Tuesday 20 May 2014

Tuesday 20th. May 2014

A planned butterfly trip 'out West' was almost over before it started yesterday , as on checking the traffic conditions on the computer , before picking Martin up , showed the M25 clockwise completely shut between 8 and 9 because of a serious accident . I still called for Martin , and with the navigation in his hands , we cut across urban SE and SW London , and joined the motorway at junction 9 , without too much loss of time . From there on it was trouble free to our first destination , Cotley Hill , a Wiltshire butterfly reserve , arriving before the sun got up on the hill . Regardless we
made our way onto the site , and it wasn't long till we were finding our target species , still at roost and covered in the overnight dew , Marsh Fritillary . Slowly , the sun's warmth crept around the hill ,
but plenty of specimens were found , including pairs that had coupled the previous evening , and spent the night together . With the sun came much more movement after the initial warming up
stage , which proved to be the best opportunities for pictures . Like many species , the female is
larger and less vibrant than the male , lets hope that fat abdomen is full of eggs . The males were now
starting to scrap and charge around , but this one was found breakfasting on a Common-spotted
Orchid . After a while we decided to walk to the top of the hill , finding on the way one of several Yellowhammers along the way . Towards the top  , a small number of very active Wall Brown were
also found . The only shot I managed was of a male , trying to hide under a blade of grass . There was a cooling breeze on the top , along with a single Corn Bunting 'jangling his keys' , and a few Meadow
Pipits . By the time we started down the track , many more MFs were on the wing , and a mating pair
on Yellow Rattle , both with open wings , and a full underwing shot of a female , resting , having
recently emerged . Down at the bottom of the hill , without the breeze , it was very sultry and there were MFs everywhere , along with good numbers of Dingy Skipper , Small Blue and Green
Hairstreak to name just a few . Also down there was another , or the same male Yellowhammer ,
singing his heart out , and a noticeable emergence of 5-spot Burnet Moths . With the MFs becoming almost impossible to photograph through constant movement , after 4 wonderful hours on the hill , we returned to the car to head for our second site , hopefully to see two more Fritillary species and 'The Duke' . Half an hour later , we pulled up in the car park of Bentley Wood , renowned for Purple Emperor later in the year . A quick chat to a couple of fellow enthusiasts having lunch in the shade , and we were off . The area we headed for was a clearing in the woodland , and being so , offered very little cooling and probably even more sultry than the previous site . It was long before we saw our

first target , Pearl-bordered Fritillary , now coming towards the end of their flight period , and looking past their 'sell by date' , but still very active and difficult to follow in flight in the

conditions . Even more active were their relations , the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary , who are just starting their flight period , and were in pristine condition . Numbers of both species above were low , and much following , losing, re-finding and re-losing went on , but during this time , our third target
species was found , Duke of Burgundy .
Other interest included yet another male Brimstone , thwarted by his proposed partner , and a few
Grizzled Skipper , a species that could well have been the subject of another visitor's sighting of Chequered Skipper , seen twice in flight , but didn't manage a photograph . Never say never , but that species is only found in Argyll , in western Scotland . In between sightings , I spent time trying to photograph a white and black moth . I never did manage a shot , but we came to the conclusion that it was a Clouded Magpie , perhaps . Two others did get in the viewfinder , Speckled Yellow on
Bluebell , and with Martin's ID skills , Brown Silver-line , which dived straight into the grass as
soon as it saw the camera . Just after 3pm. we headed back to the car to start the journey home to avoid the rush hour on the M25 , well happy with our 18 definite species of butterfly seen and 2 probable , as we were concentrating on the target species and Small and Green-veined White were most probably seen , but not positively identified . Thankfully , the M25 behaved on the way home , but with an outside temperature of 28C in places , the humidity of the day continued all the way home .

4 comments:

Warren Baker said...

It was a bit of a warm one wasn't it greenie! At least the Fritillaria liked it!

roger.wood800 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
roger.wood800 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
roger.wood800 said...

Darn it! Started off trying to delete a duplicate posting and ended up deleting both of them. It was simply to say, Wow, fantastic photos!