Thanks for the comments
Goldie, Wurzel and
Guy, much appreciated
Well this year seems to finally be over, bar the odd Red Admiral that may wander past on a sunny day, so time for the annual roundup. It was another hectic year and the third year in a row I’ve broken through the 50 mark.
The year started off rather cold with a couple of icy blasts, a first hint that 2018 might be an above average year and with increasing temperatures I was into double figures by the end of April. The star of the show during this period was coming across a courting pair of Peacocks, watching them complete the act and achieving the very rare sight of mating Peacocks
. The following week I came very close to getting a double whammy after watching a courting pair of Small Tortoiseshell for over half an hour. Unfortunately the male lost the female and in his flustered state blundered into a spider web
.
One month later and with the above average warm spring well underway the species total was sitting at 25 with good numbers of many of the spring species responding very well to the near perfect weather conditions so far. The star of the show here was undoubtably the finding of Padfield, my first ever Purple Emperor larvae
.
June arrived, along with a continuation of some ridiculously hot weather, and so did my first long distance trip of the year, the trip to finally complete the mission. Looking back it’s odd how we talk about a ‘June gap’ when I had 23 season debuts during those 30 days.
For nearly every butterflier who was in the southern half of the country during the middle of the month, the Black Hairstreak was probably the standout butterfly, combining what was probably the best emergence in living memory with a discovery of a healthy population in the middle of Sussex. For me though, even though I had by far and away my best experience with them, another butterfly won by a nose during June. My one remaining resident species left to tick off in my ‘mission’ who I found fluttering around in the Cumbrian hills, the Mountain Ringlet. I also managed to tick off the
salmacis race of the Northern Brown Argus, the
scotica race of the Large Heath plus plenty of Fritillary action.
By July and August the hot weather was starting to have a negative impact with many of my regular sites now suffering from a distinct lack of rain. Later emerging grass feeders didn’t do so well as their earlier emerging cousins, most notably the Gatekeeper, and based on my single trip looking for Lulworth Skippers, they seemed to have a poor latter half of their season too. The incessant heat did however cause another Hairstreak explosion with purple Hairstreaks coming down to ground level in their droves looking for moisture. Purple Emperors had another good season with groundings at Bookham for the second year in a row. As ever, Bookham remained a regular destination and proved good hunting grounds for me. Brown Hairstreak season was soon upon us but unlike the Sussex populations, the Bookham population seemed to struggle, at least struggle to come down low at any rate. Nevertheless determination and teaming up with Millerd won the day!
A day in Chiddingfold with Millerd was also memorable on two instances, the sheer number of second brood Wood Whites (linear count of over 100 in mostly cloudy weather
) and the surprise visitation of an Empress, my first ever sighting of the Emperors consort
. Then a second trip up north found me at Smarsdale Gill and a field covered in Scotch Argus.
The end of the season was mostly spent in Sussex and Essex on a mildly obsessive Clouded Yellow hunt (species 54 for the year), attempting upperside shots, and wondering if the butterfly season was ever going to end with some remarkably late emergent’s of several other species.
So, Mission officially complete. I’m not quite sure where leaves this diary, I shall still continue making entries but I think 2019 will see a reduction in posts. Like other users I am conscious of my diary becoming somewhat repetitive so I’ll use the winter months to have a ponder and see if I can think up a different angle to continue posting in
.
See some of you next week