Re: MikeOxon
Posted: Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:45 pm
We had a somewhat frustrating short trip to South Wales, hoping to see the High Brown Fritillaries at the Alun Valley site. The forecast for Thursday (2nd July) was for rain in the morning, followed by a sunny afternoon, so we set off with the aim of having lunch near Bridgend, followed by an afternoon's butterflying.
In the event, the rain was still coming down like stair-rods at 3pm, so we decided, instead, to take a walk around old haunts in the waterfall country along the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. At least, the River Mellte provided good views of Dippers - a favourite bird of mountain streams - and, as evening approached, the sun broke through, with splendid mountain and valley views.
The following day (3rd July) started warm and sunny, although there were warnings of heavy downpours for the afternoon. One hurdle to overcome was that the direct route to Castle Down was closed at the railway bridge near Ewenny, so we had to make a detour via Ogmoor-by-Sea! Eventually, we set foot on the Down, to be surrounded by clouds of Meadow Browns and, very soon, Fritillaries started whizzing by!
Many of the Dark Green Fritillaries were looking quite faded, whereas there were some much brighter-looking High Browns. I soon found that this was by no means an infallible guide and, because both species were extremely mobile, getting photographic evidence was, to say the least, difficult!
My wife established a 'base camp' near the Eastern end of the path across the Down, where there are large areas of brambles, which I hoped would be attractive nectaring spots. I spent some time fruitlessly chasing butterflies for photographs and, of course, when I returned to base, my wife reported that a High Brown had been happily nectaring on a thistle, close by her, for several minutes.
I decided to stay near the patch of thistles and eventually another High Brown Fritillary arrived and even showed its characteristic underside, though only from a distance
It did come to one of the nearer thistles, where my photo shows the indented shape of the edge of the forewing, which usually separates this species from the Dark Green, although it is not always easy to be sure.
As the afternoon wore on, the cloud was thickening and we thought that the forecast rain was probably on the way, so we made our way back westwards, along the path towards the slope down to the road. Although less sunny, it was still very warm and the Fritillaries continued their rapid patrols, with only the briefest stops for nectar.
Near the top of the descent back towards the road, there is another large area of brambles, which were regularly being visited - sometimes two or three Fritillaries chasing each other around a small area of bushes. It seemed that most of those at this location were Dark Green Fritillaries, as shown below:
The green undersides contrasted with the much browner bodies of the High Browns photographed earlier:
Apart from these two species, there were several much smaller and slower-flying Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, which occasionally basked on bare ground amongst the bracken.
In fact, golden brown colours seemed to be the rule, with huge numbers of Large Skippers, Small Heaths, and Meadow Browns. Some darker brown Ringlets were fluttering around the bracken and a few Small Tortoiseshells basked amongst the flowers.
So, while I broke my 'duck' in terms of digital images of HBF, I didn't manage anything to rival my old film images, taken many years ago at Arnside Knott. The forecast rain never did materialise and we had a sunny drive back home, along the M4.
Mike
In the event, the rain was still coming down like stair-rods at 3pm, so we decided, instead, to take a walk around old haunts in the waterfall country along the southern edge of the Brecon Beacons. At least, the River Mellte provided good views of Dippers - a favourite bird of mountain streams - and, as evening approached, the sun broke through, with splendid mountain and valley views.
The following day (3rd July) started warm and sunny, although there were warnings of heavy downpours for the afternoon. One hurdle to overcome was that the direct route to Castle Down was closed at the railway bridge near Ewenny, so we had to make a detour via Ogmoor-by-Sea! Eventually, we set foot on the Down, to be surrounded by clouds of Meadow Browns and, very soon, Fritillaries started whizzing by!
Many of the Dark Green Fritillaries were looking quite faded, whereas there were some much brighter-looking High Browns. I soon found that this was by no means an infallible guide and, because both species were extremely mobile, getting photographic evidence was, to say the least, difficult!
My wife established a 'base camp' near the Eastern end of the path across the Down, where there are large areas of brambles, which I hoped would be attractive nectaring spots. I spent some time fruitlessly chasing butterflies for photographs and, of course, when I returned to base, my wife reported that a High Brown had been happily nectaring on a thistle, close by her, for several minutes.
I decided to stay near the patch of thistles and eventually another High Brown Fritillary arrived and even showed its characteristic underside, though only from a distance
It did come to one of the nearer thistles, where my photo shows the indented shape of the edge of the forewing, which usually separates this species from the Dark Green, although it is not always easy to be sure.
As the afternoon wore on, the cloud was thickening and we thought that the forecast rain was probably on the way, so we made our way back westwards, along the path towards the slope down to the road. Although less sunny, it was still very warm and the Fritillaries continued their rapid patrols, with only the briefest stops for nectar.
Near the top of the descent back towards the road, there is another large area of brambles, which were regularly being visited - sometimes two or three Fritillaries chasing each other around a small area of bushes. It seemed that most of those at this location were Dark Green Fritillaries, as shown below:
The green undersides contrasted with the much browner bodies of the High Browns photographed earlier:
Apart from these two species, there were several much smaller and slower-flying Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries, which occasionally basked on bare ground amongst the bracken.
In fact, golden brown colours seemed to be the rule, with huge numbers of Large Skippers, Small Heaths, and Meadow Browns. Some darker brown Ringlets were fluttering around the bracken and a few Small Tortoiseshells basked amongst the flowers.
So, while I broke my 'duck' in terms of digital images of HBF, I didn't manage anything to rival my old film images, taken many years ago at Arnside Knott. The forecast rain never did materialise and we had a sunny drive back home, along the M4.
Mike