The driver turned out to be an elderly gentleman who, sadly, had been recently widowed.Once an eye surgeon, who trained at Moorfield eye hospital and then worked as a surgeon at Oxford, he also was once a professional wildlife photographer, specialising in mini- beasts, although that was before the age of digital cameras which he hadn't yet mastered!. Maybe his interest in tiny creatures was reflective of his job as an eye surgeon! Today he was camera-free but had wanted to see a large blue butterfly, once extinct but now breeding on the reserve.
On arrival, there were several people who told us that there were a number of the Large Blues on the reserve and settling sufficiently to be photographed. With the sun intermittent I was unsure how easy it would to be see them, but in fact it turned to be my most successful year yet, with approx half a dozen individuals seen, and some with open wings. Initially there were one or two on the lower part of the reserve, but after bidding goodbye, to the ex-photographer/surgeon - who had achieved his objective , I then climbed to a plateau above where there were a few more, and I waited patiently, focusing on one individual with closed wings, until the sun appeared and it was persuaded to gently open them.
I also clocked up another couple of new species for the year; marbled white and ringlet but neither stopped to be photographed on this occasion. Total butterflies seen today were: ringlet, speckled wood, marbled white, small heath, common blue, large blue, brown argus and large skipper.
entrance to Daneway Banks reserve
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