Sorry
Wurzel, I'll give you a day off from 'enduring' my Purple pictures...
Thanks
Janet, you're too kind
. Not sure about being a butterfly whisperer, just knowing what they like, in this case bugboy sweat
22nd June, Looking for Large Tortoiseshells again
After some gentle encouragement from Mr Hulme it was off to North Stoke in search for the butterfly version of a needle in a haystack. I’d deliberately not come in preceding days due to the almost unbearable heat and the fact there’s precious little in the way of shade here, but the temperature had dropped significantly today to a more tolerable mid-twenties. I arrived just after midday and found I had the place to myself. Nymphalids and Whites were commonplace but just so as not to lead you all on, the only Tortoiseshells I found in the 4 hours I was there were of the Small variety. Still a fresh Small Tort isn’t to be sniffed at so many snaps were taken.
Most of the Whites were also very fresh and some of the Green-veined looked particularly stunning.
- A fluky shot where her head stayed in focus at she took off!
Various Satyrids were also present and a mating pair of Meadow Browns were surprisingly well behaved.
Commas provided many a skipped heart beat but nevertheless drew the attention of my camera.
As befits such an extensive search for such an elusive butterfly I’d packed my birding bins and I’m pretty sure I’d scanned every single Bramble and Thistle flower several times before I’d left. Most of the Bramble was in fact still in bud which made me think that perhaps I was too early?
Further wandering threw up a single, very fresh and dusky looking male Small Copper and at the other end of the spectrum a male Common Blue who must surely have been clinging onto life by the very tips of his toes!
I hunted down a few Dragonflies which looked unfamiliar. I found out later at home I’d bagged my first ever pictures of both male and female Hairy Dragonflies.
- Male
- Female
It was only as I was making one last sweep of the path that I bumped into someone with a similar day’s mission, who I later found out was our very own Andy Wilson. We had a quick chat and he too thought perhaps we were a week or two early.
!
You need to be careful as you're getting a little behind on your PD 
for sure, but especially for the WLH shots. 
Still something I need to travel for, just as the weather goes downhill. Which station was it you went to?
Goldie