The beginning of July, sadly brought the passing of my dear old Dad. In between sorting everything out, getting out looking for birds and butterflies provided a real healing distraction and helped me come to terms with it all.
This lead to a Northants county tick no less - an enjoyable event anytime, however given the circumstances and bumping into one unexpectedly, was a real thrill!
On 10/07, driving along a country road in the south of the county, a large pile of Rooks got up to my left, catching my eye. A big raptor then swooped through and over the road a little way ahead. It looked rather interesting and so I swiftly pulled into a convenient field gate and grabbed my bins and camera from the boot. While the bird was generally flying away from me, it provided a brief side view, allowing me to confirm my suspicions, with the characteristic heavy-chested profile of a Goshawk!! Luckily for me, it gained height and began circling back towards me, eventually circling right above me at some height with a couple of Red Kite. This allowed me to get some much better views to nail it as a juvenile and also allowed me to get some half decent pictures too. A great record, hot on the heals of another sighting in the same area of presumably the same bird, just 10 days previous. Hopefully it suggests Gos continuing their spread from the west.
The other big highlight from early July, was equally unexpected, but this time a butterfly. Having wandered around Ardley Quarry (Oxon) looking for birds / butterflies, a very orangey thing flew at eye height past my face. That looked interesting I thought! It soon alighted on a nearby willow, just 3 feet or so off the ground, mostly shaded from the intense sun. To my amazement it was an absolutely pristine Brown Hairstreak - I couldn't believe it, this was just not on the radar! It sat chilled as anything for the next 20 minutes, allowing me to get some lovely photos.
A friend has seen one individual at the site last year but they are certainly not in any great numbers there. It was also very early for the species, normally expected to emerge towards the end of July. However, the consistently scorching weather has brought things out early. So on two counts, an encounter not on my radar at all, so a fab surprise!
Regular walks in Bucknell Woods provided a lot of joy through July, while on my way through to Northampton - managing to find over 20 species of butterfly on more than one ocassion. Probably the highlight of these were the excellent views of White-Letter Hairstreaks, including a particuarly confiding one 06/07. They are never easy to find in Bucknell, so a really special encounter!
08/07 saw me reach what is likely a personal best 22 species of butterfly in one single visit to Bucknell - there were butterflies frankly everywhere! Peacocks dominated, with an impressive 84 counted! Purple Emperors were past their peak by this point, but still managed a total of 3.
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