www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Nice little montage, Callum. The partridge is very attractive. Are they common round your way?

Thank you all. Goldie - maybe they're just getting more attention this year since we can't go off chasing rarities!

David - yes, unfortunately rather too common. We have a couple of big estates in our corner of the Wolds that release thousands of them, along with thousands of pheasants. As a consequence they are easy to find for several miles in any direction.

No butterflies at all on our exercise walk yesterday morning (too cold), but since my last Goldcrest photo was so well received, here's what they look like when they haven't eaten all the pies!

Great shot of that Goldcrest. A very difficult bird to photograph.
They never keep still, even for a moment.

Keep well,
Trevor.

Lovely little birds aren't they, Goldcrests, and so bold too. Several winters ago I had a small flock of around a dozen flitting around me low down in a tree almost close enough I could reach out and touch them

That's one helluva Goldcrest image, Callum. Picture postcard stuff.

No Goldcrests this week! With the much cooler weather and a succession of afternoon Zoom meetings, we haven't been out and about so much. However, last weekend's walk up Millington Dale brought unbridled joy as we stumbled upon a small colony of Dingy Skippers. I wasn't sure if I'd see this species in 2020 - I suspected they might be in Millington but had never before seen them there.
A couple of Mother Shiptons (Mothers Shipton?) were also zipping around, making it a little tricky to count the skippers.
A brief detour into the wood at the end of the walk yielded this Dark-bordered Bee-fly, who had obviously got the memo about thorough hand-washing.
Our next outing was down the canal on Tuesday. This was the first time I have got up close and personal with a Ruby-tailed Wasp. I think this is one of those species where you don't realise how beautiful they are until you've really looked closely at one. Stunning!
Orange-tips remain abundant down the canal but most of the overwinterers are gone now, with only a single Brimstone and a couple of Peacocks this week.
This weekend's big project is a complete remodel of the bottom border of our garden. With our house being a rental I have always been a bit nervous of heavy-handed gardening, but having observed the number of butterflies that visited my rescued buddleia last autumn, I finally cracked and ripped out the two horrible, pointless bushes that dominate the back fence. I found a lovely local nursery who grow all their plants in peat-free compost without using pesticides, and bought a range of pollinator favourites from them (including a "Bowles Mauve", a verbena, and a jasmine to climb up the fence itself). I've also ordered some plug plants of Red Valerian, Cuckoo-flower and Wild Strawberry, and some mixed Silene and Birds-foot Trefoil seeds. By this time next year the garden should be much busier with bees and butterflies than it has ever been!

You did brilliantly with the Mother Shipton Callum - normally they're hiding away in the grass! Those Ruby wasps are cracking, like little gems - there's one which is metallic emerald green allover - lush However the best by far is an Osmia caerulescens which is sometimes a metallic gold like it had been murdered by Goldfinger himself

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

I'm so glad you unearthed those Dingy Skippers, Callum. It's great when you find a new species in an area where you had hitherto never seen them.

Good work with the Mother Shipton too. They are not easy to photograph, although they are an honorary butterfly if ever I saw one.

Hi! Callum, Great shots of the Dingy Skipper, I love the shot of the Gold Crest more though. Goldie

Very interesting to see those Dingy Skippers at Millington, Callum. Another spot I've visited, but never at this time of year - usually later on when the Marbled Whites are flying!

Cheers,

Dave

Thanks all!

Wurzel - I'll keep an eye out for that bee. It looks stunning! Not many records up my way but from the distribution map I suspect that it might just be under-recorded.

David - It's certainly interesting to note that I have seen a number of things in this lockdown period that I would usually have travelled further in pursuit of - the Dingies being just the latest example. However, there are also things that I have searched hard for at my lockdown walking sites and failed to find (e.g. Early Purple Orchid).

Thanks Goldie - I just can't resist posting Goldcrests, even though they aren't a butterfly, they're so special!

Dave - yes indeed. I had never properly explored Sylvan Dale (first side-dale on the right) before this spring - I often cycle up Millington but rarely walk there. But we have now seen everything there that I'd usually head to Kiplingcotes to see - Dingies, Small Heath, Wall, Small Copper, Common Blue, you name it. Lower densities, perhaps, but they are all present. However it does look less botanically interesting - a bit overgrown in places, compared to Kip.

CallumMac wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2020 7:22 am Dave - yes indeed. I had never properly explored Sylvan Dale (first side-dale on the right) before this spring - I often cycle up Millington but rarely walk there. But we have now seen everything there that I'd usually head to Kiplingcotes to see - Dingies, Small Heath, Wall, Small Copper, Common Blue, you name it. Lower densities, perhaps, but they are all present. However it does look less botanically interesting - a bit overgrown in places, compared to Kip.

The whole area along the Wolds Way looks ripe for exploration at different stages of the season. I've only ever dipped a toe in during the summer months! I do wonder if the overall warming trend has been enough to allow horseshoe vetch to grow in any of these sheltered valleys (that so resemble bits of the downland of southern England in a lot of ways). It would have to get here somehow of course, and so would any accompanying southern butterfly species - you could imagine Chalkhill Blues flying happily here in August! However, I can't see this happening without artificial help unfortunately.

