Duke of Burgundy
This was the day I hoped I would target one of my wanted species of butterflies, the Duke of Burgundy. The previous couple of years I had gone too late and missed out, so this year I went when it was definitely during it's mid flight period. My Dad joined me as he had never seen the Duke of Burgundy's either and had never seen Dingy and Grizzled Skipper so hoped to connect with these also. The weather was lovely and sunny as forecast and once we arrived it changed......the clouds rolled in and everyone on site said how wrong could they get a forecast, same old same old!
After the temperature rose a Dingy Skipper was found by a group of enthusiasts, at least we had close views of the Skipper and my Dad had at least had one new species.
Duke of Burgundy
After some time and still no sign of any Duke's, I was pre-occupied with the many warblers calling and flitting around, with Blackcap calling and Whitethroats flying back and forth I was still enjoying the morning. Then the group further up the hill waved everyone in and sure enough shortly after I was looking down at my first Duke of Burgundy, what a lovely butterfly and smaller than I had envisaged, my Dad joined us a few seconds later and was staring at his second new butterfly species of the morning.
Dingy Skipper
After a while the temperature rose and the sky did start to break. The butterflies started to awaken and we saw quite a few Dingy Skippers, before more Duke's started to appear. We ended up seeing 6 Duke of Burgundy's by the end of our trip so we were more than happy, but the day did not end there, we encountered just 2 Grizzled Skippers and one posed well enough for some photos and allowed us good close views. The only butterfly that had eluded us was the Green Hairstreak, we scoured a known area a few times but nothing and then as we were about to leave I noticed 2 butterflies high up in the tree next to us, and with some intense scanning we found one and was able to see the Green Hairstreak we were searching for. A successful and fantastic morning...one species down and Purple Emperor next....hopefully.
Dingy Skipper
Dingy Skipper
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Duke of Burgundy
Dingy Skipper
Grizzled Skipper
Grizzled Skipper
Duke of Burgundy
