We had a very nice trip out to North Yorkshire today.
Arriving at our first venue, we were greeted with birdsong, the lead player was a songthrush but very nice backing vocals from willow warbler, chiff-chaff blackcap, wren, chaffinch and blackbird and this was way after the dawn chorus had finished.
A wander along the bridleway produced a peacock, a few orange tips and a small white. We descended a gentle slope through the bracken and almost immediatey got a view of our target species-pearl bordered fritillary. The sun was well up and it quickly zoomed off. We carried on and got a glimpse of another then another. This one was flyong round in a wide circuit and eventually posed long enough for a photo. We are towards the end of the flight period for PBF so unsurprisingly, this one was not in prisine condition.
We saw another one on the way back which was in slightly better condition, two large skippers were also added to the day list.
We had planned to go to Hawnby for Duke of Burgundy, but the rising temperatures and the thought of the walk up the hill were not too appealing.
Instead we set off towards a new venue in search of a new species for me-small blue.
They are only present in on site in Yorkshire and I had limited information as to where to go.
We arrived about an hour later and almost immediately photos online matched reality and it wasnt long before we found a few.
Small Blue is the UK’s smallest butterfly and these were almost pristine and not worried in the slightest by our presence.
The bank they were on was a marvellous example of how wildflowers grow together creating the perfect conditions for a very special butterfly to survive. There were only acouple of peacocks around as well as a reasonable quantity of mint moths.
All in all a fabulous day out in some magnificent countryside.
