A visit to Cumbria and Lancashire with Fuzz in search of the Mountain Ringlet and Northern Brown Argus, with an outside chance of an early Large Heath. We based ourselves at Kendal
Though the weather was originally forecast to be excellent for the entire visit, it became a bit mixed by the time we were due to travel up.
Nonetheless, we had a great visit, finding the first Mountain Ringlets of the 2022 season on Irton Fell on the 2nd, with opportunities to capture images. Later that day, we visited the Latterbarrow Reserve near Witherslack for the Northern Brown Argus, which we were unable to find, though it was nice to see several Small Pearl-Bordered Fritillaries.
On the 3rd, we changed our focus to “birding” thanks to unsuitable weather for butterflies, so we visited the excellent RSPB reserve at Leighton Moss, with the highlight being four (yes 4!) Bitterns flying together across the reserve. Later, as the weather began to clear, we tried the Warton Crag reserve nearby, hoping for a Northern Brown Argus in the clearing weather, but still no sighting.
On the 4th, the weather had improved again, with light winds and blue skies. We decided on an early visit to Latterbarrow, and bingo, we got our Northern Brown Argus, a single newly emerged specimen that we able to follow and photograph, along with the Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries.
Afterwards, we visited Irton Fell again, seeing some more Mountain Ringlets before finishing our day at Foulshaw Moss, hoping for an unlikely (but possible) early Large Heath. That wasn’t to be but we were able to see the Osprey nest in a distant tree deep in the “mosses”.
Like the ride up, the return ride back down the M6 and M5 was long and tedious with the added hazard of rain.
A great long weekend and two more species “ticked off” and photographed,