My friend Judy wanted to visit Alner’s Gorse to hopefully see the Marsh Fritillaries so on 2nd June we travelled there quite early so we could park easily and it was also going to be a very hot day. we needn’t have worried about the parking as we ended up being the only ones there!

There aren’t many Butterflies out yet or we just didn’t see many, a couple of Blues flew by to quick to identify and Meadow Browns. I spotted a little tatty Butterfly and took an image I notice the green on it and knew it was something special. Hoping it was a Green Hairstreak but I made sure by checking with the people on the Butterflies UK Facebook page and they confirmed it was, an older butterfly and the green had worn off a bit!

There were quite a few Large Skippers about, lovely little Butterflies.

We walked over to the field where I had seen the Marsh Fritillaries on my previous visit and we managed to see just one Fritillary, we stayed for a little while but didn’t spot any more but my friend was happy with that and like me was surprised how small they were.

Of course it’s not all about Butterflies and there were quite a few Dragonflies about I was pleased to see the Black Tailed Skimmer another first for me and I had to identify it at home with the help of the UK Dragonflies and Damseflies Facebook page.

There were also Broad Bodied Chasers, with a male and female spotted.

One interesting creature was the Labyrinth Spider we spotted the hole in the ground and the web woven around it and we were so lucky that the spider came out of his hole to the edge of his web.