Warham Camp - 31st July 2023

 Jayne and I went across the Warham Camp this afternoon. It was overcast, and spitting with rain, but we still managed to see a few species of butterfly.

The key species was Chalkhill Blue, and we saw them straight away. Unfortunately, due to the weather, we only saw about half a dozen, and they kept down in the long grass. I eventually managed to get a few photos.

Chalkhill Blue

Other species seen were: Holly Blue (1), Common Blue (1), Essex Skipper (1), 6-spot Burnet (1),Yellow Shell (1), Wall Brown (1) and a single male Banded Demoiselle.

Wall Brown

There were only a few birds about: Red Kite (2), Marsh Harrier (2), Skylark (heard singing) and Yellowhammer (1 heard).

Baslow Edge- 19th July 2020

Jayne and I had a walk from Curbar Gap up to Baslow Edge on Sunday. Bird wise, it was pretty quiet, with just the usual Meadow Pipits and a few Crows flying around, but we did enjoy some butterflies, moths and dragonflies.

We started out walk on Clodhall Lane and walked across to the small pond. Here we had a very brief view of a hawker dragonfly, possibly Common. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see it again, so couldn't clinch the id. We did, however, see a couple of Emerald Damselflies and a couple of Common Darter. Walking on from there, towards the Wellington Monument, we sat by a small stream to watch a fantastic male Golden-ringed Dragonfly that was patrolling a small stretch of water by the path. He also perched up on the rocks allowing us some superb views and  a photo.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

The butterflies seen were Ringlet (10+), Small Tortoiseshell (3), Small Heath (5+), Red Admiral (1), Gatekeeper (1), Small Skipper (3), Large Skipper (1), Meadow Brown (5) and best of all, a Painted Lady (our first record for 2020). 

Painted Lady

We also saw 2 species of day-flying moth, 3 Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet Moths and a Yellow Shell.

Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet Moth 

Linacre WeBS - July 2019

Luke and I were down at Linacre this weekend to carry out July's WeBS count. As usual for this time of the year there were lots of young birds about, including our first Tufted Duck ducklings of 2019 (one brood of 3 birds).

Tufted Duck

Totals for the day were: Grey Wagtail (8; 2 adults and 6 juveniles), Moorhen (24; 8 adults and 16 juveniles), Coot (11; 4 adults and 7 juveniles), Mandarin Duck (32; 15 adults and 17 ducklings), Tufted Duck (17;14 adults and 3 ducklings), Great-crested Grebe (4; 3 adults and 1 juvenile), Mallard (48; all adults or well grown juveniles) and Lesser Black-backed Gull (4 adults). 6 House Martins were also seen, but there no records of Swift or Swallow.

As well as the birds, we also saw several insects, including 2 new moths and a new caddisfly species. The new moths were, Celypha lacunana and Chrysoteuchia culmella and the caddisfly was Mystacides longicornis. Other insects seen were, Yellow Shell (1), Volucella pellucens hoverfly (3), Meadow Brown (1), 1 Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle, male Common Blue Damselfly and a female Blue-tailed Damselfly.

Blue-tailed Damselfly (form rufescens)

Linacre Insects - June 2018

This is my first post of 2018 about the insect life that can be found at Linacre. I had a visit on 1st June when it was a lovely sunny day. I spent some time walking around the ringing site and then walked up to the top reservoir.

During the visit I recorded 3 species of damselfly: Blue-tailed, Common Blue and Large Red. The first 2 species are common around all 3 reservoirs, whilst I only saw 2 Large Reds, 1 by the boardwalk around the top reservoir and 1 in the ringing area.

Large Red Damselfly

I also saw 2 species of Volucella hoverfly, Volucella pellucens and Volucella bombylans, along with 3 other species of hoverfly: Episyrphus balteatus a.k.a. Marmalade Hoverfly, Eristalis nemorum (a dronefly sp), Helophilus pendulus and Myathropa florea.

Volucella pellucens

Volucella bombylans 

Butterflies seen were Common Blue (3 males in the ringing area), and a single Peacock (1 in the ringing area). Moths seen here were Cinnabar Moth (1) and Silver Y (1).

I was down again on Saturday (16th). The weather wasn't so good, so the number of insects was smaller. New species included Red and Black Froghopper, Straw Dot (moth), Yellow Shell (moth) and Black Snipefly.

Black Snipefly

Isle of Wight Butterflies - 31st July 2016

This morning Jayne and I spent a couple of hours at the National Trust's Afton Down reserve near Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight.

Afton Down

We went to see if we could catch up with some butterflies, including one that I've never seen before, Small Blue. As soon as we arrived, we spotted the first "blues" of the day, the Chalkhill Blue. There were dozens of these butterflies flying around, all over the hillside, including many mating pairs.

Chalkhill Blue (male)

Chalkhill Blue (female)

Chalkhill Blue (mating pair)

Along with these butterflies, we also spotted 1 Small Blue, a female that was egg laying on Kidney Vetch (thanks Jayne!), 3 Dark Green Fritillaries, 1 Marbled White, dozens of Meadow Browns, 10+ Gatekeepers, 2 Large Whites, 2 Red Admirals and a three species of day-flying moths; 6-spot Burnet,Yellow Shell and Silver Y.

Small Blue (egg laying)

Small Blue

We also walked down to Compton Chine, where we had another couple of 6-spot Burnets, dozens more "blues", and  a single Small Copper. All in all, a very good few hours!

Linacre Ringing and Mothing- 14th June 2014

Yesterday morning I was up early and got to Linacre for 5am. The primary reason was for a ringing session, but I also managed to get a bit of "mothing" done when drizzle and a dearth of birds put an end to the ringing.

First bird on site this morning was a Little Owl, that I saw on the drive in. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to find the nest this year, so no ringing. I've had to make do with sightings instead. Arriving in the ringing area, we soon had the usual nets up, and started to ring the first of several juvenile Great Tits (3Js). These were quickly followed by a juvenile Bullfinch (the first of 4 Bullfinches ringed today), a juvenile Chiffchaff, Blackcap (2 from the 5 Blackcaps ringed today) and a Robin.  By 9am the drizzle set in, and as we'd ringed 21 birds of 5 species, we decided to call it a day.

When the other members of the group left, I decided to stay on for a while. Luckily the rain stopped, so I spent another hour and  a half walking around the ringing site checking for day-flying moths and butterflies. I saw 2 species of butterfly, a Small Tortoiseshell and my first Meadow Brown of the year. In addition I spotted 12 species of moth, 7 of which were new for me at Linacre, and a couple of hoverfly species, 1 of which was new for me at Linacre (Volucella bombylans, in case you want to know!)

Volucella bombylans

I managed to photograph a few of the moths. Here are a couple of the new species:

Yellow Shell

 

Straw Dot

 

More information about the moths of the UK can be found here.