Having checked two more sites on Saturday morning with no sightings, however there is one I will return to as it had a good feeling.
Subsequently I popped in to Abbots Wood, in the Alice Holt complex, to speak to Ashley Whitlock who was leading a guided walk for Hants BC. We soon spotted a couple of males oak edging which were well received by those in attendance.
I then moved off to cycle around the woods to see what I could find. As it was around lunchtime I was hopeful that I might see my first female of the year.
Generally, so far, it has been a very quiet season at Alice Holt with a maximum of 5/6 males being seen across the wood during any one visit.
Again weather was good, warm with sunny intervals, but I failed to spot a single further male which was very disappointing, I fear Matthews prediction of high predation during the winter has come true here unless they have all crossed the border over to Sussex!
However whilst scanning a couple of mature Sallows a movement caught my eye around a very small sapling which I at first though was a White Admiral - however it was Herself. Is it my imagination or do females just seem to appear from nowhere?
My camera was on the path about 20ft away and I wouldn't take my eyes off her for fear of losing sight of her. As she flitted around between the spindly branches she settled on a leaf and I managed to focus on her with my binoculars. Lo and behold she laid an egg in front of my very eyes - the first I have been able to observe.
It was laid at about head height in the centre of a small bush about 8ft high with the thickest branch only about the diameter of my little finger on a fairly moth eaten leaf.
To say I was made up was an understatement, my first ever wild egg, so I fired off a few shaky shots which show the newly laid green egg just a minute or so old.
I will return at some point to see it in its 'mature' state with its purple band and hopefully when it has hatched.
Kind Regards
Mark
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