White Helleborine and Stuff

I'm not getting much time for this here blogging lark of late, so this will have to be a quickie. A trip to Dorset on Thursday resulted in my first ever sighting of White Helleborine at a sight near to Badbury Rings, a lovely elegant orchid as a rule but the few spikes we saw were quite stunted. Still very beautiful non the less. Before looking for these we visited Martin Down where there were very few flowers to see and no sign whatsoever of the Burnt Tip Orchids I saw last year (there you go Tom, you obviously can twitch orchids because you can certainly dip them!). The weather was awful, damp and cold so no butterflies about either.There were lots of Corn Buntings, Lesser Whitethroats and Turtle Doves though so worth going definitely.

White Helleborine

Small Eggar caterpillars on larval web.

Tucking into Blackthorn Shoots

This Dryad's Saddle fungus was a monster.

While I was away in Dorset this happened...

After living in a small propagator in the pantry amongst the tins of beans for the last eight months my Elephant Hawkmoth finally emerged and I missed it! Still it was brilliant to see the perfect form of the newly emerged moth. Even though it is only one of probably millions of Elephant Hawkmoths to emerge this year I still felt a bit emotional as I watched it take its maiden flight into the night.