Common Glider & Large Copper
At least five Common Gliders were seen by the group, but only one individual managed to successfully get an image.
Given that it would represent a lifer for me, I was beginning to detest this butterfly when every time someone shouted "Glider!" it had inconveniently disappeared by the time I arrived.
On the last day, I spent more than half an hour down the woodland ride where a few of us had seen a couple two days before, and I finally got a brief glimpse of one heading upwards into the canopy after someone in front of me had disturbed it.
I stuck around for a while, but soon swiftly departed when another member of the group bumped into me and told me that there were Large Coppers in the clearing where we'd parked the vehicles.
I was astounded by this information since we hadn't seen any there two days previously and wondered whether they were Scarce Coppers instead. Five minutes later I had confirmation that they were indeed
dispar:
I was somewhat shocked by this discovery until I wandered around a bit and found the lhp, water dock, growing in a damper area of this large meadow:
It was a touch bittersweet as we had spent the previous morning yomping hundreds of metres along a riverside dyke without finding the butterfly, but knowing it is present in this woodland environment will save time and effort in future years!
