Woodwalton Fen NNR

Having spent a morning photographing Marbled White butterflies and Six-spot Burnet, Brassy Longhorn, and Burnet Companion moths on Trumpington Meadows near Cambridge I was inspired to travel slightly further afield to see if I could find any more interesting species of Lepidoptera. RSPB Hope Farm in Knapwell I remember had been productive on their pre-lockdown open days a few years ago and I remembered they had a wild patch of setaside.
Purple Emperor showing yellow proboscis

Purple Hairstreak
Brassy Longhorn
The farm and reserve are not strictly open to the public at any time other than their open days, but it’s criss-crossed by public footpaths, so you can see some of the site if you’re discrete and don’t stray into the non-public areas. While there were plenty of Meadow Brown, Six-spot Burnet, Whites, and skippers on “wild” margins, unfortunately the wild area now has a crop and so any chance of a range of Lepidoptera beyond the obvious was not going to happen.
Marbled White
So, I hopped over to Overhall Grove, a small woodland not far from Hope Farm. It’s a bluebell wood in spring and also has the relatively Oxslip. I was too late for those, of course, but I did bump into a couple – Stella and Neil – with cameras and scopes and binoculars who were staring at the top of an ash tree. Turns out the tree was host to White Letter Hairstreak butterfly. They were very friendly and full of ideas on where else I might see other but...

Source: David Bradley Sciencebase - Songs, Snaps, Science - July 21, 2021 Category: Science Authors: David Bradley Tags: Sciencebase Source Type: blogs