CallumMac

[CallumMac]

Hello everyone!

Having set up my account almost a year ago, and quietly read the forum since then, it is clear that most of the action happens in Personal Diaries! Now that Spring has finally arrived in the North, it seems like the right time for me to start my own...

A bit about myself, before I make my first entry in the next post. I am based in the foothills of the Yorkshire Wolds, in East Yorkshire between Hull and York. We are lucky to have a local landscape that is chock-full of dry chalk valleys, but sadly are not blessed by many of the species that would inhabit these if we were further south! The exception is Dingy Skipper, which has a number of colonies locally. My favoured local 'patches' are Kiplingcotes Chalk Pit and North Cave Wetlands - both Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reserves where many of the commoner species can be reliably found - but if the weekend sun is shining, my partner and I could be found at any of the other great YWT and RSPB reserves scattered around East Yorks, South Yorks and northern Lincs. I am also part of a group that walks a UKBMS transect on Strensall Common, made famous by the final surviving colony of Dark Bordered Beauty moth in England.

In my 'day job', I currently work as a researcher at the University of York, investigating the role of evolution and phenotypic plasticity in shaping the response of our British butterflies and moths to climate change. This is both a blessing and a curse: I get to spend my 9 to 5 thinking about and researching the topic that I love most (butterflies and moths!), but on the other hand, my summers are dominated by fieldwork (often involving lots of travelling) and so even when I can get time off during the summer, travelling to seek out butterflies can feel like a busman's holiday.

I will probably update this diary fairly irregularly; this is both because I don't often get the time to seek out butterflies (see above!) and because when I do, my photos are not often up to the high standard set by most users of the forum!

[Wurzel]

Welcome Callum Looking forward to your postings however irregular they may be especially if you can shed light on some of our more informal observations

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[CallumMac]

21/4/2018 - First signs of spring at YWT North Cave Wetlands

It's been a late spring in Yorkshire (as everywhere) but having finally encountered Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, and both Small and Green-veined Whites last week on Walmgate Stray (an area of common land adjacent to the University of York) I decided to head in Saturday's patchy sunshine to my own 'patch' at North Cave. The reserve is a reclaimed network of sand and gravel pits which is popular with wading birds, but also has some sheltered corners managed for butterflies.

Along a wet ditch on the northern edge of the reserve I finally tracked down my first Orange-tip of the year, patrolling up and down when the sun was out and returning to the same exact leaf on the south-facing bank of the ditch whenever it disappeared behind a cloud. Each time the sun re-emerged he would bask for a minute or two before resuming his vigil, giving opportunities with the camera. I was glad to have my telephoto 'birdwatching' lens with me, and thereby avoid wet feet, but it meant I struggled a little with depth of focus.



I was especially pleased with this shot as he stretched his south-west-facing wing to maximise the sun-catching area!



As I was ready to walk on, a female passed through his territory - but neither he nor I was quick enough to catch up with her!

Further round the reserve, in a scrubby bramble-patch, I was somewhat surprised to find my first Speckled Wood of the year. With everything being so late up here, I didn't particularly expect to encounter this species for a few weeks - and the individual in question even looked a little faded.



A nice first taster of spring - even though it's back to cold and rainy today! When the sun and the warmth next re-appear, I will be keeping an eye out for Dingy Skippers at Kiplingcotes Chalk Pit and Green Hairstreaks at Strensall Common.

[CallumMac]

Thanks for the welcome, Wurzel - I hope I can make an interesting contribution to this excellent forum!

[millerd]

Hi Callum, and welcome from me as well.

Your location interests me - though based near Heathrow, I regularly visit my sister in Wilberfoss, which isn't a million miles from you. While up there, I usually go to a few spots along the Wolds Way (where I believe the country's northernmost Marbled Whites are found), and one or two near Pocklington. If you dredge back through my PD you can see where I've visited and what was there. My sister's garden in summer is also notable for hosting large numbers of Peacocks! She works at offices near the University site and has identified some elms which need future investigation for White-letter Hairstreaks... You may be aware of these, of course. I have for a while been meaning to look at Kiplingcotes, but haven't got round to it yet.

I may well bump into you this summer sometime - you'll find this quite often happens with membership of this site!

All the best, and I'm very much looking forward to some more of your images and ideas for other spots to visit while I'm up in Yorkshire.

Dave

[CallumMac]

Hi Dave - thanks for the welcome!

In fact, I commute past Wilberfoss every day on the A1079, as my home is in Pocklington itself. Having had a quick flick through your PD, I'm very intrigued to learn that Calley Heath is a reliable Small Copper site (SC being my favourite of all butterflies) - as I've driven past the site many times since moving to the area last summer, but haven't yet been in. One to try in the coming weeks! Millington Dale and its side-arms I discovered over the winter whilst looking for Short-eared Owls, and will definitely be visiting regularly again in the summer as it's within easy cycling distance of home.

If Marbled Whites are your flavour, then definitely pop down to Kiplingcotes during their flight period - numbers well into the hundreds in a fairly small site. The best spot is the south-facing meadow above the pit itself.

Hopefully I will bump into yourself and others from the site - I look forward to it!

