Cheers David
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I'll have to look into it but I think it's a bit more of a drive for me than Collard.
Cheers Pauline
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Your return visit is getting ever closer Pauline
The 2015 Season
So overall how was 2015? For me there were possibly more highlights but the lows were of a more enduring nature. Generally it felt like a year of lows interspersed with various little highlights to get through the rest of the year…
Lows
As mentioned at the start of this series the weather was the major of 2015. Never perfect and seldom conducive for butterflying would be the best way of summing it up. If it was warm, still and sunny it was during the ‘June Gap’ between emergences. If it was still and clear it was too cold etc.
On top of this there were at times noticeably fewer butterflies making the marking the worrying decline in a lot of species.
A personal low point was my lack of a Cloudy in 2015 which limited me to equally my best ever total of 48 species a number I seem to be stuck at despite a few longer trips this year for some specialities.
The biggest low was missing out, again, on Long-tailed Blues. For next time they show up I do have a car and am willing to travel so a heads up/sharing of information would be greatly appreciated
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
.
Highs
The most obvious highlight for me was my trip to the Czech Republic which for a short time I thought wasn’t too good even branding it crap.
![Embarassed :oops:](./images/smilies/icon_redface.gif)
However whilst writing it up and rereading and reliving the moments since I’ve changed my mind and it’s become very special to me. Sure I didn’t see too many new species but Dusky Large Blue is a gem of a species to have seen and for it to have been so common added a certain ‘wow’ factor.
Other British highlights were my various trips further afield for more Large Blues, Wood Whites and Lulworths. However the greatest was to East Blean, finally meeting my target after three years of trying! It was a fantastic trip made all the more sweeter by the “will I/won’t I?” worries and anticipation. I was astounded by how docile they were, how ‘common’ they were and the huge array of variation that they showed.
The final highlight for me came in the form of Laverstock which slightly surpassed Larkhill and Five Rivers in my affections becoming my local patch. I read up about it during the winter months and somehow managed to see all the species that had been recorded there barring a wandering Brostreak…
So that was 2015, what next for 2016? Well as usual I’ve set myself a couple of targets:
1. Add another British tick to the list. I have, or will have, some ‘days owed’ to me in Brownie points and so should have the opportunity to go for a new species – possibly two? I’m debating which to go for but Large Heaths or High Browns would be the safest bet as they’re the closest…Although a Scotch Argus could be more of a sure thing? If I could sort out the timing maybe I could fit in a Northern Brown Argus.
2. Make the trip for Wood Whites and also Glannies.
3. Try to see 49 species in 2016, I’ve got to get off the 48 maximum!
4. Add to my European list. I’m heading to Iceland in July but that only has 6 species (all of which occur in Britain) but hopefully Lisbon in early August will produce the goods, including a Long-tailed Blue.
So that was my 2015, bring 2016 good luck everyone!
Have a goodun
Wurzel