Gold

A beautiful early spring day which brought first Chiffchaffs, first bumblebees and first butterflies.

With the sun shining I decided to walk across the valley to Buck Wood, taking the scenic route down through Tong Park, a small diversion into Spring Wood, under the viaduct, down to the river and then along to the green iron footbridge over the Aire which links Baildon and Thackley, with Buck Wood lying just up the hill beyond the canal.

In Spring Wood two Chiffchaffs were calling (around half an hour after Brother #2 had texted to say he'd just heard the first of the year back in Wales) and this Goldcrest was flitting through the branches. On any other first butterfly day you would have had a butterfly blip, but I've never had a Goldcrest photo anywhere near this clear, so I had to go with that today.

Under the viaduct the light was good, so I clambered up the slope to get some more pictures which I'm pleased with, of which one is in extras. While up there I also spied a nice green-tinged bracket fungus and something that looked like an informal grave which I didn't investigate too closely (too much Scandi-noir TV).

I resisted to temptation sit down in the woods, despite the availability of a corner sofa (extras), but took it slow down to the river. And it was the river bank that brought me my first butterfly of the year, a Comma resting on a brick (extra). Noting the first love lock has arrived on the footbridge, it was up into the dappled woods which as usual were a carnival of squirrels.

The winter storms seemed to have brought down lots of trees, but I made it over to the big meadow (i.e. former tip that's not good for anything else) that lies above the wood. This has been a good spot for early butterflies for me in the past, and it came up trumps again with a couple of Small Tortoiseshells nectaring on catkins (extra), and a nice big pipe to explore (extra).

Negotiating the tricky slope down toward the canal I discovered a fine crop of Scarlet Elf Cup (extra) which has to be my favouritely named fungi. A slight detour onto Field Locks Bridge (previous photo set here) produced some idiosyncratic graffiti (extra). Then I walked the big ride under the power lines back to the other end of the wood, which provided another Comma  and another couple of Small Torts.

At this point it started to cloud over, but I had a quick mooch around the nature reserve before heading back up the hill home, feeling restored.

Butterfly Journal 2017

1. 12/03/17 Comma, River Aire, Baildon (VC64).
2. 12/03/17 Small Tortoiseshell, Buck Wood, Thackley (VC63).