A day spent in Haugh Wood.

[JohnP]

Yesterday was my first day out with my camera since August 18th last year and I made the most of it although I was feeling a tad rusty. As you all probably know the rotten start to summer has had a bad effect on our butterflies and numbers are well down on previous summers. Last year on one particular visit to Haugh Wood near Hereford I managed to see 14 species, the most I spotted yesterday was 8 species. The only species I couldn't get photos of was Painted Ladies, they were just too active so I gave up on them. On the plus side I've never in all my years of watching butterflies seen so many Red Admirals in one day, they are migrants and would have arrived here just after the bad weather at the start of June so they missed all the wind and rain.

Silver-washed Fritillary (scruffy).

Small Tortoiseshell.

Red Admiral.

Small White.

Common Blue (male).

Green-veined White.

Speckled Wood.

 

[Clicker]

Wow that was a pretty good day you had really... So glad to see you got out and about again with your camera John ...  Some really nice captures there ....it doesn't look like you need any WD40 ...

I'm a sucker for the common blues  but the painted lady would have been the icing on the cake ....thanks for sharing  these lovely images ... They do feel like summer  was actually here !

[Rogerw]

Lovely result John , looks like you had a better day than me ,that common Blue , is that the same as our large Blue , which is making good progress as far as numbers go .

[JohnP]

Roger... the Large Blue was declared extinct in 1979, however in 1983 they were reintroduced using butterflies from Sweden. They are now established on several sites between Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and the Cotswolds. If you have indeed seen Large Blue's in your area then you ought to try and get a photo and if possible a grid reference and email it to Butterfly Conservation:  http://butterfly-conservation.org/55/contact.html

Yesterday was a lovely day but the breeze did make taking photos difficult at times.

[Rogerw]

No  nothing here John , but I will be going to Cornwall later on , but not sure how long Butterflies are about. Launceston in Cornwall was my home town before I came up here

[Paul]

Lovely range of butterflies - well done John.

Paul.

[JohnP]

Paul... I'm lucky to have one of the 10 best sites in Britain for butterflies just 10 miles away from home.

[JohnP]

Just been reading this, more links at the bottom of the page.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/27/large-blue-butterfly-thriving-in-uk-since-reintroduction

[Denis]

A great set from you John, good to see you out and about