With a couple of days off this week it was a chance to go slightly further afield. On Wednesday I went with Chris to try and tick off my Yorkshire bogey bird, Bee eater but unfortunately they had departed early morning so we ended up looking for a couple of special butterflies on the North York Moors.
Duke of Burgundy is a small (and rapidly declining) species
which occurs in just a couple of specialist habitats in Yorkshire, after a long
trudge uphill we were treated to excellent views…
Also here we saw Dingy Skipper…
Small Heath and a surprise Red Kite cresting the ridge.
Near Appleton-le-Moors we caught up with our other target,
the lovely Pearl-bordered Fritillary. This was on a sheltered bankside with
bracken, not a particularly uncommon habitat on the moors but again it is a
very localised, and declining, butterfly here.
On Friday I went with Frank up to Upper Teesdale, a glorious day…
We had good views of Ring Ouzel and other moorland birds but our main target was the specialist flora, in particular Spring Gentian. In the end we only managed a single bloom…
And this was only due to some public spirited botanist having
been here before us!
Then yesterday I helped to survey a site in Wensleydale for orchids. It is managed particularly for Burnt orchids and we found at least 25 of these superb flowers…
Along with dozens of Green-winged and early Purple and half a dozen Frog orchids, a new Yorkshire species for me…
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