Monday Butterfly Transect

Although last week was wet and windy, the last few days the weather has dramatically improved to beautifully warm and sunny and seemed to be an ideal time for a butterfly transect. I set off with great anticipation and not a cloud in site. But how disappointing it was! I only had three butterflies through the whole walk - a single brimstone, a single speckled wood and a single green-veined white. I don't know why this should be as I had expected it to be a bumper year after such a mild winter. I did see a couple of holly blues and a lone peacock butterfly outside of the transect, but it was still worryingly quiet.

On a plus side, I have added two more species to the Patch list. Whilst walking along a board walk in Reffley Wood, I spotted a yellow pimpernel poking it's head through the gaps of the cross slats. I haven't noticed this species before, but now I have seen it I have found it in a number of places around the wood. The other was the meadow buttercup that is quite prolific around the margins of the Reffley Reservoir.

yellow pimpernel

After finishing the butterfly transect and having some lunch, I had intended having a go at some more sedges and grasses. I was making my way back to Osier Marsh, but it was so hot that I sought the shelter of a small copse next to the River Gaywood for another cup of tea. It was quite pleasant just sitting there in the shade and watching a speckled wood flying from nettle to nettle and basking in the small shafts of sunlight that were filtering through the trees. A group of hoverflies were buzzing around just out of my reach, guarding their small territories and challenging each other from time to time. A male blackcap was singing close by, hiding amongst the low and tangled foliage. I managed a couple of brief glimpses, but it was to well hidden to be able to enjoy it in the full.

I finished my cup of tea and decided that it was just too hot to continue. I am not normally one to complain about the sun, but I was feeling quite uncomfortable and decided to leave the grasses and sedges until the next time.

24/05/16 to 28/09/13

This second week of my holiday didn't feel as good as the first week, but it was in fact one of those 'quietly successful' weeks. The seeds for what would unfold were sown in that first week when I sat down to have a go at some sedges and grasses around the Reffley Reservoir.

I had spotted a sedge growing on the very edge of the water and had decided to spend a day IDing these often ignored species. After a great struggle, I eventually ID'd the sedge as True Fox Sedge Carex vulpine and went home quite happy. It was a few days later that I came across a distribution map and realised that it doesn't occur in this part of the country. So I decided to go back on the Tuesday of the second week to work out what it actually was.

I picked a nice spot next to the inlet pipe for the reservoir and set myself up for some hard graft. I decided to start of trying to ID some rushes that were just in front of me and was pleased to find I keyed them out quite easily and that they were hard rush Juncus inflexus - duller and more glaucous than the soft sedge Juncus effusus that I had already recorded several years back.

After much procrastination, I found I couldn't put the task off any longer and so I started back on the sedge. It was another struggle and I kept coming back to my original ID, before realising that what I had was actually false fox sedge (Carex otrubae). It is very similar to true fox sedge, but this actually does occur in this area. It just couldn't be anything else!

Afterwards, I was reminded of a very useful publication on the flora of King's Lynn that I have and so I decided to check if false fox sedge has indeed been recorded on the exact location. And it wasn't. There was no mention of it at all. Frustratingly, I would have to go back yet again to have yet another go at it!

So I went back on the Thursday and armed myself with a list of sedges that do occur around the Reffley Reservoir. I set about procrastinating once again and surprised myself with a new flower for the site and for myself. It was a beaked hawks's-beard Crepsis versicaria, a common enough plant that I felt sure I would have recorded before, but hadn't! I refreshed my memory with the brooklime Veronica beccabunga that was growing in the inlet and the black medick Medicago lupulia growing on the bank. I even stopped for some lunch (and getting totally sprayed by the grass being chucked out the back of the mower that was present) before trying the sedge once again.

I looked at it and studied it over and over again. I went through all of the families of sedges and discounted each family one by one until I was just left with the one, which included both of the fox sedges. I went through each description and got it to the false fox sedge every time. A friend had turned up and assured me that false fox sedge was in the flora of King's Lynn, but I showed him the list I had copied to prove that it wasn't in it. Frustrated, we left and slowly made our way back home.

It was when I got back home that I went through the flora of King's Lynn once more, and I was right - false fox sedge wasn't there. Then I turned the page over. My friend had been quite right, the sedge is in the book and does occur around Reffley Reservoir. I had almost wasted a whole day trying to turn the sedge into something it wasn't just because I hadn't turned the page!

I did start to go down my Patch on the Friday and just as I was starting I received a text. It is the bane of my life that when I am on holiday, I will very often get a phone call from work to say someone has gone ill and could I come in. And this was what the text was. I was going to have to interrupt my holiday yet again and go to work. Out of three holidays that I have had this year, all three have been messed up in some way because of work.

So I had to wait until Saturday before I was able to go out. Looking at the weather, I decided that it would probably be my best chance of completing a butterfly transect. So that is what I did. I couldn't stay too long afterwards because I was going out later on and needed to get ready, but I was still able to get some good records. A dock bug Coreus marginatus found on Osier Marsh was another first for the site and myself, there were a number of flowers flowering for the first time this year and I managed a quick glimpse of a bullfinch.

dock bug

I decided that I would be better to do the transect in reverse, so I would end up closer to home when I finished. So I went on up into Reffley Wood and had an early lunch in my usual spot on a nice and comfortable bench. After lunch I made my way to where I was going to start the transect and decided to have another cup of tea before actually starting. As I was sat enjoying my cuppa, I spotted something flying around and I moved in for a closer look.

It soon settled and I nearly dismissed it as one of the cuckoo wasps, before remembering a recent article about blood bees. I had never heard of them before, but they too are parasitic and are so called because of their red abdomens. Realising that this could be one, I netted it for a closed inspection and it did indeed turn out to be a box-headed blood bee Sphelodes monilcornis. Once again, it was a first for the Patch and a first for myself.

And that was it. I finished the butterfly transect and my holiday. I spent all day Sunday recovering from Saturday night, but the weather had already turned and so it was so bad. All in all, I would have to say that this has probably been the best holiday where I have stayed at home that I have ever had (excluding having to work on Friday!)