Tuesday 24th July 2018

Butterfly Species: Speckled Wood (3) Comma (2) Small White (8) Green Veined White (6) Large White (3) Common Blue (6) Meadow Brown (10) Red Admiral (2) Ringlet (2) Silver Washed Fritillary (8) Gatekeeper (20) Brown Argus (1)

Worn and battered Ringlet Butterfly - 24-07-2018

The weather was warm (24c) and sunny with broken cloud for my walk today. Only one new species was identified today, a solitary Brown Argus near the Tucking Mill end of the path. This was the same grassy embankment where earlier in the year I spotted a pair of Marsh Fritillary.

As the summer is progressing and the weather keeping the butterflies active, it is now noticeable how many are showing a considerable amount of 'wear and tear' such as the Ringlet above and Silver-washed Fritillary below.


Talking of the Silver-washed Fritillary, This has been one of the 'star' species of this summer along this stretch of path. A total of eight were seen during this walk. Although the path is bordered by suitable woodland the extent of this seems insufficient to support such large numbers. I will be interested to see if numbers nationwide for this species is high when Butterfly Conservation publish their data later in the year.

Brown Argus -  Tucking Mill 24-07-2018


Interestingly I did not manage to spot a single White-letter Hairstreak on this occasion. I managed to spot these elusive butterflies on most of my walks since the end of June. Despite near perfect weather conditions I wasn't able to spot one even on the mature Wych Elm near Midford Castle.

Large Wych Elm tree (centre top) - Home to the White-letter Hairstreak Butterfly

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