White Admiral at Copperas Wood

 No new birds reported on Bird guides within our travelling scope,so we set off to find a White Admiral .Butterfly. Brian had done the homework as to where to find them, We drive 58 miles to the Stour Estuary, and pull into the car park at Copperas Wood.

As we walk along the paths it is not quite warm enough just yet for the Butterflies to be flying about for us to see, we head on up the path and see a sign telling us we have 2 miles to walk to reach the hides,we make the decision to not go that far as we don't think there is much to see at the moment bird wise.  We turn left and follow the RSPB signs for a short while and we look out over the mud flats, all that is visible without the telescopes was Curlew everywhere. It's getting warm now so we start to search for Butterflies, it's not long before Brian spots a Purple Hair streak,as I have only just got into looking for Butterflies it is the first time for me to see one. Going down the path I see plenty of little Wren's flitting in and out of bushes, I have never seen this many in one place before. Also a lot of Whitethroat.We have never been here before, I am glad we have found another nice place to visit and add it to our long list of nice places.                                                                               



Purple Hair streak



                                                                            Now for the target of the day, and of course it's Brian who spots one, it's high up at the top of the trees when we see it at first,we follow it as it flies, and it comes and lands down on the ferns in front of us. Out come the cameras and it's another first for me.


White Admiral

 We are now in full flow, and go looking for some more Butterflies to take photos off.
We spread out a bit and I see a nice orange one and get a photo of it, I do not know what it is, so I head back to find Jimmy & Brian so they can identify it for me, they tell me I had just missed one I had not seen before, that made me a bit sick to think I had missed it, but I show them my photo and what do you know it's what they had just seen.
It turns out to be a Silver-Washed Fritillary another first for me, I think it is the nicest
Butterfly of the day for me.


Silver Washed Fritillary

 Time to head home now, on the way Jimmy asks if we can pop into Canvey Island so he can get the Marbled White, as he is the only one of the three of us still to see one.
As I said in my last post you are almost sure to see one here, and within a minute we see plenty of them flying about.We spend a couple of hours here and see a number of other Butterflies such as Small Heath, Meadow Brown, plenty of Skippers, Large White, Small White,  gatekeeper,  Ringlets.

No bird watching  today as it is very quite at the moment, but this feels the gap,I never knew it was so much fun.