Black-tailed Skimmer

Apart from Thursday's trip to Ham Wall the past week has mostly seen me venturing out between showers to visit local butterfly and dragonfly sites. Returns have been poor, with numbers of both appearing to be down this year, and with clouds and cooler weather resulting in occasions when nothing much has been flying.

In previous years one of the ponds in Angmering has been good for Black-tailed Skimmers and Red-eyed Damselflies. My first visit coincided with a sudden cloud burst so I found nothing  but on the second visit a few Black-tailed were flying.

They usually favour putting down on the mud so, as below, it is not easy to get a good picture.

However, as the temperature goes above twenty five degrees they start to settle on low vegetation. I don't think we actually reached that on my second visit but I did find an obliging specimen and the pictures are in a different class.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any Red-eyed Damselflies despite seeing large numbers there in previous years. The pond now has a few very large fish although I doubt that these could have wiped out the colony completely.

Other Dragonflies seen. The one below is a bit confusing. It has yellow stripes down the legs so it is a Common Darter but I think it must be a freshly emerged male. The wings look pristine and the pterostigma are still white rather than the dark brown of a mature specimen. Picture taken at the Angmering Pond.

The next one is a Ruddy Darter (no yellow lines down the legs) and a much deeper colour than the specimen in one of last weeks blogs. This one taken at Woods Mills.

Early Commas have over wintered and usually look a bit tatty so these will be first brood having emerged early July. The closed wing shot showing the white comma that gives them their name.

Plenty of Skippers around. This one looks like an Essex.

The next a female Large

Male Large - note the large sex brands on the wings

Meadow Browns everywhere. This one a female

my first Gatekeeper of the year

Silver-washed Fritillaries in Madgeland Wood although no sign of the Purple Emperors. 

I also spent an hour or so watching Purple Hairstreaks in the top of a large oak tree at Tillets Lane Fields. No chance of a picture and this still remains on the top of my target list.

Clouded Yellow

Bit of a disappointing day today. The weather didn't look promising but we thought we would try a few of the local sites looking for Dragonflies and Butterflies. First stop was Black Pool at Pulborough Brooks. Not a good place to start as it had all but dried out and there were no signs of life around it. All the water levels across the Pulborough site seemed low and we only saw two dragonflies all morning, a Brown Hawker and a Southern Hawker. Neither stayed around to have their pictures taken.

Pulborough also seemed to be almost devoid of birds. I did have a look from Netley's and could see a couple of very distant Sandpipers. I would like to have got a confirmed sighting of the Wood Sandpiper but to me they looked like two Commons and one Green.

Picture taking was confined to one brief spell of sunshine in the meadow area above Netley's. We were hoping for a Brown Hairstreak but could not see any movement in the trees or bushes.

The first Clouded Yellow of the year got us off to a good start, even if it was a little on the tatty side.

After that it was really just the everyday butterflies. But at least it was something flying and the chance to take a few shots.

Gatekeepers were probably the most common butterfly.

Gatekeeper

and there were still a few fresh looking Small Heaths about

Small Heath

Ringlets and Meadow Browns had mostly gone over but there was a nice Small Copper, a few Green-veined Whites and a couple of Common Blues around.

Small Copper

Small Copper

Green-veined White

Common Blue

There were hundreds of the Common Grass Moth around so I thought I would take a shot of one for the record.

Common Grass Moth Agriphila straminella

and the always fascinating Scorpion Fly

Scorpion Fly

We had about an hour of sunshine before the clouds came over, then time to walk back to the car before the rain started. Despite what the forecasts had promised there seemed little chance of it clearing as we went into the afternoon so in the end we packed up and headed for home.

Scotch Argus and Grayling

Long trips up the M6 are getting to be a habit this year but with Dave only needing the Scotch Argus to complete his set and with Arnside Knott being the closest location of a colony another visit was inevitable. It also had the benefit that I could tick off the Scotch Argus and I am now only left with the Swallowtail to get next May.

We left at 0530 on Wednesday and were wandering around Arnside Knott looking for butterflies by 1130. If only all trips up there were as easy. The butterflying community is very helpful and an exchange of data with the first people we met soon had us onto our first Scotch Argus.

Scotch Argus - looks freshly emerged

We struggled at first, the butterflies were on the wing but it was cool and cloudy and every time the sun went in they flopped down into the thick grass.

