With the target of finding a grizzled skipper butterfly, I drove over to Aston Upthorpe Downs this morning, a valley in the Berkshire downs, comprising chalk downland with juniper scrub. Having visited several times I was familiar with the parking area beside an old barn, followed by a half mile walk down a rutted track which opens out into a lovely valley accessed via a small gate.
Often it has been windy so I've had to look for a sheltered spot to find the butterflies I'm looking for but today there was little wind. Along the track I saw several brimstones and peacocks, also a comma which lay basking in the sun on the ground and soon after I entered the reserve, I spotted a small dark butterfly fluttering low above the ground - my first grizzled skipper of the day. Tick!
I saw about four individuals of this species in a short space of time, before finding a few dingy skippers and a small heath. Walking further up the valley , I saw two people who had stopped with cameras. Although they had moved on a bit, I soon found what they had been looking at - a couple of small copper butterflies, both very fresh looking. The lady was standing next to a large hawthorn bush and I quickly realised she was probably looking for green hairstreaks and after a while she pointed one out to me. We only saw two and already they were looking slightly faded. On my way back to the car, I found a fresh male common blue which made three new butterfly species of the year during today's visit, bring my total to 14.
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