With just two more sunny days forecast this week I decided to go in search of any early Marsh Fritillaries at Morgan's Hill near Devizes. At least one has been seen here already this year.
As I neared the reserve my tyre pressure check light came on but I managed to reach the reserve car park.... and then forgot to check...more later!
I walked up to the reserve entrance noting Brimstones and orange tips as I went. On entering the reserve, I spoke to a couple of people who said they had been searching unsuccessfully for Duke of Burgundies and Marsh Fritillaries but had seen dingy skippers, common blue and brown argus, the latter two of which I had not seen yet this year.
I carried on to an area more sheltered from the wind, and spotted good numbers of dingy skippers, but no common blues or brown argus. I did nearly step on a small copper which was perched on a dandelion but it flew off and I didn' t find it again. The I noticed a larger, orange coloured butterfly at a distance but I couldn't identify it, was it a comma? It appeared and disappeared a couple of times until eventually I caught up with it, and it turned out to be.. a wall brown, which was another year tick. In fact there were two of them.
Although not seeing my target species, I did find a total of 9 species so was happy with that, although photos were at a premium with few settling.
On my return to the car... I was faced with a deflated tyre... I knew I had little credit left on my phone so hoped the RAC would answer my call before it ran out. Thankfully they did and I quickly gave them my mobile to return my call if needed. At the end of my call I had 75 pence credit left!! Although they said allow up to three hours, a RAC van was able to get to me within 40 minutes and thankfully I was home in reasonable time so managed to get a new tyre from the local depot. All's well that end's well!
view from Morgans Hill
wall brown
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