Another sunny day forecast and with a few early butterfly species I still wanted to add to my year list, I had to make the choice which reserve to visit. I checked out the Witlshire Butterfly conservation sightings list and decided that all the ones I hoped to find had been seen at Morgan's Hill reserve near Bishops Cannings, a site I've visited on several occasions before. My target species were Marsh Fritillary, green hairstreak, grizzled skipper, small copper and wall brown( although the latter two would be still flying later in the year)
Hoping that the carpark would be open I headed over to Morgan's hill picnic area, and was relieved to find it was, although it had quite a number of cars in it and some vans. I followed the main track from the carpark up hill and came to the gate into the reserve. However, it had a sign requesting people not to go on that area which was being kept safe for the rare Duke of Burgundy butterflies. It didn't matter really as I continued along the track where I knew there was a gate into the reserve just about where I expected to find some Marsh Fritillaries. It was still a little cold and to start with I could not see any butterflies at all although it was clear and sunny. But then I saw one, which happily turned out to be a Marsh Fritillary. It kept flying and landing and provided some photo opportunities though often it would land down amongst some grasses and be partially obscured. I saw a couple more of these before making my way back up hill. I continued to follow the path through a kissing gate until I came to an area above what is known as the quarry, and from memory I knew that this would be a sheltered spot.
Down in the quarry I met another lady who was also looking for butterflies. I enquired if she had seen any grizzled skippers as those of you who occasionally look at this blog may remember this species has eluded me for the past three years!!
She told me she saw quite a few in that area about 10 days ago but hadn't seen any today, but had found a small copper although it had flown off before she could photograph it. I stayed in the area for a while, then wandered off to see what else might be about but after a few minutes heard a call to say she had seen a couple of grizzled skippers flying about in the area. They had gone by the time I reached her, but she assured me that they would probably return which they did and I was finally able to photograph one of them!! They are attractive little butterflies, much brighter in colour than the dingy skipper but not as common and I was delighted that at last I had (with a little help!) managed to locate one.
Later we did find another small copper but although we looked again for green hairstreaks they were not to be found.
marsh fritillary
grizzled skipper
marsh fritillary
small copper
marsh fritillary
No comments:
Post a Comment