Out and About Again!

After my visit to Teesside, I set off again in a Westerly direction on Thursday.

Plan A was to catch up with the fritillaries at Mabie Forest near Dumfries as I had done last year at about this time last year with some success.  

Unfortunately the good weather had already broken in South West Scotland to be replaced by dull and windy conditions so that not a single fritillary was seen. In fact there were hardly any pollinators at all and the only one that appeared regularly was the speckled yellow moth.

Speckled Yellow

We encountered exactly 15 of them all told.

The only other two items of note seen were harder to identify and I was initially only able to find suggested genera.

 

Genus Oedemera?

Genus Orthotaenia?

The only UK representative of the latter genus is the dusky marble moth. which can however be confused with the dark strawberry tortrix so you can take your pick...

However Oedemara Virescens, the false blister beetle, is common in the South of Scotland and so seems a good bet. Anything rather than another 'impossible to say' verdict!

On Friday I returned to England in rather better weather to take part in a course on conducting survey counts near Hadrian's Wall with the Butterfly Conservation "Making Peatlands Work for Lepidoptera" project.

The practical session was a bit of a mixed bag in that we only saw one of our target species - a total of five green hairstreak - in a one hour session. But we did see some interesting things including two bees I was pleased to have definite sightings of.

Unfortunately I was busy changing my hearing aid and only got a quick glimpse of the first one - a moss carder bee, which was thought to be a queen starting a nest on the edge of our marked walk.  I may have seen this on a couple of previous occasions but have not been able to confirm.

In terms of butterflies there were a few small heath (first for me this year) on the borders of the site we were surveying but I was supposed to be counting large heath and duly registered a nil return! A few large butterflies were seen in flight but were thought to be painted ladies. Otherwise we only saw whites in flight and the only one I saw close up was a green-veined white.

On the other hand we did find a couple of caterpillars.

Drinker Moth Caterpillar (underside)

Oak Eggar Moth Caterpillar

Also seen was a nice example of the Silver Y Moth which was captured in a bug box.

Silver Y Moth

However the best for me was the last - a heath bumble bee, which I definitely have never seen before:

Heath Bumble Bee

It was also good to see that numerous peatland flower species were doing well including hare's tail cotton grass, common cotton grass and cross-leaved heath.  There were probably others but plants were not for me a priority for the day.

Win some, lose some

A minor furore of activity last Sunday, hoping to beat the declining weather.

I finally got to take a good look around the Cambois area for the grayling - but didn't see one!  The nearest I got was mistaking a meadow brown with a broader than usual white underwing patch as a possible.

Meadow Brown

This was disappointing as my two previous attempts were successful and so I found myself pondering the reasons.

In my head the best time for the grayling at Cambois is mid-July but I held off until August because the Butterfly Conservation website says that is when they are most on the wing.  But I noticed that most of the vegetation was dead and even meadow browns were scarce in comparison to my first visit, and there are news stories about Autumn arriving early because of the dry conditions...

Anyway there were a couple of minor consolations.  I visited a sunny overgrown bridge just past the plant hire company and found the first female common blue I have seen summer - which was also by far the tiniest one I've ever seen - as well as my first wall brown of the year.

Tiny Common Blue

Wall Brown

Afterwards I headed for the hills - the Havannah Three Hills Reserve near Hazlerigg to be precise. I wouldn't have done, having roundly criticised the deterioration of the area when I went last year.  However, there have been reports of a late dingy skipper and a silver-washed fritillary, which is almost non-existent this far North.

I started scouring the supposed butterfly hot spot, which has now been more or less completely overgrown by heather. Apart from a few whites and a red-tailed bumblebee, I did find one butterfly, a small heath.

Small Heath

However a more fortunate encounter was with another naturalist who reported seeing the dingy skipper, being chased around by male common blues in an area the other side of the rough path to the lake.

Obviously I took a look and did indeed come across said common blues (about 6 overall) and eventually the dingy skipper.  Seek and thou shalt find!

Common Blue

Dingy Skipper

The skipper struck me as being slightly small and rather more brown than ones I've seen before. But bearing the repeated trouble I had trying to see one earlier in the summer in mind, I was well satisfied.

