Wood white 6 Ladybird 0

Radnor Wood, Wednesday 29th May

Radnor Wood is a Forestry Commission wood just west of Clunton. Its wide rides support a colony of wood white butterflies. One of the few that remain in the county, and one of the aims of our visit was to see them.

However the weather had other ideas and did its best to frustrate us but, as you will probably guess from the title, we triumphed over the elements and found a few. To whet your appetite here is a picture of the first one we found, hanging on to a flower head.

Photograph: David Williams

But the wood whites will have to wait.

Back to the beginning.

It was a case of "After the Lord Mayor's Show" as the glorious weather and attendance at the previous week's event gave way to a group of four with the rain pounding down as we arrived.

The Forestry Commission had kindly provided a key to the site so that we could access and park on the site. Although there were only two cars I was grateful that we could park off road away from the entrance and the fast busy road.

Whilst we dithered about whether to go on in view of the poor weather I did a vacuum of the area around where we had parked and the four of us huddled under umbrellas as we inspected the catch in a tray.

Identifications of what was caught were interspersed with the odd "Ow!" and "Take more care!" as someone's umbrella clashed with another's person or umbrella. The difference in our heights and umbrella sizes all added to the fun and confusion.

After a while we decided to walk up the ride for a while and see what we could see.

Within a few minutes the rain eased and after 30 minutes or so stopped. Apart from a few drips around lunchtime it stayed dry - at least from above.

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

Unfortunately the rain had left the vegetation sodden making the use of nets and the vacuum sampler impractical so we were reduced observation and the occasional beating of the vegetation.

Radnor Wood is a confer plantation but as you can see from the above photograph there are wide rides. The rides are bordered mainly by deciduous trees and there are areas where the confers are some distance away allowing the ground flora to flourish.

There are the occasional breaks in the trees that afford a view of the valley and the hills and woods on the other side. Not that these were to be seen at their best:

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

A white was seen.

Was it a wood white?

No, a green-veined white.

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

To be fair I thought it very unlikely that we would see any of the target butterfly in view of the conditions. Thankfully I was wrong, but there was still some time to go before the first discovery.

We found a hairy shieldbug (or sloe bug if you prefer) which looked remarkably dry.

Photograph: David Williams

And a long-horned moth. Not the usual ones we find but probably Cauchas rufimitrella (we await confirmation).

Photograph: David Williams

After a long steady climb up the path we were ready for a break. A spot out of the wind was sought and found where we took a leisurely lunch.

Lunch over we explored a small side path off the main ride. We spooked two red kite who flew around over our heads for a few minutes as they gained height before we lost them. The one that we managed to photograph was rather the worse for wear. Clearly it had been having a hard time.

Photograph: David Williams

We crossed over the main ride and took another path that started to rise up the hill then flattened out.

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

It was about 200 yards along this path that we spotted the first wood white mentioned earlier.  A few yards further on we found two more:

Photograph: David Williams

Nearby on the other side of the path in a small clearing in the bramble lurked number 4.

This was soon followed by number 5:

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

We then had a short wait until number 6, our last, was encountered.

Photograph: David Williams

In this instance the weather was on our side as conditions were such that the butterflies were disinclined to move and we were able to photograph them at will. In warmer dryer conditions they would have been long gone before the camera's autofocus had engaged.

Flushed with success we made our way back to the cars.

Slowly.

Taking in a few more observations as we went.

A parent bug with eggs:

Photograph: David Williams

A green shieldbug:

Photograph: Stephen Mitchell

A wet red and black hopper - Cercopis vulnerata:

In one of the wetter areas at the side of the ride we found marsh thistle:

And we noticed an extensive patch of red campion on the bank that bordered the ride.

Despite the weather and conditions we had had a good day. Time to go home.

Not so fast...

"Wood white 6" - Yes; but what about "Ladybird 0"?

No mystery really. Despite our best efforts we failed to find a ladybird all day, not even a Harlequin.

My thanks to the Forestry Commission for giving us permission to survey and allowing us to take our cars onto the site. As always my gratitude to the photographers Stephen Mitchell and David Williams for providing photographs for me to use in this tale.