More Butterflies and Birdy 2019

After visiting Mother-in-Law at Derriford Hospital on the morning of Saturday 29th June we travelled onwards to Grenofen Woods for a walk. It was an overcast but hot and humid day and shortly after arriving at the car park in the woods we had a brief rain shower before the cloud cleared and it became very hot and very humid in the sunshine.

We crossed back over the bridge and headed down river to start our walk along a route we haven't taken before. Fortunately there was some industrial archeology to interest David and we saw the remains of an arsenic kiln and a tall chimney hidden in the trees amongst other ruins.

Eventually we arrived out of the woods and onto West Down where David settled down to read the paper in a shady, breezy spot while I traipsed around the bracken covered slopes in the sweltering heat to look for fritillary butterflies.

In the heat a tree pipit was occassionally singing and song flighting, a willow warbler was heard too and a family party of chiffchaffs was nice to see especially as the fledglings were quite curious and came very close to me. A few stonechats were seen as well but otherwise it was quiet on the bird front.

I found a painted lady feeding on bramble flowers before a large fritillary species flew past low over the bracken and headed off out of sight in an orange blur. Shortly after I found another large fritillary flitting about before it settled on some vegetation and on closer inspection it revealed itself to be a dark green fritillary, showing its underwing patterning very nicely.

Dark Green Fritillary 

Dark Green  Fritillary 

Dark Green Fritillary

It would regularly fly off for brief sorties around the area before returning to the same spot but eventually it ended up in a tussle with a second fritillary passing by and this fritillary eventually won control of this obviously lucrative spot. This fritillary had signs of wear on it's right wing and so was clearly a different individual but I never caught a sight of its underwing. I thought it was a high brown fritillary and subsequent ID help on Twitter confirmed my suspicions.

High Brown Fritillary

High Brown Fritillary wing close-up

A third fritillary joined the party and all 3 eventually became embroiled in a tussle before they all disappeared from view and with David's boredom threshold having been reached it was time to head homewards to cool down with a very cold beer.

Tuesday 2nd July and I decided to investigate the elm situation in Central Park again in the hope of maybe finding white letter hairstreaks. It was warm and sunny but a little breezy and on arriving at the hacked back elm tree where I saw the hairstreaks last year I met local naturalist Vic Tucker who was searching for the hairstreaks too. He had seen one briefly which was very good news and I was even more pleased to learn from him that the surrounding trees were in fact elm hybrids and suitable food plants for white letter hairstreak caterpillars so hopefully the colony should be ok.

A comma, meadow browns, a marbled white and a red admiral were all seen and eventually I picked up a white letter hairstreak flitting about in the top of a hybrid elm tree before disappearing from sight. Further brief sightings were had and eventually 2 were seen tussling with each other in flight over the leaves before 1 settled briefly in view on a leaf. Later 1 was seen flying down to a flowering cottoneaster tree nearby and I eventually found it nectaring on the blooms but it was fidgety and often obscured by the vegetation and eventually I lost sight of it. I couldn't make out the white 'w' mark but could see the orange colouring on the brown underwings before it flew off. It presumably flew back into the tree tops as I failed to refind it amongst the flowers but I was very relieved and very pleased to have seen it.

Walking home via Ford Park Cemetery I saw my first gatekeeper of the year, looking freshly emerged, along with 2 painted lady, ringlet, marbled white, meadow brown and a small tortoiseshell.

 Gatekeeper

 Gatekeeper 

 Marbled White

 Small Tortoiseshell

Pyrausta aurata

Pyrausta aurata

The next morning was the morning after the night before due to a night out on the town for sister-in-law Julie's 60th birthday and so with the weather still good and my head a little sore I decided to head up to Central Park for another look at the white letter hairstreaks. More butterfliers were present this time including Ian Teague who was very informative regarding elm trees and the situation in Central Park.

Bizarrely a white letter hairstreak was eventually found down on the grass before flying off and I managed to get a brief view of it. I also checked out the tree tops again and this time found just a single white letter hairstreak flitting about and occassionally giving some good if distant views settled on leaves. However David eventually arrived to meet me and it was time to head off to The Hoe for lunch without any better views (or photos).

And it is that time of year again when we become foster parents to Birdy the herring gull chick, this year he started coming down the chimney on Sunday 30th June and we rescued him out of the living grate on Tuesday 2nd July before placing him on next doors flat roof. He is smaller and fluffier than other chicks we have rescued in previous years and was very quiet and passive on being handled but after placing him out on the flat roof the adult birds arrived immediately, scoffed all the tinned sardines we had placed out on the roof in a bowl and then regurgitated them to Birdy which he duly ate and he seems to be all ok - noise, mess, sleepless nights and early morning starts here we come!

Birdy 2019 - looking like butter wouldn't melt!