Not knowing its exact location, I didn't realistically expect to see the fritillary, which was probably a bit of a one off.  However there was a nice surprise when I foraged around a bit on my way back to the main track:

Painted Lady

While there hasn't been a major irruption, there have been a few painted ladies around this summer and I still have hope that one may climb the 500' up to the buddleia in my garden.

Talking of which, butterfly sightings of previously mentioned species have continued in increased numbers.  Red admiral is still the most frequent and there has been one addition I was half expecting:

Hummingbird Hawk Moth

The tits continue to go nuts for the sunflower hearts I've been putting out and male and female bullfinches and nuthatches regularly visit the feeder as pairs.

Nuthatch

Lastly, I don't know what it is about the tailgate of my new car but pollinators seem to like it.  The latest visitor was a queen...

Buff-tailed Bumblebee Queen

It was obviously struggling, caught out by the disappearance of the sun on a cool day.  So I performed the old trick of bringing it in the house to warm up for forty minutes, after which it happily flew off.

Hunting For Butterflies

A lot has been going on!..

About ten days ago I took a last trip to Pathhead Nature Reserve for a late attempt to find the dingy skipper.

It was unsuccessful although I did see large numbers of meadow brown, good numbers of small skipper plus a fair few small heath and a couple of (I think) six-spot burnet moths, most of which were to be duplicated in subsequent trips elsewhere.  A notable absentee was common blue and perhaps the strangest sighting was a common carder bee that was so heavily bleached by the sun that it was almost indistinguishable.

Small Heath

Common Carder (bleached)

In the preceding fortnight there had been several sightings of patchwork leafcutter bees and always on the same flower which I'm not able to name but it was an obvious favourite.

Patchwork Leafcutter Bee

This turned out to be the start of a good for finding butterflies...

More Butterflies

Realising that, with a trip abroad forthcoming (watch this space) my opportunities were limited, I decided to make a concerted attempt to catch up with the dingy skipper this week.  My efforts took me back to Path Head Nature Reserve, The Spetchells and Weetslade Country Park and unfortunately remained unfulfilled.

Late morning at Path Head looked likely to produce nothing at all. I was actually on my way out when I finally caught up with five small heath, two common blue and a single speckled wood all pretty much in constant flight. 

Worn bumblebee

Later the same day at Spetchells, results were rather better.

The first thing that caught my attention was actually a bee.  My first impression was that it was a worn buff-tailed bumblebee.  it seemed to have some pollen underneath the abdomen so I wondered about another leafcutter but on balance it seems the first impression was correct.

The giveaway is the faded stripe on the thorax.

For a while I again didn't see butterflies and began to speculate why.  It strikes me that there isn't amount of bird's foot trefoil at the Eastern end of the area, where it used to be relatively easy to find common blues, burnet moths and of course dingy skipper.

At some parts it's apparent that bird's foot trefoil is being overwhelmed by cotoneaster spread, others look like they could do with some grazing but in some there was no clear reason.  There were at least a couple of nice orchids to look at:

Early Purple Orchid?

Common Spotted Orchid?

I've no idea if I've identified them correctly.

Anyway the result of my deliberations was that I headed further East, where there are more trees and bushes and somewhat surprisingly started to see things, in particular a number of ringlets.  While they settled long enough to get a decent look, they were too skittish to photograph - probably freshly emerged - and the same applied to pretty much everything else I saw. The butterfly tally this time was Ringlet nine, Common Blue five, Speckled Wood five, Small Heath one and Large Skipper one.

Of these, only speckled wood and the large skipper was posing for the camera:

Large Skipper

For a moment I thought I'd hit on something really interesting when what appeared to be a brimstone was floating around the trees.  Again it was skittish, but when it did briefly settle I detected some wing markings that indicated it was a brimstone moth.  Moths also played a role on the way back as four or five small orange moths turned up and were eventually identified as yellow shell, which together with the previous one were first sightings for me.

Yellow Shell Moth

The day after at Weetslade, I again didn't see much in windy weather until I started foraging, when the dominant species proved to be the meadow brown.  This interested me as it was the first time I haven't seen them earlier in the summer than the ringlet, which I tend to associate more with July and August.

At Weetslade the scores were:  Meadow Brown 17, Large Skipper five, Common Blue four (including the first female I've seen this year), Small Heath one.

