• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Durham ,Butterflies, Moths and Dragonflies. (1 Viewer)

Saw my first hawker of the year today at Cowpen Bewley Woodland Park. A female Common Hawker.

Also Broad-bodied CHaser x3, Four-spot Chaser x6, Emperor Dragonfly x4 and lots of damselflies still.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_9172a.jpg
    IMG_9172a.jpg
    191.1 KB · Views: 265
Went to Tileshed,Boldon this afternoon big increase of the number of butterflies seen from my last visit a few days ago especially Meadow Browns,Small Skippers and Ringlets
Meadow Brown 40+
Ringlet 21
Small Skipper 30+ my biggest count of Small Skipper so far this year.
Large Skipper 2
Common Blue 4
Small Copper 1
Speckled Wood 2
Moths
Shaded -broad Bar 8
Five -spot Burnet 10
 
Had a very good morning for butterflies around the local area despite the blusterly wind.I went to Fulwell quarry first, saw a lot more butterflies than my last visit. Good numbers of Small Skippers,Ringlets and Meadow Browns.
Small Skipper 26
Large Skipper 3
Ringlet 75
Common Blue 15
Small Heath 15
Speckled Wood 1
Large White 1
Meadow Brown 40+
Moths seen

Silver Y 4
Shade -broad Bar 2
Lattice Heath 3
Five and Six spot Burnets small numbers of each.
Next place i visited was Marsden quarry not so many butterflies seen here

Common Blue 9
Meadow Brown 19
Ringlet 8
Large Skipper 1
Small Skipper 1
Moths seen

Chimney Sweeper 1
Silver Y 2
Final stop was Whitburn CPK
Common Blue 23
Meadow Brown 30+
Ringlet 24
Large White 1
Speckled Wood 9
Small Skipper 18
Small Skippers are certainly well established in our area now total of 45 seen today and only 4 Large Skippers.
 
Last edited:
Went to Waskerley today it was very blusterly up there but despite that saw few butterflies highlight being Small -Pearl bordered Fritillaries some of them are now looking very worn they are coming to the end of there flight season.I was hoping to see DG Fritillary but no sign of any.Butterflies seen today

Ringlet 15
SPB Frit 14
Common Blue 4
Small Heath 9
Meadow Brown 20
Large Skipper 2
Small Skipper 3
Red Admiral 1

Moths seen
Chimney sweeper 3
Five spot Burnets 6
 
Last edited:
had a walk in the colliery woods early this morning and saw a small very vivid red small butterfly, looking in books it must have been a small tortoiseshell, it was very red tho and boldon isnt tropical so thats the postman out.
 
yukonite said:
had a walk in the colliery woods early this morning and saw a small very vivid red small butterfly, looking in books it must have been a small tortoiseshell, it was very red tho and boldon isnt tropical so thats the postman out.
Click to expand...
There are a few Small Tortoiseshells starting to appear now.The newly emerged ones do look very bright compared to the spring ones
 
Just been trimming a shrub in the garden and i disturbed a Swallow -tailed Moth must have just recently emerged it was in perfect condition.
 
Kibblesworth Clay Pit

A short walk from kibblesworth saw a red admiral, three small tortoiseshells, 6 or seven common blues, several ringlets, a large white, lots of skippers, I have only subsequently learnt the difference between large and small (all my photo's are of small skippers) but I have a feeling some of the butterflies there were larger and darker. also lots of meadow browns and I saw one small heath whilst there.

there were absolutely loads, literally hundreds if not thousands of both types of burnet moths (picture 3 is 5 spot picture 4 is 6 spot I think). Also lots of grasshoppers. Also good numbers of skylark round here (they fence off some of the meadows and I guess the lack of disturbance helps). The only dragon/damselflies I saw here were common blue damsel I think.

the banded demoiselle was seen at lamesley bridge (not a lot of birdlife at the pastures).
 

Attachments

  • Kibblesworth 001.JPG
    Kibblesworth 001.JPG
    101.8 KB · Views: 265
  • Kibblesworth 024.JPG
    Kibblesworth 024.JPG
    61.6 KB · Views: 240
  • Kibblesworth 053.JPG
    Kibblesworth 053.JPG
    102.9 KB · Views: 265
  • Kibblesworth 054.JPG
    Kibblesworth 054.JPG
    88 KB · Views: 247
  • Kibblesworth 071.jpg
    Kibblesworth 071.jpg
    100.7 KB · Views: 273
Hi Pete i like your pics you are right the Large Skipper is darker orange i find the easiest way to id Large skipper is to look at the wings.They have markings on the upper and undersides.Small Skippers have plain wings apart from the male which has a dark mark on the forewing.Sometimes you cannot judge the size of them when they are flying around.It's a good year for Burnets i have seen big numbers of them especially at Kibblesworth they seem to be on every flower head you look at.
 
