Jul 032011
You need very fine & warm weather to stand any chance of seeing Mountain Ringlet.
Such a day was forecast for Sunday 3rd July 2011. We set off for Honister Pass in the Lake District, Cumbria at 5:30am. We arrived at the car park around 9am, setting off for the long climb to Mountain Ringlet country. I think we must have climbed to around 2000 feet and after a long and tiresome search, I eventually located my first specimen of this butterfly. Not in the best of condition but it was at least showing well as they say.. After the long walk back down to the car park, we headed off to Arnside Knott. A superb place for butterflies, eventually seeing 3 species of Fritillary, Northern Brown Argus, Speckled Wood, Large Skipper, Grayling and Meadow Brown.
The pager went off and our time here was cut very short indeed – A Western Bonelli’s Warbler had been discovered at Tintwhistle in Derbyshire of all places. At around 6pm we eventually had good enough views of the bird to tick it for my county list.. and another year tick. 8 hours of driving time & over 450 mile during the day…
List moves on to 225.
IMAGES below – first three – Mountain Ringlet / next Northern Brown Argus / next Dark Green Fritillary.
