Thursday 24 March 2022

My First Visit to Snipe Dales for 30 Years

Another beautiful, cloudless day; warm and pleasant with the temperature reaching 14C.  We arrived in the car park at Snipe Dales Country park and were soon heading out on the path with covers bot the country park and the adjoining Lincs Trust wet meadow reserve, the country park being woodland.  I was very impressed with this site and must not let another 30 years go by before visiting again.  It should prove very fruitful in the main butterfly and orchid season.  As it was we found 11 brimstones, 2 small tortoise shells a peacock and a comma.  I was delighted when a couple of brimstones began nectaring on some primroses.  Normally first brood brimstones really settle as there are not many plants to feed on so they tend to be difficult to photograph.  Today, therefore was a real treat.  Although we didn't see a large number of birds we did find 6 singing chiffchaff and enjoyed watching a pair of buzzards soaring on thermal over the hillside.  We spotted a couple of muntjac deer and it was good to see the primroses along with goat willow and gorse flowering well.  The final treat was lunch in the Admiral Rodney in Horncastle on the way home.  A grand day.

To view large, please click on an image.

Brimstone
Brimstone
Brimstone
Comma
Goat Willow
Primroses
Robin
The Meridian Stone
Snipe Dales View looking back across the LWT reserve to the trees of the country park.

No comments:

Post a Comment