Meadow Brown

Female Common Blue

I think the common blue may have been ovipositing. Incidentally, all the meadow browns showing their upper wing were male. It's also interesting that no small skippers were seen over the three visits.

So still no dingy skipper then.  Although local sources suggest May and June is the best time for them, the Butterfly Conservation website states they are still on the wing in July - so there may still be hope.

Back in the garden the male bullfinch continues to appear.  It seems to be getting more confident, even feeding on the lawn, and a female is occasionally sighted.  A couple of goldfinches have also visited briefly - the first time in the seven years I've been here.

The only notable appearance by a butterfly was by a lone red admiral but I did think I might have spotted a first white-tailed bumblebee but on balance I am not entirely convinced.

Red Admiral

White-tailed Bumblebee

Urban Sightings and Fritillary Forage

Quite a bit has happened over the past week!

I've had my eye on a brownfield site near the Metro Centre that has a fair spread of bird's food trefoil. So I thought it might be a possible for Common Blue or Dingy Skipper and took a look last Friday.

Tramping through the brambles and various forms of litter I saw neither but what did turn up was three or four small heath - the first I have seen this year.  I checked back briefly the day after and they were still about.

Small Heath

Giving up the idea of more sightings I decided to try out a cycle route to the town centre I've never used. But a bit beyond Dunston on Teams Road I stopped to watch a red admiral I thought might be ovipositing on nettles.  Lo and behold what should then fly over the road side habitation but a common blue.  I saw about four of them and a brown butterfly that proved to be a large skipper - both first sightings for this year as well:

Common Blue

Large Skipper

It just shows that urban environments can too easily be overlooked.

One thing that I haven't seen since I moved to the North East has been any kind of fritillary.  So on Monday I decided to return to one of my old haunts - Mabie Forest near Dumfries to see if I could find any there.

It wasn't the most brilliant day with reduced temperatures and only intermittent sunshine so I was relieved when my first sighting came along - perhaps unsurprisingly another small blue,  There was four overall, as at Dunston all males.  And even better I actually managed to spot the first pearl-bordered fritillary before even reaching the known 'butterfly hotspot.'

Common Blue

Pearl-bordered Fritillary

This is the time of the year when pearl-bordered and small pearl-bordered fritillary flight seasons overlap and there are identification issues.  Several were only seen in flight making proper identification impossible but one among the ones I photographed and one seen in flight were heavily worn suggesting pearl-bordered, indicating they were definitely in preponderance.

There was however one possibility that I had overlooked and as a result initially misidentified:

Dark Green Fritillary

What surprised me here was that I associate them with late rather than early summer at Mabie.  However from a total of nine it may be they accounted for some of the ones flying past, notably those strong on the wing.

I was also surprised by the number of dragonflies that were about right at the beginning of June: Hopefully I've got them right.

Common Blue Damselfly

Emperor Dragonfly

There were also a couple of moths:

Brown Silverline

Cinnebar Moth

There were perhaps 10 of the brown silverline on the day.  The only other time I have seen cinnebar moths was I think at Dumfries station.

There were also a couple of mysteries which had me facebooking the experts:

Blotched-winged Whitebelt

Tibula Scripta

I have a separate photo that proves the white belt bit on the first one.  The other one is a cranefly, and craneflies are a notoriously tricky area.  The wings of tibula scripta are transparent in the photos I've seen so I suspect they may be giving an image of the background leaf.

Other butterflies seen were green-veined white and four speckled wood, which I mention because they were not much present in Dumfries and Galloway when I lived there.

On leaving the 'butterfly hotspot' I still hadn't spotted a small pearl-bordered fritillary and was beginning to speculate that, as the more common species, their development had been held back by the dry weather.

However, just over halfway back to the car park one turned up in a clearing where two paths meet:

Small Pearl-Bordered fritillary

A bit of luck always enters into it!

Meanwhile there has also been activity in the garden.

A few days ago I was very pleased to see a couple of goldfinches plundering the seed in one of my pots that has been invaded by forget-me-nots.  I've never seen them in the garden before.  Also the bullfinches continue to enjoy the sunflower hearts from the feeder.

Another near misidentification (which has been a bit of a theme lately) but I've also been getting visits from patchwork leafcutter bees of both genders.

