Poppyland Nature: A few days Butterflying

Thursday, 5 May 2011

A few days Butterflying

With my recently acquired interest in Butterflies growing, the next few days were to be spent seeing some new species and also improving on previous poor photographic efforts.

First stop was Twywell Hills and Dales with Dingy and Grizzled Skippers the target species as I had only briefly seen one of the former, and had only previously managed a few poor pics of the latter during a couple of visits to Foulden last year.

With cloudy and windy conditions and even a brief shower, things weren't initially looking promising but having found a nice sheltered gulley, eventually the sun came out and so did the Dingy Skippers with good numbers being present and allowing great photo opportunities.

After one brief Grizzled, eventually another was located amongst all the Dingies, and which posed nicely for photos too.

A number of other species were seen including Green Hairstreaks with the one photo'd below having damaged wings and was found crawling around in the grass. A good number of other observers throughout the country have been reporting other species, notably some of the Blues, with deformed wings, and it is believed that the very dry conditions we are experiencing at the moment is having an effect during their emergence.

A few Small Heaths, Common Blues and this Brown Argus were amongst the other species seen.

This Hairy Dragonfly was also found resting on vegetation, and as I'd never seen one perched before or got a photo of one, it was a very welcome bonus. A quick check after at the pond on site revealed a few more Hairies patrolling the pool along with a male Broad-bodied Chaser.

The other port of call today was Sywell Wood for my first new species, Wood White, with a couple quickly located along the main the path and a further half dozen or so present along a sheltered sunny ride off to the left.

They were a very distinctive White, with their small size and feeble flight, and characteristically always keeping their wings closed when landing. Although they always seemed to be on the move, with a lot of patient stalking one finally gave itself up for a decent photo.

My Patch

My patch covers roughly a 10 mile stretch along the north Norfolk coast, from Beeston in the west along to Trimingham in the east, plus a small area inland including Felbrigg Park, Roughton and Northrepps, although the vast majority of my time is spent concentrating on the area from West Runton along to Overstrand.
The main habitats of the area are the coastal bushes and scrub which attract migrants in spring and autumn, a few clifftop woods and fields, the park & lake at Felbrigg, rocky and sandy beaches, and the cliffs and sea which both present great potential for observing coastal passage.

My Photos

The bird photos on here are all digiscoped using a Panasonic Lumix TZ3 compact camera and a Kowa TSN 824 scope. I use a 50x wide angle lens on the scope with no zoom on the camera which seems to go against all the 'expert' advice you read on forums etc, but it works for me and I'm pleased with the results. Additionally I also just hold the camera in place by hand rather than use any adapters to fix it in place, and apart from altering exposure levels, I just go with the automatic levels on the camera so it is really just a case of point and shoot.
The Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures are taken with the camera alone using its macro setting and again mostly using no zoom, which naturally requires a lot of careful stalking of the subject to get close enough to get the quality of picture that I desire.

Poppyland

In 1883 the London based playwright, poet and theatre critic, Clement Scott, visited Cromer as a travel writer for the Daily Telegraph taking advantage of the newly opened railway to the town. On arrival he walked east along the coast to seek accommodation and fell in love with the idyllic villages of Overstrand and Sidestrand and the solitude they presented away from the nearby town. With fields of poppies carpeting the clifftops, he christened the area 'Poppyland' and subsequently wrote a series of articles about his visit in the Telegraph. These were later published as the Poppyland Papers, and his writings made the area probably the best known holiday destination in the country with many victorians visiting the area to enjoy its delights, and the most wealthy of them having houses built in the area, with Overstrand soon becoming known as 'The village of millionaires'. The term Poppyland has stuck ever since, and although it originally just referred to the Overstrand and Sidestrand area, the extension of the railway line to Sheringham and Mundesley, known as the Poppy Line, led to that whole stretch of coast becoming known as Poppyland.

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Thursday, 5 May 2011

A few days Butterflying