Thursday July 28th - part 2
After spending the morning at
Aston Rowant as descibed in part 1, I decided to head back up the M40 to
Bernwood.
I had read Michaeljf and Lee Hurrells reports on their visit to Bernwood so I had a good idea of where I was heading for and sure enough 30 minutes or so later I had parked in the small car park at Bernwood Meadows and was looking down the long field alongside the road.
First Butterflies seen were Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Common Blues plus a couple of Small Coppers and Brown Argus (Argus's?? Argi ??
).
- Brown Argus - male
It had come over a bit cloudy by this time but was still warm so I decided to have a walk through the wood and come back to the meadow later. Butterflies seen in the wood were Silver Washed Fritillaries, Red Admirals, Peacocks, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Brimstones and Large Skippers.
- Brimstone - male
After about an hour or so the sun started peeking out again and I headed back to the meadows.
One of my reasons for coming to Bernwood was to try and finally get a shot of a Purple Hairstreak. I have seen loads at various sites but always up high in the trees. I figured I would look for the 'straggly' Hawthorn descibed by Michael. I soon found the area in question and sure enough there were numerous Purple Hairstreaks flitting about both the straggly tree and its more healthy looking neighbour. Some of these even landed close enough for me to take some photos, not brilliant pics but at least I now had some.
- Purple Hairstreak
- Purple Hairstreaks 'eyeballing' each other
- Purple Hairstreak
- Purple Hairstreak
Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself a little here as I had earlier had my highlight of my visit to Bernwood.
I had gone back into the long field and was about half way along watching a couple of Gatekeepers when another one fluttered in front of me.
I thought 'thats a bit dark for a Gatekeeper...hang on a min, that could be a Brown Hairstreak' . Indeed it was
. It promptly settled in front of me and spent a couple of minutes nectaring allowing me to get some photos. I did not manage to get a shot of the upperside but it flicked its wings open a couple of times long enough for me to see the orange patches identifying her as a female.
- Brown Hairstreak - female
- Brown Hairstreak - female
As I was taking these photos, I became aware of a growing 'buzzing' around me and noticed I was getting some rather unwelcome attention from a group of wasps. Looking down, I saw that my foot was about six inches or so away from a hole in the ground from which a rather large number of wasps were coming.
I had nearly put my foot in a wasps nest
I backed away slowly until the wasps were no longer buzzing me but in doing so I had lost sight of the Brown Hairstreak
All in all, an excellent morning at Aston Rowant was added to by an equally enjoyable afternoon at Bernwood
The cherry on the cake was the Brown Hairstreak and I even got away without being stung.
Bye for now,
Neil
