'Leucistic'...That was the word I was looking for. Thanks Wurzel
Wednesday 3rd August.
Wednesday morning dawned with a grey overcast and was quite breezy although it was forecast to brighten up a bit in the afternoon. We decided to have a drive round to Grange-over-Sands on the other side of the estuary, somewhere that we had never actually visited before despite coming up to this area numerous times in the past. This is an attractive little town with a long promenade overlooking the estuary with views back towards Arnside and Silverdale and out over Morecambe Bay. I noticed numerous buddleias and other flowers in the gardens along the promenade that on a brighter morning would probably have attracted the usual butterfly visitors to them but it was still too cool and dull while we were there. After having a wander around here for while we had a coffee and then headed back to Arnside.
In the afternoon it did indeed brighten up a bit with occasional breaks in the cloud allowing the sun to come out. Jane said she wanted to chill out back at the B&B for a bit and so after dropping her off I drove back up to Arnside Knott.
As I said in my earlier report, I wanted to check out the area by the trig point where a Brown Hairstreak had been spotted by a couple of people on Monday, so that was where I headed to first. There are a number of side paths in this area connecting some clearings with large stands of Hemp Agrimony and this was where I was told to look. The first butterflies I saw were the usual Gatekeepers and Meadow Browns along with a handful of Speckled Wood and a couple each of Peacocks and Holly Blues. I also spotted a large female Red Admiral which I believe is the same individual that I saw up here on Monday.
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0031 resize.JPG (512.26 KiB) Viewed 678 times Red Admiral female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_c209f240a92d553a70f18f095ef693ca)
- Red Admiral female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
I was slowly wandering along one of the side paths, scanning the flower heads of the Hemp Agrimony, when my eye fell on an orangy-brown triangular shape in the shadow under one of these flower heads - a male Brown Hairstreak. I was lucky to spot it in this position as I could so easily have just walked past it. I managed to get a couple of shots from each side although the light was poor in the shadow and I was just contemplating if I could get a better position when a strong gust of wind sent it up and it was whisked away into the canopy. I hung around for while in case it came back but that was the last I saw of it.
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0091 resize.JPG (567.77 KiB) Viewed 678 times Brown Hairstreak male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_d80f84b77808b8f95d74cb600bc20789)
- Brown Hairstreak male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0071 resize.JPG (541.17 KiB) Viewed 678 times Brown Hairstreak male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_a2df4cf2ae3c295828520a142870b48a)
- Brown Hairstreak male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
According to people I had spoken to, a couple of Brown Hairstreaks had also been reported from here last year and there is some debate about their origin. Some years ago, around 2010/2011 if my memory serves me right, there was an unauthorised release at Gait Barrows which is only a few miles away from Arnside as the crow (or Brown Hairstreak) flies and they have been seen there most years since. The question is whether these on Arnside Knott have made their way from there or whether there has been a further unauthorised release ?
I then carried on wandering around the paths and clearings in this area and spotted a large orange butterfly which was taking short flights between clumps of grass and nearby flowers and which turned out to be a female Dark Green Fritillary. I watched as she shuffled about deep in the vegetation and appeared to be egg laying but she was so obscured by the grass and various stems and leaves that I couldn’t get a good enough view to be sure. Every now and then she would come out and feed or bask for a short while before carrying on again
In the end I reckon I saw four different female DGFs around this area, a couple of which, whilst fairly worn around the fringes still retained some good colour. The others were much more worn and faded as would be expected at this time of year.
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0201 resize.JPG (639.1 KiB) Viewed 678 times Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_2a46017ae57ea3d92828586ed6e02ac8)
- Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0301 resize.JPG (556.82 KiB) Viewed 678 times Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_51e69fa6dc56b7dfa35400766ce7e263)
- Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0551 resize.JPG (522.08 KiB) Viewed 678 times Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_25257116346ca767e7e0f017a3a0720c)
- Dark Green Fritillary female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
I also saw another HBF, a faded male this time, but it was off into the distance just as I clicked the shutter and all I got was a blurred orange blob at the edge of the frame.
I then slowly started making my way back down to the lower slopes and saw a couple more DGFs but these were even more tatty than those I had already seen.
Speaking of worn and faded butterflies, I came across this Painted Lady and just had to take a couple of shots. It is all well and good taking photos of nice fresh butterflies but sometimes it is nice to capture something that tells a story and this one certainly looks like it had lived a life and was still going strong.
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0651 resize.JPG (520.2 KiB) Viewed 678 times Painted Lady - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_b640dcd5c03c1ce849e174058f32c589)
- Painted Lady - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
With this being my last afternoon in this area and not knowing when I will be up here again, I then went looking for a few more Scotch Argus, after all they were my number one target for this trip with everything else being a bonus.
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0991 resize.JPG (547.21 KiB) Viewed 678 times Scotch Argus male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_652f78216648ced3c850e7799406f322)
- Scotch Argus male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 0961 resize.JPG (547.07 KiB) Viewed 678 times Scotch Argus male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_8ec8e75d1c356814d87c317084d7c2b6)
- Scotch Argus male - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 1031 resize.JPG (535.9 KiB) Viewed 678 times Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_de67339e5dbd60ad485b3c819846c1ac)
- Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 1161 resize.JPG (678.51 KiB) Viewed 678 times Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_d0cd3d18e301f21b692f491e047926ea)
- Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
![Arnside 03.08.2022 1311 resize.JPG (591.14 KiB) Viewed 678 times Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022](./files/thumb_10101_45d841cc863def18edacab17aca35d2f)
- Scotch Argus female - Arnside Knott 03.08.2022
During our few days up here I had seen twenty two species of butterfly, a good tally for this part of the world at this time of year. Some of these were in large numbers (Meadow, Browns, Gatekeepers) and some were single individuals and surprises at that (WLH, Brown Hairstreak).
The weather had been reasonable, warm rather than hot and quite cloudy a lot of the time with a strengthening wind for the last couple of days. We had some heavy rain on Monday night and lighter rain into Tuesday morning and indeed it was obvious by the vegetation, which was much greener than back home, that there had been a lot more rain up there. Indeed, one chap I spoke to at Arnside was quite vociferous about the media reporting of the heatwave “heatwave, what bl**dy heatwave” he said in a broad Lancashire accent, “we’ve had a couple of hot days and lots of bl**dy cloud and wind up here”. He was not the only person to say that their summer had been generally poor, another one in a run of poor summers apparently, mostly down to lots of cloud and persistent wind.
I suppose we all think that what we are getting is the same everywhere and there is no denying that back in the midlands we are suffering from a lack of rain and this is even worse down south, but it was actually quite refreshing to feel some rain and see how green the landscape was up there.
All in all, a cracking few days in one of my favourite parts of the country.
Bye for now,
Neil.