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.

Silver-spotted Skipper

The search for the Silver-spotted Skipper has been on for nearly a week now. I saw one on Newtimber Hill last Tuesday but could not get a picture of it. Sunday I went back and had a possible sighting of one but again no picture. Monday Dave went for a look and reported around fifty seen and today, Tuesday, we went back and found two hundred plus.

Newtimber has an amazing range of wild flowers and grasses and there were thousands of butterflies on the wing. Admittedly most of them were well worn Meadow Browns but we also saw Chalkhill Blues, probably in the hundreds, Commas, Peacock, Small Copper, Tortoiseshell, Ringlets, Marbled White, Small Heath, and a large variety of Moths.

I also caught a brief flash of yellow as a butterfly disappeared behind a bush. I only need a Clouded Yellow to catch Dave up on the number of species seen this year. Its not a race but it still had me sprinting up a forty five degree slope to get a better view, much to Dave's amusement, when I had to tell him that it was only a Brimstone.

Mint Moth  Pyrausta aurata

Small Tortoiseshell

Mating pair Chalkhill Blues

Female Chalkhill blue with at least fifteen larvae of the Trombidium breei  parasitic mites

We have seen infestations by the Trombidium breei  larvae on a range of different butterfly species although it is probably most evident on the Marbled Whites. The mites live on the blood of the butterfly but they do not appear to cause the butterfly any significant problems. This makes sense, after all there is no point in killing off your host and food supply. However, most of the infested butterflies carry two or three of the mites, fifteen looks a bit excessive and I wonder how this female will cope. If you want more information click on the link below.

Conradt, L., Corbet, S.A., Roper, T.J., and Bedworth, E.J. (2002), Parasitism by the mite Trombidium breei on four U.K. butterfly species. Ecological Entomology, 27:651-659. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2311.2002.00461.x

Small Copper

Moth - but I have not had time to identify it yet.
Now identified as Pyrausta nigrata. See message from Tom below.

I just have to keep my fingers crossed on the arrival of the Clouded Yellows from across the channel.

Old Lady in need of a Paint job

Well, I could have hoped for something a little fresher and a little brighter for my first Painted Lady of the year. They only have a two or three week life span as a butterfly so this one must have really had a difficult time in the couple of weeks that it's been flying. The good news is that it was last seen flying off into the sunset, so there is still some life in the old lady yet.

Rather worn Painted Lady

Having yet again been misled by the BBC weather forecast I picked Dave up and we headed up onto the downs to make the most of the unexpected sunshine. Kithurst Meadow gave us Small Blue, Common Blue, Brown Argus and a Small Tortoiseshell as well as a number of different day flying moths. Chantry hill had a similar selection but with the Painted Lady instead of the Tortoiseshell.

Small Blue

Common Blue Female

But it has no cell spot on the underside of the forewing

Separation of the female Common Blue and Brown Argos should be easy when you have the pictures in front of you but they never seem to fit the descriptors exactly. The logic for this one is that on the first picture it is female from the short body but if it was a female Brown Argos the orange lunes would not fade out before the tip of the fore wing. On the second picture the black spots on the rear wing follow the shape of the wing and do not have the characteristic colon shape that occurs on the Brown Argos. See http://www.glaucus.org.uk/BflyBlues03.html for more details. So it is a Common Blue female - but then it does not have the cell spot on the underside of the fore wing and the black mark on the upper fore wing is quite prominent suggesting it is an Argos - all very confusing.

I have nothing but admiration for those that can tell the difference as they flutter past but I suspect the occasional mistake does get made and I may have just added to that total.

We also had a nice Small Tortoiseshell

Small Tortoiseshell

and there were a lot of Cinnabar moths in the area .........

Cinnabar Moth

.... and to finish off a Large White which this year seems to be a very rare butterfly. This is the first that I have seen. A bit different from previous years when the Large White caterpillars managed to strip my prize crop of Cavolo Nero in just a couple of days.

Large White

Quite a successful afternoon but I did not manage to find a Small Copper which has now risen to the top of my wish list. A good excuse to go back for another go.

Dartford Warblers and Others

The birding is proving to be hard work at the moment. The end of June through to early August is always slow. There is no migration movement, there is plenty of cover for the birds to hide in, and the birds are not displaying for territory or mates as they were a month ago. This summer seems worse than ever and my own experience would seem to suggest that a lot of the birds have simply not arrived this year.

I commented in a previous post on how I had only seen two Stonechats so far this year. Like buses the next time I went out I saw at least eight in the same location on Iping Common.

Male Stonechat

Juvenile Stonechat

Hoping for a repeat performance - I have only seen one Redstart and have not seen a Spotted Flycatcher at all. If I could also add Turtle Dove to that list I could be a happy man after my next trip out.

I would have added Dartford Warbler to that list but I did manage to catch up with a pair on one of the commons. I had caught a couple of fleeting glimpses at the same location but did not feel that it was good enough for my year tick particularly as on both occasions the birds did not reappear. Fortunately on a recent early evening visit I was able to watch the pair gathering food for about half an hour. I kept my distance and with poor lighting the picture opportunities were limited. The shot below rescued by heavy cropping and from strong back lighting was the best I could manage.

Another almost picture - One in the bush and one flying

I also visited Warnham LNR. There was nothing unusual about in the way of avian life but I had some really weird lighting conditions. All my pictures appeared to have a colour cast but when you look at them they have both green and magenta in the same picture. This cannot happen as they are opposite ends of the spectrum (as far as Photoshop is concerned) and anyway the whites look clean. Even when desaturated as in the second picture the colours look wrong. Marvellous things the eyes, the scenes all looked perfectly normal to me on the day.

Great Crested Grebe

Young Grey Heron

This young Grey Heron looks like a nice friendly bird, not like the older version below, a true predator.

Grey Heron - Pagham North Wall

Also at the North Wall a Common Tern but not much else.

Common Tern

I did walk down to the lagoon to see the Female Scaup that had been reported there but I seem to have picked the one day when there were no sightings.

Actually there was one other sighting. The local police checking out the north wall, the lagoon, and the spit, and challenging one suspicious individual out on the mud. Given the recent vandalism to the spit hide this can only be seen as positive.

Patrolling the Harbour

Do this every day and he is going to have an impressive year list in his note book.

When the birding has been slow I have been adding to my collection of Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures although it is only in the last couple of weeks that the butterflies have started to appear in any numbers.

Another Four Spotted Chaser

Silver-studded Blue

Speckled Wood

Small Tortoiseshell

Adonis Blue

There have been some missed shots as well. An Emperor Dragonfly, a truly impressive species, that did not land in all the time I watched it. I took about fifty shots of it in flight but there is not a single decent shot amongst them. Also  a Green Hairstreak, searched for but not found. Next time perhaps.