Cheers Neil and Dave for your very kind comments
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In fact having read them yesterday along with Nicks again, I took the night off, cracked open a Poachers Choice and put on a Midsomer Murders
Large Blue or Secret Squirrels?
On Saturday Philzoid and I met up to do some quality butterflying. There were two options. Head West to Collard Hill for the Large Blues or East to a Secret Squirrel Site and White Letter Hairstreaks? As it was a balmy 23 degrees at 9am and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky it seemed a better bet to head East and risk cricks in our necks rather than spend a few hours getting sunburnt and twisted ankles trying to follow turbo charged Large Blues.
We arrived there surprisingly quickly shaving at least 6 minutes of the Routeplanner and 7 off the SATNAV times
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, but then when you’re chatting away and driving you can really eat up the miles. Having parked and wandered in the baking heat to the site we saw the first butterfly of the day – our target species!
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A few very distant “hope they crop okay” shots later and we felt that the pressure was off, should we want to see any more Whitters then we could always work our way back here. And in fact this is what we did, as we’d stroll to one end of the site and then back stopping for a while at the larger Elms en route. In fact there were four other trees which played host to the White Letters but the first place we came too first seemed the best as the trees were slightly lower and there was a bank opposite which we could stand on giving us a little bit more elevation and clearance. This is obviously a tactic used by those who have visited the bank before us as most of the vegetation was trampled and there were large patches of bare earth
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. Still on our second call in at this end of the site the Whitters came slightly lower down with one individual crawling along a branch directly overhead over the path!
There were plenty of other things around with Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Marbled Whites putting on a good show as well as a fly by Small Tortoiseshell and one, possibly two, Common Blues and a Large White. Very unusually I found it difficult to get any photos of these butterflies, almost as if my heart wasn’t in it. I enjoyed seeing them but they were no-where near as good as seeing the Whitters clattering into each other, buzzing each other at terrific speed or idly plopping onto a leave and tilting their wings to face the sun and so disappearing from view as their shark fin profile vanished.
A couple of things I did photograph were my first H.Comma of the year and also some Bee Orchids which were nestled in the grasses near some Thistles. The thing is I look at the Orchid now and can’t see the flower. Instead I see a little Gnome wearing brown Dungarees with a green pointy hat and green shoes. He’s very cheerful and has a massive smiley face, twinkly eyes and he’s waving his right arm in greeting!
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It was reaching sweltering point now at midday and the Whitters weren’t coming down to the Thistles to nectar as hoped – perhaps because it was too hot or perhaps it’s still a little too early in the season for that? So we headed back to the starting point which was at least slightly shaded joined by a fellow butterflyer. Once there we were treated to the same tantalising views, always slightly too far away, always just out of reach of a great shot, bombing out and back again or viciously silhouetted. I decided that enough was enough and so tried one of my favourite tricks for butterfly luring. “Do want a coffee Philzoid?” I asked, poured one from my flask and just as I finished pouring the second a Whitter came down. As Philzoid was lining up on it I noticed something on the other side of the path – a mating pair! They were within reach so here would be our opportunity for some close up shots of this almost ridiculously marked butterfly
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
. The cameras clicked away in a symphony of photography as we three made the most of this lucky chance. I was impressed not just by the lovely pair of butterflies but also by the etiquette we showed; always checking that we weren’t in the way of the others shot, or that they’d finished before we could take out turn. Very civilised and worlds away from some of the twitches I’ve been on. And so shots hopefully in the bag we left the lovebirds ensuring that there will be some more Whitters here next year and made our way the whole 25 metres back to the car.
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Amazing stuff! We couldn’t believe our luck and with a few more hours in the bag we set off to Bentley Wood. Once there we went from the sublime to the ridiculous. There were so few butterflies it was almost as bad as back in April! Or at least that was how it felt. The Eastern Clearing held a few Brimstones but not the Clouded Yellow written in the book and a Small Tort did a fly-by. Down the Rides towards Donkey Copse the odd Meadow Brown, Ringlet or Large Skipper put in an appearance but not the hoped for ginger beasties. Eventually we did find a White Admiral but it wasn’t for stopping, a small grey butterfly flitted across from one Oak to another – a Purple Hairstreak and something large, ginger and fast flew past high up on the return journey. In all I took 5 snaps of a Large Skipper and 8 of a Ringlet the whole time I was there. I think I was sated by the Whitters earlier in the day and the image is still burnt onto my retina when I close my eyelids even now!
Have a goodun
Wurzel