A great butterfly weekend and for once the weather was helpful...
Yesterday, My wife and I popped over to Totternhoe Quarry to look for Dukes. The weather stayed steadfastly overcast despite a suggestion that the sun might shine and it seemed that the chances of finding
our quarry was slim - especially when a group of fellow butterfliers turned up on a transect walk and told us they had only seen one solitary Small White. We had a bite to eat and I decided to give the hawthorns a proper scan as I was desperate to find the Duke. After a while I found the only butterfly of the day - but it was indeed a Dobby!
This morning, we went to our local Grizzled Skipper site at Over where we bumped into David Newland and, later, a couple of Grizzlies. Skipper numbers are still very low here, but hopefully there are more to come.
Unexpectedly, we managed to get out again mid-way through the afternoon and decided to visit Devil's Dyke at Newmarket. Here we found about a dozen Dingy Skippers, one of which posed nicely for some photos. As we walked back towards the car, we bumped into a young lad and his father who had just arrived. We stopped for a chat and it soon became obvious that here was a young man with a real interest in butterflies - he actually reminded me of myself about 35 years ago. His keen eyes snapped onto a butterfly which jinked past us and we were soon looking at a freshly-minted Brown Argus. Well spotted Alex!
What a fabulous weekend - one I will remember for a long time to come.
Trev