BC FIELD TRIP AT WHITESHEET HILL

     

Last year I drove all the way to South Croydon (Hutchinsons Bank) to obtain my first sighting of Glanville Fritillaries, normally only found on the IOW.  However, there were reports last year of these  butterflies being seen at a site in Wiltshire. No one seems to know how they got there but there is a feeling they may have been introduced. 

I was therefore very pleased to see a Wilts Butterfly Conservation field trip had been arranged to see if they were there again this year and  with good weather forecast I duly signed up for it. Warminster  is quite a way from my home (1 hr 22 mins) but with a free Saturday I didn't mind, and  even if not Glanville Fritillaries, there was a good chance of seeing a range of other species too, maybe a Painted Lady  which I've not seen yet this year but which are being regularly reported now. 

After a good  journey I arrived at the carpark with time to spare and after a while other butterfly spotters started to arrive too. I was interested to learn that one other chap had also come from the Swindon area. There were eight of us in all, including our leader, Hugo who records butterflies on this transect  site on a regular basis. 

We were told that the site was quite rugged and steep in places (!) so before we set off I  fetched my walking pole/monopod from the car to make things a bit easier. Hugo led us over a stile and down a steepish incline to where he  said he had seen some Glanvilles  over the past two weeks. It wasn't long before we saw our first one, which  rested obligingly for everyone to get  a photo.  This was the first of a couple of dozen or so that we saw over our two hour visit.  As a group we  were free to roam  as we wished over the hillside and managed to locate a satisfying twenty species in all although I didn't see all of them; however,  the ones I missed were ones I'd already seen this year.

Apart from the Glanvilles, the most exciting sighting was a clouded yellow butterfly which flew up and down the hill side but eventually did settle  in the grass for  long enough to allow us to see it close up. This is a migrant butterfly and one that I didn't see at all last year.   Another migrant is the Painted Lady butterfly, and we did see one of those too, albeit rather worn. Being up near the top of the hillside at the time, I had to be satisfied with a binocular view of this one though. 

The list of species seen included:

Glanville Fritillary, marsh fritillary, green hairstreak, grizzled skipper,  large skipper, dingy skipper, wall, peacock, brimstone, small white, painted lady, brown argus, common blue, Adonis blue, small heath, clouded yellow,  speckled wood, small copper.   

Glanville Fritillary

clouded yellow

white sheet hill

Glanville fritillary

brown argus

green hairstreak

Glanville fritillary, beautiful underwings

           

 

A BEAUTIFUL WALK BY THE THAMES

I was up in Berkshire yesterday afternoon so went for a walk alongside the  River Thames at Pangbourne on my way home. No clubtails, sadly, but I did see a lot of banded demoiselles ansd some red eyed damselflies.

red eyed damselfly

banded demoiselle

  

WHELFORD DAMSELS

I saw a few more damselflies at Whelford Pools this afternoon. Also a rather faded brown argus butterfly which I've not noticed here before. 

common blue damselfly

blue tailed damselfly

azure damselfly

 

FARMOOR

My choice yesterday was to visit Farmoor Reservoir where there is always something interesting to see. There are often waders on the shoreline alongside the causeway which separates the two reservoirs and today I was looking for sanderlings in particular.  I started walking across the causeway, there was a moderate breeze but it was not particularly cold and the sun occasionally came out from behind the clouds making it feel quite warm. Great crested grebes and coots were on the water but there was nothing in the way of waders until just before I reached the far end when I picked out some small black shapes at the edge of the water,  through my binoculars. As I approached I could see they were slightly different coloured, a dunlin and a sanderling maybe? However, the darker bird didn't have the traditional 'V' shape on its back that a dunlin had, so I concluded that they were both sanderlings, with one more advanced into summer plumage. They were both very confiding birds, allowing me to sit on the reservoir wall and photograph them as they contentedly kept running in and out of the water in search of food just below me. After watching them for a while, I took the path down to the pinkhill nature reserve and hide. I noticed the security lock had been removed and you were now free to enter without using a code. I heard reed warblers from the reeds and a cuckoo in the distance but with nothing else of note decided to take a walk alongside the River Thames which passes through the reserve. The sun had more or less disappeared but it was still warm enough for a few dragonflies, and I found my first four spotted chaser in the dragonfly pond, and a banded demoiselle along the river. 

Returning along the causeway, there was now a party of swifts passing too and fro over the causeway, sometimes at head height. Also a flock of house martins, noticeable by their white rumps.  As time was getting on, I decided to return to my car, with the intention of making a return visit to look for ringed plovers and turnstone which have been reported recently.  

