Clouded Yellow and Painted Lady...Doorstep Butterfly Invaders !

As you may or may not know, there has been a recent influx of butterflies from the continent lately. I know some people will be up in arms "they come over here, drinking our nectar "..but the influx of Clouded Yellows really has been quite exciting. It's been a good few years since the last invasion of any significance, and getting to see one locally became a priority by last weekend.
 Around 6 pm last Sunday I twitched a find made by my blogging patch neighbour JK. Despite a bit of panic on arrival when the Yella Fella slipped away, we relocated it and I had good views and a record shot.

Clouded Yellow

The weather Saturday was not butterfly friendly, so I concentrated on the birding. I was done and dusted for the day when a message from fellow local birder TH informed me there was a couple of Wheatear down on the paddocks,( probably put down by the gloomy drizzle). I was there in 5 minutes and grateful for the heads up.

Wheatear

 The venerable informant had also mentioned a good spot down the road for Clouded Yellows, so with the weather looking brighter Sunday I scooted a few miles Southwest to the site he had alluded too. Finding a field full of Fat Hen as described, it was chuffing with Whites, and soon I had counted 4 Clouded Yellows. Those I photographed were a little worn, but I managed to observe at length a very smart male. They really shift, and I settled for observation rather than chasing my tail trying to photograph them.
Also on the wing were Common Blues, including some nice blue females, as well as Small coppers and Speckled Wood.

♀ Common Blue

 However, the highlight  of the morning was finding a Painted Lady, my first of the year, and only my second ever.

Painted Lady

 I was in for a couple of Surprises when I stopped off on my patch on the way home. Not only did I find the second colony of Purple Hairstreak in successive weeks, but also spotted my second Painted Lady of the day. Just like buses ey ? !

Spotted Flycatcher and Purple Hairstreak, great weekend on the patch

Saturday I started what was intended to be a circular walk of the patch. It started well when I spotted a nice Hoverfly, but rapidly went pear-shaped when I realised there was no memory card in the camera. Fortunately the Hoverfly, A Great Pied, was still hovering about when I returned after my false start.



Great Pied Hoverfly

A section of woodland that rarely yields much, was alive with birds for a change. Initially I had spotted a Great Spotted Woodpecker, but the clearing containing a collection of dead trees also hosted Chiffchaff, Goldcrest, Nuthatch and Treecreeper. However the reason I lingered and made no further progress that morning on the walk was discovering a family group of Spotted Flycatchers.

Spotted Flycatcher

Last year, I had a similar find, about 300 yards from that spot, and  almost on the same date.
It was only my second sighting of the species this year anywhere. It was a show stopper and I had no time to complete the circuit. On heading home a Heron gave a rare opportunity for a patch record shot, which I gladly accepted.

I recorded Purple Hairstreak on the far south side of my patch last year, but this year so far had not had a sniff ( anywhere). However as I neared the end of Sundays tour, I stopped at an Oak I had not thought to check out before. Within a few minutes I saw a small butterfly move. They are little butterflies and never easy to find as they spend so much time lurking within the leaves of oaks. When I finally located it, I was absolutely thrilled to see it was a Purple Hairstreak, a new and  second site for them on the patch. Getting a record shot was a challenge,  but it was all about the find. A great weekend on the patch.

Purple Hairstreak

Interestingly this sighting was within 3 days also of when I saw it on the patch in 2012


Black Wave moth, and other homegrown delights

My bespoke, hand crafted Bee hotel ( a spare lump of wood with some holes drilled in it ) has so far been an unmitigated success. In all now 7 of the holes have been sealed by the leaf cutter bees, whom I had great pleasure observing throughout July. There were often half a dozen vying for entry to one of the residences larger suites.

My other hobby horse has been the moth trap. What  a contrast that has been to my inaugural 1st year of 2012 ! Things started ticking along nicely once winter finally left after Easter, but July was a veritable mothfest ! I was regularly getting 50 plus ( bear in mind its only fitted with 20w eco bulb )

The species list scooted along and I am currently over a hundred up on last years total. bear in mind I rarely count Micro's at the moment, unless they are very obvious, that's something for later. Of late, the bobby dazzlers have been the likes of these.

Burnished Brass

Buff tip

 However, the last week or so things have settled down, so while numbers trapped have still been good, the number of new species appearing has slowed down. A trap full of Willow Beauty, Riband Wave and Common Footman was losing it's gloss. On Saturday I prayed the Moth Santa would deliver something good, and set the trap out as dusk fell.

Next morning, it seemed to be standard fare ( oh how blasé we become, last year at the same date I had just 1 Riband Wave!! ) save for a couple of Silver Y's, which were garden lifers, but not unexpected given the southerly winds and general sightings elsewhere. However I potted a dark 'carpet like' moth, took his mug shot and let him go. Eventually I pinned an ID on it  a Black Wave . I was seriously pleased with this, not exactly a common moth in North Worcs,  and nationally scarce category B. A great moth for the garden trap !

Waved Black

Small Copper Butterfly, a rare treat

A trip to Grimley produced an instant pleasing result when it became apparent there was a fresh emergence of Common Blue Butterflies. They have been so thin on the ground the last couple of years.

No Red-vein Darters seen this time, I suspect they have gone over now, but an Emperor showed really well. I sat down a while hoping he would settle, but he just glided past every few minutes, nice and close though. While sat there. a Common Darter gave a nice photo opportunity instead.

I had only seen one Small Copper all year, happily on my patch at least, but I was chuffed to find a pair copulating nearby. Lying on the floor I was able to film them, and get some close up's you probably don't usually see

Red-veined Darter..a delayed surprise !

