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Tuesday 16 July 2013

A pleasant surprise in the woods

Well I did go down to the woods today, and I had a nice surprise.
I was not surprised to see plenty of butterflies on the wing at Trench Wood, owned by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. But it was another 'Scorchio' day and  the two species I was most intent on seeing were invariably the most flighty. White Admiral and Silver- washed Fritillary are powerful flyer's and zip around at quite a rate, often preferring the high canopy.
So initially I contented myself with fleeting views from afar, and took a few snaps of the more common and obliging species


Green-veined White 
Meadow Brown




Eventually though I tend to find that if you are patient, and study a spot, they will come to you, and at least show a little better. There were good numbers of both Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral which was pleasing to see after last year's dire weather.

The Frit was the first to settle for a couple of seconds, they are big fellas really. At least a record shot was possible in the end
Silver-washed Fritillary
White Admiral
As I was sweating up a bit by now, and the light was already too harsh anyway for decent pics, I quickened my pace, just stopping off at a small body of water to check out the odonata situation.
Not seen many Broad-bodied Chaser's this year but there was a pretty fresh male perched up in the rapidly drying out pool. When I looked at it more closely through my bins I realised it was a nice male , with an exuvia next door ! What a stunning sight !

  ♂ Broad Bodied Chaser with exuvia next to it


From there it was over to the Grimley area to see if there were any Marbled Whites about as I hadn't had any decent views of any thus far this year.
Fortunately they were in reasonable numbers, and I enjoyed 20 minutes of them giving me the run-around before seeking the shade for the afternoon.

Marbled White

 

1 comment:

  1. You fared better than me at Trench in getting photos of Silver-washed and White Admiral Mark. Didn't have a single one perch the whole time I was there!

    Nice one on the shot of chaser next to exuvia, an interesting image. The chaser must be returning to perch on that post where it emerged as looking at its coloration it has been on the wing a wee while. An immature male is coloured brown/yellow similar to a female.

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