Cheers Wurzel, it certainly did
Thanks David, it is surprising how fresh some of these post-hibernators look after the wind and rain this past winter, like you say, some must have found well sheltered spots.
Sunday 16th March part 2 – an afternoon walk.
After enjoying the butterflies in the garden on Sunday morning and finishing the ‘domestics’ I now had the rest of the afternoon free. With unbroken blue sky and good sun still I decided to make the most of it and pop out to one of my local spots.
I figured that wherever I went to I would be seeing more Small Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas but couldn’t make my mind up whether to go back to Shadowbrook Meadows where I had been on Saturday when it remained stubbornly cloudy, or to Castle Hills where I went last week.
During the past couple of years I had noticed that it was possible to follow a footpath past Castle Hills Farm and continue through to Bickenhill and Shadowbrook Meadows but had not actually walked this all the way through before, usually driving between the sites instead.
Well, I decided in the end to park up and find my along these paths and see how long it would take me to get to Shadowbrook Meadows.
There were numerous Small Tortoiseshells, Commas and Peacocks along the way, each stretch of hedgerow being patrolled by one species or the other who often met up and spiralled up into the air in twos, threes, fours on a couple of occasions and even once in a furball of five Small Tortoiseshells.
![Solihull 16.03.2014 083resize.JPG (631.89 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Footpath towards Castle Hills Farm Solihull](./files/thumb_10101_341a4af95023d0be40d87b05a996a17d)
- Footpath towards Castle Hills Farm Solihull
![Solihull 16.03.2014 110resize2.JPG (476.17 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Looking towards Bickenhill from Castle Hills](./files/thumb_10101_124180b798a4cf300ab8f46ae90a1310)
- Looking towards Bickenhill from Castle Hills
![Solihull 16.03.2014 077resize.JPG (784.99 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Comma on a muddy stretch of path](./files/thumb_10101_f8cd43a9a8be3dbde2b5086f3af66b84)
- Comma on a muddy stretch of path
![Solihull 16.03.2014 087resize.JPG (595.45 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Peek-a-boo!](./files/thumb_10101_b199e06a9da42736bbe6932b94e4d3cc)
- Peek-a-boo!
![Solihull 16.03.2014 105resize.JPG (531.95 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Comma - Castle Hills 16.03.2014](./files/thumb_10101_3b3c9b51930216707bce031b90eb5c20)
- Comma - Castle Hills 16.03.2014
![Solihull 16.03.2014 091resize.JPG (570.4 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Pity this ST was not in better nick, still like the photo though.](./files/thumb_10101_f0ae6720f8ef0c7b200226a97613552d)
- Pity this ST was not in better nick, still like the photo though.
![Solihull 16.03.2014 140resize.JPG (660.92 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Small Tortoiseshell - Castle Hills 16.03.2014](./files/thumb_10101_fc4dc0cc3790ba75a2efe5d90e7335f2)
- Small Tortoiseshell - Castle Hills 16.03.2014
![Solihull 16.03.2014 096resize.JPG (667.36 KiB) Viewed 1163 times Peacock - Castle Hills 16.03.2014](./files/thumb_10101_c4df6023ae02ba5da1b3d7ca8145d865)
- Peacock - Castle Hills 16.03.2014
I reached Shadowbrook an hour or so later and then spent about 30 minutes doing a quick circuit of the meadows seeing more of all the above three species. The butterflies here were lively but settling frequently to bask in the sun although, despite the calm conditions, usually low down with grass stems making it difficult to get any good photos so I just took a few record shots of each species.
Whilst here I also saw my first ‘white’ of the year, almost certainly a ‘Small’ by its strong flight compared to the weaker more fluttery flight that GV Whites tend to have. It didn’t settle but flew close enough past me for me to be 99% certain of its ID before disappearing over the shrubs at the side of the meadow. Checking my notes this is a good 5 weeks earlier than last year but only 1 week earlier than 2012.
I then retraced my route back past Castle Hills Farm to where I started, the whole walk taking around two and a half hours. I did not actually make a count of the butterflies seen but a rough estimate must have been around 2 dozen Small Tortoiseshells, a similar number of Commas, definitely more than last week, and slightly fewer Peacocks plus the single Small White.
No Brimstones this afternoon, in fact the only ones that I have seen so far this year have been males during late morning in my garden both last Sunday and this. Mind you that is more than I have seen by this time in the past couple of years when it has seemed to take me ages for me to see one, I remember commenting about it being all Peacocks and Commas for me in 2012/13.
After the butterflies in the garden in the morning this was a great afternoon which more than made up for the gloomy Saturday.
Bye for now,
Neil.