David M

[David M]

Tuesday 25th July – Fabulous spectacle…

Aside from the Wall Browns, the other reason I ventured down to Rhossili Head is because my neighbour told me that there had been several wild flower meadows sown alongside the regular sunflower fields. These were glorious to both look at and walk through:

It just shows what a little hard work and imagination can do – these fields were thronged with butterflies; more than I have ever seen at a single site on the Gower since I moved here nearly ten years ago.

Meadow Browns were about in almost pestilent numbers, with well over a thousand seen:

Hedge Browns were around in the multi-hundreds:

There were several dozen of both Common Blue and Brown Argus:

Plenty of both Large & Small Whites were seen:

About two dozen Small Coppers were found:

There were five Peacocks:

Three fresh-looking Painted Ladies were most welcome:

Four Red Admirals and a solitary Small Tortoiseshell were recorded:

A handful of faded Small Skippers were still on the wing, along with four similarly worn Dark Green Fritillaries:

There were even a few Graylings knocking about:

With 2,500+ butterflies to look at, it was sometimes hard to take a moment to stare at the fabulous views across Worm’s Head:

I hope that these wonderful wild flower meadows continue to be sown each year as this experience was akin to going back in time by over half a century.

[millerd]

Tuesday 25th July – Fabulous spectacle…
I hope that these wonderful wild flower meadows continue to be sown each year as this experience was akin to going back in time by over half a century.

Sounds like someone has got things right, David, and it's great to hear about how well it can work. With the right mix of flowers and as long as some influential well-meaning soul doesn't complain about them being "untidy", these meadows could readily self-sow and need little ongoing input or maintenance.

Cheers,

Dave

[David M]

Thursday 10th August – Festival of the ordinary…

Today was the first real opportunity to go out and see some butterflies following my return from Spain on 6th August.

I decided to go to Cwm Ivy where the sheltered aspect would provide some protection from the gusty wind.

On my way down to the entrance there is a damp patch of ground profuse with fleabane and wild mint:

There were 7 Peacocks nectaring in this small area:

Quite a few Meadow Browns were active here too, including this very orange female:

Green Veined Whites, Common Blues and a female Hedge Brown were also found at this spot.

Moving into the woodland, I came across a stretch of thistles, most of which had gone to seed, but there were several Brimstones, both male and female, seeking out those few that were still in flower:

Quite a few Speckled Woods were on patrol in the glade:

There were also 5 Holly Blues, but none would open their wings in the bright sunshine.

Out on the dunes I counted 16 Small Heaths, along with a handful of Small Whites, whilst upon my return up the track there was a single Brown Argus, 3 Large Whites and this Grayling showing off its super camouflage on a rock:

The other species seen was Red Admiral.

[David M]

Sounds like someone has got things right, David, and it's great to hear about how well it can work. With the right mix of flowers and as long as some influential well-meaning soul doesn't complain about them being "untidy", these meadows could readily self-sow and need little ongoing input or maintenance.

'Tidiness' is nature's enemy, Dave. There's nothing finer than a chaotic smorgasbord of nectar-rich flowers and larval host plants for attracting butterflies. It'd be nice if local authorities could encourage these kinds of schemes more widely.

[Goldie M]

Great shots David, I haven't seen a Grayling in years, it was good to see your shot, Goldie

[David M]

Thanks, Goldie. I'm lucky that we have them all round the coast here.

Thursday 10th August – Buddleias…

As I drove back into my estate, I stopped briefly to take a quick scan of my neighbour’s pair of buddleias, which have been positively dripping with butterflies for the last 3 weeks or so.

In amongst the several Red Admirals was only my 5th UK Painted Lady of the year:

This one definitely preferred the white flowers in contrast to the Red Admirals which were all settled on the purple ones.

[bugboy]

Such a simple, easy and cheap thing to do. Plant some seeds and let nature do its thing. The mind boggles why money is spent keep thing 'tidy'!

[David M]

Such a simple, easy and cheap thing to do. Plant some seeds and let nature do its thing. The mind boggles why money is spent keep thing 'tidy'!

Yup. Far cheaper than sending in heavy machinery to destroy it!

Tuesday 15th August – Unremarkable…

Fairly routine hour spent at Port Eynon dunes today. It got off to a decent start when my first settled butterfly turned out to be a nice Brown Argus:

There were plenty of Meadow Browns about, including this one with attractively marked undersides:

Just 8 Hedge Browns though, all bar one being females:

Common Blues were still flying in good numbers. Some were quite worn but others looked fresh:

Two Wall Browns were probably the butterfly highlights, both females and both equally difficult to approach:

Three hummingbird hawk moths added a bit of exotic panache:

Other butterflies seen were Large & Small White, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood & Brimstone. Surprisingly, there were no Small Tortoiseshells.

