Sunday 28th August

As I am becoming more mobile, I decided on a late summer walk at Caerlaverock Nature Reserve, which was short enough for me to manage with the aid of one crutch.

I was hoping to see some butterflies, possibly some blues but it wasn't to be.  In spite of reasonable

Common Darter

sunshine, the only ones on the wing were whites, predominantly large whites.  The scotch argus mentioned on a noticeboard did not appear either.

There were however a number of brown dragonflies around and one much larger one that passed through quickly. Here's a picture of one of the small ones - a common darter, I believe.

On the way back to the car park spotted a willow warbler and a very small lizard that ran across the path and down a hole before I could get a decent look at it.

Perhaps the almost total lack of any meadow flowers in the area will have accounted for the lack of butterflies.

Tuesday 17th August

Unfortunately I became unwell a week after the last post and spent several weeks ill in hospital. There wasn't anything much to report from the bits of ward window I peered through, apart from one where I could see swallows perching on a railing on the hospital roof, and close enough to see the red bibs on them.

Now released but only partially mobile, I have at least managed a few butterfly sightings on the several buddleia plants in the garden.  Today, a warm day there was a painted lady, not something that happens every year by any means.  There have been numerous peacocks and several red admirals over the past few days, though interestingly no small tortoiseshells, so I was pleased that I photographed one of a small group that appeared two weeks back. In other years I would have still been sighting them in large numbers.

Here are the best photos I managed:

Painted Lady

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

It would have been nice to report today's sightings to the Big Butterfly Count especially the large number of peacocks. However it appears it finished on 7th August - somewhat early surely?