At last some insects in 2021(between the hail showers)

This has been a dreadfully cold spring with recently, added rain and hail but at last I have had a chance to see and photograph some insects.

My first dedicated trip was trip Rodborough common in Gloucestershire to look for Duke of Burgundy.

 


There was just the odd five mins of sunshine and two of these, now rare, butterflies appeared in a sheltered spot. It has been many years since I have seen one in England and I was very pleased to catch up with it again.


The other butterfly that I made a special effort for was Wood White. Here again the weather was decidedly changeable and in particular the small site I had been told about seemed to attract heavy cloud despite the sunny hour over lunch (inside for the first time this year) and an entirely sunny drive for an hour to get back home home.

During one of the two 30 second breaks in the cloud though, a Wood White fluttered by and I followed it along the path to its roost on a bluebell where it was very happy to let me photograph it. 


On the same day, Joan and I visited Clarkes Pool Fields, a nature reserve consisting of two fields that are famous for orchids. I cannot confirm the listed number of 50,000 green-winged orchids because life's too short... but there were an awful lot of them.


Up close you can see the green veins that give it its name



In amongst the plethora of cowslips and yellow rattle etc were a few Common Twayblades, another orchid I have not seen for years


An attempt to find a rare heron for myself on the levels ended in a predictable failure but nothing ventured nothing gained as they say.

When the day did start to warm, albeit slightly, there were enormous numbers of Damselflies emerging.

For example :   Blue-tailed





                        Variable




                   

                             And Large Red



Finally, we have had my younger daughter staying for a few days and she, along with my wife; was keen to see the Walrus at Tenby.  A drive later we were fortunate to find it hauled out on its favourite slipway.



Now I thought it looked pretty relaxed and comfortable and had certainly been ensconced long enough for us to acquire locally made souvenirs in the form of a glass Walrus. So I was very surprised at the news this week of it swimming past Padstow on its way to pastures new.
It seems we picked our trip timings correctly for once.



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