Thanks
Wurzel. Yes, there seemed to be quite a lot of rampant adolescent hormones in Epping Forest this year. I would say there’s something in the water there but there’s not been much of that this year! As for HIM, I may have found a workaround which I shall keep quiet about
(except on here when that particular report surfaces, but by then they’ll all be in hibernation I think!)
Thanks
Katrina
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June 2022
Monday 27th. When booking my trip up north, my first for a few years, I was disappointed to discover my usual place to stay, the hostel conveniently at the foot of Arnside Knott, had shut down, a victim of the Covid lockdowns. Looking around for somewhere else to stay (there’s nowhere else nearby in the ‘hostel’ price bracket) I ended up staying in Carnforth just to the south of Warton Crag which is a place I’ve never explored before. There was also a huge sigh of relief when the dates for the rail strikes were announced and narrowly missed wrecking my trip before it had even started.
The journey up was pain free, upon leaving Euston at 9am I’d reached Carnforth, checked in and had wandered up onto Warton Crag by 1pm to get a lay of the land. It was very green and lush, and surprisingly sunny given the forecast that I’d been with threatened all week.
- The view from near the car park
- Some craggy slopes
Despite the meadow at the car park being awash with flowers, there was very little in the way of butterflies, a few Small Skippers and a very active Common Blue. There was also a Hummingbird Hawkmoth buzzing around laying eggs on the Lady’s Bedstraw.
Exploring a bit, I found a path leading up, finding my first Grayling of the year hanging out on the craggy slopes and a couple of Small Tortoiseshell, one of whom has a bit of aberration about it, the blue lunules on the forewing bleeding into the surrounds
ab. bolandii according to the literature.
I was mainly looking for Fritillaries but for a while found very little, and what was around was too active. Later in the afternoon though things started to settle down a bit, some hilltopping Red Admiral and Painted Lady became more approachable and I finally got a proper look at some of what had been just ginger blurs, the first one to actually settle being a female Dark Green Fritillary.
A Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and a Northern Brown Argus distracted me for a while and exploring a bit further I quickly worked out where best to find more of the latter, sheltered pockets of sunbathed ‘meadow’. I found a couple more males, but the pick of the crop was a rather striking female. She was noticeably rather sparsely spotted on the underside as well.
After this distraction I tried again to pin down some Fritillaries, once again not finding the elusive one. It would seem DGF were having just as good a season up here as they were down south.
I hung around here till after 6, hoping some of the Fritillaries would miraculously land in front of me and turn into a High Brown, none did and my stomach eventually made my mind up that it was time to give up for the day.