A Sultry Walk Around the Horsefield

 Although it was a dull and threatening afternoon and rained later in the evening the day was warm and humid at 22C.  I hadn't been around the Horsefield for some days so set off to see what was about.  To me the land seems bone dry.  Despite a lot of rain at the beginning of the month it hasn't rained now for over two weeks and has been unrelentingly hot.  I was amazed at how much the vegetation has grown up; I have never seen things so overgrown.  Earlier rain and then high temperatures have produced an explosion in plant growth.  The freshness has gone now, though and things are beginning to look dried up, perhaps 'back-endish'.   Although I didn't make a detail count, there were a lot of whites about, mainly large and small and a few green-veined.  Gate keeps were also around in large numbers and there were good numbers of ringlet and meadow brown.  Amongst large numbers of small skippers I found 2 essex skippers.  I also saw 1 small heath, 2 small tortoiseshells and 1 common blue.

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View to show the black tips to the antenna of essex skipper.

View to show the black tips to the antenna of essex skipper.

Small/Essex Skipper.

Green Veined White

Green Veined White

Meadow Brown

Silver Y Moth

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Small White

Butterflies, Dragonflies, Sea Lavender, Sea Swimming and Fish and Chips.

Having dropped Jet off at the Kennels we were soon pulling into the Rimac car park on the Saltfleetby/Theddlethorpe NNR by which time it was time for lunch and a brew up before heading out into the dunes.  Despite being warm at 22C it was annoyingly windy which was going to make photography a challenge.  It was good to see rest harrow in flower as well as common centaury.  I always enjoy vipers bugloss and it was lovely to see some orchids still hanging on: pyramidal, southern marsh and common spotted.  There was a lot of marsh helleborine by the pond on the freshwater marsh, although it was past its best.  On the butterfly front there were lots of small skippers and whites about along with good numbers of ringlet and meadow brown and lots of gatekeepers.  I found one each of peacock, common blue and small copper which posed beautifully on ragwort.  There were large numbers of darter dragonfly but I could only find ruddy darters; why no common I wonder.  I have since posted some images on facebook and was delighted when a friend who is much more experienced than I am identified one of the gatekeepers as an aberration, ab.excessa.

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Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper ab.excessa

Gatekeeper

Marsh helleborine

Ruddy Darter, male

Ruddy Darter, male

Ruddy Darter, male

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, male

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, male

Ruddy Darter, female

Ruddy Darter, male

Small Copper

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Having enjoyed a couple of hours at Rimac we continued on down to Huttoft Bank for a paddle.  However, it was so pleasant there and the sea temperature at least moderate if not warm, I was tempted into having a swim.  The water was delightful and refreshing and I came out thinking we should indulge in more sea swimming!

Feeling refreshed, it was time to head back into Mabblethorpe for fish and chips.  On our way through earlier it had been unusually crowded in the town itself, reminiscent of boyhood visits for my birthday treat back in the 1950s when British seaside holidays were de rigueur.  In view of this we called at the excellent Queen's Park chippie where enjoyed our tea in the sun outside.  Excellent.

I was time to head homewards by now but not before calling in at Paradise Lagoon at Saltfleet to see what birds were about.  The lagoon produced lapwing, little egret, dunlin, greenshank and several green sandpipers.

Next stop was at Howden's Pullover for a brew and a short walk to look at the sea lavender which was excellent.  After this we could delay our return home no longer; it was beer o'clock!!

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Big Butterfly Count at Donna Nook

 Jet needed a walk today and not wanting to take him over fields because of the problem with grass seeds we decided on the coast and opted for Donna Nook to avoid Cleethorpes crowds.  It also gave me another opportunity to carry out a Big Butterfly Count for Butterfly Conservation.

After parking we made our way through the dunes and onto the edge of the salt marsh, the seal viewing area in winter.  The difference in the habitat was amazing,: the dunes were a mass of colour from a host of flowering plants:

• Crocosmia
• Ragwort
• Rosebay Willowherb
• Sea Lavender
• Thrift
• Sea Spurrey
• Knapweed
• Spear and creeping thistle
• Common Mallow
• Dog Daisy
• Ladies Bedstraw
• Yarrow
• Field Bindweed
• Goatsbeard
• Teasel
• Meadow Vetchling
• White campion
• Weld
• Yellow Rattle
• Hop Trefoil
• Black Medic
• Ribwort Plantain
• Tufted Vetch
• Red Campion

The sea lavender on the salt marsh looked absolutely stunning; who needs lavender fields!!

The seaward side of the dunes was very windy and few butterflies were showing so we walked as far as the north end of the realignment area where Pyes Hall Sluice was taken out where we crossed through to the sheltered side of the dunes.  I began my 15 minute BB Count here:

• Small skipper 37
• Meadow Brown 1
• Ringlet 7
• Small White 3
• Gatekeeper 4

I continued to cout beyond this but small skippers were so numerous I gave up counting them.

• Meadow Brown 4
• Ringlet 10
• Small White 1
• Gatekeeper 5

We had a very enjoyable walk and the realignment area is looking reall well now with large flooded areas and lots of waders.  Nothing out of the ordinary today but looks good for the Autumn.

A Valley Wood Walk

 It felt like being in a cavernous cathedral lit with a soft green light as we walked up through the Valley Wood at Wold Newton.  It was pleasantly cool in the wood after the heat of the open sun.  Emerging from the wood we were greeted by a view down the next valley to Beesby Wood and the coast beyond.  Our route took us down to Beesby where we climbed out of the valley and along the top side of the wood.  In contrast to the cool, green interior of the wood, to it's north harvesting was in full swing.  The barley had already been combined and the lone worker was leading the huge bails with a natty bail catcher and trailer that loaded the trailer semi-automatically and then unloaded them alongside the already massive stack.  Back in my youth this would have been a job for a team of men working with pitchforks and much smaller bails.  And not long before my childhood the harvest would be done with a reaper and binder and sheaves led by horse and cart to the stack yard where they would have been threshed using a threshing machine.  I well remember visiting my grandparents who sent me off down the field to find my great grandfather.  I found him working on top of the (to the eyes of a small boy) huge and fascinating threshing machine. He was retired by then and just 'keeping his hand in' but had worked on the land all his life.

I had hoped to find more butterflies, especially near Stock Furlong Wood but they were disappointingly thin on the ground.

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Big Butterfly Count in Scartho Woodland Burial Ground

 An overcast day today but still warm at 19C as I walked around the Woodland Burial Ground to complete a Big Butterfly Count for Butterfly Conservation.  During the 15 mins of my count I recorded :

• Ringlet 5
• Gatekeeper 13
• Green-veined white 2
• Small White 5
• Meadow Brown 2
• Speckled Wood 3

Outside of this time I also found another:

• Green-veined White 1
• Speckled Wood 1
• Ringlet 6
• Small White 1

To view large, please click on an image.

Gatekeeper

Gatekeeper

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood

Speckled Wood

Green-veined White

Green-veined White

Speckled Wood