There is a silver lining to every cloud!

  Whilst Saturday did not look the best of days to go butterflying, we decided to take a chance with the weather and venture out of county! Our first stop of the day was to Branscombe in Devon and for a walk along the cliffs to look for Wood White. It was raining when we arrived but we could see some breaks in the cloud so when the rain stopped we started our walk! Something tells you that when you have to put your raincoat on to go for a walk you are probably not likely to see any butterflies!

  It was a lovely walk along the coast path and we soon found ourselves in the woodland growing below the cliffs next to the beach. The sea was crashing in and there was a view of the coast towards Sidmouth.  

  Returning to the car, something white caught John's eye and he discovered a Wood White roosting in the grass right next to the coast path! This delicate little butterfly is quite unusual in its appearance, its antennae are bent over at the end and when at rest its body is completely hidden by its wings.

  John then found another Wood White on the other side of the path hiding underneath a leaf in the grass. The photograph below shows the second butterfly.

  Our next visit was to Cerne Abbas, with a stop at the Cerne Giant viewpoint! We had a walk along the hillside but it was quite windy and any butterflies we saw flew quickly by! We found several species, Marsh Fritillary, Grizzled and Dingy Skipper, Common Blue, Small Heath and Brown Argus.

  Our final destination of the day was Martin Down Nature Reserve. On went the raincoat again as we walked across the reserve! We met a group of people coming back from a walk and they told us that they had just been looking at the Burnt Tip Orchids. They kindly told us where to find them, and we counted 19 flower spikes of this lovely orchid.

  Our last butterfly of the day was this male Adonis Blue. He spent most of his time with his wings shut, but briefly showed his beautiful bright blue wings when the sun shone through a break in the clouds.

  And finally, I photography this growing thistle flower as I liked the symmetry of the flower head.

Heath Fritillary at Greenscoombe Wood, Luckett

  On Sunday John and I decided to take a trip to see the Heath Fritllaries at Greenscombe Wood, Luckett. 

  We saw about 35 to 40 Heath Fritillaries. Some were just emerging, their wings still curved and not fully expanded.

  Being a sunny and hot day the butterflies were very active making it difficult to take photographs of them, but to be surrounded by these lovely butterflies more than made up for the lack of photos. Sometimes I think it is just better to stand back and enjoy the spectacle of what you are seeing rather than trying to get a photograph.

  We found a mating pair sitting on some bracken. The female seemed to be attracting several males and while they were mating other male butterflies were landing near them and on them trying to muscle in on the female! At one point there was the mating pair plus another two males. Eventually the males gave in and left the happy couple in peace!

Marsh Fritillaries near Mullion Cove, Lizard.

  On Sunday John and I decided to visit the cliffs near Mullion Cove, on the Lizard to look for the Marsh Fritillaries that are known to be in the area.

  It was a beautiful day for a walk along the cliffs and there were lots of flowers to look at along the way. ( There will be another post showing the flowers that we saw.) 

  There were many Common Blue butterflies together with Wall Brown's and a Small Copper. We eventually found one Marsh Fritillary resting on a Thrift flower head. Clouds hid the sun for a while, so as the temperature had dropped slightly the butterfly was happy sitting still on the flower. Perfect for a photo!

  As we walked a little further along the cliff, the sun came out and the temperature started to rise and all of a sudden we were surrounding by many Marsh Fritillaries flying over the cliffs. There must have been over forty individuals. The next two photographs are of male butterflies.

  I then found a pair of mating fritillaries slightly hidden in the grass. We noticed that the female was an aberrant form. These are very rare in small colonies like this one.

  The male also had slightly different markings and was quite a dark in appearance. The next photograph shows a close up of his head - this is one of things that I like about macro photography is that you see things that you would not normally see, for example the dark markings on his eyes and the fur on his face. 

  The final photograph shows a close up on the underneath of the hindwing and with the macro lens it is possible to see the individual scales that make up the pattern on the butterfly's wing.

Cuckoos, Damselflies and Sundews

  A visit to Bodmin Moor this morning produced some of the best views of Cuckoos that I have ever had. We had at least four individuals which showed very well. There were at least two females and we were treated to their strange bubbling call.

  Most of the time they would sit up on either prominent rocks or the tops of the Hawthorn trees. We also watched them fly down to the ground to catch caterpillars.

  The two photographs I have shown below have been cropped as the Cuckoos were always some way away from us, and the flight shot was captured as it the Cuckoo flew from the rocks to catch a caterpillar.

  On the way home we paid a quick visit to Breney Common nature reserve but it was a little quiet on the butterfly front. We did see a lot of Large Red Damselflies and found this particular individual enjoying an afternoon snack!

In another part of the reserve we found some Sundews. 

Grizzled Skippers at Penhale Sands

  We visited Penhale Sands this morning to look for Grizzled Skippers. As the sun warmed the ground they started to become more active and some were feeding on Ground Ivy flowers. Closer inspection of each individual revealed that with the Grizzled Skippers there were also some of the rare abberation form "taras". This differs to the normal Grizzled by having more elongated white markings on the upper fore wings.

  We saw at least four individuals of the "tarus" form and even within this abberation the markings seemed to vary slightly. 

  The first photograph is of a standard Grizzled Skipper and the photographs that follow are of the "tarus" form showing the different markings.

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.

Helston Boating Lake in the Rain

  John received a text message from Steve Rogers this morning to tell him that he had found a male Garganey on Helston Boating Lake. Five minutes later we were in the car and on our way! That's twitching for you!

  We found the Garganey out in the middle of the water and keeping its distance from the path that surrounds the lake. It was quite nervous and would seek shelter around the island occasionally coming out to accompany the Mallards as they swam around the lake looking for anyone with food! Unfortunately, whilst the Mallards would come very close the Garganey would stay further out.

  We watched the Garganey for a good hour, before it decided it was brave enough to make its way to the side of the lake where some Mallards were preening. To our amazement it then got out of the water, stood on the bank and started to preen!

  The photographs I have shown below of the Garganey are heavily cropped but they are records shots of a duck that is usually quite hard to see, let alone photograph.

Garganey in the rain!

  We also went to see the Whooper Swan who now seems quite at home with the Mute Swans. It is more confident now and was putting some of the Mute Swans in their place with the odd peck!

 On the way back to the car I took the photograph below of a Coot, which I have converted to black and white.