After all the doom and gloom of recent poor butterfly years it seems this year has bucked the trend. Grassland habitat is alive at the moment with various skippers, ringlets, meadows browns and so on. Having heard on the grapevine that the remarkable coloniser the Essex skipper has now reached Blaenavon I took it upon myself to visit that much talked about 'derelict' site The British, in search of this climate change benefiter. Of the 29 skippers examined through my x10 optical aid five sported those diagnostic black tipped antennae. However the most amazing thing of my visit was that I didn't fall down an 100ft open flooded mine shaft, I wasn't knocked down by hoards of rampaging teenagers on motorbikes, nor did I stumble across any rusting barrels of glow in the dark toxic chemicals. In fact contrary to popular media commentary the site is tranquil accessible green space full of cultural and natural heritage!
Been keeping my eyes peeled for Essex in my parts, not connected with one yet. I did find one at Forgeside ponds (when clearing those trees), think the year was 2002?
ReplyDeleteRegards Chris...