www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

First Dingy Skipper of the year in the old quarry on the Bath Golf course circuit - three weeks earlier than last year. And a Wall Brown at Cross Plain (Somerset) on Saturday. Remarkable.



Canon PowerShot A85 +250D close-up lens
handheld
f/4.8
1/250 sec
zoom at 16.2 mm telephoto end

Thats a great shot, nice closeup!

Hi Simon,

Have you seen the Camberwell Beauty reported from Claverton Down?

http://www.cvlbirding.co.uk/logbook/2007april.html

Looked for it today but no luck.

If only ....

Simon

If you guys find the camberwell pin it down until i get there please

No sign of Dingy Skipper in the quarry today. Speckled Wood and female Brimstone were the only butterflies to be seen (the latter may have been the same one as one I saw ovipositing on freshly planted saplings on the golf course earlier).

No Camberwell Beauty to be seen, either :(

Hi Simon,

Results for today (Bathampton Down/quarry)

Speckled Wood - 5
Green-veined-White - 1 (have still never seen one in the quarry)
Peacock - 4
Large White - 1
Holly Blue - 2
Dingy Skipper - 3
Brimstone (female) - 1
Cinnabar moth - 1

Also a small moth, possibly a Small Yellow Underwing or one of the Pyrausta moths, fluttering on the steep quarry sides.

That quarry area sounds like a good site. Can anyone give directions please?

Map ref approx ST777653 - on the edge of the woods adjacent to Bath Golf course. I don't have a car so can't advise on roads/parking, except to say there are footpaths up (steep) from the A36. You could get the bus [no. 18 from Bath Spa Railway Stn] to Bath Uni (Claverton) and walk (on the level) onto and around the golf course to get to the quarry.

It's a nice site with lot's of variety. Last years list was (no particular order): SW LW GVW MW OT Br P T C RA PL ClY SpW R G MB WB SC SH DS SS LS SWF CB HB BA in varying numbers plus a single ChB. Matsukaza mentioned Essex Skipper once - can't remember if he had seen it or was looking. I met a lady who has seen WLH on nearby elms, I'll survey later this year, but I have seen PH in oaks in Bushey Norwood field, ST778648, which is 10 minutes walk away. Moths in the quarry include Mother Shipton and Cinnebar.

Simon C

Brilliant answer Mark. Many thanks!

I haven't seen Essex Skipper there yet, at least not one I could identify.

I saw and photographed essex skipper at Bannerdown last year. The location was approximately halfway down. If you walk down the large open area at the top from the car park/entrance you'll eventually reach a wide path through a line of trees. There is a scrubby area before you reach a patch of wooded area that leads to the bottom of the down. I saw ES in that middle scrubby area. I also saw SWF amongst the trees there.
I'll endeavour to get a grid reference next time I visit the site.

I climbed the hill to the quarry this morning, getting there around 11 am and there wasn't much there at first. By the time I'd left about 1 am I'd seen and photographed dingy skipper and mother shipton moth. I saw about half a dozen of the skippers plus two small copper, small and large white, holly blue, speckled wood, orange tip, brimstone and peacock. Edit: forgot to mention I saw a single small heath as well.
I spent two hours trawling Bannerdown for green hairstreak and saw nothing so I drove the short distance to Hazelbury common and saw three marsh fritillaries. Dingy skipper was there as well. I just checked Butterfly Conservation and the first recorded marsh frit was in Wilts about a week ago but these looked very fresh.
Marsh frit and dingy skipper are first sightings for me so I'm dead chuffed at getting snaps of them.
Worth mentioning as well that early purple and heath spotted orchids are flowering at Hazelbury.
Here's one of the snaps:

At Cissbury Ring, West Sussex today we saw a Dingy Skipper and a Grizzled Skipper, both firsts for us. We managed to get a reasonable picture of the Grizzled Skipper.

Hi Eccles
Interesting you have found heath spotted orchids at hazelbury any chance you can tell me where they are?
I didn't know they were found there
Regards
Mark

I think I have egg on my face.
I saw amongst several early purples this single pale orchid. I knew it wasn't common spotted and made a wrong assumption but I think it was just a pale early purple. Apologies if I was wrong.
Here it is:

I have managed to find a couple of white-letter hairstreak larvae on the down in the last week or so.

That looks like a green winged orchid to me although i'm not an expert on these things.Hazelbury is a great site for these and usually produces the relatively rare 'white' form
anyway enough about orchids
Regards
Mark

Yes, you're right Mark. I visited the site again today and met a very knowledgeable guy who was a very spry 81 years old. He showed me the characteristics to look for, and he also showed me an example of the pale variant.
Marsh frits are there in good numbers now all over the common, as are dingy skippers. Great news on the WLH larvae Matsukaze. This is a very good site isn't it?