Cheers Wurzel. Yes, lots to look forward to next year with it hopefully being back to more like 'normal' (whatever that is).
Thanks David. I'm already looking forward to that period with the first blackthorn blossom, one of my favourite times too.
Looking back at 2020 Part 2 – High Summer.
I have heard it said that a poor spring is often followed by a good summer and a that a warm spring is followed by a poor summer. Whatever the truth of this, it has certainly been the case around here in recent years with 2020 once again going downhill after a decent spring.
The first few days of June continued on from May with some lovely warm and sunny weather but after the first week it collapsed into a week or so of dull and wet weather with thunderstorms and some particularly heavy rain, not that we didn’t need it after the dry spring had left much of the vegetation here looking quite parched. After this, the rest of the month was very unsettled with lots of cloud and a cool wind keeping the temperatures down and although we did still get some sunny spells, flaming June it was not.
Large Skippers had appeared at the end of May and the first couple of weeks of June saw their numbers build up at all the usual sites around here with once again a few turning up in my garden. Although they seemed to have a decent emergence around here, their flight period proved to be fairly short one compared with some years.
![Blythe Valley 05.06.2020 022 resize.JPG (639.08 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Large Skipper - Blythe Valley Park 05.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_60e23220cf7b6cff84da914dab1bf329)
- Large Skipper - Blythe Valley Park 05.06.2020
Meadow Brown numbers also built up through June and were joined in the second week by Ringlets with lots of both species flying together at all my local spots over the next couple of weeks.
![Wagon Lane 30.06.2020 203 resize.JPG (532.86 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Ringlet - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_fec3d368796d42e690b282163176167a)
- Ringlet - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020
Fresh Speckled Woods had started appearing at the end of May, a little earlier than usual, and thereafter would be encountered nearly everywhere through the summer without the short gap between broods sometime in June that I often see.
The second week of June produced my first Small Skipper (14th June), my earliest sighting of these here by a good week.
![Castle Hills 14.06.2020 004 resize.JPG (544.87 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Small Skipper - Castle Hills 14.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_7540c7c47c2995ce1be19e2388a32665)
- Small Skipper - Castle Hills 14.06.2020
Summer brood Small Tortoiseshells had started emerging earlier than usual with the first ones seen at the end of May and by mid-June these were flying in the kind of numbers not seen around here for some years.
![Wagon Lane 13.06.2020 040 resize.JPG (657.26 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Small Tortoiseshell Wagon Lane 13.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_0f73224e53568fbed9a6c890acd491e1)
- Small Tortoiseshell Wagon Lane 13.06.2020
These were soon joined by summer Commas and with a few old and faded spring examples still hanging on I saw these old hibernators and fresh new summer ones both flying at the same time at a couple of spots. I also noticed this year that these first summer Commas consisted of both hutchinsoni and normal forms flying together as opposed to all the first ones to emerge being hutchinsoni which is often assumed to be the case.
![Wagon Lane 30.06.2020 122 resize.JPG (585.25 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Comma - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_c8b319bd30a4ec77c806c1e7c2c42447)
- Comma - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020
On the 9th June we visited Bishops Hill and Harbury Spoilbank, specifically to look for Dark Green Fritillaries, a species that I had never actually seen in Warwickshire before, although I have seen loads of these previously during our travels further afield around the country. We found a couple at Bishops Hill on a mostly cloudy morning but later in the afternoon a bit more sun at Harbury produced well over a dozen, mostly fresh males.
![Harbury 09.06.2020 027 resize.JPG (561.46 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Dark Green Fritillary - Harbury Spoilbank 09.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_a0bb735c5c6abaa3d03cce12b469d6b2)
- Dark Green Fritillary - Harbury Spoilbank 09.06.2020
Later in June I began to see reports of Small Tortoiseshells starting to tuck themselves up in sheds and outhouses, seemingly going into early hibernation as has been observed in the past few years. I am still not clear exactly what was going on with this species this year but it appears that at least some individuals were going into early hibernation whereas others were staying out and going on to produce a second brood later in the summer/autumn. I certainly saw many more larval webs around my local spots than I have seen for a long time.
