It was Bank Holiday weekend and I took to family to Filey and Scarborough on the Saturday. It was a gorgeous sunny day as well. This meant a rare Sunday trip out.
PJ had suggested we go for the ADONIS BLUE as our next butterfly tick but last weekend was quite dull and windy. This Sunday however was slightly warmer and less windy, so armed with directions from our personal Butterfly Trip Organiser DK, we headed down into deepest Gloucestershire, to a site called Rodborough Common, south of Stroud.
Rodborough Common
One thing we've found with our quest for the 56/59 British butterflies it that we get to see different parts of the the country, and this area was another one we'd never visited before. The actual bank took a little bit of finding due to us not locating a cattle trough where we were supposed to turn left. Fortunately, they had internet in the area and we soon found our grassy slope.
At first, all we saw a few Common Blues and with no sun and breezy conditions, things weren't looking good. Then sharp eyed PJ spotted our target - an amazing shade of blue - sitting in the grass. The Adonis Blue really did stand out. We enjoyed excellent views and at one stage it was joined by a Brown Argus.
Adonis Blue and a few Brown Argus photo's
As we were running up and down the bank armed with our collecting jars and butterfly nets, we received news of a GLOSSY IBIS at Blithfield. It was an easy decision to make as it was the first record for the site. We headed back north up the M5 and eventually arrived in Tad Bay. A quick sprint down to the hide and we were soon watching a rather splendid Glossy Ibis - another addition to my Blithfield list!
We were having a rather nice time in the hide, sitting with Staffordshire stalwarts Richard Powell, Frank Gribble and even the Clayhead's No1 stalker Ian "I seek them here, I seek them there, I seek those dastardly Clayheads everywhere" Burgess arrived. Then, a nice young couple decided to walk in the top of Tad Bay and proceeded to walk up the far side of Tad Bay. They disappeared into the bushes at one stage to possibly look for insects or beetles or flowers maybe but by this time they had managed to flush everything out of the bay. The Glossy Ibis flew off over towards Blithe Bay, but it was not relocated and presumably just carried on flying.
As a catch up, last weekend we stayed in Staffs again, seeing an Osprey, Black Tern and Whinchat at Blithfield and the female Garganey at Branston.
