Cheers Katrina
Cheers Goldie
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
I'm sure that you will
Cheers Mike for me 2014 will be the year of the Wall
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
The Ed mark is very fine and probably just something I can see, we humans are very good at seeing patterns when we want to
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
But so as to prove to myself that I wasn't going mad(er) I had a little play with Paint, here's what I see...
![Ed1.jpg](./download/file.php?id=58088&sid=84380f9dd16c80ab9d75fdd480215420)
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![Ed2.jpg](./download/file.php?id=58089&sid=84380f9dd16c80ab9d75fdd480215420)
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The Outlaws Part One...
As is always the way during the summer holiday we headed up to Wales to visit the Outlaws. I have mixed feelings about taking this trip; on the down side I’m missing out on opportunities to catch up with the summer blues, Brostreaks, Silver Spots and make the most of the Grayling yet on the plus side there is often a Painted Lady and the hedge rows offer up a surprisingly wide range of Hedge Brown variation. After the arduous journey which seems to go more and more slowly as our destination draws ever nearer we unloaded and I had a much needed caffeine boost. We then checked the weather for the days ahead and started planning where we would be visiting and when. In amongst all these outings I knew that I would be able to take a stroll up Lane or just round the corner to the Post Box (it’s surprising how many letters I write during my stay
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
) and when planning my posts I decided to deal with these smaller trips over the first few days and then look at the main outings separately. So here goes...
03-08-2014
On the first day it was a quick walk with everyone up the Lane to the Telecom aerial and during the odd break from pulling my younger daughter along on her Scooter I managed to check along both sides of the tall hedges. Apart from some not very good shots of my first ever mating pair of Hedge Browns it was very quiet for the first half of the walk up the hill. After this the sun finally emerged from the cloud and the butterflies started to emerge. First up, rather like my visit here earlier in the year was a Green-veined White which was fluttering along the ditch at the side of the road stopping every now and again. Further along it was joined by a Meadow Brown which showed the lovely Peacock style orange marking on the fore wings. Slightly further on there was yet another Green-veined White and also a Small White which was adamant that it wanted to perch wherever the Green-veined wanted to! There were a few more Hedgies as well as a Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell.
Once back at the house I had a little check round the garden and a Holly Blue did a brief fly-by from a neighbours garden whilst a Red Kite was overhead, that’s Wales for you. Round the corner the Verbena housed another pair of Small Torts and a Peacock.
So ended the first day the butterflies didn’t exactly set the world on fire but at least I’d walked the cramp off from my buttocks!
04-08-2014
Shock horror – the really productive field behind my Outlaws house is now gated off and even worse it’s been drained so the rough Rhos grass has been replaced with the more usual turf. So after our trip out to Llanachaeron I headed out to the post box instead checking along the hedges once more. This small section of hedge only about 5 metres produced a god mix of butterflies with a Red Admiral and then a strongly marked Green-veined White. Also here was a Meadow Brown, Large and Small Whites quartered along the hedge. Not much of this was landing and so I started looking more closely at the Hedgies as this spot has produced some great variants over the years. Today it only threw up a three and five spot under wing although one of the three spots on the former was more of a streak than a spot. Whilst I was enjoying these something drifted down from the trees and started nectaring, it was an ethereal and ghost like Hairstreak, and then metamorphosed into a Holly Blue.
05-08-2014
After a full on day before we were going to have a quieter one today and just head to the little beach at Cei Bach. The girls decided to make the most of the sunny weather and were playing in the garden so I had a quick mooch around, camera in one hand, coffee in the other and when I saw a butterfly within range I’d put the coffee down, take my shots and then have a nice slurp of the black gold. There wasn’t too much hanging around the Verbena just the odd Red Admiral or Small Tortoiseshell so I wandered back across the lawn when something small and orange staggered in. I almost dropped my coffee as it was an unexpected Small Copper. It was a little deformed and seemed to be struggling to fly but after a breather on the lawn it moved to the potted flowers and pout on a nice show for both myself and my younger daughter who watched it fascinated as it went from pale creamy orange to striking and stunning chocolate and vivid orange by dint of opening its wings.
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Pleased with this I went to head back to get ready for the beach when I had my second “coffee drop” moment of the day when a male Wall blitzed across the garden, down the side path and over the low fence where it rested briefly. A couple of shots and it was gone leaving me wondering if it had really been there at all.
06-08-2014
After a cracking day at Newquay beach I felt like I was on a roll butterfly wise and so once back and with the girl happily playing in the back garden I went to the Post Box to “drop off some Lovefilm DVDs”. You won’t see that as one of their selling points on their website, plenty about no late return fines and great buffering speeds bit nothing about “offers a perfect excuse for a bit of butterflying”
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
! This time I got past the initial hedge and worked my way down Ruw Goch. I was on the hunt for slightly different Hedge Browns so barely noticed the numerous peacocks, Small Torts and Red Admiral all feeding on some large Buddleia, nor the many whites flitting here and there in each direction I looked when I occasionally tore my gaze away from between the ground and three feet up the hedge.
As I said I was hoping for some unusual Hedge Browns and so really nice ones turned up. The first three were subtle; a female with a single extra dot on the left fore wing but on the right, another female with small dot under the “eyes” on the fore wings and another with some very clear white spots on the underside.
I as pleased witht these but not as much as the next which was the boldest marked excessa that I’ve personally encountered. It was fantastic to see and reaffirmed my passion for the humble Hedge Brown.
After this stunning invidual it was back to more subtle variants and even when I found a nicely marked female Common Blue (one of two) further along the path I still couldn’t get the excessa out of my head and I had to keep checking back at it.
![418 - Copy-001.JPG (1.53 MiB) Viewed 1526 times One extra dot on the hind wing](./files/thumb_9821_fccd08a45db2e731e64b9ef8398e3fcb)
- One extra dot on the hind wing
Eventually I realised that I’d been gone so long I could have been to Preston and back to have handed the discs over personally so I turned and walked back only stopping to capture an extra excessa which had it not been so aged would have been as stunningly marked as the one earlier.
Have a goodun
Wurzel