SLIMBRIDGE SANDPIPERS

Finding myself with a day to spare, I spent several hours catching up with what's going on at Slimbridge WWT Centre. As usual, I visited the Rushy Pen hide first where it was pretty quiet, although   I was pleased to see several green sandpipers had arrived although I didn't locate any little ringed plovers.  Further along the Holden walkway, I was able to find the wood sandpiper which obligingly came fairly close to the Robbie Garnett hide and I spent a while watching and photographing it.  From the Holden Tower,  could be seen cattle grazing on the sea wall, with at least one yellow wagtail amongst them. 
Around the reserve the usual waders were in evidence; black tailed godwit, ruff, avocet, lapwing, and geese and ducks included Canada goose, greylag, Egyptian and barnacle geese, teal, gadwall, mallard and shoveler.  Half a dozen cranes were seen too. 

avocet

green sandpiper

lapwing

wood sandpiper

Finally, who could resist these cute flamingo chicks that have featured in the news recently. One of them looked only a day or so old. 

GRAYLINGS

With the grayling butterfly still to find this year, I headed over to  a conifer plantation in a little village called Mortimer, south of Reading, where I  found some of these species last year. It's only a mile down the road from where my daughter lives and these butterflies have a favourite place which is easy to locate i.e. head straight down the track from the road then turn left. Here there is a small dug out quarry area with gravel next to it where heather and gorse like to grow. 

With a little sunshine forecast I parked the car at the gate and made straight for the area mentioned above. Sure enough I soon spotted a few grayling fluttering about from time to time, although I had to wait for the sun to find a gap in the clouds before any would make their presence known. They are masters of disguise and almost impossible to distinguish from the gravel once they have folded down their forewings. 

CHASING THE BLUES AT LARDON CHASE

One of the butterflies that has eluded me so far is the Adonis blue, so on reading that there had been good numbers at the NT Lardon Chase, Bucks, I decided to drive over there on the Friday afternoon after returning early that morning from holiday.

There was the promise of a bit of sun although a slight breeze, so I was hopeful of adding this species to my year list. On entering the reserve, I stopped. On a sign on the gate it read  Beware 'Cows, calves and a bull in this field'!

I looked across the reserve and could see a herd of black cattle in the distance, mostly grazing facing away from me. I knew that I would need to keep an eye on them, as they can quickly change direction and would easily reach me if they wanted to!  I therefore decided that I would have to forego the nice walk that I would have liked to do, and concentrate on looking for butterflies in the area of field near to me. There was quite a lot of wild marjoram in places which would attract a variety of species. Whenever the sun came out, a few butterflies would flutter around. Initially I saw several common blue, but then a brighter, more turquoise butterfly appeared amongst them... an adonis blue. Well, I had achieved what I came for anyway!.

I ventured a little further downhill,  searching for butterflies but soon noticed that the cattle had now turned and were slowly returning uphill towards me. I decided not to take any risks, and retraced my steps until I was within 50 metres of the gate. I found a small copper butterfly and then two brown argus as well as the common and adonis blue I'd already seen.

Not wanting to take any chances I decided not to remain on the reserve any longer, so feeling a little disappointed not to have had a longer visit, I returned to the car park and then home.

distant cows

adonis blue

brown argus

common blue

small copper

cows now returning!

BROWN HAIRSTREAKS

Well what a change in the temperature today, I actually felt cold in a t shirt !

Having not succeeded in finding any brown hairstreaks yesterday I made the decision to visit Otmoor today. It was rather breezy with a fair amount of cloud in between the sunny intervals, but I was one of a number of people searching the Roman Road area of RSPB Otmoor reserve.

It quickly became obvious that there was a hotspot underneath a tall ash tree - the grass had been flattened by previous visitors and there were a few  butterflies spiralling around the top of the tree from time to time. One did come lower, and made for a decent photo, except closer inspection revealed a piece missing from its wing -- probably pecked by a bird.

We did manage to see both a female and male brown hairstreak, but they were quite high and difficult to photograph. After a couple of hours of waiting, and with no sign of any more individuals coming down,  and the weather becoming less sunny I decided to leave. Maybe it will be worth a further visit later on if I  get an opportunity, however, its one more tick for the year.

male brown hairstreak

female brown hairstreak

brown hairstreak with piece missing!

SHIPTON BELLINGER

With brown hairstreaks still on my list to find for this year, I headed to a the village of Shipton Bellinger where they are known to  be found. It was warm with mostly sunny skies and getting progressively hotter as the day went on!

I followed the Hampshire butterfly guide but disappointingly could not locate any of the brown hairstreaks in the areas described.  There were a couple of ash trees that looked promising but although I thought I saw some purple hairstreaks, flitting around the canopy, I did not see  any brown hairstreaks.

There were numerous other butterflies; speckled wood, holly blue, meadow brown, gatekeeper and whites, and surprisingly a couple of wall browns, one of which was in pristine condition, the other so tatty I was surprised it could even fly!

I might have to take a trip to Otmoor to see if I can locate any brown hairstreaks there, although with a holiday in between, I'm unsure whether they will still be around in a couple of weeks.

holly blue

speckled wood

wall brown

Post script: It seems as if I was looking in the wrong place yesterday so have made a note to look in a different area next time I visit Shipton Bellinger for brown hairstreaks. 

BARBURY CASTLE

A gorgeous morning at Barbury Castle for my walk this morning; a gentle breeze and a few clouds made the temperature rather more bearable at 10 a.m. although within an hour it had started to heat up once more. 

After walking the 500m to the old earth works, I made for the gulleys where it is more sheltered and consequently  it's where most of the  butterflies are found. Good numbers of butterflies about at this hour, mostly meadow browns, gatekeepers and whites and well as a few small coppers, marbled whites, and common blues. At one time a fritillary flew past at speed, presumably a dark green fritillary, although could have been a silver washed fritillary.  However my main purpose in visiting this site was to find some chalkhill blues and I managed to find a few of these, and they were reasonably obliging for photos too. 

Butterflies seen included:

large white, small white, green veined white, marbled white, chalkhill blue, common blue, peacock, red admiral, fritillary (?) small copper, meadow brown, gatekeeper. 

meadow brown

chalkhill blue

peacock

common blue

chalkhill blue

small copper

small white

BIG BUTTERFLY COUNT (1)

As it started to get slightly cooler I thought I'd do my first big butterfly count of the year  in my garden.

I was slightly surprised to find that my first two butterflies were a common blue and a large skipper!  These were both in my wild area of the garden which consists of a large patch of lawn that I have left unmown. As I waited for the common blue to settle, I realised that there was another one  clinging to a long stalk of grass right in front of me!  

A comma flew back and forth for a while, before I lost it, then realised it had actually landed on the camera I was holding!  Later it, too, settled on one of the grasses. During this fifteen minutes I also saw  5 small whites, fluttering to and fro amongst the grasses, occasionally stopping for a few seconds.

My wild area is giving me a lot of pleasure at the moment; apart from reducing the amount of time mowing it, it has succeeded in attracting five new species of butterfly to the garden
 ( ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, common blue and large skipper). On the downside it looks as if it has been regularly trampled in certain area, possibly by foxes.   I have mown a path through the middle of it, but it was quite a challenge for my lawnmower whereby I had to  stop to remove the grass from the blades at intervals. I'm not sure how I will manage to mow it at the end of the summer!!

comma

common blue

large skipper