Early morning PL and late afternoon Heath Spotteds

On Wednesday 3rd June, a Painted Lady was posing nicely on the flowering Raspberry bush in the garden before work 7.10am and I managed a few pics. Being early finish day I went into the wilds of East Anglia and located a fine colony of c150 Heath Spotted Orchids in a slightly boggy area just off the reserve at 6.30pm and managed to get a few pics. I managed to dodge the frequent rain showers fortunately.

Mating Painted Ladies & visits by HBHM to the garden

On Sunday 31st May, an eventful evening in the garden revealed 2 mating Painted Ladies disturbed as I watered the hanging basket by the pagoda and they flew up and over to the plastic garden chair by the back door and settled by the plastic watering can! Slightly later on a Hummingbird Hawk Moth very briefly visted the Red Valerian at 6.36pm again gone by the time I raised my camer but I was ready for it when it came back at 6.40pm and spent 3 minutes feeding from various Red Valerian plants before flying opff north-east down the passageway. PTBA

Gull-billed Tern at Minsmere

On Sunday 31st May, having been woken at 4.20am up by Andrew's tweet that the GBT was still at Minsmere, I left and arrived at Minsmere at 6am. I saw Andrew walking down the path and I doubled back to view from Whin Hill, where I could see the fine Gull- billed Tern flying around the Island Mere. There were also a couple of Bittern flying too. TBC 1st year Little Gull close by the bund Roseate tern then the pair of Roseate Terns seen by the 2nd bund from the left as viewed from the public hide, heard Gropper but disappeared 20 seconds before I arrived by the bench along the boardwalk. I then went into deepest Suffolk and found 2 fine Greater Butterfly Orchids plus a Red- legged Partridge crouching very close under branches. TBC & PTBA

2 Painted Ladies in the garden

On Saturday 30th May, in the early afternoon, I saw 2 Painted Ladies high up in the trees by the rear fence, too high up to photograph.

Painted Lady fluttering around

On Thursday 28th May, in the early evening, a fine Painted Lady was seen fluttering around in the front garden directly underneath the Longe window but was off before I could photograph it, unsurprisingly!

Hummingbird Hawk Moth in garden briefly

On Wed 27th May, an Ichnoid Wasp was found in the work office at 8.30am, I successfully caught it with the butterfly net and released it unharhed in the wild patch of the Burrage Centre garden where the Bee Orchids were starting to flower with 1 of 4 flowering Bee Orchids photographed, there are 9 spikes of 8 plants. Meanwhile in the afternoon, a Hummingbird Hawk Moth was seen very briefly on Petunia in our back garden at 4.02pm.

Missed again at Minsmere

On Wednesday May afternoon, hearing of a Gull- billed Tern I left straight away and was very disappointed to hear it had flown off when I arrived at Minsmere car park, both Jon B. and Jane F. informed me it had gone. The Rosy Tern's were also not present, I always struggle with seeing this species at Minsmere. All 3 Terns had been seen twenty minutes previously. On the North Girder, 40+ Sandwich Terns seen, c15 Common Terns plus a Dunlin too. On the bund closer to the South Hide, 7 Little Tern seen. A flock of 40+ Black- tailed Godwits seen in the soth-east corner of west scrape. A stop off nearby revealed a Stone Curlew quite close but unfortunately the bright setting sun was directly behind it. plus a Dunlin too.