Wurzel wrote:I need to know the name of your Tour Operator
Well, I'm weighing up between "CallumTrek" or "GreenMacs"...
Rates are reasonable but you need to be able to walk 10+ miles per day without complaining!
David M wrote:What next have you got in store for us?
Neil Freeman wrote:great reports of 'Callum on tour'
Wurzel wrote:I'm left trying to work out what's next on the tour of the final homeward stretch?
Thanks all for your kind comments. I'm afraid this is now the final installment of 'Callum on tour'!
30/06/2019 - homeward bound
I had picked out three stops that could be made without major diversion from the best route between the Wye Valley and East Yorkshire. With some patchy cloud forecast I decided another early start was in order, and I found myself walking through the gate into Daneway Banks at 8am, an hour usually known only to birders! Although I'd already seen Large Blues (both this week and last year) I had still not managed to get that perfect photo of the upperside, so I thought I'd have one more go...
Walking through the reserve, there were a few Marbled Whites on the wing but not a huge amount else. I thought that was promising - my aim being to be in place before the first Large Blues started to wake! I headed to the top meadow, adjacent to the dew pond, which was where I'd seen the freshest individuals last year at a similar time of the flight season. I then set about walking slow laps of the meadow, and midway through the second lap, the first Large Blue appeared! Watching carefully, I managed to spot where it landed and sneak up for some pictures - a perfect, almost pristine male!
I spent another hour or so wandering the reserve, seeing plenty more Large Blues and managing to photograph some of them - including the pretty unusual sight of a Large Blue perched at eye-level in a hawthorn!
Time was already ticking on, and by 9.30 the Large Blues had switched into full zoomy mode, so I hit the road onwards to reach my next stop in time for lunch! Since I had already headed westwards by the time the Purple Emperors finally showed up at Knepp, this was the only big target for the week that I'd missed out on - so a visit to Fermyn Woods seemed worth a punt! I wandered the rides for about an hour and chatted to a few other butterflyers, but it was clear my luck was not in. No matter, there were plenty of other nice butterflies around, and you can't see them all every year!
Again, with little prospect of an Emperor suddently appearing, I decided to press on to maximise time at my final stop of the day. I turned off the M18 south of the Humber and headed to the car-park of Crowle Moors, a Lincs Wildlife Trust reserve and one of three reserves that collectively form the Humberhead Peatlands NNR. I walked through the reserve, eventually going over the bridge and through the gate that meant I was now in the adjacent Thorne Moors section (and, more importantly, back in Yorkshire!). Here, a grassy, flower-rich ride cuts through between an open bog on one site and a birch carr on the other. With this golden combination of lots of nectar surrounded by lots of Large Heath habitat, I was not disappointed!
Amongst several typical individuals, this very dark one stood out to me. Both the body hairs and the wing colour were distinctly closer to black than the ashy grey of its compatriots.
And that concludes my trip diary! Back to work for a rest tomorrow, and then normal service will probably resume with a Walmgate Stray update...
) - incidentally Large Blues at Collard Hill were very easy at the weekend, and there will definitely be more to come if you intend to pop in there as well as at Daneway.
Great topside Large Blue shot - Daneways is a cracking reserve 
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