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Callum

You appear to have had a great time. I did almost the same trip as you a few years ago and saw many of the same things. We went looking for Bottle Nosed Dolphin but were unlucky. Did get Minke Whale though so I wasn't complaining. Loch Ruthven is wonderful - not just for those grebes, but the whole atmosphere of the place is enchanting.

Fantastic stuff Callum the highlight of which for me is the breeding plumage Slav - I've only ever seen one like that in Poland many, many years ago Love the Crested Tit,Siskin, Osprey... okay all the rest too but the horns on the Slav burn into my retina

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks David - if the weather brightens up as forecast this afternoon, I hope to have more to add!

I shall certainly look forward to that, Callum.

Meantime, thanks for sharing your remaining images from your recent trip to Scotland. There are so many wonderful sights to behold, although that osprey nest must be up there with the best?

Ernie, I think your comment about the atmosphere of the place applies not just to Loch Ruthven but to anywhere in that area with Caledonian pine forest!

04/05/2019 - North York Moors

Dukes of Burgundy have (apparently) been on the wing in their Yorkshire populations for a little over a week. Yesterday was forecast to be the sunniest day of the BH weekend but with a strong northerly wind. Since the Duke sites are not very well sheltered, I decided to give them a go but with very little optimism!

On arriving at the first, my car door was nearly ripped off by the gale howling over the open moors! Clearly useless for the Dukes, but I remembered from last year that there was a small colony of Green Hairstreaks that would be downwind of a copse of pine trees. I decided this would make a good place to have my packed lunch - on the offchance the Greenstreaks were flying. And about halfway through my first roll, they appeared!
It seemed the shelter of the woodland was barely enough, since they were choosing to bask deep in the hollows between clumps of heather. For comparison, last year I was taking photos at the same site on the tops of the bilberry bushes:
I followed one individual as it moved off from its basking spot, and managed to track it all the way to a leaf at head-height on a tree in the edge of the copse. As I focussed my camera on it, I suddenly spotted that it was no longer alone!
I watched this pair padding around each other for a good five minutes. At one point I thought I might be about to get an 'in cop' shot, but it wasn't to be.
A great encounter, and more than made up for the lack of Dukes here. And, indeed, the lack of Dukes at my second site for them - which was so cold and windy that it's not even worth writing up!

05/05/2019 - Fordon Chalk Banks

No sunshine at all today, so exactly a week after my first visit to the Open Access land at Fordon, I was back for another go. This time I came armed with precise directions leading away from the main butterfly reserve to an obscure corner of the site. After a good dollop of wading through nettle patches, ducking through hawthorn scrub, and startling sheep, I managed to find the right spot - well, it was hard to miss! Green-winged Orchids are a pretty scarce species this far north, but this colony probably numbers into the thousands - quite a spectacle.
Being pretty used to the rhythm of photographing butterflies - creep up, fire off some frames, try to readjust to a better angle, try to follow where it flew off to, and repeat - it was quite refreshing to photograph nature at such a different speed, being able to lie down amongst the flowers, carefully compose my photos, experiment with depth of field etc. I even dug my rarely-used mini tripod out of my camera bag!

Lovely pictures Callum, especially the second to last, I’m not used to seeing green wing orchids on a hillside like that. Orchids with a view, what’s not to like?

That green winged orchid is beautifully coloured, Callum. Surely one of the most attractive in the UK?

I like your Green Hairstreak with the strong series of spots too. I'm always on the lookout for them as they don't appear too often.

Many thanks, both. I'm not used to seeing orchids full-stop! And can't really pass judgement on whether they're more or less attractive than all the other species I've never seen. To be honest I've never paid a huge amount of attention to orchids, but after starting to read Orchid Summer (Jon Dunn) over Christmas I'm keen to learn more. Lying on the valley side surrounded by these beautiful things was certainly one of those "wow" moments!

And I liked the contrast between the heavily-spotted GH and the almost unspotted one.

Great set of Greenstreaks and Orchid images Callum The first Greenstreak looks good for ab.punctata as the spot streak runs onto the fore wing and the two together is brilliant showing the range that they show in the spotting, I think the one with the very clear streaks could be ab.inferopunctata Cracking stuff

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks for the extra info, Wurzel! I struggle a bit with the GH aberrations, which seem to be very abundant up here. I would struggle to tell you what a 'normal' GH should look like!

