West Park Small Coppers

Today I was gifted with a local view of three Small Copper at my new favourite patch on the grassland at West Park near the university campus. I firstly located two seperate butterflies near the path in a sheltered, low lying area of the grassland (to the left in the pic below).

I watched two tussle and shoot off at incredible speed and I lost sight of them for a minute before one reappeared on the path in front of me. Then I noticed another amongst the grasses on a sorrel plant where it crawled its way down the stem, typical behaviour of the female searching for suitable host plants.

A female Green Veined White, more heavily marked than the males, nectaring on Garlic Mustard .

Here's the sheltered path bordered by Hawthorns and other native species where I spotted the Green Veined White and a male Orange Tip.

 

Letchmire Pastures, Allerton Bywater

On our first trip to Letchmire Pastures Local Nature Reserve a wetland and grassland site on a former coal area, we spotted a few firsts of the year, including our first dragonfly sighting. I have to admit that I'm out of practice but we think this is a female Four Spotted Chaser, broad tail,black tip & spots on wings. Below the same dragonfly a little closer.

In a South facing sloped patch of grassland I spotted my first Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) of the year (3 males), not such great pics so this one's just for reference.

And my first Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) of the year.

We also heard our first Cuckoo of the year and saw it briefly perched on a telegraph wire before it flew off into the woodland. Its shape was familiar to me as a result of having viewed cuckoo photos on blog postings, so thank you to everybody who has shared their cuckoo photos recently, its a great way to learn about unfamiliar species. Other bird sightings included Partridge, Lapwing, Jay, Swallow, Cormorant.

Allotment Female Orange Tip

Down on the allotment, I saw the first female Orange Tip of the year nectaring on the flowers of Comfrey and Chive. All of the Orange Tips I've seen so far this year have been male so this little lady was a welcome visitor. It provided a pleasant break from removing bindweed amongst the fruit bushes. 

The males have bold orange patches on the tip of each forewing, whereas the orange colour is lacking in the female which have similar upperwing markings to a Small White. Both male and female have the delicately mottled green and white pattern on the underwing.  

I also glimpsed a male Brimstone zipping around the hawthorn border but it shot off as quick as it appeared, well before I could grab the camera.

Billy Wood - Townclose Hills Nature Reserve

We visited Townclose Hills Local Nature Reserve (AKA Billy Wood) at the weekend, a grassland and woodland reserve on magnesian limestone, its the site with reported sightings of Marbled White last year.  There was little butterfly action during our visit, although we did catch brief glimpses of Orange Tip and Holly Blue on the wing. The highlight was hearing and spotting Yellowhammer (4) in the trees near the top of the hill, our attention grabbed by the unmistakeable call of 'a little bit of bread and no cheese'.

More information about the reserve via Friends of Billy Wood.

Lunchtime stroll

At lunchtime, in the scorching sunshine, I ventured out beyond the campus, via Queens Wood and across the land adjoining West Park playing fields. On the way I saw Great Spotted Woodpecker, Goldfinch, Long Tail Tit, Jay, Robin, Chiffchaff, Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Wood Pigeon, Magpie, Blue Tit, Wren. The view above is  from the top of the hill with the university sports pitches behind me, looking across to West Park. Its a nice open area of uncut grasses, cow parsley with occasional patches of buttercup and bluebells bordered by an assortment of native deciduous trees.

This is the view at the base of the hill, looking towards Spen Lane, West Park Centre is just visible far right, Norman Towers is visible between the trees, left of centre. The grassland is full of buttercups, dandelions and red clover pictured in more detail below. Strangely I spotted only one butterfly in this area today, a Small Tortoiseshell.

Here's the Small Tortoiseshell nectaring on a buttercup. I had a little more luck on the walk back spotting a Holly Blue, two male Orange Tip, and two whites on the wing at a distance. Its a nice patch and one I'll try to visit more regularly.