Lockdown Lepidoptera

Well where did that week go?  Normal-ish life resumed for me last Monday as I had to work from the office for the week - but it went like a flash!  I should be off again now for a few weeks so hopefully there will be a bit more life in this blog again.

This is actually a post I was going to put up at the start of last week, but the delay has given it a bit more content.  It's not about birds either!

As we all know, except for the blip at the end of April, we have been blessed with some incredible weather during lockdown.  And as a result our daily walks have revealed good numbers of butterflies, although as we often take the same/similar route variety has been limited.  It's always good to appreciate the commoner species though, and it's given me ample opportunities to introduce Harry to some of them... 

The shade-specialist; Speckled Wood

A tad tatty - but it's not just wear that's shaped those wings; Comma

Seem to be very numerous this year; Holly Blue (a female judging by amount of black on forewing)

Sadly I never managed a pic of Harry's apparent favourite species - the Orange-tip.  I think it's the striking colour of the males that has attracted him to this species, but not one would land for me! Actually thinking about it, maybe they are Harry's favourite because of all the laugh's he's had watching Daddy running off down a track after one! 

Just before I went back to work, we did go on a different walk and headed down to the Harbour.  This revealed a whole new selection of butterflies, and whilst Harry and Mummy watched the mullet in the harbour, Daddy went off for a little bit more a walk...

There were really good numbers of Dingy Skippers around, always nice to see, along with my first Common Blues of the year.  I recorded at least five different Wood Whites as well, although in keeping with my luck with white butterflies during lockdown, not one posed for a photo!  I also spent time looking for Small Blue, as historically this has been one of our two local sites for this rare species (see HERE).  Sadly though Karen has since told me this site was lost to storm damage in c2015ish, likewise our other local Small Blue site.  So that's Small and Chalkhill Blue both gone from patch now, just shows how vulnerable these small isolated populations can be.  Plenty of their food plant remains though so fingers crossed they will eventually recolonise.

Managed a double-figure count of these; Dingy Skipper

My first of these recorded on 2nd May; Common Blue

A view of the underside; mating pair of Common Blues

Although not one Wood White landed for me, I managed to grab this absolutely dreadful shot as two flew close past by.  They are such a beautiful butterfly, such a delicate and fluttering flight.  Not that you can tell in this abysmal effort...

Does kind of show wing shape in two different positions - if you squint; Wood Whites

I have done far less well for Odonata, which is surprising considering we are going to the Wetlands almost daily.  I did see an extremely early Beautiful Demoiselle back on 9th April in Colyford, my earliest ever and not something I was at all expecting to see - I hadn't even seen a Large Red Damselfly before then! Later I read online a few other early emerged adults of this species had been seen, including one in Kenton (South Devon) the previous day. 

I saw my first Broad-bodied Chaser about a week later, also in Colyford, and yesterday was hoping to add Scarce Chaser to this list as I walked to the upper reaches of the Axe near Colyford - a reliable site for them.  But nothing, which is a shame because the colour of immature and females Scarce Chasers is one of my favourite colours in the natural world.  All I saw were a couple more Beautiful Demioselles, a few Large Red Damselflies and one Common Blue Damselfly.

Oh it's so good to be back in regular blogging land. Stay safe everyone...

Some Nice Butts

Butterflies are the last thing on my mind at the moment as I sit in my house with rain beating down on the windows and neighbouring trees swaying in the wind.  But there has been some sunshine over the last week and I've not just been looking up...

I wanted to see if there were any Chalkhill Blues hanging on in the corner of the patch, but sadly I couldn't find any so I think the answer is no.  There were lots of Common Blue, one Holly Blue, and highlights in the form of three Wood White and several Dingy Skipper...

Wood White - they look so much better in flight!

Dingy Skipper with Honey in the background!!

I've also been trying to locate Brown Hairstreak at a local site where one was reportedly photographed last year.  Nothing yet, but it is still early days!

A Week's Worth Of Witterings

Thought it was about time I wrote a blog post! I've certainly got a fair bit to write about, so I'll try and keep it brief and put in plenty of pretty pictures.

To start with, let's rewind a week to Bank Holiday Monday. Just before Jess and I were heading out for the day I received a phone call from Sue Smith who thought she had a Black Tern on Black Hole Marsh. I was there in a shot (half way through shaving!). Thankfully the Tern remained, although only just - it flew off north about a minute after I arrived!  It looked quite a pale one to me, and I don't remember ever seeing a juv Black Terns with a pale brown mantle (they've always appeared dark to me), but it was just a Black Tern. Not that that's a bad thing though as they're really scarce on patch - so a very welcome patch year tick. See pics HERE and HERE.

So I headed off to Sherbourne for the day a happy chappy. And totally unrelated to anything else on this post, look what we saw...

 

A gold post box!

And if you can't remember why there's these gold post boxes around...

I saw him win this medal....on telly. Well done Peter!

The following day saw me rushing down to Black Hole Marsh again, this time for a juv Little Gull seen from the Tower Hide. Sadly I was about five minutes too late despite my fastest sprint from the car park to the hide!  Oh well, you win some you loose some. I did see a juv Cuckoo though, and am sure it is a second bird as to me it seemed a lot more rufous than the the first bird (which hadn't been seen for at least a week before).

