Budgehill Blues...

Dad shows youngsters how to deal with the heat

Common Blue, section 3

Common Blue, section 5

Green veined white,section 5

Likes to make an appearance,resident brown Hare

Pretty good conditions for Budge Hill butterfly survey and 31 butterflies kindly flew within transect during my 50 minute survey. Vegetation within transect has grown apace since April and this is especially true on Budgehill Bank where yellow rattle has shot up along with various grasses. Cowslips have pretty much gone over and after a widespread search the 'Dukes' are conspicuous by their absence. Still 9 Speckled woods, 12 Large whites, 3 Small whites , 3  Common Blues, 1 Green-veined white, 1 Orange tip, 1 Peacock and 1 Red Admiral was a pretty respectable total. As well as an appearance from the usual Hare, 2 adult Buzzards came close one startled from an ash tree close to the trail.

Egrets and bats

Great White on the Broadwater

Camera shy, couldn't get closer than drystone wall

Wednesday at Sherborne was fairly relaxed probably because of the recent bank holiday but more likely due to the rangers seeking a respite from their increased activities in support of the current wildlife initiative. Mike did invite me to a brief visit to the 'kennels' bat roost where he carried out a minor but important 'carpet fitting' over camera cables. I witnessed the  lesser  horseshoe bats settling into their summer roost and saw the 'approved' camera installation which hopefully will capture some rare footage of bat 'pups' in June. On the return journey to the estate office we saw 2 little egrets and a great white egret on the Broadwater. I managed to get a long range picture of the rarely seen great white egret which proved to be even more sensitive to disturbance than the more common grey herons. The rest of the session was spent with James where I helped to pickup two 5 bar gates from Stow on the Wold, no mean feat but I did learn how to tell a left hand from a right hand gate!.

Also managed to see some of the motion cameras  footage where foxes, badgers, pheasants and deer showed up in numbers and proved less camera shy than might be expected. Looks promising for fitting trackers to the resident badgers and foxes.