End of Year Tally
Over the last two years I’ve written books using Blurb in order to put all my favourite photos, trip reports and anecdotes together. This year with changes at work and trying to buy a house as well as still finding Butterflies into November I haven’t had the time to put my book together. In fact I think that the next book will be my attempt at an ID guide but that may take more than a few years as well as a few thousand miles!
With no book to rely on and still wanting to review the year I was a bit stuck on how to go about it. So I looked through the Forums for “inspiration” or in lay man’s terms “ideas to nick”
! I liked the idea of the end of the year Tally (Neil) and the “Favourites” that has been running for two years now (Chris and Vince) and also the way that Mark divided it into the families. I also wished to feed my observations into the “Winners and Losers” data (Glostopcat). Hopefully I’ll be able to mash these ideas together for my all rounder review. So here goes...
The Skippers
1 Small Skipper, 08-07 Bentley Wood.
It felt like this species emerged later this year than in previous years but once they started appearing then there were lots around. I managed to find them at most sites – including Downshay, Lulworth and Woodhenge. In fact on one visit to Martin Down they were everywhere! I walked about 100 yards along the path that cuts diagonally across from Sillen’s Lane to the top of the hill and counted at least 20 all flitting around and bundling into each other.
2 Essex Skipper, 30-01 Martin Down.
Unlike Small this skipper was much harder to find and seemed to be scarcer this year. Despite getting a terrible crick in the neck from trying to look at Golden Skippers from the angle that allows you to see the “ink pads” over countless hours; I only saw it at two sites – Martin Down and Five Rivers. Whether this was because of poor weather meaning I didn’t get out to the appropriate sites in time and so missed them I don’t know but they were much harder to find. Hopefully they’ll bounce back next year?
- not in great nick but an Essex none the less!
3 Lulworth Skipper, 17-06 Bindon Hill.
This was one of my favourite butterflies of the year and as I remember saying early last year when laying out my plans this was my main target for the year due to my Durotrige heritage. I was slightly worried that I might miss them so I went almost as soon as they were reported on the Forums by Sussex Kipper back in early June. Sitting on the cliff edge, camera in one hand, coffee in the other enjoying the golden blurs in front of me while machine gun fire and RPGs went off in the distance was a truly surreal and enjoyable experience. I also managed a second visit to Lulworth itself (but not Bindon Hill) in mid August and they still seemed to be going strong then. This was my first experience of this species so I hesitate to say how well they did but I seem to recall noting on my first visit that they were outnumbering Small and Large Skippers by about 15 to 1? Hopefully I can increase my knowledge of them by a few more visits over the next couple of seasons.
4 Silver Spotted Skipper, 10-08 Stockbridge Down.
I took out three trips again this year to an area of Martin Down where I’d seen them before but none seen again. Saying that, a couple of Silver Spots were seen once I’d left the BC Wiltshire Branch butterfly walk in late August. I did find manage to find them quite easily at Stockbridge Down and to me there seemed to be slightly more than last year – though I did go earlier this year? My observations with little experience don’t match reports from those with more comparative data who suggest that they are dwindling at this site, so who knows?
5 Large Skipper, 02-06 Martin Down.
I saw good numbers of them at Bentley and saw them at a large number of sites. However got I got surprisingly few shots of them as I was always focusing on something else. It was either Lulworths at Bindon Hill or Silver Washed Frits, Purple Emperors and White Admirals at Bentley so the Large Skipper didn’t get a look in this year... still there should hopefully be plenty next year as they seemed to do well.
6 Dingy Skipper, 12-05 Coombe Bisset.
This seemed to have a good year, probably due to the great weather we had during the early spring, so much so that I finally saw my first Bentley Wood Dingy! I did go looking for them roosting at a couple of different sites but didn’t have any luck – so something to aim for next year.
7 Grizzled Skipper, 30-04 Martin Down.
This species seemed to have an excellent year again probably because of the very warm early spring. Once I’d found my first one of the year at Martin Down (which was actually quite tricky) they seemed to be everywhere, even turning up at Fiver Rivers!!!
I also found them at Bentley Wood and the ones there seemed slightly less hairy and much darker in colour than others elsewhere. I doubt whether this is variation is significant but is something I’ll look for next year.
Have a goodun
Wurzel
I saw this Moth in my front garden back in September, but what with one thing or another I never got round to asking for help with its identification. Now that things have died down literally I thought it would be a good time to have a look on UK Moths and I think it is Amblyptilia acanthadactyla? Confirmation or further help gratefully received. 
