High Brown Fritillary on Dartmoor, June 27th 2016

A warm and mostly cloudy day with occasional sunny spells saw us heading off to Dartmeet on Dartmoor for a walk. We parked up in the Badgers Holt car park and strolled off downriver along the Dart, enjoying the song of yellowhammer, chiffchaff, willow warbler and blackcap along the way.

I hoped to see some insect life especially during the sunny spells we were experiencing at times and I wasn't disappointed.

Beautiful demoiselles were very obvious along the river bank and surrounding vegetation with females easily out numbering the males and I managed to get some lovely views (if not the best photos).

Male Beautiful Demoiselle

 Female Beautiful Demoiselle

 Male Beautiful Demoiselle

Male Beautiful Demoiselle

A green tiger beetle gave some amazing views too - it flew off for a short distance during a cloudy interval when the temperature noticeably dropped and it seemed to run out of steam allowing close approach in a usually skittish insect.

 Green Tiger Beetle

 Green Tiger Beetle

Green Tiger Beetle

A golden ringed dragonfly allowed a quick photo before flying off and a dark skimmer type dragonfly flew by but never appeared again.

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

Butterflies were on the wing too with some nice views of 2 green hairstreaks, a large white, a speckled wood, a meadow brown and a peacock.

 Green Hairstreak

Green Hairstreak

Best of all though was a high brown fritillary which I managed to get a few record shots of as it nectared on bramble flowers. I first caught a brief view of it flitting about looking very smart and bright orange but it quickly moved off and out of sight. Initially I thought it was a silver washed fritillary but quickly realised it was either a high brown or a dark green fritillary. I found it again a few minutes later when I managed to ID it as a high brown fritillary and get a few record shots of it before it again flew off and out of sight and I never saw it again. A very nice find though and very pleasing too.

 High Brown Fritillary - showing indented and noticeably small third spot on upper forewing

High Brown Fritillary - zooming in shows the characteristic row of rust-red spots with silver centres on the underwing

Heading home and it had become a lot more cloudy and we stopped off at The Two Bridges Hotel for a belly busting but delicious afternoon tea before driving home via my workplace to visit my sister-in law who continues with yet more ups and downs in her current treatment.

A Variety of Ticks !

Every year I pick up a blood sucking tick on my wanderings, usually from Grenofen or Yarner or Burrator or Soussons. This year I picked one up on my butterfly walk at Cerne Abbas, finding it near my belly button the next day where it had caused quite a nasty skin reaction. I managed to get it out of my skin but it took a while for the itchy soreness to diminish. I always keep an eye on any tick bites I get due to the risk of Lymes Disease but luckily I have never had the tell tale bulls eye mark indicating infection.

While walking around Aish Tor last week I found a large tick crawling across my belly which I quickly dispatched and on getting home I found a tiny tick on my leg which I easily removed. However the next day I found 6 of the blighters - 2 on my belly, 1 on each arm, 1 on my shoulder and another on my leg - yuck ! Unfortunately they were the tiniest ticks I have ever seen and a complete bugger to get out, some I had to gouge out with a pin. Not impressed with Aish Tor!

On a less gross tick note I had the moth box out in the back yard again and in the morning of July 5th I had caught 16 species including year ticks in the form of a buff tip (amazing moth),  willow beauty, lesser yellow underwing and scalloped oak. A (faded) green arches was a life tick for me too.

 Buff Tip

Green Arches

A walk at Wembury that afternoon was quiet although whitethroat, chiffchaff, blackcap and a cirl bunting were all still singing. Offshore a lone gannet was seen and a curlew was heard calling from the rocky shore at low tide. It was nice to see small skipper, a painted lady, a red admiral and meadow brown on the wing along with a few gatekeeper, another butterfly year tick for me. A male golden ringed dragonfly perched on bushes by the footpath  near Heybrook Bay was a surprise, it looked quite freshly emerged.

Small Skipper

Golden Ringed Dragonfly

The herring gull chick on the next door flat roof continues to grow. The adults are less twitchy now when I go out in the back yard and the chick seems quite non-plussed by my prescence. There is still 1 chick on the chimney stack but the 3rd chick was in the front garden when I arrived home from work a few days ago. I went inside to get changed and to get a towel to wrap it in as I didn't want to get crap and feathers on my uniform but when I went back to catch it it had gone. I've kept an eye out for it but it has disappeared, I hope it is ok.

Larry Larus, my Herring Gull Chick on the flat roof next door