Yet another new place today, on the hunt for a new butterfly. Burnhill Nature Reserve, part of the Waskerly Way is a well known spot for SMALL PEARL BORDERED FRITILLARY, a butterfly I have never seen before. The weather was very cloudy and overcast when I got there, not great for butterflies. But in the odd flashes of sunshine, a few species were flying around which gave me a bit of hope. A few MEADOW BROWNS and RINGLETS were showing sporadically, along with a single COMMON BLUE, but then after about 25minutes the sun came out and all of a sudden something different came out of the foliage and landed on a thistle not too far from me. I quickly got my bins on it and sure enough it was the target species - SMALL PEARL BORDERED FRITILLARY! What a beauty this is. Another couple were also seen but the weather didnt really improve a great deal so after nearly an hour I decided to move on.
I went to another section of the Nature Reserve to try for a different Fritillary, Dark Green. Again the weather wasnt very helpfull, and I was unfortunate not to see one today, but I did see another couple of SMALL PEARL BORDEREDs. I also got a bird year tick, LESSER REDPOLL, flying over (190), and I also seen something which I'm astonished I'd never seen before!!! On the way back to the car, a small black ball of fur was scurrying along the path in front of me. When I knelt down to take a closer look I realised it was a MOLE! And what a little cutey it was too! Just goes to prove that anything can turn up when you're out.
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