College Lakes and Ivinghoe
Although the weather didn't look that great for butterfly spotting, we hoped that the sun would break through later and in any case the temperature was quite warm already as we left to visit a new nature reserve and butterfly trail. We found the reserve in the end although it would have helped if either my sat nav or road atlas actually recognised the new 11A junction on the M1!
College Lake is a former quarry and we were quite surprised when we looked out the visitor centre window and found we were looking right down on top of the whole area! Various ducks and geese were evident together with terns, and a few waders.
We took the circular walk and unexpectedly came across a patch of grass and trefoil where we found large numbers of small blue butterflies, a few common blues and brown argus too ... and the sun wasn't even out!
The sky seemed to brighten a bit from time but there weren't many other butterflies about except for a brimstone or two. We did see a couple of pairs of bullfinches that were happily feeding together beneath some feeders.
We had a bite to eat then went on to park at the NT carpark where we had found there was a prescribed butterfly trail which should provide sightings of the rear Duke of Burgundy butterfly and possibly green hairstreaks and skipper butterflies.
The printed instructions were very unclear and we had to make a u-turn and guess which path to take a few times! The sun was reluctant to show itself much so not many butterflies at all except for the ones we had already seen in the morning! Then along a sheltered track we spotted a couple of small brownish butterflies, one settled and to our surprise it turned out to be a Duke of Burgundy but a rather faded and tatty one at that! However, that was a tick for our target species! A few minutes later we saw another small brown butterfly but this time it was the moth like Dingy Skipper (which is rather dingy I must admit!)
We found our way back to the carpark but decided another time we would make our own trail and wander where we chose rather than follow rather dubious instructions!
Despite the rather cloudy weather, I saw five new butterflies so aim achieved!
College Lake is a former quarry and we were quite surprised when we looked out the visitor centre window and found we were looking right down on top of the whole area! Various ducks and geese were evident together with terns, and a few waders.
We took the circular walk and unexpectedly came across a patch of grass and trefoil where we found large numbers of small blue butterflies, a few common blues and brown argus too ... and the sun wasn't even out!
The sky seemed to brighten a bit from time but there weren't many other butterflies about except for a brimstone or two. We did see a couple of pairs of bullfinches that were happily feeding together beneath some feeders.
We had a bite to eat then went on to park at the NT carpark where we had found there was a prescribed butterfly trail which should provide sightings of the rear Duke of Burgundy butterfly and possibly green hairstreaks and skipper butterflies.
The printed instructions were very unclear and we had to make a u-turn and guess which path to take a few times! The sun was reluctant to show itself much so not many butterflies at all except for the ones we had already seen in the morning! Then along a sheltered track we spotted a couple of small brownish butterflies, one settled and to our surprise it turned out to be a Duke of Burgundy but a rather faded and tatty one at that! However, that was a tick for our target species! A few minutes later we saw another small brown butterfly but this time it was the moth like Dingy Skipper (which is rather dingy I must admit!)
We found our way back to the carpark but decided another time we would make our own trail and wander where we chose rather than follow rather dubious instructions!
Despite the rather cloudy weather, I saw five new butterflies so aim achieved!
brown argus
bullfinches
common blue - female
common blue - male
dingy skipper
Duke of Burgundy
Hebridean sheep
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