karen's country calendar

Despite the cloudy forecast the skies were blue so I took a spur of the moment decision to pop down to Therfield Heath as not sure when my next opportunity would be.  Marbled whites, dark green fritillaries and a couple of chalkhill blues had been seen there. On arrival my first tick was for a gatekeeper near the entrance which I hadn't seen this year so far.   It wasn't  very long before I saw my first marbled white ever, there were plenty of them flying low across the grasses.    Lots of meadow browns and ringlets and skippers about too but no blues or large oranges visible. Walking back to the car I suddenly saw a small blue butterfly fly a short distance then drop down into the grass and getting closer I found it posing nicely for a photograph - a chalkhill blue! I had given up any hope of finding the dark green fritillaries but one did fly fast across the path in front of me and then disappeared.    T'hen I noti...

Having failed to see any White Admirals at Brampton Wood despite reports of sightings this week, I decided as I was in the area and the weather was once again beautifully sunny, to make one more visit. Nothing on the brambles at the entrance to the wood but within 50 yards or so a large black and  white butterfly flew past and landed on the path just ahead!  Wow, what an opportunity, I quickly grabbed my camera but..... SD card locked..... Oh no! how did that happen and how do I unlock it?   After trying a few settings and re-inserting the card, no change.!  I looked up and saw a photographer with a long lens approaching so asked him if he knew what to do.  10 secs later it was sorted -  apparently SD cards have a tiny locking switch on the side to prevent photos being deleted and it is easy to knock it when inserting into computers etc.  Phew! But the butterfly had long disappeared and I wondered up and down the ride scanning for it. Alas no...

A gorgeous sunny morning so I stopped off for a quick visit to Overhall Grove at Knapwell, a small local wood.   This ihas narrow paths with small sunny openings  where brambles abound and I knew white letter hairstreaks had been seen there.  Sure enough on the first large sunny glade the brambles were alive with butterflies and bees, many whites, meadow browns, a few ringlets and commas but looking carefully I soon spotted what I was looking for, then another, then another and soon realised there were lots of white letter hairstreaks, clearly showing  the letter W on their wings. On walking back to the car I suddenly spotted a small brown bird dart out from a branch and back to another higher up.  Looking at its upright position and pale chest, I realised this must be a spotted flycatcher - an unexpected bonus! 

The first sunny warm day for some time so I took the opportunity of visiting Brampton Wood in the hope of perhaps seeing the last black hairstreaks of the season and a few new butterflies for this years list. I soon got into conversation with someone just coming away and he told me what he had seen today althougt sadly no hairstreaks but I was still hopeful of seeing other species. Sites 1 and 2 clearly marked along the main ride were the main hot spots for hairstreaks so this was where I aimed for first.   I was glad of the signs as I would never have been able to find my way through the narrow paths amongst the blackthorn.  I found the sites and waited a while but no movement, then suddenly a small brown butterfly flew and landed in a bush a short distance away but difficult to see clearly amongst the twigs and leaves.  Before I could get my binoculars focussed it flew off and I didn't find it again but it was the right size, in the right pl...

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 brims...

So it wasn't cold and it wasn't windy but just a bit damp at times for our annual early morning birdwatching trip down the Great Ouse unlike the beautiful sunny mornings in the past two years.  Consequently we were a bit unsure whether we would get anywhere near the 50 we logged last year.  There was a large difference in the birding knowledge of some of the passengers with someone saying to me " are 'Canada Geese and Greylag different then?  when I pointed out to her the two species and one passenger so enthusiastic she had already booked another trip in two weeks. Once again I had the job of making the list and scribbled down the names as people called them out to me, many of them spotted only by Paul who even recognised  the silhouette and flying motion of a lone common sandpiper as it flew ahead downstream close the water surface.  Soon I had 20 then 30 and as we pulled into the mooring we spotted a pied wagtail bringin...

With cooler showery weather forecast I decided to make the most of a free and beautifully sunny morning and took a stroll round our local Godmanchester nature reserve.  Summer migrants have started to arrive and willow warblers, black caps,  sedge and reed warblers were all in evidence together with my first speckled wood butterfly of the season.    I was pleased to see a willow warbler obliging with its song from the top of a tree and a sedge warbler was singing its heart out from a low bush.    35 species seen in total today.  mute swan  through the trees     greylag geese    Canada goose female reed bunting   sedge warbler    sedge warbler  great crested grebe  great crested grebe   speckled wood  willow warbler