Thank you for the comments, all, and apologies for my incorrect use of the word 'twitch'! I think what I meant was that instead of doing something useful, like searching for a new site for Asian fritillary, I simply went somewhere I knew I could get my yearly fix of this species.
Today I met up with Gary and Jane Hulbert, of UK Butterflies, who have been out here for ten days or so. I seduced them with offers of three species of '
Maculinea' (i.e.,
Phengaris), calling in at cranberry fritillaries on the way (those who have previously been out to see me will know where we went!).
We arrived at the cranberry bogs to find almost no butterflies at all. It looked as though we were too early in the day, so we enjoyed this female moorland clouded yellow (another cranberry feeder) and continued on our way:
Our next site, which is not particularly high, seemed very retarded in its development and initially it looked as if we might even dip out on the
Maculinea - the greater burnet was standing low and immature in fields still dominated by bistort. In fact, the first butterfly we spotted (Gary spotted this one) was a female violet copper. We then saw a male nearby. They were both some distance away in a field cordoned off from public access but I took this very poor shot, on maximum zoom, of the male:
I'm sure Gary and Jane will have better. That was a surprise bonus for them!
Then Jane spotted what looked like a chimney sweeper moth in the distance, but which soon proved itself to be our first dusky large blue. It was a male but surprisingly it didn't look that fresh. It was wandering rather aimlessly across meadows without greater burnet, settling on all the wrong flowers but showing an interest in those that most resembled greater burnet:
Next we found our second target, scarce large blue. We went on to see a small handful of these and this is one from a little later in the walk:
Connoisseurs of these species will be aghast that neither is on a burnet flower. At another stage in the walk there were several duskies which were behaving more nomalously:
The third
Maculinea came in the form of a mating pair of large blues:
In general, there were very few butterflies, despite the weather being perfect. I would have expected tit frits, niobe frits, high brown, silver-washed and pearl-bordered frits, but we saw just a handful of false heath and a single violet fritillary. There were also very few
Erebia - just one bright-eyed ringlet confirmed and several other probable bright-eyeds drifting over inaccessible areas.
Blues were slightly more in evidence, with little blue, Osiris blue, mazarine blue, common blue and silver-studded all showing up:
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2013/osiris5july2013a.jpg)
(Osiris)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2013/osirisminimussemiargus5july2013a.jpg)
(dingy skipper with, from left to right, little blue, Osiris blue, mazarine blue)
![Image](http://www.guypadfield.com/images2013/argus5july2013a.jpg)
(silver-studded blues enjoying an unsavoury meal)
As well as the violet coppers there were a fair few purple-edged coppers, male and female, and we saw a single sooty copper. Swallowtails drifted around, Berger's pale clouded yellows, orange tips, wood whites and green-veined whites were quite visible, there were plenty of chequered skippers and a few grizzlies, and large walls, small heaths and speckled woods represented the Satyrids. Oh - and there was a green hairstreak.
Here are Jane and Gary photographing those silver-studs:
We drove home via the cranberry fritillary site, where there was still nothing flying, though the day had been hot and it was still only about 16h30. Amazing. In 2011 I visited on 15th June and found them ...
Finally, they kindly drove home and to my local woods, so I could check on Plotina (I need to check every day until she colours up, as I have no idea when she pupated). There, we probably saw a couple of woodland browns, but neither came close. Ringlets and large walls were common and a couple of large skippers were enjoying the last of the sunshine.
It was an excellent day, and I was very glad to meet Gary and Jane. But what a strange year!
Guy