Hi Pauline, thanks for the positive feedback on the photos. I think the Glanvilles are just late like everything else this year and hopefully will emerge soon.
We have been away for a week 'north of the border' to look for a certain little butterfly! The trip had been booked for several months and we hoped that it would coincide with the flight time of the Chequered Skipper? Weather reports looked resonable for the week ahead as we travelled to Fort William. On our first morning there we drove to Glen Loy which I had read about in Lee slaughters 'revisited' report.
What a beautiful place Glen Loy is, total quiet only punctuated by the call of the Cuckoo. We worked our way carefully up the Glen in the sunshine searching likely looking spots, but by the end of the day we had seen no Chequered Skippers. We did however find a nice colony of Green Hairstreaks and also saw some Green-veined Whites, including a mating pair, and, surprisingly, also a large Salmon in a deep pool of the river Loy!
Over the next couple of days we ventured back to Glen Loy, and with the weather still reasonable we searched the same areas and others that we had not, but still no sighting of a Checkered skipper. In view of this we began to have doubts that they had yet emerged as we had spent a considerable time searching for them at this location. Clearly a change of plan was required.
The next morning saw us on route to Glasdrum Wood in the pouring rain with the hill tops obscured by low cloud. When we arrived it was still raining and the outside air temperature sensor in the car read 10 degrees, I told Cathy I wouldl eat my hat if we saw one in these conditions! We set off up the right-hand path which takes you up the hillside and loops back round to the bottom. We arrived at a point where some power lines cut through the wood and took a path to the right beneath them. We reached a small burn, by which time the rain had stopped and the sky was brightening. I walked ahead and then heard Cathy call that she'd found one. I slowly walked (rushed over) and there he was with open wings, enjoying the first rays of the sun. It was at this point I felt a spot of hat munching was in order.
Our brief visit to Scotland had come to an end all too soon, but at least it had ended on a high with finding a total of 6 Chequered Skippers - mission accomplished!
When we'd planned our trip to Scotland earlier in the year we had also toyed with the idea of making a brief stop in Norfolk to see if the Swallowtails were on the wing. So, as the weather for the Norfolk area looked promising we decided to go for it. After a gruelling 500 plus mile drive taking over 8 hours because of the appalling traffic on the A1, we finally got to our destination and managed to book ourselves into a hotel near Great Yarmouth. The following morning was sunny but the cool wind kept the temperatures down, and we had our doubts as to whether we'd see any butterflies at all let alone a Swallowtail! However, we were there and were not going to be deterred by the cool conditions, so set off for Strumpshaw Fen late morning. On arrival we saw the car park at the reserve was pretty full already, so we gathered our cameras and headed straight up the track to the Doctor's garden. The beautiful flower border was in full bloom and there were a couple of Peacocks busily nectaring. Whilst we stood admiring them a couple of Swallowtails in full aerial combat swooped overhead, did a circuit of the Doctor's garden then promptly disappeared into an adjoining field. We pursued them in haste and found a small group of fellow enthusiasts already gathered in the field, cameras at the ready, waiting for one of the two Swallowtails to perch on the abundant red campion. After only a few minutes one of the battling pair obliged and landed within feet of us, but, as is often the case with Swallowtails, its wings were rapidly fluttering which made a decent photograph nigh on impossible. However, we were afforded a couple of photographic opportunities where they settled, wings open and still.
We were fortunate enough to bump into the Doctor whilst admiring his garden, and had a really interesting conversation with this rather knowledgeable gentleman, a retired entomologist, who recounted tales of his past encounters with our native Large Blue on Dartmoor back in the late 1940s. He told us how during that time he had collected butterflies, as many did in those days, and had mounted them in a mahogany case, and, due to his deep regret in later years at having done so, had donated them to the Norwich Museum. He was quick to point to our digital cameras and say he wished they'd had them in his day to capture images of butterflies instead.
Friday 7th June, a couple of days after we'd returned, we decided to pay a visit to Chiddingfold Forest in the hope of seeing some Wood Whites. The forecast was for 'the hottest day of the year', but rather predictably was grey, wet and windy!! Nevertheless, we set off regardless and arrived in pouring rain at the Botany Bay entrance, where we parked up and sat in the car for a while until the rain eased off. While walking down the track we bumped into a couple who had also been searching for Wood Whites and who, after several hours, had only seen a few Speckled Yellow moths. We walked from one end of the woods to the other, also only encountering Speckled Yellow moths, but were pleasantly surprised by the number of Nightingales we heard singing, even managing to get a distant shot of one on the camera at full zoom, and also hearing the cuckoo a couple of times too. After a couple of hours the skies began to clear and the sun made an appearance, and almost immediately we spotted a Wood White bobbing along the edge of the ride. We were initially excited with seeing just the one, but as the weather warmed up we began seeing more and more of them.
- Is this a form of courtship
- Wood White in flight
- Something sinister going on in the background
- Spider with Speckled Yellow moth
- A Nightingale sang...
Whilst walking along the ride we found a promisimg looking open grassy area in which we discovered quite a large colony of Dingy Skippers.
After a pleasant afternoon spent in fantastic surroundings we saw in total 35 Wood Whites and 22 Dingy Skippers, very satisfying considering the rather inclement weather at the start of the day.
really like the Wall 
To top it all we're coming home tomorrow as my wife can't stand the accommodation and Glanvilles have just been spotted 
Still here's hoping Wrecclesham happens this year....
