Wednesday 20th June - Salcey Forest
I spent a good portion of Tuesday night checking various regional BC sites for sightings before I made my final decision on where to go on Wednesday. I finally decided on Salcey Forest as I particularly wanted to see Wood Whites and had not had the chance so far.
Salcey Forest lies just south of Northampton, right next to the M1 and along with Fermyn Woods and others in the area is a remnant of the old Royal Forest of Rockingham, a medieval hunting forest. On a good day I could get there in about on hour and a quarter from my house but unfortunatly I hit some congestion on the M6 going past Coventry and it took me a good hour and three quarters before I arrived.
I parked in the horse box car park in the southern part of the forest and started off along the tracks, heading in the general direction of the meadow alongside the M1 described in David Newlands 'Discover Butterflies in Britain'.
After about 10 minutes I saw my first Wood White, a female, fluttering amongst the vegetation at the side of the main ride.
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 185resize.jpg (427.71 KiB) Viewed 8418 times Salcey forest - first female Wood white seen along here](./files/thumb_10101_b6e738dba8b883bef045b79ed233dacf)
- Salcey forest - first female Wood white seen along here
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 052resize.jpg (455.76 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Wood White female - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_dd80b2e25e2fef2973301173fa74e95a)
- Wood White female - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
Continuing along I soon saw half a dozen more, mostly males patrolling along the rides. It was a nice sunny morning with the occasional passing cloud that gave me the opportunity to take some photos as they settled and waited for the sun to reappear.
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 184resize.jpg (436.93 KiB) Viewed 8418 times Salcey Forest - Wood Whites seen along here](./files/thumb_10101_8a20f8dbd9d79116de89cf33f613e17e)
- Salcey Forest - Wood Whites seen along here
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 105resize.jpg (319.17 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_4f221b6b4b6dc5bdfc5c059bc22818e5)
- Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 108resize.jpg (356.51 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_42e9590ffd526ac4637d8d0bbe77f96b)
- Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
I also saw a couple of Red Admirals along here, my first this year.
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 057resize.jpg (500.85 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_458214d2b8df204c5e861a6974644afa)
- Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 072resize.jpg (375.85 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_3b708d6658e43c9ae3affc31f66ef06f)
- Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
By the time I had walked through to the meadow it had clouded over and for about an hour or so it went quite dull until the sun started breaking through in the afternoon. Apparently Black Hairstreaks may be found along the treeline in this meadow where there is a lot of blackthorn but I had noticed that only a couple had been reported recently from elsewhere so I was not that hopefull. Nevertheless I had a good look around the blackthorn but without success.
I did find my first Large Skippers this year, four of them, all males.
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 175resize.jpg (412.25 KiB) Viewed 8418 times Salcey Forest - meadow alongside the M1](./files/thumb_10101_a5b08a768f40caddbfd26daee3626571)
- Salcey Forest - meadow alongside the M1
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 181resize.jpg (450.96 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_443c7a39e201f848eb24fd947e292adf)
- Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
![Salcey Forest 20.06.2012 183resize.jpg (324.39 KiB) Viewed 8451 times Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012](./files/thumb_10101_6c73b2eafa7f46beff530ebe3649e78f)
- Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012
I think that is enough for this post, I was going to post photos of other stuff, Dragonflies etc plus a few more butterflies but will save them for my next entry.
Edit; Location photos of rides and meadow added.
Bye for now
Neil F.