Wednesday, 30 June 2021

Local Butterflying

A return to normality after such a wonderful time in The Lake District has been hard but such is life. It's back to work and the usual day to day routines but it is also nice to be back home, being away from home for 8 nights after so much time living under COVID restrictions was an odd experience. 

Friday 25th June was cloudy and breezy but with occasional sunny spells which increased as the morning wore on and so I took a walk over to Ford Park Cemetery and Central Park to look for butterflies. 

As I walked through the cemetery to Central Park a single Marbled White was seen flitting past and the only butterfly seen in the park was a Small Tortoiseshell. I did have a look for the White-letter Hairstreaks in the elms and cotoneaster in the park but there was no sign of any and so I returned to the cemetery as the sun began to appear more regularly from behind the clouds and it began to get quite warm. 

Back in the cemetery and there were Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns flitting about and I also found a Ringlet, a Speckled Wood, a male Common Blue, a Small Tortoiseshell and a Cinnabar Moth before I headed home. 

Marbled White

Ringlet

On arriving home the Herring Gull chick (Birdy 2021) which had started coming down the chimney from its nest on the chimney stack a few days previously finally arrived in the living room fire grate and I managed to retrieve it. It was very quiet and put up very little struggle as I placed it on the flat roof next door where it just stood and looked at me. I opened a tin of sardines for it and it ate a little piece before wandering around the roof still resolutely silent. Eventually an adult Herring Gull arrived and ate all the sardines which it then fed to the chick but shortly after being fed it leaped down off the roof into the builders yard where it is currently residing while it's sibling remains on the chimney stack. 

Birdy 2021

Saturday 26th June and an early-ish morning look at the previous nights back yard moth boxing revealed only 6 moths of 6 species - Heart and Dart, Pammene fasciana, Diamond Back Moth, Riband Wave (ribboned form), Bee Moth and Chrysoteuchia culmella. 

Pammene fasciana

Later that morning we had a walk down to the allotment and a quick look around the nearby wild meadow revealed at least 6 Bee Orchids amongst the long grass along with a few Meadow Browns. Unfortunately I had left my camera at home and so I returned on Monday 28th June with my camera and this time I found at least 12 Bee Orchids and a nice Silver Y moth which I managed to get some shots of. 

Bee Orchid

Bee Orchid

Silver Y

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