20/06/2020 - North York Moors
On Saturday, we set off for the Moors early, with a series of site visits planned that should have brought new orchids, odonates and butterflies for the year. In the end it didn't pan out that way. I know there are others on the forum whose interests are broader than solely butterflies - perhaps they can comment on the following:
We are experiencing (at least in Yorkshire) an extremely early year for butterflies, with many species on the wing two or three weeks ahead of schedule (presumably driven by the very sunny May); but an average or even late year for many other groups (including wildflowers and dragonflies; presumably delayed by the very dry May).
Our first site was
Tranmire Bog, usually good for two upland dragonfly species (Keeled Skimmer and Golden-ringed Dragonfly) and Large Heath. Today, though, it was being swept by a surprisingly cold southerly, and we saw nothing at all! So we quickly moved on to
Fen Bog - another site for all three species, plus fritillaries galore and Heath Spotted Orchids.
Our first out-and-back, through the valley floor, revealed the lateness of the season for non-butterflies - I couldn't even locate rosettes where the Heath Spotted Orchids are, having previously found them in full flower just 10 days later. No dragonflies were present either. On the butterfly front, a single Common Blue saved us from a complete bust!
We returned up to follow the path along the side of the valley, with a few Small Heaths skipping around but nothing that credibly resembled a Large Heath. One of the "Small Heaths" suddenly appeared much brighter than the others, and following it, it morphed into our first Small Pearl of the year! I am taken aback every single year by how diddy this species can be. We spent a good 10 minutes taking photos, but it didn't really want to pose and eventually flew off downslope.
The rest of our walk around the bog revealed nothing else - a single immature Keeled Skimmer zipped away from the path. As we returned to the car, some hypercharged fritillaries were dashing about in the usual area - clearly Dark Greens based on size, but no chance of a photo!
We drove on, aiming for a lunch-break at
Ellerburn Bank. Here, again, we were surprised - a site that is usually cloaked in orchids by this time of summer showed barely a few Common Spotted, with no sign at all of Northern Marsh. A snippet of overheard conversation revealed that the nearby population of Pugsley's Marsh Orchid were also not in flower yet - well, that saved us a fruitless trip since it was going to be our next stop! We sat and had lunch, and as we were finishing, spotted a Dark Green Fritillary behaving much more amenably, darting between flowers and regularly stopping to drink. It proved to be very skittish but I managed some photos with my telephoto lens.
Walking back to the car again, we found another couple of Dark Greens, this time nectaring on a patch of Marsh Thistles.
With the Pugsley's site ruled out, our final planned stop was at
Forge Valley Woods, where I had just learned it was possible to find Beautiful Demoiselles (a species I had previously believed to be a southern speciality!). A short walk upstream along the valley bottom was very pleasant, and eventually yielded sightings of several females of this lovely damselfly and a single male. Unfortunately they insisted upon perching on the opposite bank, so close-ups were impossible!
We'll have to return in a couple of weeks to find the missing dragonflies and orchids. A very strange year!