Bugboys mission

[Wurzel]

So for those Large Skippers "the rampant hormones of adolescence" strike again Great set of White Admiral shots and I think we're both in agreement the less said about His Nibbs the better - let's see how He likes the rejection!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Katrina]

Really like the last White Admiral shot

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel. Yes, there seemed to be quite a lot of rampant adolescent hormones in Epping Forest this year. I would say there’s something in the water there but there’s not been much of that this year! As for HIM, I may have found a workaround which I shall keep quiet about (except on here when that particular report surfaces, but by then they’ll all be in hibernation I think!)
Thanks Katrina

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June 2022

Monday 27th. When booking my trip up north, my first for a few years, I was disappointed to discover my usual place to stay, the hostel conveniently at the foot of Arnside Knott, had shut down, a victim of the Covid lockdowns. Looking around for somewhere else to stay (there’s nowhere else nearby in the ‘hostel’ price bracket) I ended up staying in Carnforth just to the south of Warton Crag which is a place I’ve never explored before. There was also a huge sigh of relief when the dates for the rail strikes were announced and narrowly missed wrecking my trip before it had even started.

The journey up was pain free, upon leaving Euston at 9am I’d reached Carnforth, checked in and had wandered up onto Warton Crag by 1pm to get a lay of the land. It was very green and lush, and surprisingly sunny given the forecast that I’d been with threatened all week.

The view from near the car park

Some craggy slopes

Despite the meadow at the car park being awash with flowers, there was very little in the way of butterflies, a few Small Skippers and a very active Common Blue. There was also a Hummingbird Hawkmoth buzzing around laying eggs on the Lady’s Bedstraw.

Exploring a bit, I found a path leading up, finding my first Grayling of the year hanging out on the craggy slopes and a couple of Small Tortoiseshell, one of whom has a bit of aberration about it, the blue lunules on the forewing bleeding into the surrounds ab. bolandii according to the literature.

I was mainly looking for Fritillaries but for a while found very little, and what was around was too active. Later in the afternoon though things started to settle down a bit, some hilltopping Red Admiral and Painted Lady became more approachable and I finally got a proper look at some of what had been just ginger blurs, the first one to actually settle being a female Dark Green Fritillary.

A Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and a Northern Brown Argus distracted me for a while and exploring a bit further I quickly worked out where best to find more of the latter, sheltered pockets of sunbathed ‘meadow’. I found a couple more males, but the pick of the crop was a rather striking female. She was noticeably rather sparsely spotted on the underside as well.

After this distraction I tried again to pin down some Fritillaries, once again not finding the elusive one. It would seem DGF were having just as good a season up here as they were down south.

I hung around here till after 6, hoping some of the Fritillaries would miraculously land in front of me and turn into a High Brown, none did and my stomach eventually made my mind up that it was time to give up for the day.

[Wurzel]

Looking forward to finding out about the workaround Bugboy I'd love to see the Northern Brown Argus so have a few Does the form found at Warton Crag usually have the white black spots on the fore wing circled in white or is that a variation?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

That landscape looks beautiful, Paul. Been several years since I was up that way and your images bring back nice memories.

Dark Green & Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries are always welcome sightings, as is Northern Brown Argus. Well done for putting the effort in. It's a long slog up there from the south of the country.

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel. I’m afraid I can only comment about the Warton Crag NBA population from the tiny sample size I’ve seen of exactly 4 individuals, but from that it does seem to be ‘normal’ to varying degrees.
Thanks David, it may be a long slog but it’s very much worth it. It’s the kind of landscape I could happily spend the rest of my life exploring, unfortunately I live in the city through necessity only.

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June 2022

Tuesday 28th.. Day two of my short northern adventure was a bit more of a cloudy affair. A weather front that had been predicted to arrive with me the previous day had stalled over the Irish Sea and had finally arrived overnight leaving the skies distinctly grey. It was however still just warm enough, at least for the morning, more rain was predicted to arrive in the afternoon, although there was also a very stiff wind blowing. Since the afternoon looked to be a right-off I stayed within walking distance and took another wander up onto the craggy slopes nearby.

Some of the local Ravens were enjoying themselves in the wind

Butterfly wise it would seem it was just borderline though, with just a couple of Dark Green Fritillary soaking up whatever warmth they could find, a few Red Admiral and a Painted Lady glued to the limestone pavement.

The Ravens had gone but up above I was now treated to an impressive display of a pair of Sparrowhawk. At the time I wasn’t sure if it was a Goshawk/Sparrowhawk fight, the distance made judging size impossible, but some close looks at some of the images shows some rusty red on the smaller birds throat marking it out as a male Sparrowhawk.

Only Ringlets and Meadow Browns stayed active in the overcast conditions.

I spent an hour or so exploring further afield but came across very little and no sign of any of the trips target species.

Back at the starting point the temperature had just crept up enough to wake up a few Small Skippers and a solitary Comma.

but not long after I felt the first few spots of rain so that was the end of day two. Hopefully the remaining two days would be an improvement

[David M]

Great aerial images of the hawks, Paul. The first Ringlet is nicely marked too; sizeable ocelli with an additional one just beneath the top two.

Hope the final couple of days provided similar rewards,

[bugboy]

Thanks David, it was quite striking, sporting the full ‘Mickey Mouse’ look!

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June 2022

Wednesday 29th. Day three was long and contained lots of weather. I had hoped to get to the familiar ground of Arnside Knott earlier than I did. At 9.30 it was already starting to warm up. There was enough cloud cover to settle a few fritillaries down but they had already warmed up enough to still bit a bit more frisky than I would have liked. I started off on the bottom slope where I’ve had good success with High Browns in past visits. A few large orange butterflies were seen swooping over the bracken when the sun came out but finding one settled was problematic and I ended up disturbing a few who had sat down in the grass. I managed pictures of just two, thankfully one turned out to be a High Brown although I won’t be entering it into any photo competitions!

DGF

HBF

On the slopes up to the top a NBA put in an appearance but it was the only one I was to see today.

Near the top Fritillaries started to turn up again, in increasing numbers but it was now gone 10 and I was just a spectator for the most part, either watching them zoom around like loons in the sun or hopelessly searching for their hiding places when it clouded over. At the time it felt like there were dozens of them but I’m sure it was no more than ten. The only one that allowed me to get close was a DGF that was feasting on some Heather.

A couple of SPBF made less of an effort to hide from me.

Well, I wasn’t likely to get anything better now so I headed off for the other site I’d earmarked for the day, Meathop Moss. Getting there seemed easy, the train over the estuary to Grange-over-sands and then a 10-minute bus ride. Somewhat annoyingly, although both the train and bus were hourly, the bus left 10 minutes before the train arrived . The final stage of getting to the Moss was navigating a dual carriageway…

Safely on the Moss it didn’t take too long to find the next target and since the sun had decided to vanish for the time being they were relatively easy to approach (not easy easy though!) The results are by far the best images I’ve got of a Large Heath, mostly of the same individual but that’s no bad thing since it was the best looking individual I saw.

I would have stayed a lot longer and searched further afield but the heavens chose the moment I was on a wind swept and largely treeless place to open and give me a serious drenching. I made it back to the bus stop during a short break in the rain where much to my relief I found a shelter to spend the next half hour watching more torrential rain whilst waiting for my bus.
Tbc

[trevor]

I think I would have suffered a drenching for those Large Heaths
Not to mention the HBF.

Trevor.

[bugboy]

Thanks Trevor. I’d have preferred a better picture of the HBF but there’s always next time. Looks like the DGF had such a good season everywhere the HBF were swamped by them.

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June 2022

Wednesday 29th part 2. For the final part of the day I went back to Arnside Knott, hoping that the swarms of Fritillaries would be slightly more approachable now. Well they were, but not by much. The rain had gone and although they were now in feeding mode, it was still quite warm so the vast majority of pictures were grab shots taken at a distance and it was very much a case of take as many pictures as I could and sift through them later. Sadly, despite a bit of wishful thinking on my part and with the help of a few more experienced eyes, they all turned out to be DGF (plus a bonus SPBF).

On the way down the scree slope a found a couple of fresh Grayling and munching on some greenery a Roe Deer, probably hooching with ticks!

I whiled away the last of the daylight enjoying the scenery of the River Kent estuary

Some scenery from earlier in the day

Grange-over-sands from Arnside Knott

Arnside Knott from Grange-over-sands.

[Wurzel]

Fantastic shots of the Large Heath - another species I've yet to see and a Small Pearl is always a bonus I like the statement "Day three was long and contained lots of weather." - I've had a few of those in my time

Have a godun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel. I think there may be a distinct correlation between the further away from civilisation I am, the more ‘weather’ I tend to experience

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June 2022

Thursday 30th. On my final day up north I’d cunningly planned to post all my non-essential stuff (mostly worn clothes) home so after checking out I wasn’t encumbered with extra weight. Gaits Barrow was an option today, but the trains weren’t as regular as in pre-covid times leading to lots of waiting around eating up my time so I settled for RSPB Leighton Moss and Trowbarrow Nature Reserve, an old abandoned quarry. I’ve visited Trowbarrow once before and found it to be a good place for Northern Brown Argus.

