As I walked up the hill towards the reserve I could hear Blackbirds and Blackcaps singing, and as I entered was confronted with a carpet of yellow Cowslips. The reserve is sufficiently distant from main roads, and the only noise to be heard was the mixture of bird song, and odd overhead whine of a jet heading south or west. It really is a little oasis of tranquility surrounded by the endless wild flowers and bird song.
There are a series of paths that wind their way through little grassed quarries. Around these are hawthorn and Blackthorn bushes, and further in, Holly and Juniper bushes. On one of these bushes a male Linnet perched singing.
Green-veined White butterflies flew past me, not stopping, as did Orange Tips and small Whites. As I walked slowly through the cowslips I concentrated on the ground, and eventually this turned up my quarry, the Duke of Burgundy.
This one is a male, it only has four legs, the female six, and was setting out its territory. Over the last few years I have come to Noar Hill at this time of year to watch the Dukes emerge. It never fails to impress me, the delightful checked patterns interspersed with the white patches, and you always seem to fail to remember exactly how small they are.
With the first Duke sighting of the year, the pressure was off, next I had to find a Green Hairstreak, I did manage this, but only in flight, I was never able to pin one down. What was more frustrating was the whole day I would hear "there was one sitting there five minutes ago".
As I waited to see if any Green Hairstreak would settle I was entertained by at least five Holly Blues, dueling and fighting in and around the Holly and Juniper bushes
Still if it isn't meant to be then so be it. In my search for the hairstreak I cam across a singing Yellowhammer.
I walked through to the far end of the reserve, normally a good spot for Dukes, and I was advised that they had been about. However I was not able to find any. In amongst the cowslips here were several Early Purple Orchids.
The orchids an attraction to the bumblebees
The number of Cowslips was impressive, and with the dips and banks it is possible to get a different perspective on these dainty early spring flowers. Here with the lovely blue sky as background.
A Garden Warbler sang from within a bush, and played hard to get to, while this Whitethroat delivered its scratchy song from the top of a bush, and shortly after took off in flight display as the climax to the song
I found another male Duke holding territory.
Here you can see the four legs
The chequered patterns on the upper wing that at one time had them classified as a fritillary, today we know they are closer to the metal mark family.
In another of the little dips there was a gathering of people, the attraction being a mating pair of Dukes.
The male is the foreground, the female, you can just see her two pairs of front legs, at the rear.
By now the numbers of Dukes on the wing was easily exceeding a dozen, and they were easy to pick out. Here the classic Duke picture sitting on a cowslip.
And sat there for all to see.
This was one of the banks covered in Cowslips.
As I watched one Duke, somebody else came across this Dingy Skipper, another first for the year.
I decided to have lunch and then move on to the other butterfly reserve close by to Winchester. Magdalen Hill is located between the A31 and the B3404 next to Magdalen Hill cemetery.
I parked just outside and walked up the hill. An Orange Tip flew past me and settled on some garlic mustard flowers. My first thought was a female, but then I noticed some feint orange markings on the upper wing.
And as it closed the wings there was orange on the underside tips
Almost like a Hermaphrodite Orange Tip.
Lovely dappled green patterns on the hind under wing.
Up on the hill the most frequent butterfly was the Brimstone, they could be seen flying almost everywhere. They settled only occasionally, this one taking a liking to a Cowslip
I followed the path heading west in the old reserve area. The field to the east has recently been acquired and is now not grazed, there had been sightings there, but I preferred to explore the areas that I knew were territories previously.
My target was the Grizzled Skipper, and at first there was nothing about other than the Brimstone and the odd Orange Tip. The finally I disturbed a small grey butterfly from the path. It flew around and then settled on a leaf in the sunshine.
It sat for a while allowing me to get in close before springing off the leaf and away in a flash.
I circled the field, and do the same on the new part of the reserve, finding one more Grizzled Skipper. The Brimstone were still very active in what was now very hot sunshine. At one point three came together, and spiraled, dueling together above me.
The new extension field was covered in Cowslips, and there were signs about referring to the work to try and establish Duke of Burgundy's on this reserve. With so many cowslips there must be a chance.
I couldn't resist this dandelion seed head.
Just as I left the reserve, a small butterfly caught my eye flying over the bramble. Fortunately it settled and I was able to at least get a photograph of a Holly Blue.
It was now very hot, and I decided to call it a day, and headed home. It was though lovely to get amongst the butterflies once again, lets hope the weather plays ball this year and provides us with a bumper season
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