Far From the Madding Crowd: Today is Orange and Green Day:-)

Wednesday, 5 May 2010

Today is Orange and Green Day:-)

Had a great day out at Martin Down nature reserve, I got my Orange Tip butterfly and the Green Hairstreak butterfly:-) We took a trip to the reserve in hopes of finding the Duke of Burgundy butterfly, I think it maybe another week or so before we see these. But we had a great time with the Green Hairstreak butterfly, it is the first time we have seen these. We then went to the Cranborne garden centre for our tea and cake, and afterwards we went for another walk in the woods in Edmondsham, where the Bluebells are brilliant now and their colour is intense.

My first capture of the Orange tip butterfly

The green jewel amongst the yellow Gorse, the Green Hairstreak butterfly. My OH is great at spotting things, I seem to walk around in a dream, he sharper than me when it comes to spotting the butterflies.

A closer view of the Green Hairstreak

When the sunlight catches their wings, they shimmer.

These are the males of the Green Hairstreak butterfly, there was at least three and they were doing a bit of squabbling.

Different shades of green

We had to have our fix of Bluebells. These Bluebells are reaching their best, their colour is very intense.

7 comments:

Richard Pegler said...: Super pictures, Linda. Well done!; 5 May 2010 at 17:27
ShySongbird said...: You had a jolly good day out, Linda! Your photos are lovely and the Green Hairstreak is such a gorgeous colour!

There seem to be lots of Orange Tips about this year, I love their colouring too.

As for those Bluebells, just heavenly :); 5 May 2010 at 20:36
Anonymous said...: Hey Lyn, that Green Hairstreak is absolutely perfect, well done on getting that one.; 5 May 2010 at 21:58
Midmarsh John said...: Great flutterby photos Linda. I have never seen a Green Hairstreak. I've seen a few Orange Tips but they just refuse to stay in one place.; 6 May 2010 at 10:30
Gerry Snape said...: I'm crazy for butterflies, so thankyou for these lovely photos; 6 May 2010 at 15:06
holdingmoments said...: That Green Hairstreak is a beauty. Never seen one of these before. A stunner.
And those Bluebells look superb.

Ain't this just a great time of year. :); 6 May 2010 at 15:52
Anonymous said...: Fabulous shots Lyn, the fox cub is just brilliant. I have never seen a G Skipper or a Green Hairstreak.; 19 May 2010 at 23:08

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My Blog

I have taken the title of my blog from Thomas Hardy's fourth novel 'Far From the Madding Crowd' which he wrote in 1874. He took his title from Thomas Gray's poem 'Elegy written in a Country Churchyard' completed in 1750. Thomas Hardy was born in Dorset where he lived for most of his life and where he based the stories in his novels. The word 'madding' means frenzied and there is a sense of freedom I get being out in the countryside and being close to nature away from the frenzied atmosphere of the towns and cities. I live in Dorset and like Thomas Hardy, it is where I have lived for most of my life, my blog is mostly about nature in Dorset. I am a member of the Dorset Wildlife Trust. I will include my garden and anything of interest about the natural world in Britain.