[Goldie M]

Hi! Callum, welcome from me has well I also live in the North, Greater Manchester, I'm lucky in the fact I live only an hour from the Lakes and still get to see some rare species up there, I think your lucky to see the Marble White's so near you, I usually only see them when I visit my daughter in Kent, like you said most species are in the South.
Looking forward to seeing more of your photographs Goldie

[CallumMac]

Thanks, Goldie! Lucky indeed. My parents have just moved to the North Lakes so I'm hoping to use their house as a base to explore a few of those special sites around Arnside & Silverdale (none of which I've previously managed to visit).

[bugboy]

Welcome from me too, looking forward to seeing images from your part of the world as the season develops

[jonhd]

Welcome Callum - bearing in mind your professional life, any comments on https://www.nhbs.com/british-and-irish- ... ctive-book - I'm most definitely an amateur (electronics engineer, professionally), but a sucker for almost any lepi literature! Just wondered whether it might be a tad academic, for an amateur!

Cheers, Jon

[trevor]

Welcome from me, Callum.
It will be good to get more reports from your neck of the woods.

Looking forward to more,
Trevor.

[CallumMac]

Thanks for the welcomes, Bugboy, Jon, Trevor!

Jon - I saw that was on its way - looks intriguing. I suspect it will be very interesting but probably not light bedside reading! When the price is set that high it usually indicates the book's intended for, and written to suit, an academic audience (i.e. it will mostly be university libraries buying it rather than private individuals). However, the field of natural history in general - and in my opinion this is especially true for butterflies and moths - is highly unusual in that the 'enthusiastic amateur' is usually more expert that the so-called 'professional' - so it might be worth a try.

[Andrew555]

Hi Callum, and welcome.

[David M]

Having set up my account almost a year ago, and quietly read the forum since then, it is clear that most of the action happens in Personal Diaries! Now that Spring has finally arrived in the North, it seems like the right time for me to start my own...

Welcome from me as well, Callum. Nice to see another member joining the PD brigade.

This time of year is always busy, particularly in 2018 after a winter that seemed to go on forever.

I look forward to reading more from east Yorkshire.

[CallumMac]

Thanks Andrew, David!

25/4/2018 - Nothing doing on Walmgate Stray

With the weather back to "it's grim up north" mode, butterflies are very thin on the ground again. Having seen a couple of Orange-tips at the weekend, and heard several more reports around the county, I decided to pop out to Walmgate Stray at lunchtime to see if I could find any eggs on the small patch of Cuckooflower. No luck - but many of the flowers were still budding, so there is plenty of time left for the butterflies to emerge and do their business when the weather improves. I suspect I'll still be reporting spring butterflies long after the rest of you have progressed to high summer!

[Pete Eeles]

And a belated welcome from me too, Callum! It was good to chat with you at the BC symposium and I look forward to reading your posts!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Neil Freeman]

Just caught up with your new PD Callum, a belated welcome from me too and looking forward to see what is around your part of the world.

Cheers,

Neil

[CallumMac]

Thanks Neil, Pete!

04/05/2018 - Yorkshire springs into life

After a couple of very dull weeks (with frost on the windscreen on Tuesday morning!) the sunshine returned with a vengeance today. A lunchtime wander on Walmgate Stray produced almost the complete spring butterfly hit-list - only Holly Blue and Speckled Wood missing. My first Large Whites of the year (1m 1f), and at least 8 Orange-tips (all male). One of the days when all the butterflies are running on Duracell, so photo opportunities were hard to come by! However, a shady moment let me get up close and personal with a very handsome Orange-tip.

There were dozens of Small Torts, and quite a few Peacocks, along the nettle beds on the eastern edge of the Stray, but most looked rather worse for wear.

I stopped in at Calley Heath on the drive home. Despite commuting past this site twice a day for the last year, I'd never been in before. It looks to have plenty of potential once the Common Blues and Small Coppers are on the way - but today I only added Speckled Wood to the day's list, and found the four Pierid species besides.

[David M]

...One of the days when all the butterflies are running on Duracell, so photo opportunities were hard to come by!

Don't we know it!! Much as we love good weather, one of the negatives is for it to make butterflies hyperactive (and spring species seem more hyperactive than any).

Good to see things catching up further north though.

[CallumMac]

05/05/2018 - Sunny but windy on Strensall Common

I started yesterday morning with a moth-trap - my first of 2018. Seemingly the spring moths have not responded as quick as the butterflies to the improvement in the weather, though, as I caught only a single Clouded Drab. Moths have some great names but this definitely is a case where the species is more interesting than its name implies! In a normal year, this would be quite a late individual, but it's not a normal year and the moth was quite fresh and well-marked.

Having counted up all of the moth and drunk my coffee, I headed out to Strensall Common to walk the UKBMS transect there. Again my first of the year - I'm part of a group that shares the workload of this relatively long transect, which we newly established last year. I had high hopes of Green Hairstreak: last year we recorded this species throughout May, peaking at the end of the month. It's a large site and GH appears to be present at low densities throughout most of it, so seeking it out is usually less effective than just walking and hoping! I twice saw things in flight that might have been GH, but lost track of both before they settled and couldn't rule out some of the day-flying moth species that are also present.

The transect was a bit quiet due to a brisk southerly wind, but