Lade - warm, dry and sunny, SW2 - June is orchid month here at Lade where we have four species: Common Spotted and Southern Marsh Orchids on the damp ground around the willow swamp plus Pyramidal and Bee Orchid on the dry shingle ridges, where this morning I managed to locate 11 spikes of gorgeous Bee Orchids, which was slightly up on last year. Last months rain and now the summer sunshine has resulted in a riot of botanical colour and scent across the site, but yet again grassland butterflies were few in number along my transect; hopefully this will improve as the month progresses.
Yesterday our Ted walk took us back to Pirate Springs in front of the golf links at Littlestone where the orchids had shot up since our last visit. I started counting Pyramidal Orchids and got to 250 before I gave up - there must`ve been hundreds more spread along the bank by the sea wall. Also of note was a singing Corn Bunting on the fairways, while on the sea a trickle of Sandwich Terns headed towards Dungeness. The garden moth trap improved slightly on Monday night with 12 species of macros including several Green Pugs and an Eyed Hawk-moth, the first of the season.
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