In the heat of last week, it was necessary to get the nature stuff done in the morning. I got to Grimley around 10am and spent a couple of hours enjoying the activity around one of the pools at the north end.
The water was fresh and clear but receding alarmingly, potentially stranding the fish that were clearly visible in one part. All around the Pool Marsh Frogs were either calling or hoping out of sight as I passed.

Marsh Frog

A stick relatively close to the boggy shoreline afforded me the opportunity to get reasonably close to a recently emerged Damselfly. Below it, it's exuvia, and below that lots more exuvia of the ones that had preceded it.

Newly emerged Damselfly with exuvia

Within a few minutes the teneral damselfly made it's maiden flight a few meters into the longer grass where it stood a chance of maturing further away from predation.
Also on the wing were Emperors and the smaller but more numerous Black-tailed Skimmer. Many of the latter were copulating. Teneral Common Darters were also present in decent numbers.
I then bumped into fellow nature nerd and birder JT. We spent a good while speculating on a few red coloured darters that were ,well, darting around and occasionally perching up. Unfortunately the perching point was that bit too far off for my close focus x 6.5 bins I had chosen for the morning, and a bit too close for his scope !
The general initial feeling was possible Red-veined Darter, but the lack of optical assistance and very harsh light made picking up the salient features very difficult, despite a fair stint of observation. In the end the feeling was they were probably Ruddy Darter's, still a year first. However, I had my superzoom camera, so took the best pics I could of the pesky beast.
Fast farward a few days and I was trawling through my pics, and checked out the mystery darter. To my surprise I had a reasonable-ish image that showed yellow pterostigma with a black border,and a definite red veinining to the wing ..!
To be sure, I contacted the county expert Mike Averill who confirmed the ID as a muture Red-veined Darter.
This was the first recording of the species this year in VC37. It occurred on the same site in 2012 ( when I was lucky enough to see and photograph them ), and previous to that was recorded in the county on that site  in 2002,2003,2006.

Red-veined Darter 17th July 2013

A pleasant surprise in the woods

Well I did go down to the woods today, and I had a nice surprise.
I was not surprised to see plenty of butterflies on the wing at Trench Wood, owned by Worcestershire Wildlife Trust. But it was another 'Scorchio' day and  the two species I was most intent on seeing were invariably the most flighty. White Admiral and Silver- washed Fritillary are powerful flyer's and zip around at quite a rate, often preferring the high canopy.
So initially I contented myself with fleeting views from afar, and took a few snaps of the more common and obliging species

Green-veined White 

Meadow Brown



Eventually though I tend to find that if you are patient, and study a spot, they will come to you, and at least show a little better. There were good numbers of both Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral which was pleasing to see after last year's dire weather.

The Frit was the first to settle for a couple of seconds, they are big fellas really. At least a record shot was possible in the end

Silver-washed Fritillary

White Admiral

As I was sweating up a bit by now, and the light was already too harsh anyway for decent pics, I quickened my pace, just stopping off at a small body of water to check out the odonata situation.
Not seen many Broad-bodied Chaser's this year but there was a pretty fresh male perched up in the rapidly drying out pool. When I looked at it more closely through my bins I realised it was a nice male , with an exuvia next door ! What a stunning sight !

  ♂ Broad Bodied Chaser with exuvia next to it

From there it was over to the Grimley area to see if there were any Marbled Whites about as I hadn't had any decent views of any thus far this year.
Fortunately they were in reasonable numbers, and I enjoyed 20 minutes of them giving me the run-around before seeking the shade for the afternoon.

Marbled White

 

Emerald Damselfly, jewel in the invert crown

I make no apologies for the lack of birding content in the blog, now or over the coming weeks. My interest in the summer season deepens year on year into the world of inverts. Of course I still bird, but there is nothing really I can or want to blog about bird wise during the breeding season at present. Inverts present a challenge to ID sometimes, but I'm just enjoying what I see, I have the cold dark winter nights to nail all the names where they escape me ! In the end, it will all be submitted to WBRC ( Worcestershire Biological Records centre )
Last Saturday I started my day at Grimley. Here I encountered my first Meadow Browns of the year, c12.

My first Meadow Brown of the year

In fact it was to be a day of firsts. There were plenty of Azure and Blue-tailed Damselflies, but it took me a while to nail down my first White Legged Damselfly of the year, an immature ♀ , in the lactea ( milky- milky ) phase.

White -legged Damselfly  (immature ♀ ,f.lactea phase)

Shortly afterwards, the first Black Tailed Skimmer of the year broke cover. I had 2 on the site in total, well down on numbers, and hankering down the grass

Black-tailed Skimmer

There were two other nice sightings before moving on. A single Silver Y moth,

Silver Y

and a bit of orthoptera,

I then popped to Monkwood village. The Burnet situation is poor at present, just one flyby. The only invert of any real interest I saw was this Yellow Shell Moth. However I did find what looks like a Common Spotted Orchid, I'm currently in the process of checking the ID, along with the Orthoptera.



Yellow Shell

 It was then onto Monkwood. I had no huge expectations to be honest, but it was warm and pleasant and  as I headed to the pools, I came across my first Large Skippers of the year.

There was plenty of  Diptera buzzing about, I'm glad I deeted up, much as I love inverts, you can be eaten alive at this place if you are not careful !
Anyway, within a few seconds of arriving at the pool, I had Emerald Damselfly in front of me. This was a bit of a surprise, I honestly didn't think they would be around yet, given the lag this year, so it tuned out to be a first record for VC37 so far, which was nice.

Emerald damselfly, so nice to see

And the day didn't end there. Not Only did I watch a fairly teneral Emperor Dragonfly( a year first too) munching a Large Red Damselfly, I also was lucky enough to see a colony of Brown China Mark Moths and some more Orthoptera in the shape of Dark Bush Crickets
What a corking day !

Dark Bush Cricket

Brown China-mark moth

More images on my flickr