Bugboys mission

[Janet Turnbull]

I love the way you record the little scenarios as they are played out, Bugboy

[ernie f]

Great pics of the SSSkips and Adonis Blues but the real gem is the Gif of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth. Wow.

[Wurzel]

Great set of shots and reportage Bugboy It's interesting to witness the different courtship behaviours - the Silver-studs I saw refusing to mate flapped around like no-ones business yet the whites just do a simple abdomen flick, a bit like 'giving 'the bird'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Janet, there was an awful lot going on that day!
Thanks Ernie, if you like Hummingbird Hawkmoths keep an eye on my PD... I shall say no more
Thanks Wurzel, it is fascinating watching their behaviour

1st August, Bookham again

This was the last chance for a while to find a Brown Hairstreak, I was back to work the next day and then a long weekend back up north was planned. The weather didn’t seem too bad today, cooler than of recent days and with a bit of cloud cover to help slow things down a bit so I was tentatively hopeful.

I only had the morning so I kept fingers and toes crossed that a freshly emerged one would be awaiting me. This years score currently stood at 2.1 to them and word across other sites seemed to indicate this year they weren’t playing fair. For the newbies the scoring system I use is as follows: No sightings on a trip = 1 point to them. Flybys and distant record shots = a score draw and every low down one photographed is a point for me. This clearly weighs heavily in my favour since I can amass more than one point on each visit but then it’s my game so my rules!

Orange and brown butterflies were indeed waiting for me, the third generation of Small Coppers were now in full swing. Gatekeepers on the other hand were now rapidly decreasing in numbers. Being the latest of the ‘southern’ Browns to emerge I suspect their larvae were hit quite hard by the drought. This time last year you could easily get into 3 figures without much effort at all. Now I was struggling to get into double figures. Still, every cloud and all that, in this case perhaps the Brown Hairstreaks would be easier to pick out…. that is if they do start coming down.

Well it only took half an hour before perched on top of the undergrowth I spied a distinctive bright orange triangle of a freshly emerged female. I had to try and pick my way through bramble, Blackthorn and Bracken without disturbing here to get close enough for some shots. Frustratingly a particularly dark cloud had appeared so my pictures were further hampered by low light and then as the cloud was about to pass some clumsy oaf ( ) tried to move one twig too many causing her to flutter further back into the bracken where she all too briefly angled herself into the returning sun before fluttering off down the path and out of sight. Still it did mean a win for me .

Up in the Master tree there were several Hairstreaks fluttering around but they were mostly of the Purple variety. The occasional, noticeably larger, Brown would flutter through but never settled in view.

That was it on the hairstreak front, despite much more careful searching, but there was still other stuff around. More Small Coppers, some nice fresh Common Blues a brief encounter with a fresh Painted Lady and a female hutchinsoni Comma all posing nicely for me.

Hopefully this will be a sign that things will start picking up on the Hairstreak front from now on, this years score now sitting at 2 all .

[millerd]

That was rather a good female Hairstreak, Buggy. A definite win I'd say!

Dave

[bugboy]

She was a beauty Dave, just a shame I didn't get her with the sun on her!

4th August, Back up north

Scotch Argus weren't on my 2018 hit list until quite recently. But my friend who came to the rescue to get me up to see the Mountain Ringlets had loved that expedition so much that when I broached the subject of another small trip she almost bit my hand off! The bookings were made, two nights at Arnside’s Hostel, this time with the added 'entertainment' of my friends crazy Staffy who seems to run on an endless supply of Duracell!

Like before we left early and made good time, arrived several hours before checking in time so it was straight up to the now familiar Knott. I'd read Neil Freemans post the day before and was prepared for a rather lack lustre experience but even so I was shocked by the lack of butterfly activity. An hour was spent searching for the Scotchies and I came away with a grand total of 3. There were also a handful of Specklies one or two Grayling and singletons of Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Wall and Small Skipper. I was actually struggling to reach double figures combining all species !

Of the Scotchies I did find I managed photos of two. All were females and one was egg laying.

Perhaps they were hiding from the heat, it was rather warm again, so we decided to wander down in town and grab a bite to eat, wait until we could check in, and then return early evening.

3 hours later it was much the same though, I was probably seeing the same butterflies except for the addition three Painted Ladies and a lone ringlet.

Although I'd managed to tick off another species for the year it was a rather disappointing afternoon considering this I'd supposed to be a butterfly hotspot !

[trevor]

Two Scotch Argus are better than none. At least they would be for me,
as I have never seen one. The heat did make searching and photography
that much more difficult. Back to normal now .

