Garston Wood 20-06-2020
It had been a couple of days since I’d last been out properly and from what I’d seen on the weather forecast I thought it was going to be a fair few more until I could get out again. However I looked out the window and compared it to the BBC App…reality looked more favourable than the computer generated model. So after lunch I headed out to Garston for a couple of hours with my fingers crossed that it would be warm enough even if not sunny enough for something to be flying and as I drove through first Broadchalk and then Bowerchalk it became noticeably brighter and there were even one or two patches of intermittent blue sky.
From the car park I headed up the hill taking the main track way. I scanned the bramble patches on either side of me and the right hand side seemed to hold all the butterflies. There were flappy Meadow Browns, much darker, almost black Ringlets (but still no bloody photo of one!), orangey blur of Large Skippers and a male Silver Washed. All pretty good and all very flighty. However the first butterfly I try for a photo of is a Valesina which plops down towards the back of the Bramble bush which abuts the fence into the old Plantation. I could only manage a couple of record shots as it was so far back but to be honest I was just chuffed to once again catch up with this ‘form’.
As it didn’t return I carried on up the track still finding the right hand side to be much more productive. Slightly further up I spot a Red Admiral sitting under an archway of grasses and waiting for the intermittent sun to show itself again. A male Silver Washed was doing likewise on a Bracken plant that was taller than me! Hence the best I could get was a side on view. As I moved back after getting a couple of shots the butterfly took off and disturbed a second male SWF that had been basking on a lower standing fern, lesson learnt look all round before making your approach.
The main track carries on right to the top of the reserve but I took the second track to the left which meant that now I was walking the usual route in reverse from the ¾ mark and the track would now run down to the Enclosure. On the way I stopped for a Green-veined White a species which hasn’t been particularly amenable this year. Ignoring the trackways that branch off I keep to this trackway and reach a large clump of Bramble on my right – and the opposite side of the path from where I’d seen my first Silver Washed as week ago. As well as the odd Meadow Brown and Ringlet it holds a brace of Silver Washed, both males, and a Large White stops by for a while allowing a reasonable approach. However my eye is drawn to the Honeysuckle cascading down at the back. Just as I’m thinking – this looks good for White Admiral – one slices its way through the air. I watch mesmerised and then have to stop as I’m feeling giddy from trying to follow its perfectly controlled erratic flight pattern. Unfortunately it doesn’t come down and when I have steeled myself to look back and I relocate it I can only watch as it glides effortlessly over the tops of the trees and is gone.
I turned my attention to the other side of the path and it seemed to be a bit of a haven for Silver Washed. The sun had nipped off for a break by this point and so the first Silver Washed I spotted was basking on the top of a frond of Bracken. As I waded in to try for a few shots I spotted a second, then further back amid the ‘wall of Bramble’ a third appeared, then a fourth and a fifth and finally a female dropped in and promptly shot away again followed by several of the males. At the final ‘field’ of bracken before the enclosure another White Admiral soars about up high and I spend a few more moments in rapt appreciation in this wonder of natural selection.
Once in the enclosure things quieten down somewhat but actually I’m glad about this. It’s been many years since this enclosure was coppiced and cleared so now it’s almost fence to fence Brambles so even if I did spot a butterfly it’s more than likely to be beyond reach. Luckily some of the butterflies prefer the edge of the path and I watch as two Small Whites fly along the margins daintily. One of them lands and as I lean in for the shot I see that it is immaculate, in mint condish, a beautiful lemon colour.
I start retracing my steps pausing at the same points again marvelling as I watch the White Admiral for a bit but it still doesn’t want to come down. I also spy out a Red Admiral and an H.Comma. Both are sitting atop fronds of Bracken, both at just about head height and both take off just as I raise my camera. Where before there had been multitudes of Silver Washed now there are a brace of males and a female and the large clump has another/the original White Admiral tearing through the air, I swear I can almost hear atoms being ripped apart as it changes direction so quickly and so violently. Back up where the Green-veined White had sat so nicely another H.Comma plays a bit harder ball, sitting on the tallest of fronds and again after a successful stalk I raise my camera and he’s off!
Muttering I pause on the corner at the top of the track. As I scan across the grass I finally spot a Ringlet which is going down. Cautiously, as I’m very aware that things have been very twitchy this season, I snake my feet through the grass, lean in and click away. Phew – for a while there I really thought that I might not get any shots of this species this year! This one is lush – intact silver white fringes contrasting with the almost dark plum velvet ground colour. A second flies by and they have a bit of a scrap and then one of the two settles, closed wing so I can get a few shots of the rings which give this species its name. As I straighten up I catch sight of a Silver Washed hiding among the Bracken on the other side of the path.
I now head back down the main track with more of the same species showing up that had done so on my arrival with the addition of a White Admiral and minus the Valesina so I take a shortcut path into the Old Plantation and head up the hill past one large scallop and onto the next, smaller one. There is a Comma sitting atop a very tall thistle and I try for a few shots but the light is against me as is the slight breeze and it sends the butterfly rocking forward and back. I start back and the first large scallop I came to has Meadow Browns erupting all over the place or sitting three/four abreast on the thistle heads. A smaller Scallop slightly lower down the hill has more of the same but I spot a smaller Skipper which turns out to be a Small. I offer it my finger and it crawls on sending out its proboscis to take salts from my digit. As I make to leave I spot a second Small involved in turf war with a Large – definitely a case of Small Man Syndrome here!
I head back to the car park and from there homewards. Not too bad an afternoon actually – a Valesina, two FFTY and another addition to my ‘In the Hand’ collection. And to think I wasn’t planning on going out…
Took a slight gamble
A Valesina pays up
Ringlet finally!
Have a goodun and stay safe
Wurzel
I think we should set up an annual Hairstreak Exchange trip 
Unfortunately though I might need to save the Brownie points for a different species next year 
I remember visiting Kitts Grave perhaps ten years ago after seeing dozens of DGF at Martin Down, and finding SWF and White Admirals galore as well as more DGF. I always meant to go back, but never have.