Trowbarrow Quarry

At the RSPB Reserve Marsh Harriers put on a good show and a Hobby shot past one of the hides across the water, possibly after Dragonflies. The action was far to fast to catch on film, it all happened in the blink of an eye, but it hung around long enough for some shots as it soured overhead after. On the Osprey nest platform, a family of Great Black-backed Gulls had set up home.

There weren’t too many butterflies around, a few Speckled Wood bobbed around in the shadier parts and a solitary Comma was feasting on Bramble.

There were considerably more butterflies at the quarry. Ringlets and Small & Large Skippers made up the bulk but as I’d hoped, the NBA were relatively easy to find. Although the salmacis race never seems to be particularly numerous, my images show I found five in total, the first one was found in quite gloomy conditions and allowed pictures from all angles!

They traditionally have much reduced lunules compared to agestis, the second one I found was quite extreme in the reduction, possibly drifting into ab status.

The third one was an ovipositing female, the eggs being laid on the upperside of the leaves as opposed to the underside preferred by agestis. A fresh male hassled her briefly but quickly got the message and went on his merry way.

The fresh male

More train woes greeted me when it was time to leave, my train had been cancelled so I now had another hour to kill. Nothing for it but to return to the quarry where I found NBA number five.

I think I’ve got more pictures of the NBA than the BA this year! I finally got home at 11 (my dirty washing arriving a couple of days later).

[Katrina]

Great photos- and it is a snap from me on the eggs!

[David M]

Nice concluding part, Paul. You did particularly well with the Large Heaths. In my opinion this is the trickiest UK species to photograph. So pleased you managed to find High Brown Fritillary as well, even if you didn't get much of an audience.

Good finale with the NBAs too.

[Neil Freeman]

I really enjoyed catching up with your series of reports from 'up north' Paul.

...I think there may be a distinct correlation between the further away from civilisation I am, the more ‘weather’ I tend to experience ..

Indeed. Every time I have been up there I have experienced quite different weather than back home, especially this year when there had obvioulsy been a lot more rain up there with everything looking so much greener than back home.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great Salmacis Bugboy The differences are subtle but definitely noticeable
"I think there may be a distinct correlation between the further away from civilisation I am, the more ‘weather’ I tend to experience " I think you might need to take a leaf out of Ford Prefect's book and become a 'Frood who really knows where his towel is'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Katrina, we both did well with the NBA this year
Thanks David, yes the Large Heath do require a certain amount of patience and determination. I’ve certainly had better HBF experiences!
Thanks Neil, it was interesting to compare notes with your trip
Wise words Wurzel, wise words!

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July 2022

Friday 1st. So after getting back home late the night before from my northern adventure and still having a week left of my holiday, the choice was obvious, get up early and go and see if I could find a Purple Emperor ! At Bookham I bumped into Millerd and Philzoid on the same hunt. To be honest there wasn’t a great deal about, I did find a female Meadow Brown with a generous amount of orange.

Silver-washed Fritillary were about but rather active and a Painted lady attracted our attention but the Purple one was very obvious in his absence

In the afternoon I spent a bit of time under the master trees where one male was active so at least I managed some distant shots

As often happens in these clearings at this time of year, a freshly emerged Purple Prince made an appearance, settling on some low foliage after taking its maiden flight before ascending to join the Emperor in the canopy.

I had a little wander to rest my neck finding a few worn White Admiral and fresher looking SWF before returning to the Emperor. He was still actively chasing flies and shadows!

An early start the following morning meant an early finish today but I figured I'd seen the best I was going to see by mid afternoon.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Bugboy, it's a pity you missed out on Gait Barrow, that's where I got most of my shots of the High Brown, still, you actually found a NB with the White spot on it's wing, my shots are mostly Salmacis, I never did find one with the White spot
You certainly did some travelling and your photos tell how much you enjoyed it Goldie

[Wurzel]

Those Purple Emperor shots seem very similar to the ones I took Bugboy - His Nibbs was definitely not mixing with the riff-raff this year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

...Hi! Bugboy, it's a pity you missed out on Gait Barrow, that's where I got most of my shots of the High Brown...

I popped into Gait Barrows a couple of times when we were up there this year, it is just down the road from the B&B we used and convenient for a stop off on the way back from elsewhere. Unfortunalty the weather was dull and cloudy on these occasions and all I saw was a couple of Speckled Wood. I also noticed how overgrown much of it had become since my last visits here a few years ago and some locals told me that High Browns have crashed there recently.

Cheers,

Neil.