In my 2021/2022 quest to see and photograph more butterflies, especially species I’ve not seen before, I’ve been monitoring the Cambs and Essex butterfly sightings page. In 2021, I clocked several new species (Chalkhill Blue, Dark Green Fritillary, Green Hairstreak, Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak, and White-letter Hairstreak) and so far this year another five: Adonis Blue, Black Hairstreak, Eurasian White Admiral, Grizzled Skipper, and Wall.
Among the sites visited are Monk’s Wood, Overhall Grove, Waresley Wood, Hayley Wood, Woodwalton Fen NNR, and Woodwalton Marsh and several others. This week, I also discovered a woodland closer to home, The Edwards Woodland in Dry Drayton. It was planted in 2005 on a 14-acre plot owned by the late Sir Robert Edwards, Nobel laureate and co-pioneer with Patrick Steptoe of IVF as discussed here.
The Woodland backs on to the north-east side of Madingley Road between Dry Drayton and Madingley. Reports on the Cambs & Essex site suggested Marbled White and some Clouded Yellow might be present. I saw lots of Marbled White, Ringlet, and Meadow Brown on my visit, but sadly no Clouded Yellow (I had seen that species on the former patch of wildflower meadow adjacent to farmland at Waresley Wood up from Brown’s Piece in 2020).
There are only now a handful of species I will be able to see fresh to me in our neighbourhood, without having too big a carbon footprint.
