Duke of Burgundy Butterfly Twitch.....9th May 2009.

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Common Twayblade at
Tottenhoe Knolls.

Duke Of Burgundy Butterfly at
Bison Hill, Bedfordshire.

Another shot of the Duke Of Burgundys

Views of Ivinghoe Beacon.

Myself and John took an early morning trip down to Dunstable in Bedfordshire to see if we could find Duke of Burgundy Butterfly.
Arriving early, possibly too early, we decided that maybe the local Mcdonalds was a better call, as it was quite cold at first port of call Bison Hill, near Whipsnade Zoo, and the butterfly active was non- existent.
So after an excellent McDonalds breakfast we retraced our steps and checked out another site not far from the nearby Bison Hill at Tottenhoe Knolls.
Over the next couple of hours or so we looked over this site and sightings included 2 Dingy Skipper, a Common Blue and good numbers of the commoner butterflies. Also I noted that there must have been in excess of 100 odd Common Twayblades in the surrounding hillsides.
Although it's not the most appealing orchid on the British list, the flower head's of the plant are quite impressive for this understated orchid.
As we had drawn a blank with the Duke of Burgundy's at this site, we decided to go back to Bison Hill.Parking up on the top of the hill, the sun finally came out and the butterfly active greatly increase. So within ten minutes of checking this site we finally found at least four Duke of Burgundy's in the nearby scrubby vegetation.
Other Butterflies in this area included Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak and an assortment of the commoner species.
With time pressing, as John had to be back in Leicester by mid afternoon, we looked over Sewell Cutting on the way home to see if any Small Blue were out?
Sadly our luck was out but we did note good numbers of Brimstones and various Whites along the cutting.
Although the day was a little frustrating the main target of the day was firmly in the bag Duke of Burgundy Butterfly OMFL!!

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