Marbled Whites and Ravens

July 5th and a cloudy morning saw me heading off to Costas on Mutley Plain in Plymouth to catch up with my friend Monica for a coffee and a chat about life, the universe and everything. The forecast for later was for warm sunshine and on leaving Costas it was indeed a pleasant afternoon and so I headed off to nearby Ford Park Cemetery for a butterfly walk.

Back in 2013 I learnt that there were marbled whites at the cemetery and so I went to have a look and managed to see just one individual. I have never returned to have another look for them and so it seemed an ideal opportunity to try again. And as I approached the cemetery gates a marbled white flopped along the pavement before flying over the high stone wall of the cemetery and out of sight. Job done!

On entering the cemetery there were a few marbled whites flitting across the grass and as I wandered around I managed to see quite a few across the whole site although they were very active and mobile in the warm sunshine and rarely settled for long.

 Marbled White

 Marbled White

 Marbled White

 Marbled White

 Marbled White

More numerous were meadow browns and ringlets and I also managed to see 2 small tortoiseshells, 2 large whites and 2 large skippers.

 Meadow Brown

 Ringlet

 Ringlet

Large Skipper

The highlight though was a hummingbird hawkmoth feeding on red valerian flowers and I even managed a few quick photos of it before it dashed off out of sight.

 Hummingbird Hawkmoth

 Hummingbird Hawkmoth - look at that proboscis!

Hummingbird Hawkmoth

A burnet companion, 2 six spot burnet moths and a cinnabar moth were also seen along with a six spot burnet caterpillar on common birdsfoot trefoil and 2 cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort.

A buzzard mewing overhead along with a swift and 2 chittering swallows were seen with a chiffchaff, a blackcap and a blackbird heard singing. 2 ravens were again sat in a big pine tree where I had seen them a few weeks ago, presumably the 2 young birds I had previously seen but now much more adult like. One croaked noisily before flying off to a nearby tombstone where it continued to croak, maybe a hungry young bird calling for the adults?

 Raven

 Raven

Raven

All in all not a bad few hours walk with lots of butterflies to distract me from the world.