Helice

'Helice' Clouded Yellow

This rather striking white 'helice' form of clouded yellow was found, along with a few ordinary clouded yellows, at the edge of the caravan park this afternoon. Bird-wise there was again plenty around on Orcombe, with c300+ meadow pipit (a very rough estimate), c100+ 'alba' wagtail (again a rough estimate as birds seemd to be flying around in all directions at first light this morning), c40+ robin, 6+ blackcap, 6+ goldcrest, 6+ grey wagtail, 2 grey heron, 3 wheatear, 1 yellow wagtail, c50+ hirundine sp (a mix of swallow and house martin), 1+ ringed plover (over with 3 larger wader sp), 2+ reed bunting, 11 canada goose, c30+ chiffchaff and 1 great spotted woodpecker. Six raven headed east together and a while later a flock of 15 headed west, so potentially 21 birds in total today.

Above and below - Chiffchaffs.

There seemed to be chiffies, robins and meadow pipits everywhere today. It's really hard to get an accurate count on days like today. Chiffchaffs were working along the hedgerows and meadow pipits were springing out of every field in numbers. It's quite possible that my counts of these three species are way below what they should be!