Last year I had 4 fantastic butterfly day trips to Cerne Abbas, Upton Towans, Aish Tor and Ashclyst Forest and I have wanted to revisit at least one of these sites again this year. Work, weather and other commitments have meant I haven't managed a revisit yet but after another rocky week at work where my increasingly bad language seems to indicate I am suffering with stress induced Tourettes Syndrome I needed to get out of the house for a butterfly fix.
The forecast for Sunday 3rd July was for sunshine after a grey start and so I headed off to Upton Towans near Hayle on the train, this site probably being the easiest and cheapest to get to out of the aforementioned sites.
The weather forecast was indeed correct and it was warm and sunny by the time I arrived at the Cornwall Wildlife Trust reserve of Upton Towans, a contrast to my arrival there last year when it was cold and wet and windy (although it did brighten up later).
St.Ives from Upton Towans
Ruins of Dynamite Factory, Upton Towans
As soon as I walked through the gate onto the reserve I saw a few silver studded blues flitting about, there appeared to be less than on last years visit but walking further on and numbers rapidly increased, they were everywhere, probably more than last year! I had some great views again although with the warm sunshine they were much more active and difficult to photograph but I managed to get a few decent snaps including some of 2 mating pairs.
Silver Studded Blue - Female
Silver Studded Blue - Male
Silver Studded Blue - Female
Silver Studded Blue - Male
Silver Studded Blue - Male
Silver Studded Blues
Silver Studded Blues
Silver Studded Blues
Dark green fritillaries were dashing across the dunes but frustratingly were quickly lost from sight. Eventually though I found one nectaring on red valerian in a sheltered dip in the dunes and I managed to get some good views.
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary
Occassionally I saw 2 together flying past and buzzing each other before breaking away. The singles I saw flying by were also constantly buzzing any butterfly that came near to them but mostly ignored the large numbers of silver studded blues.
Other butterflies seen were a small copper, small heaths including a mating pair, a small tortoiseshell, small skippers, a large white, large skippers, ringlets, meadow browns, common blues and speckled woods.
4 ravens flew over (2 adults with 2 juveniles) and stonechats, whitethroats, skylarks and meadow pipits were seen and heard. 2 cream spot tiger moths were the only moths seen and a large dragonfly was briefly seen flying past.
Cream Spot Tiger Moth
Lots of pyramidal orchids were flowering along with a few southern marsh orchids.
Pyramidal Orchid
Southern Marsh Orchid
Sea Bindweed
Heading back to Hayle and I grabbed a pasty at Philps before carrying on the the estuary to look for the long staying juvenile spoonbill that I saw back in January. I quickly found it in the usual spoonbill pose - asleep with its bill tucked under its wings out on the sand banks. The tide was coming in and as its legs began to get submerged it woke up and flew around in a circle before landing again on the sand and going back to sleep! The tide continued to rise and again its legs began to get submerged but this time it woke up and flew off out of sight.
Sleeping Spoonbill with 5 Black Tailed Godwits
Awake Spoonbill
Spoonbill
The views were a little distant but it was nice to see it, a strange sight in Cornwall in July. I had hoped to see the Dalmatian pelican too that has been wandering around Cornwall for a few weeks now, it occassional drops in to the Hayle estuary but not today (it was seen at Hayle on June 29th).
I did get some nice views of 80+ curlews roosting on the saltmarsh along with 5 black tailed godwits, oystercatchers, shelducks, a grey heron, little egrets and a first summer Mediterranean gull and a few lesser black backed gulls amongst the large numbers of roosting herring gulls. It was also good to see lots of pyramidal orchids along the roadside again along with a few southern marsh orchids.
Roosting Curlew
Pyramidal Orchid
Pyramidal Orchid
I carried on walking to the railway station at St Erth to catch the train home, enjoying a well earned cup of tea from the lovely tea room at the station before travelling back to Plymouth. And so it had been an excellent day out with some great views of butterflies and a nice spoonbill too, hopefully it will be enough to get me through the next week at work.
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