A Four Fritillary Day

It was finally warm and sunny on Sunday 14th June and so I headed off to Dartmoor to look for Fritillaries. I had planned to catch the first bus of the day at 9am but a late night and too much wine at a family barbecue the previous day put paid to that and I didn't arrive off the bus until almost Midday!

High Brown Fritillary is my favourite UK butterfly and I voted for it in the recent Butterfly Conservation poll to find the Nations favourite butterfly, unsurprisingly it ranked only 49th in the poll but probably because it is so rare and many people have never seen one. However going out butterflying to look for them is a must-do activity in my wildlife year and I kept my fingers crossed that I would be lucky today.

Only 49th place!

Fritillary habitat on glorious Dartmoor

As I started my walk it felt pleasantly warm in the sunshine and quite humid with only a light breeze but within 10 minutes I had found my first Fritillary, a very smart Silver-washed Fritillary nectaring on Bramble flowers before dashing off never to be seen again and a little unexpected.

Silver-washed Fritillary 

Silver-washed Fritillary

A few minutes later and a bit further along the path I found a second Fritillary, a very smart Dark Green Fritillary which was dashing about all over the Bracken but which also regularly settled briefly in the same spot allowing me to get a good view of it.

Dark Green Fritillary 

Dark Green Fritillary 

I headed onwards and found more large Fritillary flitting about although they rarely settled for long and when they did I was able to ID them as Dark Green Fritillary. I also thought I saw a High Brown Fritillary, it was up and gone before I could confirm it properly but I did find a worn looking Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary nectaring on the Bramble Flowers.

Dark Green Fritillary 

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary 

It was soon time to head back to the bus stop for the journey home, along the way there were more large Fritillaries flying about and all were I'D as Dark Green Fritillary when they settled briefly but eventually I found a High Brown Fritillary resting in a tree by the footpath.

High Brown Fritillary - just Gorgeous!

High Brown Fritillary 

Other butterflies seen were a Large Skipper, a Speckled Wood, Meadow Browns, 2 Painted Lady, 2 Red Admiral and male Brimstones. A few Odonata were seen too with Golden-ringed Dragonfly sighted frequently buzzing over the Bracken and a female Beautiful Demoiselle and a Broad-bodied Chaser seen along a small stream.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly

Broad-bodied Chaser

It was quiet bird-wise on my walk as expected but the highlight was a skulky singing Garden Warbler in an Oak tree. Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff were also seen and heard, a family party of recently fledged Coal Tit moved noisily through the vegetation and a Tawny Owl was heard calling near the car park despite the sunny skies and the 4pm time.

All in all it had been a very successful day out butterflying and I had managed to see 4 species of Fritillary in a day, something I've never achieved before. Finding a High Brown Fritillary was as joyful as ever and hopefully I'll get out to see them again before their short flight season is over for this year.

Binocular Woes and a Chilly Start to June Continues

I noticed that I had lost a plastic covering on the hinge of my binoculars, I'm not sure when it had come off and it could have been weeks ago but I set about trying to source a replacement. I contacted Swarovski but they no longer provide free replacements for optics over 10 years old and gave me details of Swarovski stockists here in the UK to purchase one from which I duly did, however the price was £19.60! - £14.60 plus £5 postage and packaging! It arrived quickly (in less than 48 hours) and I found not 1 but 2 of them in the envelope but it seems an awful lot of money for a tiny piece of plastic.

I think it is an upgraded version and has a silver Eagle on it, I'm sure the one I lost was all black, and I also noticed that Sam West had lost his too when I watched "Sam and Ade go birding" on TV so I am not alone. Mine had survived 23 years of use so hopefully this new one will last another 23 years and I also now have a spare but it was a bit of a dear do. I did have my binoculars serviced by Swarovski during the COVID lock down for free despite them being 17 years old and they also re-covered them despite them not needing it, I've also had a free replacement strap and rainguard from them in the past so I can't really complain.

My Battle-scarred Binoculars with a new (and expensive) hinge cover

I used my now properly attired binoculars for the first time on a walk at Stover on Monday 8th June, it was cool and breezy but the clouds eventually cleared through and we missed the forecasted showers. It became quite pleasantly warm when out of the breeze but it wasn't too busy at Stover and we had an enjoyable walk with some interesting wildlife sightings along the way.

I kept my eyes and ears open for Spotted Flycatchers but with no luck again, I have yet to see one this year with Pied Flycatcher now easier to find than Spotted, and I failed to find Marsh Tit too although there were good numbers of fledgling Blue, Great and Coal Tits around and especially on the bird feeder by the aerial walkway which was still being filled with food. There were 12 fat looking Grey Squirrels on the ground underneath the feeder along with a fat looking Brown Rat but all of them scarpered when a Buzzard flew through the trees while a pair of displaying Stock Doves looked on from the nearby branches.

Brown Rat

Out on the Lake a single Great Crested Grebe and 5 Tufted Duck (4 males) were seen amongst the Coot and Mallard and a Mute Swan was seen in the reeds seemingly sitting on a nest while a pair of Mute Swans were swimming around with 5 middle sized Swanlings. There were also 3 pairs of Mandarin Duck coming to the waters edge for food, the females were looking very smart compared to the males which were moulting into eclipse plumage and the females were also much feistier than the males and would regularly chase after any Mallards that came too close.

Great Crested Grebe

Grey Heron

A male Brimstone and a Painted Lady were the only Butterflies seen but there were plenty of Azure Damseflies buzzing around along with a few Blue-tailed Damselfly and 2 Large Red Damselfly. Single Scarce Chaser and Broad-bodied Chaser were also seen along with 2 Four-spotted Chaser but none of them settled for long and never very close to the path, however Common Spotted Orchid in flower were much easier to look at and photograph.

Azure Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly and Large Red Damselfly

Scarce Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

Common Spotted Orchid

Peacock Tail at Trago Mills

It was cool and breezy again on Tuesday 9th June and with heavy showers between the sunny spells as I headed out to Wembury for a walk. Birdwise it was very quiet as expected for June with 3 Sandwich Terns and a 1st Summer Kittiwake offshore heading west the highlight. The only butterflies seen were a Painted Lady and a Speckled Wood and there was just a single male Beautiful Demoiselle present along the stream but I did get some good views of a Brown Trout jumping out of the water to catch flies.

Slender-bodied Digger Wasp, Wembury - a male with "paddles" on the front legs used for digging

On the way home I stopped off at Oreston where there were at least 4 White-letter Hairstreaks flitting about in the Elm tree despite the windy conditions and nearby there were 5 Pyramidal Orchids coming into flower along with 8 Bee Orchids.

White-letter Hairstreak - tricky to photograph with the branches constantly swaying in the breeze

Pyramidal Orchids coming into flower

Bee Orchids showing the yellow pollinia involved in self-fertilisation