We started early and arrived around 09:00am at Prestbury Hill, a steep hillside plastered with cowslips with brilliant views overlooking Cheltenham. Almost straight away we had a Tree Pipit song-flighting. We then met up with Paul Brewster and his wife Carys who had come down from Cheshire. We then joined forces to look for some Dukes!
The Dukes were proving difficult but we were treated to a really special and rare encounter. We had a good look around Masts field in the northern part of the reserve, we found a Common Lizard which actually zipped over my shoe at one point. Then, in a nearby hollow while looking for butterflies a sudden burst of movement to my right, drew my attention to the fact that only a few feet away were 2 male Adders and they were dancing!! WOW! We had amazing views as they performed for the next couple of minutes, before parting company. We really were privileged to experience such a rare sight.
After that exhilarating experience we headed back to the southern part of the reserve. I managed to find a brief Dingy Skipper and Dave found several Green Hairstreak. Here we then watched two of the Green Hairstreaks in copp which was pretty cool! I heard a Redstart but sadly still no Dukes.
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Thankfully we were in luck in finding a well informed local. He told us that due to the height of the site, the Dukes here came out a little later than most other sites and almost certainly hadn't emerged at Prestbury as yet. Therefore our best bet would be to travel to one of the other sites nearby.He recommended Edge Common between Cheltenham and Stroud, a little way to the south, having seen some there this morning. Great!
We arrived about 13:15pm and in no time we had or first Duke of Burgundy, wahoo! Didn't quite understand how small they actually were.
The reserve was really good, a mix of rough grassland and old quarry and had all sorts of things to interest us over the next couple of hours or so. Natural England were also there surveying the Dukes by netting them and putting little red & green splodges on their wings...delicate work! This is all part of a concerted effort across all Cotswold sites to see assess the species' progress.
In addition to the dukes there were also decent numbers of Dingy Skippers and Green Hairstreaks, as well as a couple of vocal Cuckoos, a few Ruby Tiger moth caterpillars and several Early Purple Orchids.
Once we'd had our fill we made our separate ways home, via a nice Cotswold pub for a pint of cider of course! Was just the perfect day in the end, with stunning weather (sunburnt to a crisp!), some stonking wildlife and great company too (great meeting you Paul & Carys!).
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