Dakota

Trained by my Dad from an early age to pay attention to unusual engine noises in the sky, I was standing ready when the C-47 Dakota of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight popped above the tree tops surrounding Trench Meadows SSSI, where I was surveying flying things of a quieter disposition.

I’d had an extended walk onto the moor, up to Low Plain and Dobrudden and then down to Brackenhall Green, Shipley Glen, Trench Meadows SSSI and finishing off in Roberts Park.

As hoped for on the hottest day of the year there were butterflies in their hundreds, with Meadow Brown and Small Heath (first of the year, finally, in extras) being most numerous. The biggest surprise was finding a male Common Blue behind the reservoirs on the moor, they are found down in the Aire Valley but I’d never before seen one up on the moor.

Butterfly Journal 2019

21. 29/06/19 Small Heath, Baildon Moor