Bentley Wood 10-07-2019
Seeing the various images come pouring in and reading the various reports on various Social Media outlets had me chomping at the bit to get out. The weekend had come and gone and I’d been suckered into believing the weather reports only for them to change within the space of an hour or they were wrong and so I felt like I’d missed out. All my hopes hung on the weekend but that’s never a good place to be, I always feel that having seen a species already seems to make it easier to see again and with this idea in mind I managed to organise an after work trip to Bentley Wood. I’d read that Purple Emperors are late risers but I didn’t know how late they then stayed up and it was still hot so I viewed this trip as more of a recce.
As I pulled into the car park I was followed by another car and having both got out we both started off in the same direction walking down the main trackway to the Switchback. On the way I notched up Marbled Whites, Large and Smessex Skippers, Hedge and Meadow Browns and Ringlets galore. A Silver-washed bombed by and a Painted Lady tricked me momentarily into thinking that I’d encountered a Valesina as it was so tired and worn; almost all of the tangerine colour had faded to so it appeared black and grey. High up small, silver blurs crossed the track from one Oak top to another – my first Purple Hairstreaks of 2019. Down at the Switchback something was on the ground supping away at some horrible horse dung. It was still nice to see even if it was only a Red Admiral.
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From here we slowly worked down the track to the left which headed towards Donkey Copse scanning the trees and watching the skies looking for anything that takes to the wing. On the first cleared section a Peacock drops in for a few shots and then as we carry on down there more of what I’ve already seen – although the Marbled Whites seemed to be more numerous here. At the end we paused for a while but things weren’t looking that hopeful and so I carried on down the grassed over trackway. There were two male Silver-washed here and they were much more approachable so I managed a couple of shots before they twigged and then I started to make my way back to the main track spying an unusual looking Specklie on the way, it was missing both of its hind wings though it could still put on a good turn of speed.
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Back on the main track I caught up with the other gent and again we took to scanning the skies. A female Silver-washed was around and I watched as a Purple Hairstreak too off from the Bracken and landed just low enough that I could get a shot. I moved towards it, teasing the Bracken apart and as I reached up and focused the wind suddenly picked up moving the branch and eventually dislodging the butterfly. Cursing slightly I extricated myself and got back to the track way Tick free. As I walked along something caught my eye up high – the unmistakable shape of His Nibbs looking to all intents and purposes like a white striped bat. I called out and tried to see where it landed in amid the uppermost branches but in the end I lost sight of it. We hung around here for about 10 minutes, straining and contorting our necks as we peered up hoping to make out the silhouette of the Emperor. Suddenly it was there again flying back the way we’d come and again it was a fleeting view but like a lot of nature watching when you’ve seen one you know you’ve got the ID right. After another 10 minutes or so I gave up waiting as I’d not expected to actually see an Emperor until the weekend so I was suitably chuffed. At the Switchback a White Admiral did a fly-by almost to allow confirmation of the Emperor sighting. It was much slimmer, less bat like and also flew with more scything glides.
I carried on straight across the Switchback and walked along towards the memorial at the top of the wood. Once there I settled down to a bit more neck crunching albeit to a shallower angle. I noted a pair of Commas, a few Ringlets, a Silver-washed passed by and then a little grey rectangular butterfly jinked about – a Whitter. I watched it playing at the top of the small Wytch Elm whipping before feeling slightly depressed by its poor state and so started back on a slow walk home pleased that I’d seen all my target species.
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On the walk back I stopped at the next crossroads as something dropped down onto the middle of the track. I hoped at first that it was a Hairstreak as it looked grey and was about the right size. As I cautiously approached, no mean feat in the heat, I could see that it was a female Ringlet but the greyest and smallest I’d encountered. As I’d stopped I scanned around to see if there was anything else to pick up. Amid the typical browns that a prevalent at the moment there was a Large White, 2 female Silver-washed and a Small Tort. It was nice to see something a bit more colourful amid browns even if it was the second most common colour - orange!
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I cut across the recently cleared area as I had a feeling that this was the right thing to do. Marbled Whites seemed to be everywhere here and even more common than the other Browns. On the other side a large greyish butterfly was being hassled by a male Silver-washed. It was a Valesina! Annoyingly it would always land in the middle section of a large Bramble bush and so I’d have to try and poke my lens through the bush to get a shot or if it did land on the end of the brambles it was very twitchy. After this I made my way back in earnest only stopping for a female Silver washed when I was almost back at the car park.
So a great way to spend the late afternoon and I added some nice species to my yearly tally even if I didn’t get shots of some of them and came away with only a handful of semi-passable shots of the others. Roll on the weekend!
Have a goodun
Wurzel