www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Scotch Argus - Favourite Photo of 2018

Week 14

More of the same this week but the end is in sight, it may only be the faintest glint in the distance but there is definitely some light at the end of the tunnel

Please could I ask that everyone waits until a topic has been opened by me for a particular species before posting photos as then it will be easier to keep track of things? Of course our overseas members are very welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to rare UK migrants. As in previous years details of locations, dates, times and circumstances would be welcome as would any accompanying stories and anecdotes or other observations of behaviour and interesting other points.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I saw these at both the English sites, with numbers seemingly at polar opposites. At Arnside Knott, there were worryingly few, just a handful seen in what should have been peak flight time. A combination of habitat degradation combined with the summer drought seems to be the most likely cause in the drop in numbers. I did however manage to record a female doing her best to keep the species going, fingers crossed a bit of work can be done up there to improve the habitat for future years. Things were much better at the other English site, Smarsdale Gill. It certainly looked a lot lusher and greener there and there was no shortage of butterflies to point my camera at, not only hundreds of the target species but also large numbers of fresh Painted Lady, Red Admiral and Peacock (In excess of 100 of the latter!) The day started with a cool cloudy morning but it didn't stop a few males from being active along the path towards the viaduct. Once on the hillside the sun came out and so did the Scotch Argus making it a worthwhile excursion

I was lucky enough to make trips to both Speyside and Argyll at the peak of the Scotchie flight season this year. My favourite photo was from Shian Wood near Oban, on the beautifully sunny afternoon of 7th August.

I wasn't sure if anybody would add to this thread but I'm glad to be proved wrong.

BB, Smardale Gill is a wonderful site and given the presence of a river running through it, I'm not surprised it remained verdant when the much drier hillside site at Arnside Knott was suffering from desiccation.

Like you, I found far more aethiops there than I ever have on my trips to Arnside.

My trip up to Arnside in late July coincided with some much needed rain after the dry summer but it was was obvious that the shallow soils on the Knott had dried out and the vegetation was extremely parched.
As described in my PD at the time, Scotch Argus numbers were well down from a few years ago when I used to see hundreds here and the most I saw this time during the couple of days up there was approx 20-25.
Cheers,

Neil