Cheers Dave
Back in the day it was known as "a Wiltshire wood"
Over the last couple of years I've found the westerly side more productive for butterflies than the EC
Sidbury 31-05-2024
I was about due for another meet up with Dave and so we made plans to visit Sidbury based upon week old weather reports…As the day approached the forecast got a little worse each day but luckily there was still sunny intervals for the morning so it would be a case of heading out and fingers crossed. With typical alacrity Dave pulled up almost as soon as I did and we headed straight off up the main track catching up as we went. In the breeze the butterflies attempted to keep their heads down and so despite visiting all the good spots that were butterfly filled on my previous visit there was very little that fell under our gaze let alone lenses. The odd Small Heath popped up here and there as well as the occasional Dingy but the Duke in the corner was a no show as was the one in the little valley. Even the Walls weren’t flying at the cross tracks and so we made our way into the Rings.
As we skirted the large log at our entrance the wind whipped along the bottom of the banks, funneled down and then around by the steep banks on either side which don’t allow the rushing air to escape. Luckily the flow isn’t constant and so when a butterfly was found it was a case of getting into position for the shots and then waiting for the wind to die down enough to stop the butterfly rocking forward and back. The first little section almost as soon as we’d entered the ring was the best with Small Heath, Dingy Skipper and a territorial Wall which kept roosting on the bare soil tracks up the banks only to disappear almost as soon as you even thought about trying for a shot. There was also a Brown Argus and a brace of Marshies, both of which were in pretty good nick. Needless to say we spent a bit of time here before the call of more butterflies drew us on to continue to progress round the ring.
It all went quiet as we carried on round right up until we reached the break in the rings, presumably an old gateway when this was a fortification. The bare soil on the slope of the gap in times past has been good for Wall and there are often plenty of Blues and Skippers here so it’s a productive spot. So it turned out to be again today, possibly as we’d ‘turned the corner’ as it were and no the wind had died down to barely a whisper. A brace of Common Blues weren’t allowed to settle for long as a complementary brace of Brown Argus harried them mercilessly. When they weren’t going for the Blues they’d turn their attention to the Grizzlie or Dingy Skippers all while a Wall blustered past a few times, always looking to land but never doing so, at least not in a sensible place. Dave managed to conjure a Small Copper out of the ether but annoyingly the Brown Argus also took a dislike to this and the Greenstreak didn’t even last for more than two seconds before it was set upon.
Over the next stretch this and that also turned up but we’d completed another turn around the corner as no the wind was back, ripping along the bottom of the tunnel again and colling everything it touched. It was assisted by the clouds covering over and it was feeling almost chilly in the gloom so we hastily retreated back to where we’d come in and things had calmed down slightly by now. The Wall (at least I think it was the same one) was there again and we found a pair of Marshies, a less belligerent Brown Argus and a stunning female Common Blue dropped in. As we were shooting away the clicks of our cameras and the tings of the focus wheels were interleaved with a slightly monotonous two note call. It was a Cuckoo slightly further along the ring which after a bit of tree staring revealed itself for some very distant shots. With some good lighting and a cracking imagination the image of the bird is clear to see
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We set to trundling along at the bottom of the ring again and got almost all of the way round to where the wood swallowed the ring up seeing very little in the thick cloud. In the final section a little white flag shone out of the grass. It was a moribund Common Blue, grounded as the chill had set in it seemed, banner unfurled and waving in the slight breeze that was able to permeate the slight breaks in the banks. A few paces on and Dave found another pair of Common Blues, their grey ground colour suggesting that they were males which was proven once they had been offered and accepted Dave’s finger the warmth of which encouraged both of them to open up. After plenty of shots Dave did his best to get them to vacate but they declined as they were enjoying their heat bath far too much. Eventually with a little gentle persuasion both were redistributed back to roughly where they’d initially been and we started out wander back. But this section of the ring wasn’t done with us yet and we’d pause every couple of steps as yet another butterfly appeared atop the green. First a Brown Argus, then a different Common Blue and then another pair of male Common Blues, in fact more Common Blues in one place than I’d seen so far in the entire season, all dead-calmed and grounded.
Have a goodun
Wurzel
Great shot of the Pearl egg-laying on the bracken - they must be so confident the tiny caterpillar will find its way to some violets down there... And that last Marshie looks ready to burst open! 
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need to sneak a few more reports in before you catch me!
So for the sake of completeness...
