Tuesday 21st July

The quest for the white letter hairstreak continues to be unsuccessful and considerably hindered by the inconsistent weather.  The last attempt was in the Aln Valley on Friday, originally forecast to be sunny but in fact dreary the whole day. So the only butterflies we saw much of were the continuing ringlets and meadow browns and, apart from a heron devouring an elver and a couple of rising trout, that was about it.

Meadow Brown (male)

It was possible to identify a fair few wych elms but not so many as around Bywell Bridge, which seems the more likely venue.

A lot of the garden buddleia is now out but so far no butterflies have visited, just the odd white on the michaelmas daisies.  There was just one red admiral on the summer house early on Sunday morning.  I attribute the poor results to the mixed and largely dull weather.  At this rate, it will be hard to find a sunny spot for the Big Butterfly Count before 9th August.  Suggestions of a bumper butterfly year from Butterfly Conservation are not likely to be echoed in the North.

Sunday was also the day I met with Jennifer and Joe at Brimham Rocks, a very impressive and extensive formation.  The morning weather was considerably better and we saw ringlets, meadow browns, red admirals, small tortoiseshells as well as a dozen or so small skippers, the first I have spotted this year.  Or were they? Looking at the photo below again, I'm wondering about essex skippers...

Small Skipper?

Brimham is also supposed to be a venue for spotted flycatchers and redstarts but, in view of the large number of visitors, I wasn't surprised not to see any.