Since the 20th of June I have been looking for the Bee Orchids and the Six-belted clearwing moth at Low Moor Banks.
No look with the Bee Orchid but I did find a single SB clearwing moth and another Long winged conehead nymph (Left) in a different location within the site. This is the second nymph I have found of this rare breeding Bush-cricket which is rapidly moving north.
I also found at least 100+ Narrow bordered 5 spot Burnet moths.
When there are so many males on the wing females can be mated as soon as they leave the cocoon like this pair ( Left).
OK! but what about the Bee orchids?
Well I recently met a couple of knowledgeable naturalists Sue and Geoff at T B beck and drew their attention to the orchids and wildlife at Low Moor Banks.
I then received some brilliant news from Sue who told me: ” We toured the poor grass area where you recommended..(lots of clumps of Lady’s Mantle there) , where we saw quite a bit of Melilot, But no Bee Orchids. However, we found a single Early purple orchid…..Which is a site first!
There was a Common Spotted in front and a huge Early Purple behind which was going over. We saw them from the footpath to the left , above the bank of trees and way down to Oakenshaw park. The flowers were growing in quite lush vegetation on the right of that path.”
A big thank you to Geoff and Sue for checking this area while silly me was checking the normal areas..lesson learnt!
But sadly as yet there appear to be no Bee Orchids at the site. But I will pay another visit in the near future.
Moths have been plenty full with the muggy still conditions and yesterday I recorded 36 different species at Caldene fields with 3 new species for our area. However, there was a couple of show stoppers…here’s one of them!
