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21C Tuesday 2nd July 2019 ~
I began today with an early morning visit to Ryton Wood, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. With temperatures around 16C at 09:30 and mostly clear skies, it seemed a good place to start. On arrival, there was plenty of
Meadow Browns on the wing, along with
Ringlet and even before I'd left the parking area I'd noted a couple of
Large Skippers.
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| Silver-washed Fritillary ~ Year-First at Ryton Woods today |
By the time I'd completed a circular route over a two-hour period cloud had begun to increase, so I decided to finish and head off to Brandon Marsh for a catch-up. Ryton was a good visit with in addition to the above (2)
Red Admiral (3)
Purple Hairstreaks, mostly high in the Oak canopy, plus a very pristine
Painted Lady. I'd noted (5)
White Admiral and (2)
Silver-washed Fritillary during my walk, which I have to say were very flighty. Many
Common Spotted Orchids throughout my walk and Dragonflies for the day included
Black-tailed Skimmer and
Ruddy Darter.
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| Lots of Marble Whites on the wing at Brandon Marsh |
After lunch, I spent a few hours at Brandon Marsh where there was plenty of
Marbled White to be found and along with a single
Purple Hairstreak a year-first
White-letter Hairstreak near River Meadow, in an area which has proven to be an excellent spot for them over the last few years.
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| Pyramidal Orchid ~ Brandon Marsh ~ just two to my knowledge this year thus far! |
A couple of
Pyramidal Orchids, one of which I found during today's visit is not particularly common to the reserve but pop up every so often. Sadly in previous years, they've been dug up by the odd idiot so I'm not mentioning locations!
More images of the day...
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| White-letter Hairstreak ~ Year-First |
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| Purple Hairstreak |
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| Newly emerged Common Darter at Ryton |
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| Large Skipper ~ Ryton Woods |
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| Silver-washed Fritillary ~ Ryton Woods |
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| Pyramidal Orchid ~ Just two specimens thus far this year at Brandon Marsh to my knowledge! |