Red Admirals also started appearing in numbers through June, especially in some of the Warwickshire woodlands that we visited around the middle of the month such as Oversley Wood and Snitterfield Bushes.
![Snitterfield 22.06.2020 031 resize.JPG (557.43 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Red Admiral - Snitterfield Bushes 22.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_20feeec7c222a4f033c8b9d7aadbb248)
- Red Admiral - Snitterfield Bushes 22.06.2020
These two woods also produced Silver-washed Fritillaries, although we only managed to find White Admirals at Oversley Wood this year.
![Snitterfield 22.06.2020 063 resize.JPG (588.03 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Silver-washed Fritillary - Snitterfield Bushes 22.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_4fbb654c4651be0742d2060f0fb050b1)
- Silver-washed Fritillary - Snitterfield Bushes 22.06.2020
![Oversley Wood 15.06.2020 091 resize.JPG (592.96 KiB) Viewed 2983 times White Admiral - Oversley Wood 15.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_ccc2b6f3519377ca5c8a03a8ce9f103a)
- White Admiral - Oversley Wood 15.06.2020
Oversley also produced my first Marbled White of the year (15th June) and by the end of the month and into early July I was seeing these in good numbers around my local sites. I was particularly chuffed to find a wandering individual at my local spot at Wagon Lane, only the second time I have ever seen one there.
![Bickenhill 02.07.2020 123 resize.JPG (606.59 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Marbled White - Bickenhill 02.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_68f99a1271ab762a9aa3172bac1e1899)
- Marbled White - Bickenhill 02.07.2020
Essex Skippers always emerge a couple of weeks later than the first Small Skippers here and it is often well into July before I manage to confirm any. With the early emergence of the Small Skippers here this year I was not surprised to also find my first Essex Skippers also emerging earlier than usual with a few seen at Wagon Lane on 30th June.
![Wagon Lane 30.06.2020 063 resize.JPG (456.27 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Essex Skipper - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020](./files/thumb_10101_de36d8fb87ff52c7d31a4c613c3205fb)
- Essex Skipper - Wagon Lane 30.06.2020
The unsettled weather continued into July with most days feeling unseasonably cool although when the sun did break though we would get some decent warm spells.
The summer species already mentioned were all flying in good numbers around my local sites and were joined on 10th of July by Gatekeepers which emerged with a bang around here, one day there were none and then all of a sudden they were all over the place.
![Blythe Valley 10.07.2020 025 resize.JPG (599.53 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Gatekeeper - Blythe Valley Park 10.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_75e8ab64d8013846a21fdd3c7b552821)
- Gatekeeper - Blythe Valley Park 10.07.2020
A couple of days later, summer peacocks started to appear and over the next couple of weeks emerged in large numbers to join the Small Tortoiseshells, making it a very memorable summer around here for these two vanessids.
![Bickenhill 16.07.2020 087 resize.JPG (520.6 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Peacock - Bickenhill 16.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_b04c34cdb4831a3af7dbb653bd5491a3)
- Peacock - Bickenhill 16.07.2020
The summer broods of my local lycaenids also started to emerge around this time although these were to be a bit ‘patchy’ this year. Small Coppers did well at some sites and Common Blues at others, but neither species managed to do well everywhere.
![Henwood Lane 22.07.2020 092 resize.JPG (568.79 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Small Copper - Henwood Lane 22.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_abbc31d388f9c23410f7cd6b1ed587ec)
- Small Copper - Henwood Lane 22.07.2020
![Blythe Valley 17.07.2020 050 resize.JPG (568.24 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Common Blue - Blythe Valley 17.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_0fff5271f649b75b2a6c8b6a3461d23a)
- Common Blue - Blythe Valley 17.07.2020
After a promising spring brood, Brown Argus returned to being a bit hit and miss around my local sites although I was pleased to find a couple just down the road at Wagon Lane.
