Incombe Hole, The Chilterns, 17th May 2023

This area is excellent at this time of year for butterflies, but also good for birds. There were lots of common warblers including Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. I spotted one Corn Bunting and of course this is a Red Kite stronghold.

Meadow Pipits were common and this one posed well.

Lots of Skylarks, with some singing from short bushes rather than taking to the air!

The views were superb, and I believe this is Chequers in the distance.

We also had four day flying Moths including this Common Carpet and Mother Shipton.

But Butterflies were the key target and despite it being cloudy we did well, just missing out on one target species, Green Hairstreak. In all we had 11 species including these Brown Argus.

Also a new species for me which certainly lived up to its name - Dingy Skipper!

But the star, and another first for me was The Duke of Burgundy!

A great day out, and big thanks to Steve Kiln for his spotting and expertise.