[David M]

Wednesday 16th August – Perfect conditions, imperfect results…

It’s not often there is a weather forecast predicting 3mph wind speeds and sunshine on the Pembrokeshire coast so I felt it was my duty to pay my first visit of the summer to the West Williamston reserve near Carew.

In some years, there is a plethora of butterflies, but not today as in spite of near perfect conditions, only two species reached double figures.

The most numerous were Common Blues, with around four to five dozen seen:

Hedge Browns were also fairly common. Most were worn females but the odd one was presentable:

Sadly, there were no vanessids on the sea asters along the high tide line, but I got a pleasant surprise to find this female Holly Blue nectaring from them:

There were 5 Small Coppers:

Just 5 Speckled Woods which was a surprise and a handful of both Large & Small Whites.

Mid-August isn’t the best time to find female Brown Hairstreaks laying on the blackthorn; they usually begin in earnest during the final week of the month. That said, I did manage to stumble upon one in this scrubby area:

I disturbed her in a shaded spot low to the ground, but fortunately she flew up and settled immediately around neck height, although the light was dim and as a result images were poor:

The only other species seen was Red Admiral, with two fly-bys as I was walking through the fields.

[Pauline]

Gorgeous! - also sounds like you still have time for more!!!

[Goldie M]

Lovely shots David especially the Hair Streak we don't seem to get them here, unless it's me Goldie

[David M]

Gorgeous! - also sounds like you still have time for more!!!

Yes, Pauline. They are usually reliable into late September at this site.

Thursday 17th August – Vanessid hunt…

I fully understood last summer why vanessids went missing in August. The protracted heatwave clearly sent them into an early aestivation and very few were around from that point onwards.

Recently, they have gone largely AWOL this summer too even though conditions are rather more like what we are used to in this country at this time of year.

So, a visit to the Botanic Gardens near Carmarthen provided a good opportunity to test whether they had indeed mainly vanished. The walled gardens, full of rich nectar flowers, would give me a good indication:

I’m pleased to say that numbers were good (although not as high as in other years). Both Peacocks and Red Admirals each hovered around the two dozen-and-a-half mark:

It was pleasing to see around a dozen Small Tortoiseshells too:

Strangely however, I didn’t see a single Comma, even along the hedgerows on the woodland walk. The commonest butterfly here was Hedge Brown, with over 40 seen:

There were 5 Speckled Woods:

Three dozen or so Common Blues were recorded, whilst Meadow Browns and Small Whites also got into double figures. There were four Large Whites and this solitary male Green Veined White, who came down on a very late ragged robin flower during a cloudy spell:

There were also three Holly Blues, although none presented themselves for a photo opportunity.

[David M]

Lovely shots David especially the Hair Streak we don't seem to get them here, unless it's me

Must be somewhere in Kent that has Brown Hairstreaks, Goldie?

Sunday 20th August – Needed to get out…

After three miserable, wet days, I took advantage of partly sunny skies to head to the north Gower coast at Llanrhidian.

As I had anticipated, there wasn’t a great deal about, with only Red Admiral (18) and Speckled Wood (12) reaching double figures.

There were a handful of Large & Small Whites on the way down to the coast and it was good to stumble across this nice Comma feasting away on hemp agrimony:

I made my way into a series of meadows just prior to the salt marsh:

There were half a dozen Common Blues in this field:

The previous day’s storm must have caused some casualities as there were just two worn female Meadow Browns and no Hedge Browns at all.

Two Holly Blues and a Green Veined White were seen on my return to the car along with the Comma again, which was still on the same hemp agrimony flowers as it had been half an hour previously.

[David M]

Thursday 24th August – Hard graft…

Not for the first time, I arrived in Pembrokeshire to cloudy skies in spite of the forecast stating sunny intervals all day.

This was the general scene after I’d made it out onto the foreshore:

Speckled Woods seem impervious to overcast conditions and they gave me an excuse to point my camera at something:

This attractive female Common Blue did likewise:

In those rare moments when it became a little brighter, a few worn Hedge Browns made their presence known:

I stood in all the best Brown Hairstreak places but nothing was stirring, so I headed back to the upper field, passing three elderly female Silver Washed Fritillaries on my way:

A quick scan of this field yielded nothing so I decided to eat my sandwich and sit in the back of my car. Whilst doing this though, I noticed the skies were suddenly clearing, so in spite of it being 1.45pm, I reckoned it was worth heading back out to the foreshore for another look. Conditions were far more conducive to butterfly hunting by now:

Eventually, at 2.40pm, I spotted a Brown Hairstreak flying in the long grasses near the shrub line. Fortunately, she soon settled on a dead stem:

A short while later she basked on a nearby leaf, showing off an almost immaculate upperside except for a missing section along the forewing costa:

I’m pretty confident this is the latest time during a site visit that I’ve ever found one. Usually, they have retreated to the canopies by half-past-two.