![Wagon Lane 23.07.2020 117 resize.JPG (532.73 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Brown Argus - Wagon Lane 23.07.2020](./files/thumb_10101_780d9c594b2856d83e6ebfd1d76c3971)
- Brown Argus - Wagon Lane 23.07.2020
Green-veined and Small White numbers built up again through July, but Large Whites were still thin on the ground and remained the least numerous of the whites around my patch throughout the summer.
At the end of July and into the first week of August, after having a couple of trips earlier in the year cancelled due to covid, we managed to get away at last. This was a week’s family holiday down on The Lizard in Cornwall with our daughter Sarah and the grandkids. Of course, I managed to squeeze in some good butterflying with the highlight of this being the good numbers of second brood Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries that I saw, mostly along the coast to the south of Kennack Sands but also at the usual spots between Kynance Cove and Lizard Point. Most of these were fresh males with just a couple of very fresh females seen later I the week which indicated that they were still early in this second flight period and I reckon that numbers would have been even higher in the following week or so.
![Carleon Cove 01.08.2020 1097115.JPG (549.61 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Carleon Cove, Lizard 01.08.2020](./files/thumb_10101_09261264c7c304aa070732ce7680cf7e)
- Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Carleon Cove, Lizard 01.08.2020
Other species that were seen in good numbers everywhere on the Lizard included Red Admirals and Common Blues with Wall Browns and Graylings occurring in good numbers at a couple of spots. Large Whites were also far more numerous down there than around my local patch, I assume due to recent migrants adding to their numbers. A few old and faded Dark Green Fritillaries were still flitting about down there too.
![Enys Head 04.08.2020 797115.JPG (832.73 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Wall Brown - Enys Head, Lizard 07.08.2020](./files/thumb_10101_cb3b33b919536ed57fce873cac183404)
- Wall Brown - Enys Head, Lizard 07.08.2020
![Enys Head 03.08.2020 721115 resize.JPG (771.32 KiB) Viewed 2983 times Grayling - Enys Head, Lizard 03.08.2020](./files/thumb_10101_ec7776d9d5dbab8cddc646710c57249d)
- Grayling - Enys Head, Lizard 03.08.2020
I also saw my only two Clouded Yellows of the year on the Lizard, plus half a dozen or so Painted Ladies, the latter being pretty scarce this year after last year’s amazing numbers. This is something that I have noted before with Painted Ladies, a good year for them is often followed by a poor one.
Back home, the second week of August saw some thunderstorms accompanied by heavy rain and the rest of the month consisted of bands of rain crossing the country interspersed by some spells of drier albeit still quite cloudy and cool weather. This seems to have become a pattern over the last few years with the remnants of the Caribbean hurricanes reaching us as stormy weather during August.
Whilst we were down in Cornwall, there had been good numbers of male Brown Hairstreaks seen low down at Grafton Wood in Worcestershire and so I was hoping to get over there later in the month. Unfortunately, by the time I made it, this good showing had finished, and the females seemed to be staying high up in the trees, no doubt sheltering from the unsettled and rather breezy weather we were then having. I did manage a couple of sightings but nothing that came anywhere close for a photo.
That brings me up to the end of August and the end of meteorological summer. It was still a strange year in many respects. Travelling was no longer restricted but I still felt reluctant to travel too far away from my home patch for just day trips and apart from our week down in Cornwall I stayed close to home for most of this period.
At the start of the summer, many species had been emerging early, albeit with shorter flight periods than usual. So much so that some, such as Marbled White and Ringlet, were all but finished here by the time the Big Butterfly Count started. I have since read that, according this count, both Marbled White and Ringlet numbers were down this year, but that is only down to the count starting too late to properly catch either species. To be honest, for a number of reasons, I feel that this count is more useful as an awareness tool for the general public than as a good source of accurate data. Oh well, I guess the true numbers will be more apparent once transect data and such like are analysed.
The next report will take us into Autumn and the winding down of the season.
To be continued…
Neil.