BUTTERFLIES AT BOSCOMBE DOWN WEST

 When I planned my visit to the Great Bustard Project, I decided that I would probably have time to visit a local reserve to look for butterflies, particularly the Adonis blue, which I hadn't seen so far this year. Looking in my Wiltshire Book of Butterfly walks  I found a  possible site at Boscombe Down West, about 15 minutes away. 

This site consists of a disused railway line now managed as a nature reserve. Either side are chalk embankments and being sheltered provides an ideal butterfly habitat. 

I parked at the entrance which is adjacent to an airfield and walked down the level path. I saw serveral small whites, a few Brimstones, and a couple of orange tips. In an area of kidney vetch I found some of the blue butterflies; a small blue, brown argus, and some common and Adonis blues. There were also dingy skippers here and I found  rather worn green hairstreak too. Due to time restraints, I didn't walk the whole kilometre length of the track but returned to the car ready to make the journey home. 

Adonis blue

Brimstone

entrance to reserve

GREAT BUSTARD PROJECT VISIT

 Today I went on a two hour visit to the Great Bustard Project on Salisbury Plain. I'd heard about the project several years ago and had been meaning to book a trip for some time. I arrived in good time for the 9.30 trip, and waited at the meeting point at Enford village hall until the Landrover turned up with the group leader.  There is a maximum of 6 people per trip but this morning there were just three of us who had booked; myself and another couple,  where the lady had been given the trip as a birthday gift from her husband. She was very excited about it! 

As we were taken onto the plain, we were told of the origins of the project, how the birds had once been native to Britain but had been hunted to extinction in the 19th century and  how the Great Bustard Group had been formed in 1998 to establish a wild population, now 100 birds. 

Of course Salisbury plain boasts plenty of other wildlife too and driving along the track we  saw yellow wagtails, swallows, red kite, buzzard, meadow pipits, skylarks , red legged partridges, corn buntings and a ringtail (female) hen harrier. After a while we stopped to be given our first views of great bustards. A female and male were in the field on our right along the hedge line.

We turned off the road,  passed through a gate and down a rough track and stopped right behind the hide and disembarked. We sat at the windows and looked out onto the landscape ahead of us; it looked like a series a steps cut into the hillside, some grassed, and some rough stony ground. At first everywhere looked deserted then we gradually noticed some great bustards, sadly quite distant, but nevertheless unmistakable. More birds seemed to appear from nowhere, some flying from  over the  top of the hill. It was towards the end of the 'Lek' but several males were still displaying to the females, looking incredibly 'white' as they showed their underneath white  tail feathers to try and attract a mate. 

Male Great bustards are  about a metre tall and are the heaviest flying birds but looked stunningly graceful when they did take to the air. We probably saw up to a dozen birds during our visit. Also from the hide we noticed stonechats, reed bunting and some lapwings with a chick.  After leaving the hide we  got back into our Land Rover and went a short distance to a hut which had been equipped as a souvenir shop, selling items ranging from t shirts and mugs to pin badges and tea towels. 

Our visit had ended but was most enjoyable and we felt we had learned a lot from it. 

I've included a few photos but the bustards were very distant. The final photo is one I took of a print we were given at the end of the visit. 

cornbunting

great bustard (female)

male bustard displaying

male great bustard

SMALL BLUES AT LAMBOURN

Today I decided to follow up a recommendation to visit a site at Lambourn where there is an abundance of small  blues.  I parked in a small area at a place called Crog Hill and within  minutes of stepping from the car, I approached a muddy puddle and as I did so a cloud of insects flew up -  not flies, but small blue butterflies!  They seemed to be everywhere, fluttering in the cow parsley alongside the track and far too many to count!  I was surprised to find a couple of Duke of Burgundy butterflies here too, as I didn't know they were any as close to home as this, must remember that - much easier than scrambling down the banks of Rodborough Common!   Stepping off the track into a grassy patch, I found a green hairstreak and dingy skippers and further on I found my first common blue of the year that I could identify properly. 

After having a good look around, I drove down the road to another site I've visited before known as Seven Barrows.  I usually visit later in the season when the grass is a lot taller  and there are more flowers out, but today there were fewer butterflies to see, I only found a few small blues and dingy skippers. 

Duke of Burgundy

small blue

Dingy skipper

small blue

common blue

track where the small blues were found