Last edited:
rokermartin said:
Hi Pete i like your pics you are right the Large Skipper is darker orange i find the easiest way to id Large skipper is to look at the wings.They have markings on the upper and undersides.Small Skippers have plain wings apart from the male which has a dark mark on the forewing.Sometimes you cannot judge the size of them when they are flying around.It's a good year for Burnets i have seen big numbers of them especially at Kibblesworth they seem to be on every flower head you look at.
Click to expand...

Thanks Martin, Here are a couple more from the day. I think the brown damselfly is a coloured variant of the female common blue. I'm just starting to learn about dragonflies and butterflies. Also this area had a lot of "flesh flies :eek!:" apparently they like flowers too.
 

Attachments

  • Kibblesworth 012.jpg
    Kibblesworth 012.jpg
    81.1 KB · Views: 198
  • Kibblesworth 027.jpg
    Kibblesworth 027.jpg
    89.7 KB · Views: 196
  • Kibblesworth 045.jpg
    Kibblesworth 045.jpg
    64.1 KB · Views: 170
  • Kibblesworth 049.jpg
    Kibblesworth 049.jpg
    50.9 KB · Views: 182
mcepjg said:
Thanks Martin, Here are a couple more from the day. I think the brown damselfly is a coloured variant of the female common blue. I'm just starting to learn about dragonflies and butterflies. Also this area had a lot of "flesh flies :eek!:" apparently they like flowers too.
Click to expand...
Hi Pete the brown damselfly looks like a young Blue-tailed Damselfly the moth in the first pic is a Shaded-broad Bar there's alot of those about at the moment.And your last pic is a Blue-tailed Damselfly.
 
a few pics from testos wondering what the last photo is maybe imm. large red?
 

Attachments

  • 2 burnet moths_resize.jpg
    2 burnet moths_resize.jpg
    223.6 KB · Views: 175
  • 4sp chaser_resize.jpg
    4sp chaser_resize.jpg
    205.6 KB · Views: 190
  • common darter_resize.jpg
    common darter_resize.jpg
    233.1 KB · Views: 198
  • red_resize.jpg
    red_resize.jpg
    195.1 KB · Views: 177
Had a hour at Tileshed Boldon this afternoon lots of butterflies seen despite the mostly cloudy weather and a blusterly wind at times especially Small Skippers they outnumbered Large Skippers.

Ringlets 30+
Meadow Brown 50+
Small Skipper 43
Large Skipper 2
Speckled Wood 2
Common Blue 1
Moths seen
Five-spot Burnets several
Shaded -broad Bar 5
 
thanks martin it was a bit bigger than the blue dams there was quite a few of them coming out of the grass also lots of imm. c darters a few b t skimmers but no emporers on this visit
 
keithmc said:
thanks martin it was a bit bigger than the blue dams there was quite a few of them coming out of the grass also lots of imm. c darters a few b t skimmers but no emporers on this visit
Click to expand...
It's certainly a interesting spot Testo's pool for Damselflies and Dragonflies must be the best pool in our area. I always find the Football Acad pools very disappointing. You would think they would be excellent for Dragonflys etc.
 
rokermartin said:
It's certainly a interesting spot Testo's pool for Damselflies and Dragonflies must be the best pool in our area. I always find the Football Acad pools very disappointing. You would think they would be excellent for Dragonflys etc.
Click to expand...

theres a small pond on follingsby lane just over the crossing on the right, the double gates are locked to stop fly tippers.
to get in you have to take the next right then walk back down about 200yards.
there is always loads of butterflies and damsel and dragonfly there.
 
yukonite said:
theres a small pond on follingsby lane just over the crossing on the right, the double gates are locked to stop fly tippers.
to get in you have to take the next right then walk back down about 200yards.
there is always loads of butterflies and damsel and dragonfly there.
Click to expand...
Hi i will have to check the pond out sometime sounds if it might be worth a look.
 
Last edited:
Had a walk round Whitburn CPK this afternoon big increase of the number of butterflies seen from my last visit especially Small Skippers.

Meadow Brown 50+
Ringlet 39
Small Skipper 51
Speckled Wood 16
GV White 2
Large White 5
Common Blue 15

Moths seen
Five -spot Burnet several
Yellowshell 2
Shaded - broad Bar 3
 
Warning! This thread is more than 11 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Similar threads

dantheman
September butterflies.
Replies
2
Views
512
aeshna5
A
O
Large white moth. Possible day flyer.
Replies
3
Views
316
Owene
O
JWN Andrewes
Day-flyers 2023.
2 3
Replies
44
Views
3K
JWN Andrewes
JWN Andrewes
Brian Stone
Tenerife January 2024
Replies
11
Views
1K
MKinHK
MKinHK
dantheman
Garden Butterflies 2022
Replies
6
Views
983
dantheman
dantheman

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top