer and dingy skipper, while Billy’s Wood produced small yellow underwing moth. At both Billy’s Wood and Haigh, the leaves of common spotted orchid were showing so it wont be long before these beautiful flowers are in full bloom
dingy skipper
Yellowhammer
small yellow underwing moth
The early purple orchids were in full bloom at Brockadale today, in the woods as well as the meadows. I also had a raven fly over.
A fruitful trip to Brockadale resulted in a great encounter with these common lizard (Lacerta vivipara) found basking on a log. .
Common lizard.
Like adders, the common lizard manages to reproduce in our relatively cold climate by bearing live young, rather than laying eggs as do most other reptiles.
Common lizard.
Grass snakes are found in the Brockadale area but they reproduce by laying eggs. They cope with the British climate by putting the eggs in piles of rotting vegetation, such as compost heaps, where the heat produced by the decomposition keeps the eggs sufficiently warm.
During a quick trip to the former colliery site at Haigh, I came across my first dingy skipper of the year and managed a few images.
Dingy Skipper
The peregrines have nested successfully again and we now have three chicks in the Wakefield Cathedral box! Two hatched between 22:30 and 23:45 on 3rd May and the third, between 14:00 and 15:00 on 4th May. We will add some images very shortly. The project to get live streaming is well under way, with minor issues still to sort, but we hope to have the feed online very shortly..
Here are a few images from Brockadale. The butterflies are at their best at the moment with plenty of marbled white on the wing and lots of dark green fritillaries over a wider area than usual. Orchids are a bit more scarce this year with only a single bee orchid noted. 
A walk around Haigh to day produced this newly emerged four spotted chaser.
four spotted chaser – Colin Booker
I had my first primrose of the year at Brockadale today, Sunday 22nd February and also noted 30+ fieldfare and displaying buzzard.
Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)
Here are a few images from a recent Brockadale trip. Bee and common spotted orchids are flourishing and there were plenty of insects
bee orchid and hairy plantain
common spotted orchids
bee orchids
banded demioselle
We walked from Haigh to Darton today, lots of warblers and good numbers of butterflies. The highlight was a pair of Log tailed tits building a nest in the fork of a large willow, overlooking the river.
long-tailed tit nest