Orchid time

June is the month when many orchid species flower. Many have colourful, exotic looking flowers but others are rather plain, even monochrome.One such is the rare birds nest orchid. It grows in deep shade in woodland, has no leaves and no chlorophyll to power it but relies solely on nutrients from dead leaves, ie it is a saprophyte. 

Butterflies

The magnificent purple emperor butterfly is slowly moving north and we now seem to be getting annual sightings in the south of the county.The first this year came this week when one appeared on a driveway in Ticknall.Another butterfly moving up county is the marbled white which is actually a member of the brown family rather than the whites.

Once thought to be very scarce, careful searching has shown that in fact purple hairstreaks are far more common and widespread.In the late afternoon and evening, small groups display high in the canopy and look like tiny silver leaves as they do so.This species occurs on my local patch and indeed right on the butterfly transect route.It was also great to hear that the purple hairstreak's close relative, the white letter hairstreak, has been seen on the disease-resistant elms (DRE's) planted in Derby and elsewhere in the south of the county in places where small colonies of white letters had been lost when the elms there had died from Dutch elm disease. Pro-active conservation can work!

And more butterflies are coming on the wing as summer progresses. I saw my first essex skippers last week. Identifying them usually requires getting down on your knees in order to see if the undersides of the antennas' tips are black (essex) or orange (as in the small skipper). Last year I spotted an essex skipper motionless on a valerian flower and was able to identify it without kneeling! It was a dull morning and the insect wasn't keen to fly. Sometimes insect watching is better when the sun isn't out. 

Ladybirds

Inspecting hogweed flowerheads (as one does), I was surprised to find over 100 seven spot ladybirds feeding on the aphids which were infesting the dying flowerheads on my local patch. Previously I had seen only a few singles here and there. Pleasingly there were no harlequins at all!

Wildflower meadow time 

June is the time to visit any wildflower meadow within reach. The nearest ones to me were created on Godfrey Meynell's small estate and a wander through them on a sunny (and windless) morning was delightful.Flowers included those of ladies bedstraw, musk mallow, greater and common knapweed, oxeye daisy, tufted vetch, birds foot trefoil (BFT) and yellow rattle.

Heading south already?

It may seem surprising but several birds have completed their breeding attempts and are heading back to their winter quarters.Cuckoos are among the first to leave since they don't have to incubate eggs or rear chicks!

Some northern waders are also moving south, these being either failed breeders or immature birds. I see black tailed godwits were seen at two county sites and a common sandpiper at another. 

And young swifts that hatched last year and which have returned north for a first exploration of where they might nest in subsequent years, have been seen flying south along the East coast this week. Some 800 were counted by Mark Pearson just after dawn the other morning but even bigger movements are likely shortly.

Talking of swifts... UK Swifts Awareness Week 2025 kicked off (Saturday 28th) and runs through to 6th July with 108 events nationwide and 8 in the county, all run by local voluntary swift groups of which there are now over 150. Coordinating them nationally has been a pleasure.