The intention was to stay as long as it took until it appeared. Bowling Green Marsh is best at high tide when large numbers of birds from the estuary are pushed in the marsh. When I arrived around 9am, it was pretty much low tide, with the marsh largely empty so I spent the next hour and a half or so scanning the estuary.
There were a few bits of bobs about with around 5 Med Gulls (2 adults, 2 2nd-summer & a 1st-summer) several Greenshank from the viewing platform, as well as several common waders.
After wandering around a bit, I thought it was time to 'set up camp' in the hide and just wait the the Ross's. A 100 yards from the hide I passed another birder saying hello before casually calling back to me, "Oh by the way the Ross's is showing from the hide". Whaaaaaaat, brilliant thanks!! I scooted down the lane and into the hide and began frantically scanning. It didn't take me long to find a small, busy gull with a pure white head feeding along the shore of the main pool and separate from the a handful of nearby Black Headed Gulls. Wahoo Ross's Gull!!
The views were pretty good, but rather distant, hence the quality of the photos were distinctly average! I enjoyed the bird for a good half an hour, also getting good views of it in flight showing the diagnostic diamond-shaped tail too. Getting the bird relatively early on meant I now had the outside chance of giving Dartmoor a go with a bit of a shot in the dark at seeing High Brown Fritillary, one of the UK's rarest and fasted declining butterflies at Aish Tor. Due to loss of suitable habitat, the species has declined by as much as 90% and now only a handful of sites in Devon and the Lake District hold this stunning butterfly.
The drive from Bowling Green Marsh to Aish Tor was surprisingly straightforward with the exception of the Satnav trying to send me down an old farm track!
I arrived in sunshine although I knew the forecast was for the odd shower to make an appearance so I got to work straight away.
The area on the SW side of Aish Tor was covered with large swathes of Bracken, interspersed with patches of bramble and lots of paths cutting through. Almost immediately I had a couple of Fritillary sp. zooming past, however they had no intention of stopping in the bright sunshine! Both High Brown and the very similar Dark Green Fritillary inhabit the site and so I needed a perched specimen to ID. I needed to find one and hope that the sun would go in, in order to bring it to a halt. Eventually this tactic would pay off!
In the meantime I continued to scour the hillside, enjoying the constant 'chack, chack' of the local Stonechats as well as a couple of Graylings.
I then finally managed to track down a settled Fritillary deep into the bracken. The only problem was it was head on to me!! All the same I persevered, carefully, slowly but surely inching around the butterfly to get a view of it's underside. To my amazement I'd done it, there clear as day were the characteristic line of brown spots: High Brown Fritillary!!
I short while later I had a brief Dark Green Fritillary on the path however before I could get a photo it zoomed off up the hillside. I then tracked down a settled Fritillary in dense bracken and gently manoeuvred my way round to get great views of it with it's wings wide open. I managed to get as many pics as I could before the sun popped out from behind a cloud and it soon shot off. Amazingly on getting a closer look at the pics, it was clear that it was yet another High Brown!! They are almost identical to Dark Green Frit with the wings wide open. The way to tell is the position of the 3rd spot along from the outer edge of the wing. If it is in line with the others it is a Dark Green. However it is set back and not in line with the others (as below), it is a High Brown.
After a mental 10 minute downpour, it was time to head back to Bishops Tawton via the stunning scenery of Dartmoor. What an awesome day that was!
