A wet walk

My walk round the circuit of Ffos Las footpaths with the dog this morning nearly didn't happen as it started to pour down only 10 minutes into what is usually a 2 hour or more walk.  It was tempting to turn back, but I donned the waterproofs and carried on without much hope of seeing anything interesting.  How wrong I was!  The sun came out and suddenly, as if from nowhere, the butterflies appeared: 17 speckled wood, over 100 gatekeeper, 14 meadow brown, 1 wall brown, over 30 common blue, 1 clouded yellow, 1 small tortoiseshell and one small heath.

I was coming towards the end of the walk when this beautiful moth, which I think is a magpie moth, fluttered towards me and settled on the brambles at the edge of the path.  This is the first of these moths that I have seen.

Less than 5 minutes later a dragonfly whizzed past and conveniently landed close by.  This was a migrant hawker and it was closely followed by a southern hawker, both of which were my first sighting of the year.


 

 

 

What a fantastic end to a walk that nearly didn't happen.  I have seen the clouded yellows on every walk that I have done around Ffos Las since 30th July, so although nothing can ever be guaranteed in nature, there is a good chance that anyone who walks the circuit will see one.