No matter, Helen and I went for a late afternoon walk and decided to have a look in the field off Brislands where there will soon be built around 160 new homes. The field at the moment is covered in grass and thistle, and as we walked in we found quite a few butterflies, at first the common Meadow Brown, but as we looked around it was clear that there were others. A large orange butterfly caught the eye, and it turned out to be my first Comma since March.
The entrance was quite a sun trap, and here we were able to find Large Skippers amongst the meadow browns.
Sometimes it is wrong to assume that the dark brown butterflies are all just meadow browns, if they seem smaller it is worth checking as they may be a Ringlet as was the case with this one.
We set off to Old Down hopeful that the warm weather may have brought out some more butterflies. As we entered the wood from Brislands the angle of the sun was such that the Hogweed were lit up against the dark of the bushes surrounding them.
We walked up and down the main rides checking the sunny patches, but once again it was just meadow browns. I did manage to find a large butterfly that was flying high in the canopy, when I got on to it with my binoculars i could see it was a White Admiral, but it never came down, and flew off into the oak canopies. They are about then, it is going to take some patience to capture them. As if in consolation a Red Admiral posed on the bramble, quickly followed by a Peacock, which like the Comma, was the first for quite awhile.
Unable to find anymore butterflies we left the wood and headed for the pond. Here we were entertained by the adult "DJ" ducks antics in the road, and by another Emperor Dragonfly hawking around the sunlit areas of the pond, again not giving any photo opportunities. From the pond we headed back home. Where the field off Gradwell had been cut for hay there was two Kestrels and a Buzzard hovering over it, obviously waiting for some tit bits to appear.
It had been a wonderful weekend, the first dry one since the last week of May, and very welcome, I wonder how long it will last.
Good to see the butterflies out in force. Great shot of that meadow brown. Everything is looking so lush with all that rain and now such warm conditions bring out that good feeling inside. Shame they are planting 160 houses:(
ReplyDeleteP.S. Hasn't escaped my notice of music lyric titles on your blog plus a few other quotes from poetry? Identified some,but others got me beat!
Aside from wildlife my other main interests are sport and music. I loved the way Chris Packham was able to get the lyrics into springwatch and that gave me the idea, I try to relate the lyric or poem to the highlight of the day, and it just added something different. The last 3 posts are from "Butterfly" by Crazytown "Barbados" by Typically Tropical, and a little more obscure "Bloodsucker" by Deep Purple.
DeleteI am now on a mission to pin down that dragonfly, it looks so impressive as it flies around the pond.
Got typically tropical,plus a few previous. So difficult though..especially Deep Purple! Have a passion for music myself so well impressed with Mr Packhams indulgencies. Keep promising to cut down on buying it...never works, too much good new and old music out there!
DeleteGood luck with those dragonflies - i suspect you will need it...