There were few other butterflies around. No Small Tortoiseshells nor Meadow Browns again, but I did see around a dozen Small Whites, four Large Whites, three Red Admirals plus singletons of Holly Blue and Comma.

[David M]

Wednesday 30th August – New site…

I don’t often get to visit a new site in Wales, but following two rather disappointing searches for Brown Hairstreaks at West Williamston, I reckoned I ought to check out the alternative reliable site for them in Pembrokeshire at Teifi Marshes, a few miles south east of Cardigan.

It was a pleasant enough journey there and after having negotiated the steps up and through the visitor centre, I emerged into this fairly large meadow:

It was still quite early - 10.40am, and the weather was cool and mainly cloudy so I didn’t expect to see much whilst doing a circuit of the perimeter.

However, within 5 minutes I had arrived at an oak tree and saw something Hairstreak-like flying around the canopy. It briefly settled – it was a male Brown Hairstreak....next to a female Brown Hairstreak which unbeknown to me was already there!

Sadly, the male flew off before I could get my camera out, but the female hung around for 10 minutes, barely moving at all:

On the few occasions that the sun shone through briefly, she would open her wings a little, but being above head height it was not possible to get an image. Eventually, she flew into the higher canopy of the tree.

A couple who had been watching me came over to see what I had been looking for. When I told them they asked if they could hang around and see if we could find any more. So, we walked a little further down the perimeter and saw three more in quick succession. Two failed to settle at all but the third came down high up in another oak tree, which was sufficient for my companions to each see their first ever Brown Hairstreak at rest. It wasn’t a close-up view, but it was clearly identifiable:

As is so often the case with this species, a rapid flurry of activity is followed by a complete absence, and so it proved for the next hour as I worked my way around the meadow. It had clouded over significantly now and there was a noisy group of supervised kids netting insects which almost persuaded me to leave.

Just at that time though, the husband of the couple I’d showed around earlier returned and I said to him I would do one last circuit of the field and he was welcome to join me.

Nothing was seen until we were halfway round, when I spotted a little orange triangle on a sloe berry. It was another female betulae:

I stood aside and let this gentleman home in on it and he had three or four good minutes until it flew first into an isolated blackthorn bush and then disappeared on the other side. We couldn’t believe our luck when we tiptoed round to see if we could pick it up again. It was basking on the tip of a blackthorn sucker some three feet from the ground:

After giving us several minutes of this perfect pose, she flew once more into the scrub:

As we were watching her, another Brown Hairstreak fluttered across our path, meaning that I had seen seven in just over three hours on a cool and mainly cloudy day.

I don’t think I’ll ever work this species out!

[Goldie M]

Fantastic shots David, I love the shots with the fruit the opened winged shots or great Goldie

[millerd]

Like Goldie, I was taken with the shot of the female on the sloe - considering that's the plant they lay on, you rarely see them on the fruit.

I reckon the "rules" regarding Brown Hairstreak behaviour need to be treated with a bit more scepticism these days, David. The males are frequently seen nectaring low down and do not spend their lives up in ash trees, the species can be found low down soon after 9 a.m., and the weather doesn't have to be warm and sunny for them to fly.

Cheers,

Dave

[Allan.W.]

Good work with the Brown Hairstreaks David........well captured ,definately on my "must see again " list (its been a while !) for next season. nice one ! Allan.W.

[David M]

Wednesday 30th August cont… – Other residents.…

Along with the Brown Hairstreak population, there was a range of other butterfly species at Teifi Marshes. The commonest, with a couple of dozen seen, was Speckled Wood:

There were still a few very faded female Hedge Browns hanging on, along with half a dozen Meadow Browns, including one which looked in surprisingly good nick:

A handful of Common Blues were active in the meadow, whilst a couple of both Large and Green Veined Whites were about too. Surprisingly, I didn’t see any Small Whites.

Two Red Admirals were seen:

There were also two Small Tortoiseshells:

Two Commas as well, including this rather unusual-looking one:

The other species came in the form of this solitary Small Copper:

[David M]

Fantastic shots David, I love the shots with the fruit...

Quite a surprise to find one on the fruit, Goldie. Don't recall seeing that before.