Haldon Hill Butterfly Walk and a return to Yarner Woods

  Today John and I took another trip into Devon, this time visiting the Butterfly walk at Haldon Hill.

  Several butterfly species were seen, including Orange Tip, Brimstone and Green-veined White. The Pearl-bordered Fritillaries were also on the wing and were looking very fresh. as was the single Dingy Skipper that we found.

  We also saw our first damselfly for the year, a male Large Red.

  Of birdie interest, the Tree Pipits were singing and displaying, and the lovely melodic song of the Mistle Thrush rang out across the forest. They were many Siskins flying over and we also saw two Yellowhammers.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Dingy Skipper

Dingy Skipper

  We decided to pay another visit to Yarner Woods on the way home. Since our last visit a fortnight ago the trees were almost in full leaf. We spent a couple of hours in the tranquility of the woods watching and listening to the Pied Flycatchers and Wood Warblers. A lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Toad

Sunlight through Mountain Ash leaves.

Yarner Woods

 As it was my birthday today I was treated to a trip to Yarner Woods to see the spring migrants. The weather was beautiful and when we arrived the wood was full of bird song.

 One of my favourite songs is that of the Wood Warbler and it was not long before we had good views of a male singing and displaying from tree to tree. It was not until I looked at my photographs that I noticed that this bird had coloured rings on each leg!

 Further up the path we came across our first Pied Flycatchers. They were busy singing for a mate although we only saw two females during our walk through the wood.

 Next to the car park is a small pond which is home to some Mandarin ducks. I only saw one male but he was quite shy and did not stay out in the open for long.

 The warm weather brought out a few species of butterfly. We saw lots of Brimstones, together with a Speckled Wood, Orange Tip and Holly Blue. 

 A female Redstart made a brief appearance but perhaps the highlight of the day was the sighting of a female Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. She was high up the trees and was calling to her mate. 

 John has made a short video of our day at Yarner Wood showing some of the species that we saw.