Okay lets catch up a bit...last Sunday I decided on a whim to ignore the rather poor weather forecast and venture down to the
Alun Valley, Near Bridgend which is likely to be the last remaining colony of the nationally threatened
High Brown Fritillary in Wales. Arriving mid-morning I got soaked walking through tall grasses and bracken
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
and was rather surprised to find some Heritage Coast staff and volunteers cutting 'corridors' through the bracken, this cutting is usually done earlier and is essential site management as it provides flightways and exposes lots of Spear & Marsh Thistle for
HBF & Dark Green Fritillary to nectar on. Within ten minutes of arriving in prime frit habitat I saw my first 2
DGF feeding on the purple
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
this was quickly followed by disturbing my first three
Meadow Brown of the year, all of them probably taking their maiden flights. A couple of
Large Skipper also put in a brief appearance before skitting off into the rank grasses.
My morning search for
HBF was unsuccessful, but several other
DGF and
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary were encountered as was my first sighting of
Red Admiral which has somehow eluded me up until now, thinking about it I cannot remember going almost halfway through June before seeing the species
![Shocked :shock:](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
it was to be the first of five seen during the day. I spent some time exchanging information with the volunteers then had lunch and headed up to the prime 'hot-spot' for the frits and bumped into DavidM...yes! the very one...
UKB's very own
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Myself and David spent until early evening generally checking every frit in the hope of recording our first
High Brown Fritillary of the year, we both agreed we were probably a little early, the Alun Valley is often a few days behind the Devon sites (where they were seen towards the end of last week) but I would think the first ones are now out on the site.
I counted 14 species during my visit and apart from those already mentioned there were also the following:-
Brimstone, Large, Small & Green-veined White, Common Blue, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock (and larval webs) plus several
Speckled Wood. My tally for
Dark Green Fritillary was around twelve, the highlight being a freshly emerged female that I narrowly avoided stepping on...I'm so relieved that David managed to warn me in time...phew! just imagine how I'd have felt
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
never mind the poor insect
![P1190769Female Dark Green Fritillary2.jpg (190.11 KiB) Viewed 1255 times One lucky insect - female Dark Green Fritillary](./files/thumb_8479_f4a0869a5195cc890f17bdaa38ef68f9)
- One lucky insect - female Dark Green Fritillary
![P1190793Dark Green Fritillary4.jpg (111.53 KiB) Viewed 1255 times Female Dark Green Fritillary](./files/thumb_8479_0059a8be33361c51f090d8ac7a6c367c)
- Female Dark Green Fritillary
![P1190749Dark Green Fritillary2 .jpg (161.87 KiB) Viewed 1255 times Dark Green Fritillary fully displayed](./files/thumb_8479_9b861e3be792c3ff95d5ca657d02c953)
- Dark Green Fritillary fully displayed
Six
Painted Lady were seen during the day and I'm wondering if this could possibly be the vanguard of an imminent invasion to rival 2009...doesn't that sound good
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
Incidentally just like the
Red Admiral mentioned above these were the first I've seen this year, surprisingly I've had a rather sparse vanessid year up until this past few days, even
Comma have only been counted on one hand
![P1190714Painted Lady2.JPG (130.53 KiB) Viewed 1255 times One of six Painted Lady counted during the day](./files/thumb_8479_7ae26280c6839fdcdfdcd36445d5e88d)
- One of six Painted Lady counted during the day
Even though
High Brown Fritillary were probably absent it was still a very interesting day and as always I enjoyed David's company and our usual banter
For those interested there is a public access site on
Old Castle Down and I would advise anyone visiting the area for the frits to check around Grid Ref: SS903 760 and park up at SS8984 7630 - this info is provided here hopefully to save me with a deluge of requests for information which takes up precious summer time answering - you know how it is this time of year don't you folks
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
but I sincerely hope the grid refs help if needed.
Bill
"When in doubt - venture out"