Monday 13th June 2011 - Wyre Forest

Today it was time for a change of scene so I visited another of my favourite local places, the Wyre Forest.  Its now getting to that time of year where less songbirds are singing and the leaf cover is that dense that it is quite hard to pick birds up that are in the canopy. 

Walking along Dowles Brook there was a Dipper and 4+ Grey Wagtails.  A Wood Warbler was heard singing and 2 ♂ Blackcaps were showing well.  Along this stretch were good numbers of juvenile Blue Tits & Great Tits (mmm Raptor fodder!).  A juvenile Coal Tit and a juvenile Robin were also seen.

The target species today was Small Pearl-borderded Fritillary and in the meadow along Dowles  I saw at least 8 of them. An added bonus was a mass emergence of Chimney Sweeper moths with a 100+ present at this location. A couple of Six Spot Burnett Moths were also seen.

On the walk back along the dis-used railway there was (surprisingly) a Tree Pipit still singing.  A Garden Warbler was showing well at Lodge Hill bridge and 2 Slow Worms were also seen on the Gorse covered embankment during the walk back.

Chimney Sweeper















Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary ()















Slow Worm

5 comments:

  1. Great pics again, Jason. Wish i could find Chimney Sweeper (again), only ever seen one on my patch.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have never found one (yet) around Shenstone but I keep looking. The Wyre is a large area of ancient Woodland that is about 4 miles from where I live, so I tend to visit often.

    Jase

    ReplyDelete
  3. I photographed a Chimney Sweeper moth locally recently. I don't recall seeing it before and the photo was only fit for the recycle bin :(

    I have never seen a Small-bordered Fritillary (so pretty!) and haven't seen a Slow Worm for a long time.

    Great photos!

    ReplyDelete
  4. No worries about the typo Shy...I knew what you meant.

    Photographing Chimney Sweepers is tricky. I tried to get photos a week or so back at another site to no avail...got lucky this time!

    Jase

    ReplyDelete