www.northwalesbirding.co.uk

A beautiful evening and at last I see there are a few Meadow Browns in my hay. I hope that I can see more than 7 different butterflies as I did in May and June.
Meadow Brown taken with a 60mm lens.

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013

Saw these to-day and thought I'd drop by and pop them in.
Small Skipper

Ringlet

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013

Nice pics Shirley,I had a Small Tortoiseshell in the garden this afternoon,think it is only about the fourth one this year.

One Speckled Wood in the garden today, finally enjoying the sunshine.

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Regards

Derek

Several Meadow Brown seen around the garden yesterday together with other smaller ones flying far too fast to identify!

There were 20+ meadow browns at Burton Mere Wetlands reserve yesterday plus a couple of large whites while at Connah's Quay NR there were half a dozen meadow browns, a comma and a large skipper. However generally butterfly numbers are drastically down on what you would expect to see at this time of the year.

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Conwy county bird life list: 238. Latest - Bittern.
UK life list (BOU): 403. Latest - Little swift.

Found a Ringlet up by Dinas Bran Castle, but I agree numbers of butterflies are noticeably down

Now the dry weather is here I thought that as I have grown lots of Birds-foot trefoil in my field and its in full flower the Common Blue would love it.
But, when I walk through the grass there are Meadow Browns and Ringlets, no Skippers like there used to be and I think its nothing to do with the weather its the grass. The butterflies are having difficulites getting through it, its meadow hay not silage. There's a type of grass which I found to be Common Bent its very, 'quote its delicate head forms a brown mist over the ground', good for sheep, good for hay but rubbish for the poor butterlies.
At least the bramble is coming into flower and I have the other field with the saplings in, there's field thistles, the Birds-foot't, red clover and nettles which I have seen Small Tortoiseshells on them this week.
There is a pair of Whitethroats that are always in the saplings which are Alder trees about 8 foot now.
Common Bent grass

close up

rather a lot of it

If I win the lottery by next spring I'll plough the big field and have the most beautiful wild flower meadow imaginable, keep choosing the wrong numbers

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013

How will you keep the Rabbits away Shirley? They are a real pest here and eat everything in site except potatoes!

The worse thing rabbit do is dig holes in the field and both the dog and I have fallen foul to them.
On a better note, on the day it is cut Buzzards come and land on the field for the mice and the like, the farmer I get to cut the grass is too busy this week so my search for the Common Blue continues and also I have seen the Red spotted Burnet the day flying moth, that like the weeds at the edge of the field.

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013

Interesting around the wood to-day. First a Comma and then a Small Skipper.

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013

Even with this warm spell we are having at the moment still no butterflies around my garden,the wet weather must have hit them hard.

Keep your eyes open 'M' you might find that a Peacock will pop into your garden.
In the meantime the second brood of Holly Blue's were out and I'd just come back and not checked the setting on the camera and drat the thing it was on manual but later on the right setting I caught a worn Small Tort' on some nettles.

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Shirley
BTO member. 2013