Local Dark Green Frit!

The wild, unkempt rough grassland & scrubby habitats around Croughton Quarry, (just over 5 minutes from my home in Brackley), have become a bit of a lure to me in recent summers, producing a great array of wildlife of all shapes and sizes, while also regularly throwing up the odd new surprise.



One such, completely unexpected surprise on Sunday 23/06, was a freshly emerged Dark-Green Fritillary that dropped in and began nectaring on oxe-eye daisies right in front of me! I couldn't believe it. Unfortunately, after no more than a minute, a Marbled White crashed into it and off it zoomed, never to return!







The nearest populations of DGFs are in a few specialist Oxfordshire grasslands-type habitats, though none I'm aware of closeby. In Northants, where Croughton is, the only known sites are towards the northern end of the county - so a heck of a good local record. But where has it come from??

I'm desperate to find out - it must be pretty bloody close as it was so fresh! I guess it's possible I may have somehow overlooked a tiny population here, or perhaps the adjacent US Airforce base supports a population within what is a vast grassy area. Who knows - hopefully I'll find out somehow.

This June has also been particularly great for orchids, with a total of:

29 Bees, 4 Pyramidal, at least 33 Southern Marsh X Common Spotted & 3 Common Spotted. The biggest counts of all of these I've had a Croughton, by far!!



The Bee Orchids are definitely my favourites - they're just so fascinating and I love the big smiley faces on them - brilliant!





Small Heath butterflies are usually about in small numbers at this time of year. At the moment though, together with the Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns, their numbers have exploded, with at least 58 back on 23/06!