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24C Wednesday 3rd July 2019 ~
A day out in Shropshire with Alan Boddington a fellow member of the Brandon Marsh Conservation Team with visits to Prees Heath Common and Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR.
We began mid-morning at Prees Heath Common, the last sanctuary for the
Silver-studded Blue butterfly in the Midlands.
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| One of many Silver-spotted Blue butterflies at Prees Common today |
The reserve is on a large Common that had been a Second World War airfield. A major restoration project is re-instating heathland and grassland vegetation across much of the site, which is owned and managed by Butterfly Conservation. In fact, it wasn't that difficult a task to track down one of these eye-catching butterflies, with well over 100 on the wing in today's glorious sunshine.
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| ♀Emporer Dragonfly ovipositing at Prees Common |
Of course, there were other species to be found today in this excellent habitat including
Large Skipper,
Small Skipper and my first
Essex Skipper of the year, plus (3)
Painted Lady,
Red Admiral and various numbers of
Common Blues,
Meadow Brown and
Ringlet. At the far end of the Common, a small pool held
Four-spotted Chaser and both male (♂) and female (♀)
Emporer Dragonflies.
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| Stunning Musk Thistle ~ Nice perch for a Hover Fly! |
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| A fine example of Great Mullein |
However, it wasn't just about the Butterflies and Odanata for me with some stunning Flora to be found and my favourites today included the amazing
Musk Thistle and
Great Mullein at Prees and the
Cotton Grass (below) at Wixhall.
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| Cotton Grass at Whixall |
Just a short drive from Prees is Fenn’s, Whixall & Bettisfield Mosses NNR. Here lies one of the biggest and best-raised bogs in Britain: main habitats include lowland raised bog, wet woodland, wet peaty fields, heathland and Teesdalia grassland. We parked today at the car park next to the Llangollen Canal swingbridge, an area that Dazza (my wife) and I know very well from our years out cruising.
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| A slightly damaged Large Heath but thankful to have an opportunity to photograph one! |
Our main Butterfly target was the
Large Heath, a species which thrives in boggy habitats and quite rare to the Midlands. I have a feeling that we struck a bit lucky today with the photo, having only managed three specimens in total during our whole visit. Thankfully Alan spotted one on the ground (briefly) while ironically I was on the phone to Jim Timms, my 'goto' Dragonfly man 😉
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| Black Darter |
The remainder of the visit was very hot and sticky in mostly clear skies checking pools and grasses for
Black Darter and the sought after
White-faced Darter Dragonflies, plus getting the odd
Mosquito bite for our troubles. Another speciality here is the
Raft Spider but sadly we dipped on that one.
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| Immature male White-faced Darter ~ Snapped during the briefest encounter |
However, it was well worth the effort with (5)
Black Darter and although we thought we may have missed the more elusive
White-faced Darter I was delighted to find that having reviewed my images at home later the very last photo of the day revealed an immature male!
I must also give a mention to our notable bird sightings today which included: (2)
Marsh Tit,
Willow Tit, (3)
Curlew (which nest here) and a single
Raven over.
More Images of the Day...
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| Large Red Damselfly |
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| Another of the many Silver-studded Blue |