About to crawl into the grass

We got a few record shots but then, with rain coming in, we retreated back to the car for lunch. A short while later, much refreshed, and with the weather warming up we returned to the hunt. This time it proved a bit easier. The butterflies weren't exactly posing for pictures but at least they were staying out in the open. You had to be careful approaching them and they were very flighty but there were some good picture opportunities on offer.

Settling out in the open

and now with too much sun and reflections off the leaves

Later in the day we had a few out nectaring on the brambles which gave different views.

With the Scotch Argus in the bag on the Wednesday we had a free day Thursday and no real target. We thought about a return visit to Meathop Moss but there was also Gait Barrow close by, a place we had not visited before, and we decided to give that a go.

Gait Barrows is an area of Limestone Pavement and wetlands. Great to explore although in the time we had available we did not get as far as the wetlands.

I don't do Orchid twitches but it was nice to see a number of Dark-red Helleborine growing amongst the rocks. Most had gone over but Dave still managed to find one worth recording.

Dark-red Helleborine

The site has a number of Butterflies and we set off to look for Fritillaries and for Grayling. No sign of the Fritillaries although the occasional Tortoiseshell had us rushing off in pursuit.

Tortoiseshell -  nice condition but still with a piece of its tail missing

There were lots of Ringlets, Meadow Browns, and Gatekeepers, and even one really tatty Common Blue but we could not find the High Browns and Northern Brown Argus that had been reported there.

Gatekeeper

Fortunately the day was saved when Dave came across a small group of Grayling. They are not the easiest of butterflies to spot as they usually shuffle around the ground, only flying short distances.

Grayling - shows up against the light coloured rock

but cryptic camouflage works well on broken surfaces

They lean over when perched to present the biggest possible surface to the sun which breaks up there front and rear silhouette.

When threatened the Grayling flips up its forewing to present a large eye

or even two eyes

It's unusual to see them perched off the ground

Nectaring on bramble

and the miss of the day
 this was very nearly an open winged shot but I needed a bit more shutter speed

Only the Swallowtail to go to get the full set of Mainland UK butterflies plus perhaps a trip over to Northern Ireland to get the Cryptic Wood White. The Swallowtail Papilio machaon britannicus the only endemic UK butterfly and the largest butterfly in the UK seems an appropriate end point. Its just that next May is a long time to wait.

Chalkhill Blues

Monday, and I picked up two more year ticks. Chalkhill Blue at High and Over and a Small Copper at the gallops above Butchershole car park. We had visited Mill Hill the previous week looking for the Chalkhills but there was nothing showing. This week High and Over had hundreds of them, all freshly emerged.

Female Chalkhill Blue

Male Chalkhill Blue

Male Chalkhill Blue

and although freshly emerged they were not wasting any time

Mating pair

I managed a record shot of the Small Copper but it was not sharp and I also got the shot below of an Essex Skipper. Again not brilliant but at least its evidence that I have seen one this year.

Essex Skipper

We finished off the day at Birling Gap. There were a lot of butterflies around but they were mostly well past their best. There was one female Dark Green Fritillary with unusual colouring but I had only a brief glimpse of it and then had to watch as it disappeared over the road and out of sight.

Tuesday and we were out again, this time at Houghton Forest. It looked promising when we first got there although it was mostly Skippers and Marble Whites that were flying  along with the usual Meadow Browns and Ringlets.

Marbled White

Marbled White

There were a few Silver-washed Fritillaries flying and we had a few brief distractions, such as, when  Turtle Doves were heard and when a Dragonfly, probably a Brown Hawker, flew past, but the day did not really get going. It gradually clouded over and with rain threatening we headed back to the car.

We were photographing Gatekeepers by the car when we spotted an unusual one. There was no time to get a decent picture as the rain hit us hard so we had to sit it out in the car and hope the butterfly would still be around when it finished.

Fortunately it was still there and we managed to get our shots. You can see by comparing the two pictures below that the first one has additional black spots on the upper side of its front wing. Its clearly a Gatekeeper and checking we decided that it was ab. excessa. This is our second aberration in the past couple of weeks. I have no idea if this is a rare version or not but it does have the effect of making you look more closely at all the ordinary butterflies that you would normally be ignoring.

Gatekeeper ab. excessa

Standard Gatekeeper

 We checked out a couple of other sites in the area but with the rain still threatening we called it a day and headed for home.