North Cave Wetlands

During the weekend we headed east to North Cave Wetlands, a Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserve, where we counted 40+ Peacock along with a couple of Red Admiral nectaring on newly flowering Teasels.

A closer underwing view of the Red Admiral, showing the strong  contrast between the brightly marked forewing and the camouflaged hindwing. Usually it takes a little burst of flash to do justice to the colouring but strong sunshine helped illuminate the wing detail.

All were lovely fresh looking butterflies, with as many as 5 Peacocks per plant.

We saw the majority of Peacocks in this sheltered sunny ditch full of Teasels & Ragwort, bordered by hawthorn hedge,

and this, my first Painted Lady of the year amongst the Teasel.

 

Kirkstall Abbey sightings

During a rare moment this weekend when I wasn't glued to the TV, we wandered down to Kirkstall Abbey. There were Small Tortoiseshell butterflies  (8+) in the herb garden opposite Kirkstall Abbey. 3 Brown Hawkers zipped around the garden, and we found one Banded Demoiselle on waterside vegetation by the River Aire. Earlier in the week we walked around Kirkstall Abbey Park at dusk to test a bat detector and found 6 Pipistrelles by the river, very exciting.

Ilkley Moor

On the edges of Ilkley Moor I found my first Small Heath of the year, the diminuitive butterfly featured on the Friends of Ilkley Moor banner graphic .

There was an abundance of Ringlets (30+) amongst the grasses and heather, this one perched obligingly to show off the white wing margin to best effect. And another nectaring on thistle, easily the most popular butterfly on the lower slopes of the moors.

Here's the view from the foot of Ilkley Moor near Wells Road, looking up towards White Wells.

The second most popular butterfly of the day, Small Skippers nectaring on thistles