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Dingy Skipper...on my list! In terms of butterflies, May has almost been somewhat of a blip in my life as I am almost always too busy to get out and look for the early specialists. This means that despite being a Lancashire boy, I have never seen Duke of Burgundy. I have also never seen Dingy Skipper, so knowing they're a slightly southern species, I was eager to see if there were any around North Wales.
Information on lepidoptera around North Wales is very much thin on the ground on the internet. I did however happen to see a note saying someone had seen one at Newborough. Knowing this, I looked at a map of Newborough and looked at an area that I thought was quite a likely spot and took a gamble.
After about 2 hours, I scanned a field and saw a couple of small brown lepidoptera that looked to be flying like Skippers, so I got mildly excited and ran over to the area. In the process, I flushed a further three, but they just wouldn't settle. Eventually one did land and revealed itself as the species that had up until now eluded me. Dingy Skipper! Brilliant! Had a couple of other yearticks too such as Small Copper, Common Blue, Large White and Small White.

A lovely afternoon in lovely weather.
Posted by Zac Hinchcliffe at 21:16:00