Dartmoor Butterfly Walk

Saturday June 11th and after work I headed off to Yelverton to meet Mavis and Mike for a charity butterfly walk near Walkhampton in support of Childrens Hospice South West. The charity is 25 years old this year and their fundraising theme for this year is butterflies so the walk seemed very apt.

As I left work the sun was beginning to appear from behind the clouds and it was warm and humid so I kept my fingers crossed for some interesting insect sightings including the headliner for the walk, marsh fritillaries.

The walk had been arranged by some friends of Mavis and Mike who farm near Walkhampton and where some habitat is specifically managed for marsh fritillaries with the assistance of Butterfly Conservation and Government grants. The farm was beautiful with a gorgeous garden and Linda and Barry were wonderful hosts who had put in a lot of time and effort along with various volunteers to put on an excellent walk and afternoon tea in aid of Childrens Hospice South west.

Two tractors pulling trailers headed off from the farm up onto the Moor to the first site where marsh fritllaries have been seen but as the trailers were full I ended up walking to the site which involved quite a steep walk uphill. I arrived hot and out of puff but the views were stunning and I saw a smart male redstart along the way.

A lady called Jenny from Butterfly Conservation gave a short talk about marsh fritillaries and their habitat management which was very interesting - marsh fritillaries certainly are high maintenance creatures! - and on the walk down to the fritillary field I saw a nice male wheatear along with lots of fluffy cotton grass.

By now it had clouded over but it was still warm and humid and I quickly found lots of heath spotted orchids in flower which were mostly very pale coloured.

 Heath Spotted Orchid

Heath Spotted Orchid

There was no sign of any butterflies but a brief call from a cuckoo, both a garden warbler and a willow warbler singing from cover and a male reed bunting flying over kept me entertained as I wandered through the boggy grass admiring the orchids and disturbing lots of small and pale micro moths of unknown species.

I eventually found a butterfly, a small heath, but it soon flew off when it was chased by what looked like a large skipper.

Small Heath

I also found a few macro moths - a silver y, a burnet companion and best of all a chimney sweeper which quickly disappeared off into the undergrowth.

Chimney Sweeper - record shot

A large red damselfly and a female keeled skimmer, a new dragonfly species for me, were also seen and as we walked off back towards the tractors for the journey to the second fritillary site I found a green hairstreak, a little worn but nice to see.

 Large Red Damselfly

Green Hairstreak

One tractor took some of the group back to the farm with the second tractor heading off to the second fritillary site. Dark clouds were beginning to roll in and this time I had an uncomfortable ride on the trailer. As we walked down to the fritillary field it began to rain and by now I wasn't hopeful of seeing anything but amazingly Jenny found a marsh fritillary on a heath spotted orchid - I thought she was joking but there it was despite the rain!

 Marsh Fritillary on Heath Spotted Orchid

 Marsh Fritillary

 Marsh Fritillary

 Marsh Fritillary

Marsh Fritillary

A small frog clambouring through the tussocky grass and another female keeled skimmer were also seen before we headed back to the farm and as we began the walk back the rain stopped and the sun came out - typical!

Keeled Skimmer - female

I did have an interesting talk with Jenny about the All The Moor Butterflies project being carried out by Butterfly Conservation to encourage landowners to manage habitat for fritillaries on Dartmoor, Exmoor and Bodmin Moor which has been running for a few years now and the project that farmers Barry and Linda are a part of  - farmers can often get a bad rap but Barry and Linda are doing a wonderful job of managing their farm alongside the wildlife and doing so very quietly and unassumingly. To open up their land for a charity walk is even more admiral and I hope the project gets more landowners involved for the benefit of fritillaries and ultimately other wildlife.

I enjoyed a cup of tea and a delicious piece of home made coffee and walnut cake on our return to the farm but I was unlucky in the raffle. Everybody present seemed to have had an enjoyable and informative day despite the weather and not everybody seeing the marsh fritillary and I believe around £585 was raised for Childrens Hospice South West - not a bad day all round!

Butterfly Heaven !

Saturday 6th June and I headed off to Cerne Abbas in Dorset on a bit of a butterfly twitch, arriving at 10am. Having visited the Cerne Abbas giant last month on our Dorset tour I had noticed on the information boards at the site that marsh fritillaries were found there and on doing some internet homework I found out that it is actually a really good place for butterflies.

Butterflies are fickle things - you need to be in the right place at the right time in the right conditions - and so I have never made a trip purely to see them. I was a little apprehensive about making such a long trip (2 trains and a bus each way) but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

It was sunny day with cloudy periods and a strong south westerly breeze and out on the slopes of the Giants Hill it was cool and blowy. However the bottom of the slopes were warm and sheltered by trees and there was quite a profusion of flying insects here - bees, flies, moths and butterflies - and as the day warmed up there were insects flying everywhere to the point it was impossible to keep track of them all.

Within an hour I had found my 2 targets - Duke of Burgundy and marsh fritillary - beautiful butterflies and excellent views. I even had a slightly worn Duke of Burgundy resting on my hand and I also found 2 pairs mating.

Pair of Duke of Burgundy mating

Duke of Burgundy

Duke of Burgundy - on my hand!

Pair of mating Duke of Burgundy

Marsh Fritillary

Despite the beauty and rarity of these 2 new butterflies for me the butterflies of the day were grizzled skipper and brown argus. Having seen my first ever grizzled skipper at Wembury last week ( a brief view only), it was nice to get some amazing views of such a smart butterfly. Likewise it was nice to see brown argus in pristine condition after seeing some rather worn individuals for the first time at Dawlish Warren last year.

Grizzled Skipper

Grizzled Skipper

Brown Argus

Also seen were a male orange tip, 2 painted ladys, dingy skipper, common blue, small heath, large skipper, small copper and speckled wood - making it a 12 butterfly species day.

Moths seen were 2 silver y, my first ever Mother Shipton, cinnabar, a burnet companion and my first ever Pyrausta purpuralis.

Cinnabar Moth

Mother Shipton

Pyrausta purpuralis

Bird wise I didn't see very much as I was always looking down! But I did see a sparrowhawk, a kestrel, a buzzard and a swift flying over and a pair of yellowhammers in the hawthorn bushes on the hill. Blackcap, willow warbler and chiffchaff were also heard singing.

Early purple orchids had gone over but I did see lots of common spotted orchids. And sitting down in the grass to eat lunch and watch the insects flying past I noticed a few common twayblade, a new orchid for me, and almost overlooked amongst the grass due to their green colouring.

Common Twayblade

Common Twayblade

Common Spotted Orchid

Five hours later and I headed off home, the time had just flown by and I had had an amazing time. It had definently been a case of right place, right time, right conditions!