If you have already looked at Dave's blog Friends of Groyne No 4 then this is going to look very similar. We had a very limited agenda today. A quick look at Waltham Brooks on the way through to Pulborough Brooks where we wanted to see a Nightingale. The rest of the day would then be spent in pursuit of the Pearl-bordered Fritillary.
Sightings of a Whitethroat and Sedge Warbler got us off to a good start and gave me a couple of year ticks. We had seen them both previously but I had said that I would not count them until I could get record shots and that had proved harder than I had expected. Even today the pictures are not good but you can at least you can see what the birds are.
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| Whitethroat |
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| Sedge Warbler |
Walking back to the car we came across a Nightingale. There was no problem hearing it but seeing it and getting a photograph proved a lot harder. So I now have a set of three partially obscured birds from the mornings birding, better than nothing I suppose.
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| Nightingale |
The good news was that we no longer needed to visit Pulborough Brooks and could make an early start on looking for the Pearl-bordered Fritillary.
Clouds were starting to cover the sun, it was getting a lot cooler, and there was rain in the air as we approached our intended search site. The conditions did not look good, however, luck was with us and we were straight on to two of the butterflies. The cool air then played into our hands. We managed a few quick shots but then as the butterflies settled we managed to track one to its resting place and had forty five minutes to take pictures before the sun came out and it started moving again.
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| Pearl-bordered Fritillary |
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| Waiting for the sun |
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| Pearl-bordered Fritillary |
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| Paler and slightly bigger so this could be a female |
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| Pearl-bordered Fritillary |
The Pearl-bordered Fritillary was a life tick for me. Strangely there were no other butterflies of any type to be seen in the woods but there were a few other insects about and some of them quite photogenic.
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| Bee Fly |
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| Green Tiger Beetle |
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