Bullfinch

Patchwork Leafcutter Bee

Even More Butterflies

A quick ride round the northern part of Chopwell Wood proved that my previous laments about the shortages of speckled wood do not signal its total demise, as I saw half a dozen of them within half an hour.

Perhaps more interesting since I don't recall spotting them there before was a healthy display of orchids along the slightly remote track I followed:

Orchids

Common Spotted Orchid

I'm not sure what kind they are but they reminded me that I'd seen a cracker a few days earlier at the Spetchells - a common spotted orchid I believe. 

However I digress...

Last Sunday I cycled to Weetslade Country Park, enticed by an article suggesting the presence of small copper and small skipper, and still anxious to see as many butterflies as possible. 

I arrived about lunchtime and settled near the top of the hill and saw nothing for forty five minutes apart from a single red-tailed bumble bee.  Then just before I moved on a single common blue appeared.

Moving around a bit I didn't find anything until right near the western exit I came across a triangle of grassy heathland, where things really started to happen.

Within an hour I totalled 25 ringlets, 12 male common blue, one of which sunbathed next to me repeatedly plus 5 of what I assumed at the time would be small skipper. On inspection of photographs however they were more likely large skippers - wasn't expecting that one!

Large Skipper

Small copper didn't appear - probably between broods - but a couple of girls said they had seen several small heath and I reckon I might have caught sight of one in flight but wasn't certain.

As at the Spetchells, I noticed a lack of bird's foot trefoil.  As there the main compensation seems to be an immense number of buttercups, which is what the skipper was nectaring on.

There were also a couple of speckled wood along the woodland edge and several on the cycle track through Ponteland, proving that rumours of its demise are indeed exaggerated.

Back at home the tits have finally realised that the caged peanut feeder is indeed for their benefit.

Plus there was a brief but noticeable reappearance of female red mason bees around the bug hotel.

One of them landed on my hand yesterday but more significant was the appearance of a broken-belted bumblebee worker on the plants nearest the house.  Unfortunately, my new wonder camera let me down, only managing hopelessly blurry shots, but I got a clear view and was pretty confident of what I saw.

Butterfly Review

The first weekend in August I was in Krakow to celebrate my son's fortieth birthday.  Obviously the time was mainly dedicated to celebrations of various kinds.  Apart from a chance sighting of a peregrine falcon in the town centre, we did however end up in the zoo.

I'm not a great fan of zoos but bever having visited one since childhood, I did actually rather enjoy myself checking out this and that and confirming my son's impression that the eagle owl had been mis-translated into English on the sign - as I could see it was correctly labelled as Uhu in German.

I won't go into boring detail but here are a couple of the better photographs:

Pigmy Hippopotamus

Leopard

On arriving back home last Tuesday, it was delightful to see several butterflies fluttering around the buddleia bushes.  

I think I have to reverse my pessimistic forecast about butterfly numbers this year as it's apparent that the later flying species have done very well.  Not to be seen before I left, peacocks have arrived from nowhere in large numbers and I see that the Big Butterfly Count has registered a big increase in the number of red admirals.

Here however, the comma has definitely been the butterfly of the year, appearing in twos and threes several times a day in good sunshine.

Peacocks and Comma

Also very gratifying is that I have now seen three holly blue passing over the garden.

The loser in all this may be the small tortoiseshell, which for the first time has been appearing less frequently than the comma.  

On a brief cycling rest stop at Ryton Meadows last Thursday, I spotted two small copper and a small heath.  It may be that the serious fire that devastated much of the woodland scrub last year has had a positive result in allowing the heathland grasses and flowers to reclaim some territory.  It will be interesting to see how this land gets managed in future.

More recently, I have faced a couple of identification challenges at home.

A green dragonfly has turned up on three occasions to sun itself in the garden.

Southern Hawker?

It's definitely a hawker and I think probably a Southern rather than a Common Hawker but the difference between the two is small and I'm no expert.  Interestingly the wings are almost completely transparent.

Likewise the moth I found snoozing on the garage wall looks to be a grey carpet but I couldn't find an exact image match and there are similar species.

Grey Carpet?

It's still one of the most enjoyable times of the year for me when butterflies appear in numbers, weather permitting.