With the butterfly season slipping away, it's time to look for my last new butterfly sightings of the year at the nature reserves of Aston Rowant (silver spotted skipper) and Otmoor (brown hairstreak) so with fine weather and warm temperatures predicted I headed over there this morning. It was a 50 minute drive down to Aston Rowant via the A40 and M40 but the traffic was good and I arrived just before 10am.
After entering the reserve at the top of the slope I initially saw very few butterflies apart from the odd meadow brown. However leaving the main path for a narrow trodden path through the grasses and flowers I disturbed a chalk hill blue, the first of dozens throughout the reserve. However, being fairly early in the day and still fairly cool, most of them were warming themselves up in the sun on the ground, rather than nectaring. My target species of a silver spotted skipper being far less numerous. I began to look carefully at the flower heads as I walked. After some time, a smallish orangey brown butterfly suddenly whizzed passed and stopped suddenly down in the grass. A closer look revealed a skipper like butterfly with silver flecks on its underwings; my first silver spotted skipper of the year. However It wasn't easy to photograph and soon flew off.
I spent the next hour or so walking through the site, noticing meadow browns, gatekeepers, common blue, a brimstone and eventually a total of eight silver spotted skippers which I was pleased with, having only found one last year.
Leaving the site, I set my sat nav for RSPB Otmoor, half an hour away, where I hoped to find brown hairstreak butterflies. There had also been some posts about a ruddy shelduck and black necked grebe being seen from one of the viewing screens so if time I thought I'd look for these too.
I spoke to a gentleman who was searching for hairstreaks at the usual spot on what it known as the Roman Road. He said he'd been looking since 10am and had had good views of a male and then a very short glimpse of a female but both had now flown off. I waited alongside him for a while then decided to wander further along the path while he went the opposite direction. Suddenly I heard him whistle and saw he was frantically waving at me: a male brown hairstreak had come down and was feeding from a bramble flower where it could be seen well at head height. It stayed there for a ages, and I'd taken as many photos as I needed and then I suddenly noticed another had just landed on an unripe blackberry right in front of us. It opened its wings to reveal that it was a more brightly coloured female but before we had time to reposition our cameras, it had gone!! However whilst waiting I did see a few common/ruddy darters, a southern hawker and a brown hawker. Sadly the hairstreak didn't reappear so I decided to take the twenty minute or so walk to the first screen. The bridleway was very dry, so different to the squelchy mud that I'd had to negotiate earlier in the year! Only one other person was at the screen, and looking out at the water, I quickly spotted the bright orangey plumage of the ruddy shelduck as it preened itself alongside three cattle egrets. To the left I found the black necked grebe resting just behind some mallards.
These brought my total of bird species seen this year to one hundred and fifty-six, just over my total for last year!
chalkhill blue
two 'chalkies' and a meadow brown sharing the same flower
silver spotted skipper
ruddy shelduck and cattle egrets
ruddy shelduck
juvenile black necked grebe (distant)
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