I didn't have much birdie time last week, but when I did (except for the Tern and Gull twitch) I went in search of autumn passerine migrants, hoping for a rare warbler, Ortolan or Wryneck. Sadly none of these materialised with my best find being a juv Osprey over Beer Head on Wednesday 28th. I first picked it up just offshore after the gulls went up from the camp site, then it came in and flew west right over our heads - luckily Karen and Ian weren't far away. 

My first of the autumn

Also on Beer Head on Wednesday morning were: 35 Yellow Wags, 26 Wheatear, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Willow Warbler and singles of Grey Wag, Tree Pipit and Whinchat.  Despite these fairly good counts, they all felt like lingering migrants from the weekend/bank holiday fall.

There's a Whinchat in the lower pic

Thursday morning I thought I'd give Axe Cliff it's first visit of the autumn. No good to be honest as they haven't cut the crop yet so Ortolan potential = zero! Still, I had three Tree Pipits and a Yellow Wag over and a few Wheatear and a Spotted Flycatcher on the deck, so it wasn't a total waste of time.

Saturday saw me give Black Hole Marsh a proper look for the first time for over a week! It was the first time I saw the 'Curlew Sandpiper show' with at least 15 juveniles scattered about amongst the Dunlin and Ringed Plover...

Some are coming stupidly close to the hide too!

 Also present were two Little Ringed Plovers, a Ruff and this juv Turnstone...

Taking time out from stone turning and having a bit of chill time!

This afternoon I gave Black Hole Marsh another look. On the marsh was a similar selection of birds to Saturday, but a trip to the Tower Hide was certainly worthwhile.  I thought I heard Spotted Redshank call shortly after I arrived, and soon spied two likely suspects roosting up river from the Tower Hide, both clearly juvs. I got everyone on to them (everyone who was interested anyway!) but we had to wait a little while until we saw some head and bill - they were clearly very sleepy!  The rising tide pushed them about which allowed me to get this superb flight shot...

You won't see any better flight shots than this!

They eventually moved on to Black Hole Marsh and mingled with the Blackwits and Redshank.

Just before my visit to Black Hole Marsh I had a look around Lower Bruckland Ponds. Whenever I go here I always spend a lot longer wandering around than I was planning too as there's always so much to see and photograph!  Best of all today were a couple of lovely male Ruddy Darters...

Check out that body shape! Is that what they call an hour glass figure!??

I don't think I normally see Golden-ringed Dragonflies this late in the year, but have seen plenty recently including this showing one at LBP today...

One of my favs these

Along with the expected Migrant Hawkers...

The dragonfly of the autumn

It's not just dragonflies that distract me here, because as always there were lots of butterflies too. The best being the second flight period of Dingy Skippers...

Dull but sweet!

American waders are turning up all over the place at the moment - so I know where I'm going to be doing most my birding over the next week....

Three Moth Nights

Well it's high time I got this blog back on track really isn't it!? So I shall tidy up all my mothing news since my return from Scotland (which seems like ages ago!)

There has been three Fridays since Scotland, so that's three nights of mothing for me.

During the night of the 15th I caught 40 moths of 14 species, and they were:

1 Scorched Carpet
1 Water Carpet
3 Double-striped Pug
2 Brimstone
2 Early Thorn
6 Brindled Beauty
1 Muslin Moth
1 Small Quaker
11 Common Quaker
3 Clouded Drab
1 Twin-spotted Quaker
7 Hebrew Character
1 Mullein Moth
2 Early Grey

Mullein Moth

Water Carpet

The variation in Brindled Beauties!

On the 22nd I caught 32 moths of 15 species...

1 Garden Carpet
1 Small Phoenix
1 Small Rivulet
1 V-Pug
2 Double-striped Pug
1 Waved Umber
4 Brimstone
1 Lunar Marbled Brown
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Flame Shoulder
8 Common Quaker
1 Clouded Drab
6 Hebrew Character
1 Early Grey
2 Nut-tree Tussock

And finally on the 29th I trapped 17 moths of 13 species...

1 Common Swift
1 Red Twin-spot Carpet
1 Garden Carpet
2 Common Carpet
1 Waved Umber
2 Brimstone
1 Poplar Hawkmoth
1 Pale Tussock
1 Heart and Dart
1 Shuttle-shaped Dart
1 Common Quaker
2 Hebrew Character
2 Nut-tree Tussock

Poplar Hawkmoth

Common Swift

To round off all my insect news, I've had several looks around Lower Bruckland Ponds during the past few weeks hoping for a Vagrant Emperor or two - I've found Lesser Emp here so would love to complete the set! So far I have had no luck (and was VERY gripped tonight when I looked HERE), although there are good numbers of Odonata on the wing.

The highlight of my visits here was actually a butterfly - this Dingy Skipper...

A site first for me

I really hope I get to see a nice spring Pom this year... I suppose it would help if I actually looked at the sea though...