In this second part of my account of 'a week in the hot sun'
I was 'buzzed' by a strange flying machine before, once again, finding my target species...encountered not one but two
Emperors...and whilst on a picnic, got up close and personal with some
dragons!!...
Day four... Incombe Hole in Buckinghamshire.
Once again a warm and sunny day, with the temperature rising
to 26c, and it was back to Incombe Hole and it's surrounds in search of the Chalk-hill Blue Butterfly.
As normal progress was slow as I stopped to take photographs of the many wild flowers that were out in bloom along the sides of the pathways...
 |
| Small Scabious |
 |
| Common Bird's-foot-trefoil. It's name is derived from the shape of the seed pods which are long and slender and splayed apart when ripe, resembling a bird's foot. The leaves have five 'leaflets' but with the lower pair at the stalk base it appears to be trifoliate. It is also known as 'bacon and eggs' from the colour of the flowers which start of as red buds and slowly turn through orange to yellow. |
 |
| Spear Thistle |
 |
| Selfheal |
The area I was walking in lies directly under the flight
path into London Luton Airport and on most days this is not a problem as the
planes are not too low at this point and maybe fly over at about one every
fifteen to twenty minutes, but this was the day before the Olympic opening
ceremony and the time between planes was
down to about five minutes. This was not really a problem and was soon ignored
until I was suddenly aware of a noise
that I can only describe as sounding like a dozen or so out of tune lawnmowers
being thrashed to within an inch of their lives...a quick search of the sky
overhead and a few hasty shots with the camera (no time for setting
adjustments) and this was the result!
I'll leave you to work it out but to me it looks like
something that has been put together from all the bits that were left over from
previous projects!
 |
| I googled the identification letters and it's an Italian designed and built! Piaggio P-180 Avanti!! |
I also came across this rather tatty, lone Dark Green Fritillary.
I finally arrived at the spot where, in previous years, I'd seen quite large numbers of Chalk-hill
Blues but today I could only find four males, and one female, who seemed to be
hiding low down in the grass, I wonder why??
When you go out
looking for a specific species of bird or butterfly it's by no means certain
that you'll find it, this time I was lucky I found what I was looking for quite easily, although
in smaller numbers than I'd expected. The day before a local eminent birder had
recorded seeing over seventy in the same area!...maybe he's got better eyesight
than me!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day five... King's Wood in Bedfordshire....and a 'royal encounter'!
I again met up with Keith, this time in the car park at
Stockgrove Country Park ( now renamed Rushmere country park Stockgrove) which
straddles the borders of Bedfordshire
and Buckinghamshire. Our quest, to find the Silver Washed Fritillary Butterfly.
The day started off overcast and humid as we made our way
into the part of the park known as King's Wood, a woodland with records going
back for over a thousand years and now a National Nature Reserve.
At first it appeared to be rather devoid of any bird or
butterfly life but as the sun started to break through and the temperature
started to rise, eventually topping 26c, out came the butterflies...
 |
| Gatekeeper |
 |
| Large White |
 |
| Large Skipper |
 |
| Meadow Brown |
Hoverflies and Damselflies were also busy feeding on the wildflowers...
 |
| episyrphus balteatus |
 |
| Common Blue Damselfly (female) |
|
Ruddy Darter Dragonflies were also putting in an appearance..
 |
| a female |
And then, in what was the start of a very exciting and memorable royal experience, a beautiful male Emperor Dragonfly settled in the long grass right in front of us..
We eventually achieved our goal off the day when a couple
(or the same one doing a circuit!) of Silver Washed Fritillaries did a quick
fly by before disappearing into the trees.
The day, however, was
unexpectedly set to turn into a super day
with the arrival of 'royalty'...
After about four hours of butterfly watching we decided to
call it a day and, as we turned to head home, there on the path in front of us
was royalty himself....a male Purple Emperor.
