23/08/2021-Day off at Shipton Bellinger: Butterflies, moths, flowers and more
With today booked off work also we explored somewhere we’d never been before, some renowned butterfly habitat around Shipton Bellinger near to Hampshire’s border with Wiltshire. We had come to see if we could see a Brown Hairstreak a butterfly we’ve never seen which a few people we know locally have seen here recently. We didn’t see this butterfly today so may try again but it was still a very enjoyable walk. It was a lovely stretch of countryside with nice meadows and trees and I really enjoyed taking this in it had some great panoramic typical countryside views too as we walked around an initial meadow type area we found as suggested by some of the people we knew who’d come and parked at. I took the one, fourth, seventh and eighth pictures in this photoset of views at this bit.
Wildflowers really caught the eye again throughout the day here with especially lots of lovely pink and green wild basil I tweeted a photo of some on Dans_Pictures tonight and other species seen included; self-heal, rosebay willowherb, agrimony, red bartsia, ragwort, yarrow, carrot, fennel, woolley thistle, other thistle, bird vetch, hawksbeard, viper’s-bugloss which I do really like, bindweed, field scabious as shown in the third picture I took today in this photoset, eyebright, a few poppies, traveler’s joy, tiny black medick, white clover, possible weld and some lovely yellow goldenrod adorning some hedges which I learnt today. There were some charming wayfaring tree berries around too looking a divine combination for me my favourite colour scheme of red and black which was interesting to see. On our first of two stints here it was nice to see some Holly Blue and Meadow Brown butterflies the latter shown in the sixth picture I took today in this photoset and a sweet charm of Goldfinches shown in the fifth picture I took today in this photoet flying into a bare tree which was nice to see. I also loved spotting another precious hornet mimic hoverfly after seeing my first ever yesterday at Farley Mount a brilliant species. I also saw Straw-barred Pearl and Bird-cherry ermine moths here another two new ones for me this weekend another strong aspect of it with four new ones observed, I took the second picture in this photoset of the former. With the needed sun to help with butterflies coming out more not poking through we relocated to an area within the village where some people also looking for Brown Hairstreaks had said they’d seen some around an ash tree along the track which I took the ninth picture in this photoset of. This wasn’t to be either but it was nice to see some House Sparrows and Jackdaws here. We returned to the original patch and with the blue sky just starting to show when we left this area the sun had now well and truly come out. It did hide behind clouds again at one or two moments but the second spell here was much brighter and sunnier and this did bring out the beautiful butterflies. Loads of Holly Blues danced along a well vegetated tree line where we focused our efforts as the place the Brown Hairstreaks were, it was very special to see certainly the most Holly Blues I’ve seen at once this year and possibly ever there were so many. Red Admirals were a bright and colourful delight along this vegetation too, as one other person commented one looked really nicely fresh, with lots of Brimstones about now. And after thinking I’d not seen many more of them after seeing a little second emergence late last month after seeing a few Brown Argus and Common Blue which I saw re-emerge at the same time some bright orange Small Heaths came out at the base of the grass which was nice.
I came away feeling I’d used another what became with our Rutland trip done on Friday and Saturday off day off very well. And it was also another day where we spoke to so many brilliant fellow wildlife enthusiasts we had really good quality, good humoured and much valued conversations with everyone we met which could be said about many walks this year and a lot of this weekend and today there was a real in it together spirit of what was a bit like a butterfly twitch. Something the Bird Fair which we usually go up to Rutland Water for our trip this year brought this too is such a prominent part of my year for too the social interaction so it was good today.
The tone was set for a gorgeously bright sunny summer’s evening and on the way into the house when home I liked taking in and photographing as I tweeted a trio of plants growing outside the fence the back horseweed, sweet little yellow hawksbeard glowing in the ideal sunlight and the yarrow still going strong with a common green bottle fly on which I liked noticing. In the back garden bright coloured chrysanthemums for photos and other flowers either for macro photos or just to look at caught my eye. This was a perfect end to one of my weekends of the year and ever with the two insect and flower dominated walks in Hampshire complimenting by amazing return to Rutland Water of birds and more so well as I posted about over the last twenty four hours with the Rutland Water trip blogs, yesterday’s and this one. Thanks for all your appreciation of my posts and photos and I hope you have all had a good few days.
Wildlife Sightings Summary for Shipton Bellinger: My first ever Staw-barred pearl and Bird-cherry ermine moths, two of my favourite butterflies the Red Admiral and Small Tortoiseshell, one of my favourite damselflies the Beautiful Demoiselle, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Holly Blue, Common Blue, Brimstone, Small Heath, Goldfinch I am seeing so many on walks lately a familiar one in the garden too, House Sparrow, Woodpigeon, Magpie, Jackdaw, Hornet Mimic hoverfly, other hoverflies and bees.