www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

On Wednesday 10th July, the early part of the morning seemed bright enough, and the chill was gone from the air. Realising that I'd not been further than my local patch for the best part of a week, and seeing ominous amounts of traffic on the southbound M25, I decided to go northwards and try catching up with Aston Rowant.

My meteorological optimism was somewhat unfounded - as I drove up the M40, I watched clouds build and the temperature drop. In the end, on arrival there was still a bit of sunshine and every now and again the cloud did part slightly, but I could see waves of unforecast rain showers coming across from the Cotswolds over to the west. Things looked like this a lot of the time. I set about to see if any butterflies were on the wing. Marbled Whites were by far the most frequently seen......followed by Small Skipper.Other species not put off by the conditions were Meadow Browns and Ringlets......and more surprisingly Dark Green Fritillaries. These were mostly hunkered down invisibly in the grass, but every now and again one would explode upwards and head off with the wind in an orange blur. In the end I found one that felt the need to refuel.Except for a single Small Heath, that's all there was.

I headed homewards, and once into the rain shadow of the Chilterns, things brightened a bit more and the temperature rose into the low 20s. There was nothing for it but another wander round my local patch...

Dave