Pleasing couple of hours spent on my local patch this morning
Parc Cwm Darran, Caerphilly County, my visits to 'my local patch' seem to get fewer and fewer, I always seem to be chasing more exotic species, often many miles from home, so it was rather nice to refresh myself locally. The morning started with
Small Tortoiseshell and as I moved onto mature grassland the following species were disturbed;
Small Heath, Meadow Brown and Ringlet, many of the latter were newly emerged and in fine fettle. I was especially pleased to find my
Marbled White colony still producing healthy numbers, I counted at least 40, many were down in the wet grass, has anyone noticed that
Small Skipper is often very evident and happy in company with
Marbled White, it could just be coincidence, but it's something I've noticed many times.
Large Skipper were still in good numbers, but I'm still awaiting the arrival of
Essex Skipper it may already be here, sooner or later those black antennae are going to put in an appearance
Most
Silver Y (immigrant macro moth) I've seen in one outing this year, I disturbed seven during my ramble, and my morning was made all the better for seeing my first
Dark Green Fritillary of the summer, he was too active to get a photo, but this brings my total species seen this year to a very respectable 35, I doubt if I'll manage to better my last years tally of 49, but I'm always optimistic, you simply have to be when you live in the UK and have to put up with it's crazy weather
Tomorrow I hope to check out
Large Heath in Mid-Wales, and I'm hoping my morning in the grasslands has prepared me well enough for the fray, they can be very frustrating critters!!!
Bill
PS. All photo's taken with the Panasonic Lumix FZ150 bridge camera, and surprisingly I hav'nt really missed my Nikon D300 c/w 105 Macro lens
or the weight
