UKC

Saw my first ever Duke of Burgundy butterflies today.

They're not around for very long and quite limited in sites nowadays, went looking the last couple of weekends but no joy. 

Today we saw 5 and a Green Hairstreak, grizzled skippers, dingy skipper and female blue, really great morning. 

Anybody seen any good wildlife themselves this weekend?

Had a quick mooch around some place near Chiselhirst this morning: Greater spotted and green woodpecker, nuthatch, and a cracking view of two male blackcaps being the highlights. On Friday morning I saw my first roe deer fawn of the spring. Only a week old I’d guess. Long way off but still great. 

I am extremely jealous of this, as is my father - whereabouts are you? 

I'm still running the transect at Horseshoe Quarry, along with a number of other volunteers, but it's been pretty slim pickings so far this year due to the cold/wet weather we've been having. That said, the Dingy Skippers have just come out and I suspect the Wall Brown will follow as soon as it stops raining.

Overall it's a very different situation to the one we were in 12 months ago, but I suspect that the rain will be a blessing for some species such as the Meadow Brown, which definitely suffered as a result of the dry weather last year (everything was so parched, unlike it is now...). 

Up here on the Black Isle the best I've managed is two speckled woods and two orange tips. Very poor for insects this year.

Incessant rain here in west Devon, but managed to spot Wall, Small Heath, Common Blue, Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Small PBFs on the north coast last week during a brief break in the weather. Unfortunately we don't get Dukes down here but am awaiting the emergence of our local Heath Frits...

This was at Incombe Hole on the Bucks / Herts / Beds border. It's just a few hundred yards from Ivinghoe beacon but is a lot quieter.

It's the scarp slope of the Chilterns so lots of butterflies and plants on calciferous grassland.

I know there's a colony there and it's 15 minutes away from my partner's house so have been making the effort to get out there every Sunday

Up the Rebels and To Hell with Burgundy!!!

Buzzards, herons, and a red squirrel on the John Muir way, going climbing near north Berwick law in the afternoon, then saw a cormorant come up with a fish about 5m from my SUP at sunset on an almost empty Belhaven Bay, and had two swans fly past a couple of meters over our heads as we walked back across the beach with the boards.

Pretty good day 😁