Butterflies And Birds.

A nice day Thursday on which I decided to have a look for butterflies in Witherslack Wood.

Speckled Wood/Ringlet. Pete Woodruff. 

Though I took on no counting in a couple of hours in the wood, the highest was the Speckled Wood of which I probably saw up to forty. It was good to find the Ringlet followed with the next best number and I saw at least twenty of these with just one Small Skipper seen. 

But best of the day had to be a High Brown Fritillary which was an obliging individual allowing me to get to grips with the underwing to note a row of brown spots between the outer margin and the silver spangles which are missing in the Dark Green Fritillary. These two butterflies are difficult to tell apart void of good views of the underwing, so I can only suppose another ten seen in flight or distant were the same species, one thing for sure, none of them was a Silver-washed Fritillary as I found not a single one as a big disappointment. 

I get the impression this woodland is not noted for it's birdlife, but I heard a singing Blackcap and Chiffchaff, a Great-spotted Woodpecker seen flying away from me, and a Wren.

Whilst in the area I had earlier called in at Foulshaw Moss to see the Osprey, but to be honest should'nt have bothered as the haze had turned what I could see into a couple of shimmering anythings a mile away. The nest site give-away is the two huge webcams set up to give brilliant images on the internet, but I ended up much more impressed by the views of 2 distant Stonechat than I was of the Osprey.

Unable to resist I drove back to Conder Green and had to go to the west end of Conder Pool to see an adult and two young Common Tern at the back side of the island. I found just 6 Common Sandpiper and a Greenshank in the creeks, and noted 2 Greenfinch by the viewing platform. 

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock I saw 27 Black-tailed Godwit, these birds are really stunning in full breeding plumage, 2 Red-breasted Merganser and 8 Little Egret were my only other notes here.

Saturday 11 July.   

I'm informed of one of the young Conder Common Terns airborne in the early afternoon yesterday. I had seen this bird having a wing flapping exercise on Wednesday and had thoughts at the time that the bird might fledge before the week was out, presumably the advanced eldest of the three....Thanks for the text Andrew.  

Thanks to Simon Hawtin for the excellent Swallows header.