BUTTERFLIES ON THE WING IN SPRING

This fine spring weather is bringing out a few of the spring butterflies and with  an afternoon of sunshine forecast I decided to make the most of it and visit Lower Moor Farm in the Cotswold Water Park to see what I could find.

Lower Moor Farm is owned by the Wiltshire Wildlife trust and has a lovely little cafe called the Dragonfly Cafe which overlooks one of the lakes, and from which sometimes you can see otters. 

There are three hides but they were very quiet today and I turned my attention to butterfly spotting. 

I saw a Brimstone flying along one of the lakeside paths which is bordered with a thick hedge. At the same time I became aware of a smaller white butterfly but which one was it? 

After flying up and down for a while it then halted and settled on a bramble stem from where  I could see it was a green veined white, its greyish-green veins very obvious in the sunlight. 

I continued my walk and  saw an orange tip flying past at speed, that was two  species new for the season now. I stopped off at the cafe for a cup of tea, and a chat with the Wildlife Trust representative  who had a stall adjacent to it. Rather than return to my car I decided I would re trace my steps, and perhaps find a few more butterfly species. However, I didn't see anything apart from a flyby peacock. until I reached the entrance to  children's  education wildlife area which has a pond and a couple of huts some grassy paths.

I met someone coming out  who told me they had seen various butterflies including an orange tip so decided I would linger in the area.  I soon saw a couple of peacock butterflies which obligingly perched on some blackthorn flowers. Then a small white butterfly again, another  green veined white?  But a closer look revealed it was a female orange tip, which lack the orange tips to its wings, but has black tips instead. I didn't get a glimpse of the underside which is a sort of mottled green and white  colour. 

An old notice board had something on it, which turned out to be a butterfly with wings closed, but its small white 'comma'  gave its identification away. A Comma. After a while it  opened and shut its wings a few times before  flying off on to some dried grasses and turning to face its wings to the sun. .

It was a nice afternoon to be out in the sunshine and always satisfying to see my first of any butterlfly species for the year.

 

green veined white

green veined white

peacock

female orange tip

comma

 

BACK TO FARMOOR

 After not having visited the Farmoor Reservoir for many months I was back again for the second time in a week. Last weekend I went to see a black redstart which departed soon afterwards then today I saw a report of two summer-plumaged Slavonian grebes. These grebes are a rare visitor to Farmoor and  I knew that it was likely that they would not stay long, so I managed to squeeze in a visit this afternoon. It was sunny but breezy and I knew I would be walking into a stiff westerly wind as I crossed the reservoir via the causeway so ensured I had some extra layers. 

Not knowing exactly where on F2 the birds had been seen, I asked a couple of photographers who were obviously returning.  It was right on the opposite side they told me, near a  shelter which I could see from where I was standing and there would  be some people there with tripods. The grebes had apparently been fairly close in but were mobile and dived often.

I headed over the causeway  and then turned left along the west bank when I reached the other side, aiming for the aforementioned spot where  I could see a two or three people in the distance. There were not many birds on the water apart from  a small flock of tufted ducks which I passed  as I walked. I noticed that the people I'd seen were coming towards me and when I asked about the grebes they said that they were now with the group of ducks I had just passed! The grebes must have been beneath the water and I didn't spot them! 

At first the two grebes were further out than the ducks but still with in photographing distance. I knelt down by the wall and prepared to wait to see if they came any closer or if they went further away.  As the minutes passed, I  realised that they were facing towards the shore line and were heading  nearer. Their golden 'ear tufts'  caught the sun's rays from time to time, making their summer plumage stand out. Occasionally they would dive and I would wait to see where they would reappear. 

After spending a while photographing and admiring these birds it was time to head for home, pleased that I made the effort to go and see them as it is unlikely they will stay around for long. 

N.B No sign of grebes the next day

FARMOOR BLACK REDSTART

 

    My original plan for today was to make another trip to the New Forest but after a rather busy week, and a weather forecast which kept on changing I decided to stay local. A report from Farmoor Reservoir yesterday of a black redstart also sounded a good alternative option. 

I've seen this species a couple times previously at this location, and knew exactly where to look. Black redstarts favour old buildings and roof tops and at the end of the Farmoor Causeway there is a rather derelect looking Thames Water building where I expected to find it. Almost as soon as I cast my eye on the roof,  I could make out a silhouette of a bird,  it had to be the black redstart..and it was!  That was easy! It was fairly distant but the bright orangey-red underside of its tail was clear to see as it hopped around looking for insects. it didn't get any closer so after a while I left and took a path down to the river where I walked along for a while. There was nothing particularly of note, though I did hear my first singing blackcap. 

Returning to the causeway I stopped again by the old  buildings and quickly re-found the black redstart. Surprisingly no one else had stopped to look. Occasionally it would dip down behind the roof edge but after a few minutes would reappear. It also made short flight to different parts of the roof and walls and once, when harrassed by a robin, it flew down to the ground and then suddenly to the hedge beside me, although at the other side. I just couldn't get my camera to focus on the small part of the bird I could see between the twigs but all of a sudden there was a fluttering of red ( both robin and black redstart) and it came round to the front. It remained there for only a few seconds so I hastily took a shot on my camera but it was far from good as a leaf partially obscured its head.

After a satisfying morning I headed back to the car and home, one more tick in my book. 

A TRIP TO THE MEDITERRANEAN(s)!

 I've known about the pre-breeding  gathering of Mediterranean gulls at Hayling Island for some years now, but until today I'd never actually been down to see them. So after finding out exactly where to go to see this gull spectacle, I got up early once again to make the trip down to Hampshire.

The journey took an additional ten minutes due to a weekend closure of the A419, the dual carriageway that would normally take me to the M4. So I had to take the country route as far as Newbury where I joined the A34 to drive southwards. It was a lovely drive over the downs and I saw my first barn owl of the year which flew across some rough grassland to perch on a fence post at the side of the road just ahead of me.  By the time I had stopped the car, the owl was too close for its comfort and it flew off before I had time to get out my camera. I had to settle for a distant shot at the back of the field. I also saw a small herd of roe deer and a munjac at the side of the road. 

The rest of the journey consisted of dual carriageways and motorways and I arrived at my desired location just after eight o'clock.  I took the last parking space and then made my way along a path and over some shingle to where the remains of an old oyster bed were providing some long 'islands' for the gulls to pair up and get ready for the breeding season. The Mediterranean gulls were almost in their full breeding plumage of black head  and red beak and feet. It would almost seem that the names had become mixed as the black headed gulls they share this site with, have brown not black heads! Of the two species, the mediterraneans  have my vote for the smartest gull and they looked very dapper as they stood on the gravel top of the islands. 

There was a lot of noise coming from both gulls, which had slightly different calls. There was a lot of coming and going as the gulls took off and landed. 

The shoreline hosted some brent geese, as well as redshank and oyster catchers although the tide was receding fast and most birds were distant. 

barn owl

interaction between the two gull species

view to Portsmouth

black headed gull ( yes, on the left!) and Mediterranean gull

After spending an hour and a half observing the gulls, I drove the short journey to another reserve , Farlington Marshes which I visited eighteen months ago in September 2023. On that occasion the tide was incoming and I saw around 40 species of bird including a number of waders. Today, though the tide was already quite far out and the birds on the mud flats were mostly distant. although a little egret and a redshank were the exception. There were hundreds of brent geese with a few Canada geese amongst them, a flock of avocets and on a scrape there were more black headed gulls and a few mediterraneans and various ducks  including wigeon and pintail.  I also heard and saw my first chiffchaff of the year.

This brent goose was close to the gate and away from the main flock.

 It appeared to have an injured leg.