11/5/2019 - Brockadale

It was a bit showery on Saturday and I was still on a quest to track down an Early Purple Orchid (should it really be this hard?!), so we decided to head to Brockadale. A nice walk around this lovely reserve eventually produced decent numbers of fairly small orchids on a north-facing bank.
An Orange-tip dropped by in a sunny spell, and despite my best efforts at telepathy, chose to settle on a bluebell instead of an orchid!
Another point of interest was this - I think Hairy Shieldbug.
12/5/2019 - North York Moors

With a much better forecast on Sunday we decided to go for the North Yorkshire "big two". An early start (by butterflying standards) was a good decision as we arrived at the Duke of Burgundy site before everything became supercharged. Despite lots of concern about the effects of last summer's drought, numbers of Dukes were very healthy - and the primroses abundant and lush promise great things for next year!
My herpetologist partner - who has an immense amount of patience with me when it comes to butterflies and orchids! - occasionally called me over to see Common Lizards.
A group of conservation volunteers from the National Park Authority were clustered around something, which turned out to be a Duke and Duchess "distracted".
I was amused to see the antennae on one of them were crossed in the moment!
After getting our fill of Dukes, we decided to head back to the car for our lunch. Scrambling up the side of the hill, L's nose for herptiles came up trumps again as she narrowly avoided treading on this Slow-worm!
There was an attractive patch of Field Mouse-ear on the walk back to the car.
We ate lunch in the midst of the same Green Hairstreak colony as last week, which afforded a few more chances for pictures. I think about half of the individuals here show some form of punctata ab.
With lunch eaten, we drove a little distance east to the Pearl-bordered Fritillary site near Kirkbymoorside. Lots of Fritillaries flying, and the occasional drifting cloud gave some good photographing opportunities. I managed to get a few elusive underwing shots.
Remarkably I was able to double-up on my 'in-cop' shots for the day - although this pair proved to be extremely flighty and, reluctant to disturb them a second time, I found it impossible to find a good angle through the grasses. Still, we were able to observe them for some minutes and call in some of the other butterflyers at the site for a look.
Just as we were walking, satisfied, back to the car, a final PBF perched to nectar on a cuckoo-flower, giving me a lovely view of the underside!

13/05/2019 - Walmgate Stray

Much too nice a day to be trapped in an office, but I could only manage a short Walmgate Stray walk at lunchtime. Still, it turned up all the usual suspects alongside a briefly-resting female Holly Blue. Incredibly there are still a few Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells dragging on, but definitely looking worse for wear.
The butterflies have now been joined by the rather charming colony of Small Yellow Underwing moths!

Was the crossed antennae near the end of the session Callum that is a brilliantly amusing shot It almost distracted me from my envy at getting in cop shots something I've still to witness I don't know about you but I love this time of year - the species that emerge now seem to have that extra bit of charisma

Have a goodun

Wurzel

A great selection of subjects and photos in your recent reports Callum

CallumMac wrote:... I would struggle to tell you what a 'normal' GH should look like!...

Me too! In fact I am becoming more and more convinced that many of our butterflies show more natural variation than is often realised.

Regards,

Neil.

Sounds like a fabulous few days you've had, Callum. It's encouraging to learn how your Duke and PBF colonies seem to be doing well in spite of last year's drought. Have you any Small Pearl sites round your way?

A couple of very enjoyable postings, Callum. Good to see what's going on
in another part of the Country, quite far from Sussex.

Trevor.

Thanks Wurzel, my thoughts exactly!
Thanks Neil. I agree, and I wonder whether the Victorian enthusiasm for collecting abs led to a lot of slightly less-common forms within the normal range of variation being classified as abs. As a moth-er you'll be familiar with the extraordinary levels of variation within something like Common Rustic!
Thanks David. Yes, Small Pearl is fairly widely distributed over the North York Moors, doing much better than its larger cousin.
Thanks Trevor. I am often very jealous of the posts from those in Sussex and the south coast!

16/05/2019 - Heslington East

I changed up my usual lunchtime routine today, as I needed to set some moth traps out in the conservation areas on the University's new East campus. This turned out to be a very lucky decision as I stumbled across at least two Dingy Skippers in the hay-meadow. This is the first record of this species on the campus! I'm told that this species' colonisation was a (very optimistic) hope when the campus was designed, but I'm sure nobody expected it to occur within just a few years, especially as there are no known sites within several miles!

Great to see the Dukes and PBF going strong in their Yorkshire fastnesses, Callum. I shall have to contrive a visit at this time of year 0ne of these days! Also good to see Dingies spreading - I wonder where they came from? Blown in from the East? Or maybe there's another undiscovered colony not so far away...

Cheers,

Dave

That field sounds like the Field of Dreams Callum;" If you plant it they will come" to misquote the film Like Dave says where did they come from - I've wondered this as butterflies just turn up sometimes Still better turn up than disappear

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Yes, Small Pearl is fairly widely distributed over the North York Moors, doing much better than its larger cousin.

Good to hear, Callum. They should be out any day now, I’m sure. They’ve already arrived in south Wales.

Thanks all. We've since learnt that there's one strong colony about 5 miles south as the Skipper flies. Probably the most likely source.

18-21/05/2019 - various

A trip over to the Lakes this weekend to visit my parents, as my partner will shortly be embarking on a year-long sabbatical across the pond. The nearest thing to an interesting butterfly was this...
...but plenty of other points of interest. Here are a few highlights.