After parking the car at the college's equine unit, I walked up to the start of the Green Lane by the manure heap and the Queen Elizabeth Wood. It was great to see the Countryside Students' Interpretation Board, and it reminded me what a great job Phil had done in setting it all up!
There were good numbers of Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns in the first section where it was fairly open, and the two patches further along where the canopy opened up enough to allow the brambles a bit more space to develop some flower. The other aspects of the necessary habitat factors for all the different behaviours and life stages could be reasonably close by, but don't have to be gathered all in one place.
Here is a close-up of a Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina, happily nectaring on Spear (or Apple) Mint flowers:
and here is a close-up of a Gatekeeper, Pyronia tithonus:
As I watched the Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers, I caught a glimpse of something about 4 - 5 m up in the air and realised that a Large Skipper, Ochlodes sylvanus, was using the tip of a high bramble apparently as a lookout post. They are supposed to lie in wait in the afternoons, but I didn't know they did this high up, and this reminded me that its a good idea to look upwards sometimes! Interestingly it perched just next to what looked like a stationary sawfly, which I noticed when I cropped the first picture.
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