Saturday 4th - Sunday 5th July 2015
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| Large Blue - all the individuals seen were males |
On Saturday I took Paul F and Matt, who travelled from the Birmingham area, to Daneway Banks for Large Blue. Conditions were pretty much ideal and it wasn't long before we started finding our target species. We counted at least six
Large Blues most quite fresh looking, but one very worn and almost unrecognisable. Other butterfly species included two
Small Heaths, two
Silver-washed Fritillaries, many
Marbled Whites,
Ringlets and
Meadow Browns,
Small Skippers,
Large Skippers, a
Common Blue and three
Speckled Woods (two of these at Siccaridge Wood nearby). I also saw my first
Silver Y moth of the year.
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| Large Blue |
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| Marbled White |
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| Small Heath |
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| Strawberry Banks |
Notable plants on the visit included most notably of all a
Greater Butterfly Orchid at Siccaridge Wood and on Daneway Banks we noted
Common Spotted Orchid and
Pyramidal Orchid,
Common Centaury,
Yellow Centaury,
Dark Mullein,
Common Thyme,
Wild Oregano,
Field Scabious,
Agrimony,
Self-heal, and
Red Clover.
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| Greater Butterfly Orchid - brightening the woodland shade |
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| Common Centaury |
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| Yellow Centaury |
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| Dark Mullein |
Not forgetting birds, we recorded two
Green Woodpeckers, two
Ravens, a
Buzzard, and two flyover
Siskins over, all contributing to a fantastic morning, finished off nicely with a little refreshment at The Daneway.
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| White Admiral, Cannop - a Gloucestershire tick |
This morning, after a number of attempts at various sites in previous years, I finally saw
White Admiral in Gloucestershire. I am indebted to Shane who I bumped into at at Cannop and had detailed directions from Bruce P. We saw three in total, which was brilliant, and to think I almost didn't bother going because the forecast didn't look very good. Up to three
Silver-washed Fritillaries were also seen, also a beautiful butterfly, but it was the Admirals that stole the show.
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| Silver-washed Fritillary, Cannop |
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| The Cannop White Admiral site |
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