I see from the new programme that you are going to Brockadale again this year.
There are two species to look out for;
Fly Honeysuckle (Lonicera xylosteum) in the old quarry behind The Cottage,
and Venus’s Looking Glass (Legousia hybrida), on the edge of field north of the river, near a small brick building.
I’m disappointed to see that Inkle Moor (a forgotten fen) has not been included within the programme once again, perhaps next year.
Ian. 18 March 2026
I saw this Heath Assassin Bug on Thorne Moors on 29/8/2018. The approx. location was SE726156. Ian.
From Stuart Foster – “It is not possible to be absolutely right with the identification as the male genitalia are best for this purpose, but I would say that it is most probably Coranus aethiops, the rarest of our two species in this genus.”
An interesting article by Trevor Pendleton on this species can be found using the link below. (Ed.)
The deer on Thorne moor usually keep under cover during the day, except when it’s the rutting season. They come out of the cover at night and go into the fields to eat. There have been complaints about the number of deer on Thorne moor by the farmers and someone did a night survey using suitable equipment. The number of deer then were quite high. Mick Oliver and myself have seen Sika deer on Hatfield moors a couple of times, identified by their different white rear patterns.
I was told that the red deer on Thorne moor are in-breeding giving rise to problems in the deer stock. Some of the red deer are even blind; I flushed a hind out of bracken once and it ran into a fence. Someone else saw it and reported the matter to NE. A man came and shot the deer. Kevin Bull told me that Stags were introduced from Scotland to alter the gene pool, but the local stags were better fed and larger so they chased the in-comers away.
Once when I was on Hatfield moors I saw in the distance what looked like a group of white birds flying low over the moor. When I looked through the binoculars they were deer running over the open peat. After I photographed the red deer stag bellowing in the rut (see above), I carried on walking along the track. After a while I got the impression I was being followed, I turned round and saw a large stag following me (see above). When it got to within about 150 yards it realised what I was and disappeared into the scrub. A good thing as there was nowhere I could have gone to escape it.
Pasque Flower
Having read Colins excellent article on the Pasque flower in the Doncaster area, it reminded me of when Dorothy Bramley suggested we go to Hills and Holes, Barnack, Cambridgeshire to see the plants there. (link to Colin’s article)
We were lucky to time it just right in 2002?