Creeping up ever so slowly we managed to get close enough to
take some decent photographs. This beautiful butterfly normally spends
most of its time way up and out of sight in the canopies of its favoured Oak
trees only occasionally coming down to ground level to indulge in the, rather
un-royal!, habit of extracting moister and minerals from animal droppings and carrion.
Unfortunately for much of the five or so minutes that we
were allowed to invade its space it's wings were held closed tightly together only occasionally flicking them open and
allowing us to see that beautiful purple sheen from where it gets its name.
After it was spooked by a humble fly our audience with
royalty was at an end and 'his eminence' disappeared back into the treetops.
We left feeling rather privileged to have had the rare
chance to see, up close, one of Britain's rare and beautiful butterflies.
I suppose when you have reached the heights of meeting
royalty things have to return to normal and as we made our way back through the
woods we were met by an overpowering stench of rotting flesh and there standing
proud in the leaf litter was...phallus impudicus
 |
| otherwise known as..Stinkhorn! |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Day Six... Picnic time...as the weather starts to break!
As the warm and sunny weather had been predicted to last for
some time it had been pre-arranged, earlier in the week, that we would be
joined by Mother-in-law to go on a picnic!
So, the destination was chosen, Marston Vale Country Park in
Bedfordshire, mainly for the fact that it has toilets!! Unfortunately the weather didn't seem to be
in picnic mood , and although sunny and warm at times, dark clouds were looming,
accompanied by a chilly breeze. The
planners have been thoughtful and have provided a nice grass covered area
(overflow car park!) just right for picnics.
After driving around in ever decreasing circles looking for
a suitable spot to 'settle' (we were the only ones there!!) the tables and
chairs were set up, the food and hot drinks put out, coats and a blanket (to
keep the knees warm!) put on and the banquet began.
Now, this could only be England!..imagine the scene...a
large grassy field, one car, three people, folding chairs and tables, daintily
cut sandwiches, hot tea from a thermos flask and coats off when the sun shone and back on when it didn't......brilliant!!
Sorry, I've digressed...I left the ladies to chat! and set off
to see what I could find.
First I made my way to a nearby patch of Brambles and soon
located Gatekeeper Butterflies and Common Blue Damselflies, but as I was lining
up to take a photograph of a butterfly I noticed something moving deep down in
the long grass...tiny frogs, about an inch long!..lots of them!...everywhere! and I was standing right in amongst them! carefully and
trying not to stand on too many (sorry froglets !) I backed off and left
them in peace. In their short lives they must have travelled some distance
because the nearest water, a pond in the flower gardens, is at least 400 yards
away!
There were not many butterflies around and even fewer birds,
a few Mute Swans and Common Terns on the
main lake and a couple of overflying Cormorants was about it.
Wild flowers were out in abundance though...
 |
| Hedge Bindweed |
 |
| Field Bindweed |
And there were lots of flowering Wild Teasels...hopefully, they'll provide lots of food for the smaller birds later in the year.
There was lots of activity going on lower down in the
grass...time to get the knees dirty...and wet!!
 |
| Caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth feeding on Ragwort |
 |
| Female Meadow Grasshopper |
 |
| Rufous Grasshopper (?) |
And finally to an area where I knew that I was almost certain to find Dragonflies resting on the
handrails of a boardwalk...and I wasn't to be disappointed...
 |
| Common Darter |
 |
| Ruddy Darter |
These two Dragonflies can sometimes look quite similar, a
quick way to separate them is that the Common Darter has a Yellow stripe
running along the outside of the legs and the Ruddy Darter has completely Black
legs.
I arrived back at the car park...er... picnic site, the ladies
had finished putting the world to rights!, just in time to pack everything back
into the car before a brief rain shower put an end to my 'WEEK IN THE HOT SUN'.
Sorry for the lengthy!! posts and thanks for sticking with
it..I hope you found them interesting and I promise in future I'll try and make
them a little shorter!!...[;o)
