Dingy skipper and small yellow underwing moth

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

dingy skipper

Yellowhammer

Yellowhammer

small yellow underwing moth

small yellow underwing moth

 

Lizards at Brockadale

A fruitful trip to Brockadale resulted in a great encounter with these common lizard (Lacerta vivipara) found basking on a log. .

Common lizard.

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.

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.

 

 

Peregrine Chicks hatched

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..

Butterflies at Brockadale

 

 

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. P1070222 P1070232 P1070279 P1070288 P1070324 P1070355