Cheers,

Dave

millerd wrote: ↑Tue May 12, 2020 8:01 am I do wonder if the overall warming trend has been enough to allow horseshoe vetch to grow in any of these sheltered valleys (that so resemble bits of the downland of southern England in a lot of ways).

There are records of Horseshoe Vetch at a couple of sites - from the BSBI maps I reckon Thixendale and Cinquefoil Brow, in the last decade. But it's far from widespread, and as you said, the butterflies wouldn't get here on their own.

I have very mixed feelings about this week's change in lockdown restrictions. I fear it may be too far too soon, and we may see a second spike of infections. However, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I've been out and about, making my first visit of the year to a few favourite sites in the area.

On Thursday we took a day's leave and drove up to Pickering to walk up to Yatts Farm. The unexpected highlight of the walk up was a Yellow Wagtail - not a species I see often, at all - perched on a dungheap. Strangely this species seems to love dungheaps!
This is one of the best orchid fields in Yorkshire but a few weeks from its best still. Nonetheless I was pleased with my first Early Purples of the year. A single Fly was in flower but had been frost-damaged - a sad sight. I found a few more rosettes so it may be worth a revisit in a week or two!
There was also a single Duchess seen here last year - around half a mile from the nearest known colony - but despite some scrub clearance over the winter, the habitat doesn't look particularly suitable and I didn't see any this year. However, the walk back did produce another unexpected delight. Having been unable to visit my Holly Blue site during lockdown, it was lovely to find this female basking and mineral-hunting on the stony path. She was totally unfussed by our presence and let me take close-ups from several angles.
On Saturday morning, we headed over to Kiplingcotes Chalk Pit. A mixture of patchy sunshine and a blustery westerly was enough to keep most of the butterflies down, so we missed out on Common Blues (first Yorkshire record for 2020 reported from here last week) and Walls. However the [not so] Dingy Skippers were out and about.
As I had hoped, the Wild Pansies were at their very best. Despite being a widespread species, this is one of very few spots in the region where it still persists. I got a new low-profile tripod for my birthday back in the autumn, and spent some time with the pansies getting to grips with it.
With grey clouds and wind outside this morning, but a glorious day forecast for Wednesday, I am taking advantage of being able to work flexibly...

Great seeing your shots of Wild Pansey ,something that's more or less absent from my part of Kent ,a plant that I,d like to see ! ..……… Nicely captured ! Although wild pansy is very scarce down here ,Field Pansey is numerous ,and we found hundreds of plants today (and
yesterday !) also had a bit of luck ,with a couple of Arable plants that I,d wanted to find ,and finally managed it ! namely Venus Looking Glass and
Dwarf Spurge ,funnily enough like yourself ,I,ve also just bought a low leval tripod ,but haven,t tried it yet.
Regards Allan.W.

Brilliant shot of the Yellow Wagtail Callum I've not seen one of those for a good few years now they used to be a 'given'

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Very satisfying sequence, Callum, and for once I have to admit that pride of place goes to a flower - those wonderful wild pansies.

Quite why this plant's name has connotations of weakness I don't know; they're often the last to wave the white flag at altitude on the continent and, of course, they are attractive to many high-altitude butterflies, Fritillaries in particular.

David M wrote: ↑Wed May 20, 2020 6:58 pm Quite why this plant's name has connotations of weakness I don't know; they're often the last to wave the white flag at altitude on the continent and, of course, they are attractive to many high-altitude butterflies, Fritillaries in particular.

Yes indeed. We recently learned that the Mountain variety grows in abundance near my parents' house in Cumbria - though sadly I won't be able to visit to see them this year!

With Wednesday forecast to be the only good day of the week, we juggled our work days to get the morning off, and made the short hop up to the North York Moors for the first genuine butterflying trip of the year.

We have no way of knowing whether it was an early or late season for the Yorkshire Dukes, since nobody local enough to see them during the original lockdown reported one! But happily they are still flying. We were actually first greeted by a Duke some 50 metres or so beyond the dry-stone wall that forms the traditional boundary of the site - perhaps evidence that the population here is ready to expand? Certainly, the numbers seemed every bit as healthy as on previous visits, despite having probably missed the peak of this year's emergence.
With numbers of butterfliers building rapidly and social distancing becoming harder to maintain, we beat a retreat over the hill to my Green Hairstreak colony. I was happy to confirm that they are still present in 2020... and likely to be so in 2021 as well!
The cause of some angry clucking became clear as a Red Grouse chick scurried across the path in front of us. I was able to take a few pictures of the worried parents - the only time I've seen this species at close quarters, rather than flying away! Rather beautiful; I will never understand the mindset of those who shoot them.
Not wishing to cause further aggravation, and with an afternoon of meetings sadly beckoning, we beat a retreat!

Great shots of those Dukes (and especially the Duchesses), Callum. And the Green Hairstreak pair too - not something I've ever seen and probably on my wishlist, should I ever get round to properly compiling one!

Cheers,

Dave

Cracking shots Callum - lovely set of Dukes but I reserve the for the Greenstreak pairing I'd love one of those Also one for the Red Grouse - there is a massive gap on my Bird Life List where this family sit

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel