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...

 Submerged in Nature! Day 1 We arrived at the Cwrt Farm at around 12:00pm and unloaded the luggage from the car, ready to put on the trailer that takes it all down to the boat. While waiting for the trailer to arrive, I looked around the car park for any interesting butterflies. Eventually, I saw a white butterfly species land on a bramble leaf. At first, I didn't know what it was, but after a bit of research, I found it was a Small White , my first confirmed sighting of this butterfly! Eventually, the trailer arrived and after helping load the luggage, we began the walk down to Porth Meudwy. Along the track, I noticed many more white butterflies but I couldn't identify them. I also noticed my first ever Gatekeeper,  as it landed on an umbellifer. We then reached the beach, and while waiting for the boat, we met Ollie. I found out that he is here to assist with researching the Manx Shearwaters. While waiting, we also spotted Small Tortoiseshell and a Migrant Hawker . First day...