Saturday 30th July

On Monday I again took advantage of a sunnier day to try a walk round Mark Hill at Rockcliffe.  Initial signs in the garden were promising as teo or three red admirals were showing on the buddleia.

I somehow took it into my head that there might be a chance of a purple hairstreak but, although there were a few oak trees on the way back down, there was no sign of anything much at all apart from some whites. Afterwards I did a detour to the Mote of Mark, where there was a nice flower meadow and some more red admirals plus a few meadow browns.

One of them seemed to be behaving slightly different way to the others, flattering way down in the grass, so I took a few photographs in case it was a grayling.  But it wasn't.

In fact the most interesting nature moment was when a couple of red deer crossed over the path early on my way up the hill. This reminds me that I didn't do full justice to the walk around Mabie I did last week.  On the way up the narrow road to Troston, a couple of cars had pulled up.  I couldn't understand why and drove on slowly to discover a lady shepherding a baby red deer that was in the roadside undergrowth to safety.

I also forgot to report that there were a good number of dragonflies around, as there were on Mark Hill.  I think this one is a golden-ringed dragonfly.

Gold-ringed dragonfly

On reflection, I reckon I did the wrong walk today.  More interesting might have been to walk along the coast to walk along the coast towards Point Warren, looking for holly blues.  That may be my next venture.

Friday 21st July

Yellow Underwing

About a week ago I was starting to feel optimistic about butterflies.  An (albeit) tatty small tortoiseshell and a red admiral were early visitors to the blooming buddleia and, while attacking some wayward bamboo, I disturbed this item from the foliage which research suggests to be a yellow underwing moth.  I snapped it just before it crawled under my pullover.

A brief outburst of warm and sunny weather encouraged me to follow up with a trip to see what butterflies were around at Mabie Forest on Monday.  I'd spotted a path off from the road to Troston that I thought would lead to the main butterfly walk near Craigbill Hill.  Sure enough it did, but not with the results I would have expected on such a good day in midsummer.

In fact there was nothing at all on the main signposted walk except for a couple of fritillaries and a few ringlets.  I couldn't believe it.  I would have thought the place would have been teeming with butterflies and started to wonder if the poor weather throughout most of June had aversely affected numbers in quite a severe way.  The contrast with

Dark Green Fritillary

previous visits could not have been more stark.

In fact there were more to be seen on the way to and from the walk, so that I managed to spot dark green fritillary, meadow brown and ringlet on the way there.  Then, having more or less given up on the chance of seeing any blues, the walk back to the car turned up trumps as there were half a dozen male common blues flying around some yellow vetch and also a singular small copper on the path itself.

A couple of green-veined whites showed up late on but obvious inhabitants like small heath and small pearl-bordered fritillary were not visible and I doubt if I saw more than about thirty butterflies (including other whites) in the whole 3.5 hours I was in the area.

One interesting thing I did see (and was pleased to identify) was a common spotted ocrchid, if somewhat past its best.

Common Blue

Meadow Brown

Small Copper

Saturday 15th July

Goldfinch

Sometimes you get a bit lucky.  I've thought for a while that I would like to get a photo of a goldfinch but they always seem to be on the move.  On Monday I was on the way to pick up a prescription when  I noticed one scavenging in one of the gardens near a fairly busy road.  Unfortunately it was skulking when I shot it, in fact it doesn't look in too happy a mood at all.

There was fine weather on Tuesday and the butterflies would probably been about. But I elected to play tennis instead. So often summer is too short to get all the things done that you wanted to.

Meanwhile I have been wondering about the identity of a flower that has turned up in a spare hanging basket, just where the bird table used to be.

Might be buckwheat

There wasn't much to report from the Wednesday bike ride from Castle Douglas to Dalry vis Mossvale.  One thing was that I saw several more buzzards than red kites.  Mainly I was looking out for butterflies and, although the sun was out, there weren't many... a couple of ringlets, several whites that wouldn't settle, the statutory unidentified brown butterfly flying in the tree tops, plus three red admirals trying to warm up on the track through the Ken Dee Marshes reserve. Apart from that there was just one yellow day flying moth I couldn't identify. And no orange tips.

Tuesday 4th July

Busy, busy lately, so this is just a quick summary of what happened on the nature front.

A fortnight ago swifts were flying around the estate merrily.  One bird seemed to be entering the eaves of a house across the road.  I was starting to have ideas of videoing them but the weather broke at the end of the week and I haven't had even heard them screeching since.

That Thursday I had a meeting in Kendal and was surprised to see a grey wagtail hopping around on the pavement in the town centre.  Fair enough the River Kent was not many yards away but I haven't seen one in an urban environment before and if you see a wagtail on country roads. it's always a pied wagtail.

Last Wednesday there was a short bike ride to Ae Forest which I was happy to keep short as I had a heavy cold.  I took my time and looked out for redstarts by the stream just before Amisfield Moor without result in by now downright dreary weather.  On the moor there were a few pipits and a couple of willow warblers to be seen and I also heard a whitethroat on the run down off it.

Just before the crossroads at Ae Forest a large volley of siskins went through the trees, just as a group of fellow cyclists drew up behind.

Yesterday I was at Kingholm Park for other reasons and another mysterious brown butterfly moved away out of the grass just in front of the Pavilion.  That is the third time I've had this experience recently and not been sure what I'd seen, but I'm inwardly convinced it was the same species each time!