Monday 21 July 2014

Mumbles to Caswell - a butterfly adventure.

Decided today to go in search of a butterfly I have yet to see, the silver-washed fritillary. I knew that there had been previous sightings of this species in Bishop's Wood, Caswell, so decided to head there. After cycling to Mumbles, we started the walk along the Gower coast path to Caswell. Shortly after setting off, we were joined by this rather handsome speckled wood.

Speckled wood at Mumbles.

There were a lot of butterflies out today due to the hot weather, including a lot of meadow browns, various whites, and we seemed to be interrupting a gatekeeper party, as we must have seen 50+ along a small stretch. Another fan of the rocky cliff path was the grayling.

Grayling showing its typical resting spot, although hindwing is visible.

Always a lovely species to see, approaching Langland bay there was a lovely fresh red admiral, who, after being chased off several times by a terrirotial male meadow brown, had to have a little sit down for a while.

Red admiral showing stunning underwing patterns.

Arriving into Caswell Bay, we walked through the car park approaching Bishop's Wood, and our attention was drawn by orange shapes flitting around the tree canopy. One sat down and rested near the top of a tree, but after taking a photograph, it was a very lovely, if slightly disappointing comma.

After following several of the orange shapes sailing around on the wind, one came down and began nectaring, and it was, finally, a lovely silver-washed fritillary.

Woohoo!!

The car park at Caswell sits on a woodland edge, and as well as silver-washed and comma, we saw red admiral, green-veined white, and a lovely, perfect little fresh holly blue.

Very convenient fritillary watching place! Caswell bay car park.

On the walk back, there were still plenty of butterflies about, but it was lovely to find a bloody-nosed beetle, my favourite beetle species.
What time is it? Beetle time.

Had some very nice views of stonechat, as well as possibly my best ever views of a hovering kestrel coming back into Limeslade Bay, so that was a lovely bonus!

 Stonechat male.

 Hovering kestrel, always amazing to see.

I know there are a lot of people not that interested in insects, so I put a fluffy bunny in, too, seen at Mumbles.

Aww.








5 comments:

  1. Love the blog and the great pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  2. a lovely piece of writing to start your blog and a great wildlife walk too

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing your lovely photos. Looks like it was a great day.

    ReplyDelete