Hills and Holes - on 3rd June, 2017

I'll open by apologising to those people who left comments on my previous post, which I was tardy in publishing, and even more tardy in replying to. I've been away for a week in The New Forest, where the only reliable internet connection available was by use of my phone and away from the cottage that we were staying in. After first attempts at using this to publish comments went awry (my finger hit 'delete' instead of 'publish' on the small screen), I decided on minimal attempts to use this medium. All comments have now been published and replied to.

As one of the many volunteers at Rutland Water, there are a number of events specially arranged for our interest. I have found the Butterfly Walks, arranged by our excellent Volunteer Coordinator, Sarah Proud, to be particularly rewarding. For this occasion, Sarah had arranged a visit to the Hills and Holes nature reserve, by Barnack. Sarah had also arranged for ecologist Oliver Grice-Jackson to accompany us to help with plant identification.

Hills and Holes is famous for its orchids and butterflies. Our visit was too early in the year for Chalkhill Blue butterfly, but there were other butterfly possibilities.

Once gathered together, the first thing to come in front of the camera was a female Common Blue butterfly. This was one of the rather blue variants (most are mainly brown on the upper surface of the wings). 

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (female) - Hills and Holes

 Sarah pointed out a pair of mating Dock Bugs. I've never found these mating before.

Dock Bug (Coreus marginatus) (pair mating) - Hills and Holes

Our first orchid was Fragrant Orchid.

Fragrant Orchid (Gymnadenia conopsea) - Hills and Holes

Hills and Holes is also famous for its Pasque Flowers - now deemed a very rare plant in UK. These were nearly all finished by the time of our visit, but we did find a flower or two. However, the seed-heads after the flower finishes are also very attractive, as shown in the second image below.

Pasque Flower (Pulsatilla vulgaris) - Hills and Holes

There were a few sightings of Speckled Wood butterfly.

Speckled Wood (Parage aegeria) - Hills and Holes

There were plenty of the day-flying Common Heath moth flying around.

Common Heath (Ematurga atomaria)  - Hills and Holes

A male Common Blue butterfly was photographed with its wings closed, to show the underside.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) (male) - Hills and Holes

We were then back with the orchids, It seems that we were a little too early in the season to see the Pyramidal Orchid in all its glory, and I'm not sure if the Man Orchids were past their best, or if we were a bit early!

Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis) - Hills and Holes

Man Orchid (Orchis anthropophora) - Hills and Holes

An exciting find was a relatively early Brown Argus butterfly.

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis) - Hills and Holes

We also found an obliging Small Heath butterfly (there were a few around).

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) - Hills and Holes

I have saved to last what, for me, was the best part of the visit. Relatively early on in the visit, some dragonflies were spotted. I was not able to identify them there and then, but I knew they were different to what I am used to. There were three of them, and it turned out that they were Scarce Chasers. This is a species that I have never seen before. 

At the first sighting, I concentrated on one individual. This turned out to be an immature male - the abdomen and eyes of males soon become a fine blue colour.

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) (immature male) - Hills and holes

After the walk was over, I headed back to where the Scarce Chasers had been. There were now only two, one of which stayed up in the treetops. The one that came down closer, however, was a female.

Scarce Chaser (Libellula fulva) (female) - Hills and holes

For those wondering what the differences are between the two which signify which sex they are, it's largely down to the shape of the appendages at the end of the abdomen, and the well-defined dark smudges at the wingtips of the female (these are either absent or very faint in the male). 

With the dragonflies giving me my biggest excitement of the visit, this had been a splendid event, and I thank Sarah and Oliver for the arrangements and their guidance.

I'm not sure what my next post will be about, but I have an idea!

Thank you for dropping by.