The Juvenile Birder

A Cumbrian Specialty! We arrived at Smardale Gill NNR at around 8:00am in hopes of seeing a rare butterfly. We were told by a butterfly enthusiast, last week, that he saw lots of them a few days ago just before the viaduct, so we made our way there. Along the way, we met a man who told us he had seen two just across the viaduct, and that it needed to be sunnier in order for the butterflies to emerge before the viaduct. Once we got across the viaduct, I spotted a Meadow Brown and a Silver Y moth, before spotting a dark butterfly nectaring on some knapweed. It was indeed our target butterfly of the day, the Scotch Argus ! At first, it was flying high up the bank with its wings always closed, however, after a bit of waiting, it decided to come down and started fluttering between our feet, sometimes landing on our shoes! It also landed a few times right in front of us with its wings wide open. We think it was a female as it was large and had big, vibrant orange spots.  Suddenly, I spot...

 The Butterfly Effect! We arrived at Saltholme Statera Energy Operations at 5:25am in hopes of seeing a rare and showy Savi's Warbler, which we dipped earlier this year at RSPB Burton Mere. We walked through the fields to the reedbed. As soon as we arrived to the reedbed, we could hear the distinctive call of the Savi's Warbler . There were two people already there who put me on the bird which was showing incredibly well. We watched it for a while before it flew deeper into the reedbed, out of view. We then set off in search of butterflies.  We arrived at Thrislington NNR at 7:00am. As soon as we entered the meadow we spotted loads of  Meadow Browns fluttering about, including some that landed just a few feet away. Amongst them were a darker butterfly, the Ringlet ! They were just as common and also landed quite close, showing their characteristic features. We then continued through the meadow, only seeing those two butterflies, until there was a viewpoint with a few butt...