Post by petecollins on Jun 7, 2015 16:43:27 GMT
One Sunday morning last year, I took aeshna5 round my local patch at Bison Hill, Whipsnade, in order to show him Duke of Burgundy butterflies, which he'd not seen in this country before (I thought it was the least I could do after the literally 100's of IDs he's done for me on WAB!). We also saw our other target species of Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper and Grizzled Skipper, and loads more wildlife too. We both enjoyed it so much, that we wanted to do it again this year, but the weather gods have conspired against us until today. It was right at the end of the season for Duke of Burgundy butterflies so we thought we only had a 50% chance of seeing them, but the good thing about the delay was that it meant I could also take aeshna5 to the nearby Totternhoe nature reserve to look for Man Orchids.
We were in luck, and managed to see both these targets. We were lucky with the Dukes, as we'd almost given up on them before I suggested one last area to try, where we soon spotted a Duke in very good condition. But that was the only one we saw, until we were almost back at the Bison Hill car park when aeshna5 spotted a very worn out and faded specimen. We saw plenty of other butterflies, including Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper, Grizzled Skippers, Brown Argus (a first for the year for me, sort of - I am now certain I saw one at Deacon Hill last week) and Common Blue. When we went on to Totternhoe, aeshna5 spotted a Small White and a Green-veined White by the car park, and as we went round the reserve we saw numerous Small Blues. I was very pleased that we saw three Man Orchids - I've seen them in the same place for several years now, but last year they'd been vandalised.
There was lots of other wildlife to enjoy. I'd better start showing you some photos, beginning with some butterflies ...
Duke of Burgundy
Green Hairstreak
Small Blue
...
Bison Hill and Totternhoe 057 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
Bison Hill and Totternhoe 003 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
Bison Hill and Totternhoe 086 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
We were in luck, and managed to see both these targets. We were lucky with the Dukes, as we'd almost given up on them before I suggested one last area to try, where we soon spotted a Duke in very good condition. But that was the only one we saw, until we were almost back at the Bison Hill car park when aeshna5 spotted a very worn out and faded specimen. We saw plenty of other butterflies, including Green Hairstreak, Dingy Skipper, Grizzled Skippers, Brown Argus (a first for the year for me, sort of - I am now certain I saw one at Deacon Hill last week) and Common Blue. When we went on to Totternhoe, aeshna5 spotted a Small White and a Green-veined White by the car park, and as we went round the reserve we saw numerous Small Blues. I was very pleased that we saw three Man Orchids - I've seen them in the same place for several years now, but last year they'd been vandalised.
There was lots of other wildlife to enjoy. I'd better start showing you some photos, beginning with some butterflies ...
Duke of Burgundy
Green Hairstreak
Small Blue
...
Bison Hill and Totternhoe 057 by Wabi Gallery, on FlickrBison Hill and Totternhoe 003 by Wabi Gallery, on FlickrBison Hill and Totternhoe 086 by Wabi Gallery, on Flickr
