Lesser Whitethroat, Ringlets & Bee Orchid

I had a very nice surprise yesterday, when a male Lesser Whitethroat popped up at the Brickworks, singing from scrub at the SW end of the site. It’s not an easy species to see or find locally, making it all the sweeter to experience. This isn’t the first record for the Brickworks though. Roger Prue found a singing bird on 2nd May 2013 in the field adjacent to Green Lane. Anyway, I recorded it’s vocal and hoped that when I returned in the afternoon I might be able to get some video footage. Unfortunately, it had either shut up, or flown off, and it wasn’t there this morning either.



On Wednesday, the Dacorum U3A Wildflower Group visited the Brickworks and let the Trust know that they’d found a Bee Orchid (Ophrys apifera) “in the field adjacent to Green Lane”. Great news and well spotted! I know Martin Parr came across 5 spikes at TL007028 last year, which is in a different area, so, it’s great to hear of another occurrence of this charismatic little orchid.

Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus)

This week, amongst the fresh Marbled Whites, there have also been a handful of newly emerged Ringlets and Small Skippers. I also had my first Damselfly at the site, a female Azure. And, having had a female Broad-bodied Chaser earlier this month, it was lovely to see a Southern Hawker dragonfly checking out the Buddleja bush by the entrance gate, on Monday.

Not the best photo but the colours are incredible on the Common Purple & Gold (Pyrausta purpuralis)

A few nice moths this week: Cinnabar, Burnet Companions, a vibrant Common Purple & Gold  and 2 Triple-stripe Piercers (Grapholita compositella). I first came across the Triple-stripe Piercer species with Martin Parr on 13 May, whilst we were looking for Cranesbill plants. This week, I was able to watch it in action. The moth would land on large bramble leaves and then rapidly spin round in a circle, with its head at the centre, as if playing Spin The Bottle. It was very odd and I can only assume that this process allowed the moth to pierce the leaf to feed on the juices? As for the larvae, they feed on Clover (Trifolium) species, where eggs are deposited singularly on leaves.

These 3 semi-out-of-focus shots don't do this little 10mm moth justice. Up close, it's smart!

Triple-stripe Piercer (Grapholita compositella)