Trevor.

[David M]

Glad you got to see them, BB, but I agree, three is a dismal total in what should be the middle of their flight period.

Perhaps the hot spell dessicated the grasses causing many of the late instar larvae to perish?

[bugboy]

It would be worth making the trip up there one day Trevor, it's a beautiful part of the country with or without the butterflies
Thanks David. I agree though, a dismal effort. Two years ago I was there a week earlier and found dozens as well as oodles of Skippers, Gatekeepers and all sorts, literally hundreds of butterflies! Almost certainly the drought is largely to blame. Having only visited twice I can't really comment on habitat degradation, but regular visitor Neil Freeman's assessment would indicate this is also to blame for the lack of Scotch Argus

5th August, English Scotchie heaven (part 1)

Day two looked set to be a tad cooler with more cloud cover but I didn't think it was worth spending it up on the Knott given what I'd found the previous day. To make the most of the only full day though I hatched a plan which meant a significant amount of driving around, luckily my friend loves driving so that wasn’t an issue, the fly in the ointment was the warning light letting us know one of the rear tires had pressure issues.

We left early, stopping off to put some air in the tire and then drove to the first stop off, the hours trip to Smardale Gill where rumour had it the Scotchies were doing ok this season.

It was relatively cool and mostly cloudy but warm enough and bright enough for some resident Specklies to be active as we walked along the old railway track. It didn't take too long to find the target, once one was seen several others popped up, flying in overcast conditions. I don't know what the air temperature was but it was far from sunny.

3 females and not a male in in sight to take advantage of the situation!

We carried on, regularly encountering more until we came to the viaduct just in time for the cloud to begin to break. Here we took the left path, across the grassy slope and was welcomed by dozens if not hundreds of Scotchies. I freely admit to getting rather snap happy but here's a tiny selection of what I saw .

Friendly little souls :)

oh and here's my friends pooch, accurately displaying his intelligence level, bless him !

[millerd]

Excellent stuff, Buggy. I shall definitely add this spot to next year's itinerary! I imagine this area has been less affected by the hot weather than Arnside. Great photos of multiple butterflies.

Cheers,

Dave

[trevor]

Now that's what I call a haul, the persistent shall be rewarded.
And just the sort of images I'd like to come home with. x 1,000
I think David m. said something about a disused railway heaving with Scotch Argus.

Great stuff, Paul,
Trevor.

[Andrew555]

That is a lush looking Brostreak from Bookham Bugboy. Lovely Scotchies and Painted Lady.

[bugboy]

Definitely worth a visit Dave and yes, it did seem significantly more 'lush' than Arnside
It's a site that would be right up your alley Trevor, Railway history and oodles of Butterflies , the Scotchies being just the tip of the Iceberg !
Thanks Andrew, but I'd have traded her for one of your Valesina's

5th August, English Scotchie heaven (part 2)

The morning may have been primarily for the Scotch Argus but there were other species around besides the already mentioned Specklies. On the slope facing the viaduct I found a few aged Common Blue, and singletons of Meadow Brown, Small Skipper and a nice Peacock.

We decided to do a circular walk, well we hoped that was where we were heading anyway. It had clouded over again but a few Small whites added to the species list and near the quaint little stone bridge I found a nice fresh Painted Lady.
Making our way up to the top path which heads back to the viaduct we found the verges thick with Knapweed and Devil's-bit Scabious in full bloom. Although the sun had yet to return it was still active with butterflies, a dozen or so fresh Peacock with a smattering of similarly conditioned Red Admiral and Painted Lady.

We hadn't seen a Scotchie for about half an hour but as we got closer to the viaduct they started to appear again but what really caught my eyes were the now endless stream of Peacocks. Each one gorging itself silly so double counting was unlikely, perhaps 30 or 40 by the time we got to the viaduct as well as a dozen or so RA and a few more PL. Mixed in were several Large, Small & GV Whites and one other creature that deserves a post of it's own .

With the sun out again things had really livened up along the path back to the car park. Scotchies kept distracting me and yet more Peacock and Red Admiral. By the time we reached the car I reckon I'd seen 60+ Peacock, quite an astonishing total in anyones book, and perhaps 20+ Admirals!

So back at the car with most of the afternoon still to play with, we discovered the tire pressure had dropped again, bugger, a slow puncture......

