The Juvenile Birder

Welsh Mountaineering! We arrived at the Great Orme at around 7:30am with Zak Spaull in hopes of seeing some rare butterflies. Firstly, we walked along Marine Drive, being guided by Zak, to try and find a rare orchid. As soon as we reached the spot, we noticed many of them marked by red flags. They were Dark Red Helleborines . Since it was a bit early for them, none of them were fully flowering, except for this one plant. We then walked further up Marine Drive to see a plant endemic to the Orme. It was the  Wild Cotoneaster . There were six individual plants located on the Orme, and this was one of them. They were special, but not beautiful. Zak then pointed out another plant next to the Wild Cotoneaster. We both took a photo of it and Zak later told us it was a Welsh Hawkweed , one of the many rare hawkweeds found on the Orme. Whilst looking at the plants, we noticed many Choughs , including four that landed right next to us! We also found our target butterfly, the Silver-stud...

 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...