The third heatwave of the summer continues to build and it is becoming increasingly hot and humid again, most unpleasant, but I guess this weather suits the insects. With that in mind I took my moth box up to Dartmoor on Thursday 9th July and set it up in Mavis and Mike's garden to see what we could catch and on checking it out the next morning we had caught an interesting range of species although many were familiar to me from my efforts in my inner city courtyard garden here in Plymouth.
Mavis had woken early to turn off the bulbs and cover over the trap but there had been quite a few moths resting on the white walls of the house. The box was full of moths too but some had managed to escape and some had fallen prey to birds including a young Robin which was in the box having a massive breakfast feast!
The highlights were Elephant Hawkmoths, a Lobster Moth, a Sycamore, a Marbled Beauty, a female Ghost Moth, a very worn Jersey Mocha, a male Black Arches, a Rosy Footman and a Mother of Pearl.
After packing away the trap David and I headed up to Burrator for a walk where it was baking hot even in the shade. As a result it was quiet on the wildlife front but Silver-washed Fritillary, a Clouded Yellow and a Comma were the best of the butterflies and a flyover Siskin, 2 Swallows and 8 Cormorant were the best of the birds. A few Sundew were found in the remaining wet areas by the roadside and there were quite a few Keeled Skimmers buzzing around with 2 mating pairs also seen
Against all my better judgement I decided to head down to Hayle by train on Saturday 11th July to go and look for Silver-studded Blues and Brown Argus at the nearby Upton Towans nature reserve. It was another hot and sunny day but temperatures were forecasted to be a little lower at Hayle than in Plymouth and there was going to be a bit more of a breeze so I packed lots of water and set off.
The first train of the day was meant to leave Plymouth at 07:40hrs but it was cancelled, luckily I had checked the GWR App before I left the house so I caught the next train at 08:07 hrs which only had 2 carriages instead of 3 and was packed. One of the 2 carriages had some fierce air-conditioning and was delightfully cold, like travelling in a fridge, and so it wasn't too uncomfortable a journey.
The train was late into Hayle by 15 minutes and after a 45 minute hot and sweaty uphill walk with little shade along the way and a hot breeze that offered no cooling I eventially arrived at Upton Towans at around 11am to start my butterfly walk. By this time it was seriously hot and to begin with it seemed butterfly-less but eventually I began to find them.
The usuals were present - Red Admiral, Peacock, Painted Lady, Gatekeeper, Small Skipper and Meadow Brown - and eventually I found what I was looking for with Silver-studded Blues seen flitting about low over the turf. I had forgotten how small they were and they were very active in the heat, most were looking worn but a few still looked smart although I never managed to get a view of their upperwings. The numbers present were much lower than on my previous visits too but I've never visited at such a late date before.
I also found a few Brown Argus flitting about, again they were very active in the high temperatures with some looking smart and some looking worn.
Dark Green Fritillary were also dashing about but I never saw one stop for a second and also seen were a Small Copper, a Clouded Yellow, a Large White and a male Common Blue. Pyramidal Orchids were dotted about in the dunes but were looking the worse for wear with the lack of rain and the only birds of note were a Stonechat, a singing Skylark and a pair of agitated Meadow Pipits which must have had a nest nearby so I quickly moved on.
I had had enough after 2 hours and was starting to feel a bit dizzy, my camera was also starting to play up with the heat and so I began my walk back to Hayle. I had a look along Copperhouse Creek along the way where a Greenshank was in amongst a flock of 22 Redshank, Mediterranean Gulls were in amongst the Black-headed Gulls and 2 Little Egret were having a spat. I also saw a female Pintail swimming past with a female Mallard, later on checking my photos I noticed it had a blue plastic ring on its right leg.
A Philps pasty for a late lunch was very tasty as I waited for my train at Hayle, it arrived on time with only 5 coaches instead of 10 so I expected it to be packed out but it wasn't too bad and was again delightfully air-conditioned. Things were going well until we reached Par where the points jammed and we were stuck there for 90 minutes while they were fixed, at least we had the air-conditioning keeping us cool and we were also given complimentary bottles of water by the train crew.
In hindsight it probably wasn't the wisest decision to head down to Hayle by train on a Saturday during a heatwave with the trains being a bit of a nightmare as per the warnings given out by GWR before I even left the house. The dunes at Upton Towans also have no shade and while the breeze was a little cooling when up on the top of the dunes it was unbelievably hot and airless down in the dips where the butterflies were with the heat really starting to make me feel ill. But I saw my butterfly's and I got to spend nearly 6 hours on air-conditioned trains in a heatwave so it wasn't all bad.
