BOTANY BAY

BEE ORCHIDS SAMPHIRE HOESMALL TORTOISHELLS M ORCHIDLIZARD ORCHIDLIZARD ORCHIDHEATH FRITILLARY

As midsummers day draws near my attention turns more to butterflies dragonflies and flora and last week was quite successful as there were bee orchids,adonis and small blues at Samphire Hoe,Lizard orchids and Southern Marsh orchids along with a small totoishell at Sandwich Bay.Whilst in the hide at Rest Harrow scrape a surprise pair of Barnacle Geese arrived.On friday Paul Holt phoned to ask if I wanted to go to Blean for the Heath Fritillaries,the sun had disappeared by the time we got there but we eventually found two at rest.Later as we returned to the car park there was a brief burst of sunshine just as we walked through the coppice,at the flick of a switch a dozen or more were on the wing providing a fine air display(better than the noisy one at Margate).Looks like the weather is improving so hopefully England will too but I m not holding my breath.