Butterfly Species: Small Tortoiseshell (2) Speckled Wood (6) Small White (1) Large Skipper (8) Meadow Brown (31+) Painted Lady (1) Red Admiral (1) Small Skipper (1) Marbled White (31+) Ringlet (27+)
My first walk along the path today for nearly three weeks. Poor weather and a holiday in Switzerland has kept me away and in my absence much has changed. A total of 102 butterflies counted on this trip but this doesn't do it justice!
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| Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) 22-06-2018 |
Marbled Whites, Ringlets and Meadow Browns are numerous now. The Brambles are in flower and are alive with bees and butterflies. The flowers attract large numbers of Ringlet and Meadow Brown with an occasional Marbled White joining in.
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| Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) 22-06-2018 |
With numbers of Meadow Brown, Ringlet and Marbled White so high I was forced to adopt a different strategy for counting these species. I selected a good vantage point and in the space of a minute I counted as many of one species I could. I repeated this for each of the species I could see from my viewpoint. From this I was able to estimate the proportions of each species seen. All three were seen in approximately similar numbers.
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| Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) 22-06-2018 |
The Marbled Whites were predominately seen on the Tucking Mill section of the path where the track runs alongside the Wessex Water Fields. The embankment here is also home to what I presume are Pyramidal Orchids.
Further along the path, past Midford Station I checked up on the Brimstone Larvae I spotted feeding on Buckthorn three weeks earlier. I found one near fully grown caterpillar still on the plant.
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| Brimstone Larvae (Gonepteryx rhamni) 22-06-2018 |
The next section of the path is now very shady with shafts of sunlight streaming down through the canopy of the trees above. Here I was met with several Speckled Wood butterflies, all of them now quite faded.
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| Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) 22-06-2018 |
Further along the path through a wooded section I came to a gate where the wooded embankments recede. Above the gate hang a number of tree branches, Mainly Ash, Oak , Hazel and a few Wych Elm saplings. High in the canopy, I could see several very small butterflies spiralling and chasing each other in an erratic manner.
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| Site where Hairstreak Butterflies were spotted - 22-06-2018 |
I have no doubt these were Hairstreaks. Given the combination of Ash and Oak, my best guess at this stage is that they are early Purple Hairstreaks. The only other candidate is White Letter Hairstreaks. Given the sparsity of Elm I am doubtful it would be the latter. A morning visit with a pair of binoculars should settle it!
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| Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) 22-06-2018 |
Towards the Wellow end of the path a patch of Creeping Thistle was attracting the attention of a number of butterflies. Two, summer generation Small Tortoiseshells were vying for a perch and they were joined by a solitary, faded Painted Lady. The latter is a first of the season along the transect and likely, given the time of year and its condition, flown in from the continent.
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| Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) 22-06-2018 |
The days sightings ended when on cycling back towards the tunnel I spotted two Scarlet Tiger Moths in flight near Midford Station.
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