[bugboy]

5th August, English Scotchie heaven (part 3)

It was whilst being astonished by the sheer numbers of Peacock that we had yet another memorable encounter. This one ended up being responsible for around 50% of the photos I took that day! We came across a Hummingbird Hawkmoth who was going nowhere very fast. He stayed in the same spot, zooming around us from flower to flower for a good five minutes. I just pointed my camera at him and kept my finger on the shutter release until he moved to the next flower, placing my faith in the auto focus. I was surprised and very pleased to discover a very high percentage actually turned out pretty well, giving me the best in flight shots I've taken of them .

There were plenty of sequences to make Gifs from as well

All this and we still had the afternoon to go..... well if we can get the dodgy tire sorted that is .

[bugboy]

5th August, onwards and eastwards.

So as I mentioned the day involved a fair bit of driving which meant the leaky tire was now our top priority. It was however a slow leak so we didn’t think we needed a completely new tire, at least not at this stage. We found the closest petrol and bought some of that spray stuff that goes inside the tire. The instructions recommend driving 8 miles before re-inflating it. All very frustrating but unavoidable.

Finally though, we were on our way to the next destination, Burnmouth. I was here last year with Iain Crowe who helped me find my first Northern Brown Argus. I was hoping to find some late season stragglers but time was now against us as it looked like we wouldn't arrive until gone 4 and the blue sky looked to be a thing of the past for the day. Nevertheless it's a nice place and it would be silly to turn back and waste the rest of the afternoon driving around.

We got there at around 4.30 with the sun struggling against the cloud cover and also vanishing over the top of the east facing cliff top, so I wasn't too hopeful of finding much. I did locate some hatched eggs on the first bit of rock rose I inspected, which I think is the same patch Iain pointed some out to me last year.

Singletons of Wall and Grayling escaped my camera but a relaxed looking Small Copper did pose. At least I wasn't going to go home empty handed .

A bit further along the ‘beach’ I clambered up the steep bank, not really expecting to find anything, but I hadn’t reckoned for just how tough these little northern blighters are. Just casually fluttering towards me came a small brown butterfly who proceeded to perch right there in front of me. He was a worn little thing and had hopefully lead a productive life but still proceeded to bask in the gloomy light

5 minutes later I found a second one, a female and in slightly better nick. Again she was a good poser despite the poor light

Not too shabby a result given the circumstances .

There was other life as well, we were watched by a small gang of Oystercatcher during the entire time, a few Heron were standing like sentinels and some Redshank stopped by to do some rock pooling.

Over by the harbour I found a solitary Curlew loitering and a family of Pied Wagtail were flitting around, one of whom had captured a rather sizable moth

[trevor]

I'm afraid it's another mrgreen for the Northern Brown Argus.
I've carried out a little research on Smardale Gill, so maybe next year.

Trevor.

[millerd]

That NBA was well worth the effort, Buggy. Those HBHM shots are pretty good as well - I know how tricky it is to try and freeze them or capture the way they move in still shots. The GIFs work really well.

Cheers,

Dave

[ernie f]

I just caught those pics and gifs of the Hummingbird Hawkmoth. Fantastic, especially the last shot and all the gifs.

[bugboy]

As long as you get the weather I think you'll have a memorable day at Smardale Trevor
Thanks Dave & Ernie I did go a bit Gif mad


6th August, Onwards and southwards.

After the previous days epicness, the last day (well morning, we had to get back to London by the end of the day) was a bit more relaxed. It was an overcast, drab day so little point trying for butterflies (but I still managed some before the morning was out ) .

A wander on the beach, giving pooch a run, gave me the chance to have a look for local birdlife. A Little Egret was seen lurking with a small flock of Black-headed Gulls and a skein of Greylag Geese flew over whilst I was watching the Lapwings

Whilst on the shore a Collared Dove looked oddly out of place but very well camouflaged and the local Ravens were also once again loitering with intent.

We still had a few hours to kill before having to leave so we decided to visit a place I’d noted on our way to Smardale Gill the day before, Lakelands Wildlife Oasis, a small Zoo. A quick look on the website told me they had free flying butterflies amongst other things. There were a few but not many, mostly the perennial butterfly house staple, Heliconids. It was rather gloomy so I imagine there were more hiding away, there were some Caligo eggs were on a banana.

We finished our second stay of the year in Arnside with a pub lunch before setting off on the long journey back to reality.

[Old Wolf]

That is an awesome selection of wilflife you have captured, I especially like your friends hound

The Hummingbird HM Gifs are briliant. What is it about Gifs that keeps you staring at them longer than is necessary? Sometimes I just can't pull myself away from them. They are wildly addictive