The Old Rectory garden in Caldecote is open this weekend for Coffees and Teas (10.30-17.30 17th and 18th May 2025). It was looking very good yesterday when I took a few photos of the wilder areas - plenty more to see including formal areas and a pond with water features etc.We walked across from Toft through the wonderful Buttercup meadows - the Yellow Rattle is already in bloom.
Although our RPS Nature Group found plenty to photograph at Barnack Hills and Holes yesterday, the dry conditions have had a very bad effect on the flora with very few orchids compared to other years (eg only one very small Man Orchid). The Pasque flowers were still putting on a good show with all different stages still present but the Early Purple Orchids were past their best. I resisted going on an invertebrate hunt and concentrated on flowers but there were lots of incidentals like the beetle on the Rock rose, the small spider on the orchid and the small Hymenopteran on the Pasque Flower.
Photographers are never satisfied with the weather - today was a bit to hot and breezy for our macrophotography session at Paxton Pits as the insects were sheltering from the sun or waving around on leaves. All the Damselfly species other than the Emeralds are now on the wing and we managed to find most species and also an obliging Hairy Dragonfly perched plus quite a few views in the air together with the occasional Green-eyed Hawker etc. Right at the end we came across a couple of unusual Shieldbugs - Eurydema ornata only appeared in the south of England in 1997 and seems to have abandoned its usual coastal preference.
I was hoping to photograph lots of species at Royston to get some practise for this season's flowers but the dry (and sometimes unseasonably hot) weather has certainly inhibited growth and flowering. These were the only plants (other than small ground species and grasses) that I managed to photograph:- Yellow Thistle, Salad Burnet, Common Rock Rose and Yellow Mignonette
