For a change the weather for the long bank holiday weekend
was, for the most part, bright and sunny with a mostly blue sky. The
temperature was around a comfortable 17°
- 18°C mark (I don't like it too warm!). Apart from Monday, when there was a
chilly wind blowing, the conditions were right for a spot of butterfly watching.
The local reports were giving information that there were
good butterfly numbers showing at a place where I'd never fully explored before...Bison
Hill, about seven miles from home, on the chalk escarpment of the Chiltern Hills
in Bedfordshire.
 | |
| Butterfly Country |
The reports were right there were butterflies on the wing
everywhere..
Green Hairstreak (callophrys rubi)
Duke Of Burgundy Fritillary (hamearis lucina)...a butterfly
I'd never seen before!
 |
| female |
 |
| male |
 |
| male |
 |
| female |
Dingy Skipper (erynnis tages)
Grizzled Skipper (pyrgus malvae)
 |
| male |
 |
| female |
Small Heath (coenonympha pamphilus)...as always, skulking low
down in the grass!
Just a part of the panoramic view looking out from the top of the hill over the Vale
of Aylesbury.
Not to be outdone by the butterflies a couple of day flying
moths were on the wing.
 |
| Common Carpet (epirrhoe alternata) |
 |
| Cinnabar (tyria jacobaeae) |
And to round off two good days of butterflying ....whilst I
was relaxing in the garden on Sunday evening, enjoying a welcome glass of wine,
a butterfly settled on one of the shrubs about six feet away from me, as if it
was saying 'don't forget me'...
 | |
| A well worn Holly Blue (celastrina argiolus) |
And today?...It's raining yet again!!
