Minsmere's Butterflies...

On Monday I again visited the RSPB's Minsmere reserve. As you arrive you are confronted by a vast bank of buddleia bushes that, at this time of year, are full of butterflies. After studying these with one of the volunteers to see what could be found I rather got a taste for it and spent most the rest of my time there trying to photograph as many species (some I knew, some I didn't) as I could find. I apologise if I've got the identification of any of them wrong, I'm still learning them! So here we go...

So we shall start with the whites. First, possibly the most obvious, the large whites that were all over the buddleia and pretty much everywhere else.

Then a small white:

And finally a green-veined white:

Now for some other common ones. The splendid peacock:

The small tortoiseshell:

A comma:

A painted lady:

Meadow brown with wings both open and closed:

Gatekeeper again with wings open and closed:

I think this one is a grayling:

A speckled wood:

No jokes about small policemen, a small copper:

What I believe to be a common blue, both wings open and closed:

A brown argus:

A few pictures of a purple hairstreak (a first for me):

What I think is a small skipper:

There were dozens of these around as well. I'm led to believe that they a silver-y moths:

Finally, I have no idea what this is, clearly not a butterfly and more of a beetle, but amazing!

That was everything from Minsmere. I'll finish with a picture of a clouded yellow that I took down in Kent but I've seen in quite a few places this year. Must be a good year for them because I had never seen one before this summer.

 

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Notch-up one at Newbourne...

With the weather in Suffolk being so beautiful (as I'm led to believe it is across the entire country) I decided to take a trip to the exquisitely picturesque Newbourne Springs with mother. I went with birdwatching in the back of my mind, hence taking the camera and binoculars, but it was mainly a nice walk in the sun drenched woods which was the aim of the day. The reserve is managed by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and they do a wonderful job of managing it without it looking like it has been managed - if you know what I mean.

We arrived in the glorious sunshine and my eye was instantly drawn to the bright orange butterfly which was flitting around next to where we parked the car. Of course, by the time I had got to the boot and found the binoculars it had disappeared. So off we strolled surrounded by the combined tweetings of chaffinches, wrens, robins and the newly arrived, but very vocal, chiffchaffs.

As we strolled around bird highlights came in the form of a great spotted woodpecker, green woodpecker, treecreeper and a flock of at least 15 fieldfares. I'm guessing their proximity to the east coast means that they could be considering making the trip back to Scandinavia soon. The really pleasant surprise (which I had half-hoped for) my first singing blackcap of the year. He was generally quite elusive, but after a short time of following us whilst uttering short song excerpts from the depths of the scrub, he sat out on display for a short time.

Blackcap - Newbourne Springs - Mar. 2012 - Mike Ixer

Another first of the year for me can in the (very distinctive) shape of a couple of comma butterflies sparring with each other before landing in the sunshine.

Comma - Newbourne Springs - Mar. 2012 - Mike Ixer

There was also red admirals on the wing and a white which, from a distance, looked like my first green-veined white of the year - but I'm not 100% on that one.

A lovely way to spend a couple of hours and Mum loved it!