We spent the weekend at our cottage in Cowley in the Cotswolds with our good friends Trevor and Julie Codlin. Trevor and I ran the moth trap on both Friday and Saturday night recording a good range of spring and early summer species.
On Sunday we headed out looking for butterflies. First we visited Daneway Banks Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust Reservewhere we had reasonable views of recently emerged Large Blue.
Speaking to a chap who we met at the reserve who worked on the Large Blue Recovery Projectit would appear that the peak count of Large Blue at this site has been 63, we were perhaps a week or two early for such large numbers.
Large Blue – Daneway Banks GWT Reserve
Large Blue – Daneway Banks GWT Reserve
Common Blue – Daneway Banks GWT Reserve
Daneway Banks GWT Reserve – We found our first Large Blue in the far area of grassland in this image
We then headed for Three Groves Wood GWT Reserve only a few miles away but it seemed like an eternity as we weaved through the narrow Cotswold Lanes. The main target here was Marsh Fritillary and we soon found up to 13 of these beautiful insects as they fed on the numerous yellow composites flowering in the grassland.
Marsh Fritillary – Grove Wood GWT Nature Reserve
Marsh Fritillary – Grove Wood GWT Nature Reserve
Lesser Butterfly Orchid – Grove Wood GWT Nature Reserve
Lesser Butterfly Orchid – Grove Wood GWT Nature Reserve
Ghost Swift – Cowley, Cheltenham
Clay Triple-lines- Cowley, Cheltenham
Ingrailed Clay- Cowley, Cheltenham
Grass Rivulet – Cowley, Cheltenham
Pale Tussock – Cowley, Cheltenham
Small Angle Shades – Cowley, Cheltenham
Reddish Light Arches – Cowley, Cheltenham
Shoulder-striped Wainscot – Cowley, Cheltenham
Buff Ermine showing variation in colour and markings – Cowley, Cheltenham
Dot Moth- Cowley, Cheltenham
Iron Prominent – Cowley, Cheltenham
Iron Prominent – Cowley, Cheltenham
Green Silver-lines – Cowley, Cheltenham
Simon Colenutt
I began birdwatching at the age of nine when living on the Isle of Wight. After obtaining a copy of the Isle of Wight Bird Report from 1976 I realised that Manx Shearwater, Arctic Skua, Pomarine Skua and Black Tern were regularly seen at St.Catherine's Point, only five miles from my home village of Chale Green. To a nine year old these birds were near mythical and so I just had to go and try to see them. Little did I know that these birds were seasonal and after a long winter of seeing nothing I eventually started to bump into other birdwatchers as March drew to a close. It was then that Dave Hunnybun, Dave Wooldridge, Paul Castle, Peter Gandy and Audrey Wilkinson introduced me to the art of seawatching and the joys of bird migration, I have not looked back since.
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