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Posts tagged ‘Duke of Burgundy’

May 27

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The lovers

Hamearis lucina – Male and female

Hamearis lucina – Male and female

Inching along the crest of the hillside I approached ‘the hole’ with some trepidation. A somewhat optimistic visit a few weeks earlier had revealed that someone had used a tractor with a rotary cutter to flail the bramble and blackthorn to the ground and deep into the boundary hedge. To say I was a tadge cross would be to put it mildly, I may have even said a naughty word. This after all is ‘the hidden place’ that I’ve sworn to secrecy and as it is one of the few remaining spots in Wiltshire where it is possible to see good numbers of Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina and no people, other than the occasional dog walker, it is my entirely selfish intention to keep it so.

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Jun 25

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His Grace and The Grizzle

Grizzled Skipper Butterfly – Pyrgus malvae

Pyrgus malvae

Slowly working my way across a hillside covered in yellow cowslip searching for my first Duke of Burgundy butterfly of 2013 I notice a moth-like flicker of dark chocolate brown arc into the dry grass further up the slope. With my eyes fixed on the spot where it lands I move cautiously upwards to find a freshly emerged Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae. It’s not ‘His Grace’ but a real stunner all the same and another first for my year list.

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May 30

Searching for the duke

Duke of Burgundy butterfly - Side view

Hamearis lucina – Side view

Last April I saw my first ever Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina, or at least I’m pretty sure I did. To be fair all I saw was a fleeting flash of brown and orange. But then I was in the right place, ancient chalk downland, at roughly the right time, so I was reasonably confident, even for a novice.

Just over a year later, armed with two weeks’ leave and a new macro lens I was determined to do better. I’d read that the adults prefer mornings so I was out of bed and up on Morgans Hill before the dew had evaporated. My only concern was that the very wet April we’d just endured may have proved too much for them. With so few seen last year I was beginning to fear the worst. Read more