WALK IN OAKLEY WOOD

Working through butterflies in order of emergence, I had reached pearl bordered fritillary, a species not yet seen by me. I  know of two  places where these can be found; in Bentley Wood near Salisbury and Oakley Wood, Cirencester.  Not surprisingly I chose the latter, being only half an hour away.  It is part of the Bathurst private estate but allows walkers  in during the day.

I parked in the woodland layby; a few other cars were there which seemed a good sign!  The route I planned to take was in the recently reproduced booklet, Butterfly Walks in Gloucestershire, and so I started off down the main track.  I had just turned off when I  met two walkers who were returning. Getting into conversation it turned out they had just turned back, not knowing where to find the butterflies, so on producing my booklet we all decided to follow the route marked. It was not long before we came across the first area of interest, where we quickly spotted at least 3 pearl bordered butterflies. It was a hot day, and they were very active, not settling, apart from one individual, so I quickly grabbed a few photos before it was off again.  We then went onto another suggested area; again 3 or so butterflies, but although they occasionally stopped to feed on bugle, they were only there for a couple of seconds so impossible to photograph without a good deal of patience (and time!)

Arriving home in good time, I made a quick visit to Stanton Park, butterflies around included large white, holly blue, small white and speckled wood. Also several chaser dragonflies around the ponds.  I noticed one brood of mallard ducklings. Also the two adult swans and last years cygnet were on the lake, no evidence of cygnets although I had recently seen the female on her nest. 

broad bodied chaser

broad bodied chaser

pearl bordered fritillary

speckled wood