Friday 5th July 2019

Butterfly Species: Small White (3) Silver-washed Fritillary (1) Meadow Brown (17) Ringlet (19) Marbled White (8) Small Skipper (6) Green Veined White (1)

Six-spot Burnet Moth - Tucking Mill 07-07-2019
I have made 2 trips along the path this week the first on the 5th and the second on the 7th. The weather was similar in both instances. On Friday 5th the temperature was hitting a high of 22 degrees Celsius On Sunday 7th I set out in the evening when the weather was cooler and the butterflies calmer and easier to photograph. I would have estimated the temperature to be around 16 degrees Celsius.

Small Skippers - Tucking Mill 07-07-2019
I think I could sum up these 2 trips simply by saying it was the week of the Skippers. The Small Skipper butterflies were abundant along good stretches of a cycle path. There are two species that I see regularly along the cycle path the Small Skipper and the Essex Skipper. On these two days I only saw the small skipper, although I have seen a few Essex along towards the Wellow end of the path earlier in the season. Amongst the skippers and and other butterflies a good number of Six-spot Burnet moths were lazily hovering between flowers.

Meadow Brown - Tucking Mill 05-07-2019
In addition to the skippers there are lots of butterflies around including Ringlet, Meadow Brown and still a few Marbled Whites. Silver-washed Fritillary are also present along the cycle path at this time of year, although on this trip I only saw the one. This was weaving in and out of the shrubs either side of the cycle path near Midford Castle.

Marbled White - 05-07-2019


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