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Summer surveys

In between the rain and wind, we have had a few sunny days, and these are the best times to find wildlife at Dane Valley Woods.

We were contacted again by Malcolm Watling, who sent us in a butterfly survey here, from last year. This year he said:

‘The weather hasn’t been very butterfly friendly during my visits to Margate this year, but the 3rd July had some useful sunny intervals when I visited the site.  There weren’t many butterflies, but that was partly because this time of year is between the spring and summer broods of some species.  However, the Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns had recently begun to appear, and there were quite a few of them around, despite the rather cool wind.  I saw several Small Whites, some Holly Blues, a couple of Small Skippers and one each of Large Skipper, Painted Lady, Red Admiral, Burnet moth and the pale, summer form of the Comma.  A botanical bonus was a Pyramidal Orchid in the Oxeye Daisy area patch.’

Pyramidal orchid

Such a beautiful photo from the eagle-eyed Malcolm!

Elsewhere in the woods, we have spotted 10 lizards in just a 20 minute stretch, including yet anther rare colour variation of the common lizard, which can be spotted in the middle in the photo below.

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