Butterfly Hunting in the cemetery

After a warm and bright start the sky began to cloud over and by early afternoon it had become overcast, but warm and humid.  I was keen to go and check on the white helleborines that I had found in May.  To my knowledge they were first discovered growing here in 2015 and I went on 7th June to check them out.  Although I only managed to find 20 I understand the official count was around 200.  Whilst walking through on May 15th this year I found them again despite there being none in the intervening years.  In May I found five and today six and they had seeded so hopefully this will mean more in years to come.  I also found a single bee orchid and and a solitary pyramidal orchid in the same spot.  Great news indeed.

The other aim of my walk was to look for butterflies in the adjacent woodland cemetery.  Unfortunately the cloudy conditions meant that there were none about and I had to make do with a couple of green veined whites.  Still, these are lovely butterflies and good to see.  There was plenty of hogweed in flower and also dog roses, one of my favourites.  In the main cemetery there was plenty of lesser willow herb and the grass was thick with daisies.  Birdsfoot trefoil or 'eggs and bacon' was growing rampantly on some of the older, les well tended graves.  Blackbirds were plentiful with some singing males and it was pleasing to hear a singing male blackcap.  There were plenty of magpies and wood pigeons about as well as flocks of fledgling and adult starling busily foraging in the grassy areas.  I really enjoyed watching a pair of wrens feeding their brood of fledglings - a success story.

White Helleborine

White Helleborine

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

Pyramidal Orchid

Birds Foot Trefoil

Green Veined White