Wildlife

James Lowen

Then I checked a nearby site to see whether last year's breeding Red-veined Darters had sustained a population. I failed to find any - although Marc Heath discovered a quintet the very next day! Frustratingly, I had a brief view of what appeared to be a male Lesser Emperor (blue saddle atop black abdomen), but failed to clinch it (didn't see the green eyes) and then lost it to view and did not relocate it. Guess what? The next day Marc independently found Lesser Emperor (check out his blog entry for 8 June). Groan...

And so onto Foreness Point, where the kind Mr Hunt was chuffing on a fag, waiting for me to arrive on Thanet proper. The chlorantha Bee Orchid was an utter beauty: lemon, lime and crystal. What a stunner! Barry then took me on a whistlestop tour of nearby sights, pointing out where he had found innumerable BBRC rarities. I began to turn as green as the Bee Orchid. Pulling into North Foreland, a coastal strip of grassland (a Kent Wildlife Trust 'roadside nature reserve') was strewn with Lizard Orchids, with a few clumps of Pyramidial Orchids and a score of Common Broomrape. 'Lizards' are remarkably tropical in feel, a sensation enhanced by the backdrop of cyan sky and royal-blue sea. A cracking evening out.

Blog

7 June 2014 Dammit, Thanet, I love you

It has taken me far too long to appreciate the gem that is (the Isle of) Thanet, Kent's northeastern extremity. But now I love it. Just in time for us to leave it. Groan.

Late afternoon on Saturday, the chores for our daughter's 4th birthday party largely complete, my good behaviour eanred an exeat. The sensible thing to have done would have been to stay local. In summer, however, I am rarely sensible. Barry Hunt, Thanet's finest, had found a rare variant of Bee Orchid ('chlorantha') at Foreness Point - and that was not to be missed.

First, however, I had a Kent dragonfly tick to target. For the past week, a Norfolk Hawker had been flying around the car park at East Blean Woods, just off Thanet. Marc Heath had photographed it, and pan-species listers Sarah Patton and Jonathan Newman had called in on it. Arriving at 17h00, I quickly found the hawker making circuits of the clearing, several metres above ground (and thus unphotographable). Although this species appears to be colonising Kent (breeding not to far away at Westbere Lakes), it remains a rarity in the county. Back-up came in the form of a very fresh and highly confiding Heath Fritillary. Yum.