Heading Home (slowly).

 After visiting Glapthorn on our way to Yorkshire and seeing lots of Black Hairstreak, we had the idea of perhaps visiting another great site that I had heard about, on our return journey, which was also going to incorporate staying in Norfolk, Suffolk and Kent. Yes, we were not in a hurry to get home, and we wanted to make the most of our trip.

Although I knew we were very late into the Marsh Fritillary season I thought it was worth at least checking out the site of Chamber's Farm Wood in Lincolnshire. Especially as we would be near to a very good friend of Lisa's that she was keen to visit.

As we headed to an area to park the car at Chamber's Farm Wood I saw a lovely Blackthorn area in the corner of the small meadow. I immediately thought there was a chance of Black Hairstreak there. I hadn't at that time heard of Black Hairstreak in this wood, but as we approached the scrubby area I immediately saw a hairstreak flying around the bushes, and it wasn't a surprise to see it was indeed a Black Hairstreak. In all we saw around 5 in this little corner, but only one landed in a photographable position.

Black Hairstreak.

After this wonderful sighting we headed to the area where the Marsh Fritillaries are known to be. On the way we saw our first White Admiral of the year as well as lots of Green Oak Tortrix. On entering the meadow my thoughts of us being too late to see the fritillary were quickly erased as there were still large numbers of these gorgeous butterflies. However, only one was seen that was worth photographing as they were generally very worn. However, the females were fresher, and just before we were ready to leave I spotted one that was actually pretty good.

Female Marsh Fritillary.

During our time in Yorkshire we had seen thousands of Painted Lady's, but a fresh one did land and pose near me so I decided to take only my 2nd photo of one of the whole trip.

Painted Lady.

Once again, our extra stop was well worth doing. Our next stop was in Lowestoft, which would position us well for both the North-east Norfolk and Minsmere. 

Our first day there the weather was far from ideal with drizzle and heavy cloud. However, we were determined to make the most of what we had, so we headed north to Buxton Heath in Norfolk. As we parked the car the rain started to get heavier, so we sat it out for a while, but eventually the rain became just a light drizzle, so we headed onto the heath to the area where we had seen Silver-studded Blue the previous year. It wasn't long before we started to find these lovely butterflies roosting, and no doubt, hoping for the weather to improve. As we walked along the paths of the heath we actually found 42 Silver-studded Blues. After a couple of hours and after having a picnic lunch sheltering from yet more rain, the sun suddenly appeared for around 30 minutes. During this brief interlude from the rain many of the butterflies started to wake up and some even took flight.

Female Silver-studded Blue at roost.

Female Silver-studded Blue waking up.

Male Silver-studded Blue at roost.

Eventually we decided to move on, and as the forecast was slightly better for the afternoon we decided to head to Strumpshaw Fen where we would stand a chance of a Swallowtail. As we parked the car the sun came back out, and as we headed to the visitor centre a Swallowtail flew past us and started nectaring on some Bramble flowers. However, it was extremely flighty and we didn't get a photo of it. At the visitor centre we were told that it was possibly the only one seen that day, as already the clouds had come back in. We were so lucky even having such a brief sighting, as some people had been there for several hours hoping and failing to see one. We did have good views of a couple of Cuckoos and I was more than surprised to bump into Julia, who had been on my Sussex Butterfly tour 3 weeks earlier.

The following day we headed to Hickling Broad. Last year we saw lots of Swallowtail here, and we were hoping for the same again, especially as the weather had improved. However, we only saw 3 Swallowtail, and the only one that posed was not in the best condition.

Swallowtail.

We were also hoping for Bittern sightings, but again these were a little disappointing. We did however, still have a few things worth photographing. A young Conehead Cricket nymph was nice to see as were good numbers of damselflies which included several Variable Damselflies, as well as large numbers of Four-spotted Chasers.

Conehead Cricket nymph.

Four-spotted Chaser.

Our final day before moving onto Kent was spent at Minsmere. Once again the weather was not perfect, however, during a sunny interlude we searched for Red-veined Darters as they can be seen here as they emerge from the pool near the visitor centre. We didn't get lucky with this, however, Lisa did spot a lovely Drinker larva.

Drinker larva.

We also enjoyed the challenge of photographing some fast flying birds. However, that will be the subject of my next post!!