Monday 20 August 2012

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.



 



8 comments:

  1. What beautiful shots, Linda, especially the underwing of the Red Admiral - such detail. And I have been enjoying the Swallowtail caterpillars at Hickling ... may take a little while to post my pics.

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  2. Have only been on the internet intermittently of late but up and running again so will be following your blog regularly again. I remember last year seeing literally hundreds of butterflies at Druridge when the Teasels were "in flower" and i see they are enjoying the Teasel in your inages and they are just getting their "flowers". They seem to love it.

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  3. A relief to hear that you saw so many butterflies doing well. There are so few here, despite a garden full of butterfly friendly flowers and the New Forest heath in bloom beyond the hedge.

    We have some teasels coming into flower so I hope they will attract some visitors. Bee and hover fly numbers are well down too.

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  4. Looks a great place for butterfly

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  5. Really lovely photos Linda and it looks a great reserve. We are still getting so few butterflies especially in the garden so its lovely to look at your photos :)

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  6. These look great! Every picture on your blog is like a chocolate sundae for my eyes.

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  7. Lovely images and a finding a Painted Lady, so lucky, I have not seen any this year Linda.

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  8. Hello Caroline, thank you, I'm looking forward to popping across to catch up with your Swallowtail sightings.

    Hello Jonny, same here, hoping to catch up with everybody in the next few weeks. Teasels are a great draw for lots of pollinators, and a nice looking plant too.

    Hello DW, hope the teasels have managed to bring in a burst of late butterflies.

    Hello CB, its a nice reserve, not the nearest but worth a look,

    Hello Caroline,yes its certainly been a poor year for butterflies overall. Hopefully next years weather will bringbeter numbers.

    Hello Accessories, thanks very much

    Hello Roy, yes my first and only Painted Lady of the year, a nice surprise.

    Thanks to everybody for visiting and leaving a comment, I really appreciate it. Best wishes Linda

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