Day-flyers 2023. (1 Viewer)

[JWN Andrewes]

A fairly uneventful birding stop off by Shotton Rifle Range on my way home from work yesterday, lots of Meadow Browns, very usefully patrolling up and down, and thus triggering Small Skippers to chase them as they passed. Were it not for the Browns I might not have spotted the Skippers!

21 - Small Skipper, Shotton Rifle Range

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Off to Fenn's Moss late morning today, Large Heath the target. Started off in the north east corner, having seen habitat up that way in the past that looked suitable. Before getting to my search area I picked up Ringlet for the year, the first few of scores that I saw pretty much everywhere I went today, along with Meadow Browns, Large & Small Skippers, Speckled Woods and a single Brimstone. The real stand out highlight though was a bundle of colour that launched itself across the path in front of me, resolving itself into my first ever Scarlet Tiger when it perched for a few seconds on some leaves before continuing on its way.

22 - Ringlet, Fenn's Moss.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Once I reached the patch I had thought might be fruitful I was pretty quickly proved right, with several Large Heaths getting up and bipping about, but after an hour and a half of scanning damn me if I didn't get a single one perched up! Plenty to occupy myself while I tried though, with some gorgeous White-faced Darters sitting up for me, as well as Black Darters. Also a small brown moth which after a fair bit of head scratching I'm pretty sure is a female Gold Swift. Eventually I got fed up of the hyperactive Heaths, and decided to go for a change of scenery, staying at Fenn's Moss, but decamping to the History Trail. On my way back to the car, while stopping to snap a Comma, a Damselfly alighted next to me - a lifer no less! White-legged!

23 - Large Heath, Fenn's Moss

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Ok, so, History Trail. Loads of Meadow Browns in the car park, then, in stark contrast to the previous site, a Large Heath sat up for me within minutes of arrival. Brilliant! Not really much else here, but I did stop to take a site photo. This is one of those sites that is extremely peripheral to my North East Wales area. The attached photo depicts a short section of the History Trail on which it's England to the left of the path, and Wales to the right. My year tick Green Hairstreak a month ago was in the willows way off on the skyline, scant yards inside the Welsh border.

Second big target of the day was an easy stop off on the way home, Marford Quarry, but I never expected that I'd bag the goods so quickly, within sight of the car even, I was buzzed by a big flappy Fritillary, my second Butterfly tick of the day, a Silver-washed! Didn't really hang around much after that, took advantage of the easy win and headed home. Hadn't eaten since scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast, so food was most definitely calling!

24 - Silver-washed Fritillary, Marford Quarry

 

[Owene]

That's a nice one. Had swf yesterday but it didn't have a silver sheen like that one. Well done on the large heath as well. Never even got close to a photo of one

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Had a spell up at Minera Quarry about a week ago looking for Dark Green Fritillary. The sunshine was intermittent, the brisk breeze not so much, and butterfly activity was restricted to Meadow Browns, Small Skippers, Small Heaths & Ringlets. I did however manage to tick Chimney Sweeper, so not a wasted trip by any means.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Finally had some sunshine yesterday, after a dull and blustery few days. Unfortunately I had a necessary meeting early afternoon so didn't manage to get away from work until nearly four, and arrived at Esculsham at half past. The plan was to walk out from here to the western fringes of Minera Quarry to continue the search for Dark Green Fritillary. The walk out gave me an opportunity to photograph Small Totoiseshell for the first time this year, as well as a Comma showing off its Comma and my first Large White of the year, one of two or three very restless individuals seen.

Upon reaching the meadows where I hoped to find my Fritillaries I was met with the now familiar onslaught of Meadow Browns, seasoned with Ringlets, Small Heaths & Small Skippers, but no Frits. That changed in the next field, on a flowery bank topped with a couple of old fridges and a telegraph pole when a Dark Green Fritillary alighted on a knapweed flower just a few feet away. Superb! I followed it around as it fed, and then when it purposefully headed off across the meadow I started the walk back to Esculsham, very satisfied!

25 - Large White, Minera Quarry
26 - Dark Green Fritillary, Minera Quarry

1st pic - Minera Quarry from Esculsham.

 

[Frank van Drogen]

Beautiful landscape!

(Other pics are nice too )

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Eldest had an event to attend at Wepre Park this morning, so I headed off away from all the activity and along with getting pics of Holly Blue & Large White I got my first Gatekeeper of the year.

After that we had some shopping to do, down at Broughton Retail Park. Before hitting the shops I payed a visit to a footpath round behind the park where last year Essex Skippers were found, a species I've not seen before that has been slowly spreading north over the past few years. Finding small s small Skippers was easy enough, finding them stationary was a whole other matter. Lots of Six-spot Burnets and a few Shaded Broad-bars, but eventually the thunder clouds rolled in and everything went quiet. I'll be back, it's really close to home, so will be easy to drop in on in better weather.

27 - Gatekeeper, Wepre Park

 

[JWN Andrewes]

With rain forecast for this afternoon and a morning at work I wasn't sure if there would be much of a window for butterflies today, so I was happy to see the sun shining as I headed home. Definitely with stopping en route at Broughton for another crack at Essex Skipper. Very lively with Silver Ys, Shaded Broad-bars, Six-spot Burnets, plenty of butterflies too, Meadow Browns, Large Whites & Gatekeepers mostly, but a few Skippers too and with a bit of patience I managed to get close enough to a few showing the inky black antenna tips of Essex, a new species for me!

Still sunny, so off to Aberduna next in the hope of finally nailing Brown Argus. Fairly quickly found my first Small Copper for the year, and then bumped into a couple of other butterfly seekers, deliberating over a Skipper they'd photographed, looked consistent with Essex, and over the course of the next hour or so did indeed manage to find a couple more, as well as both Small & Large. They'd also recently photographed my quarry, Brown Argus, just a few yards away. Well, I couldn't find it in my subsequent hour of searching, before threatening clouds and quickening breeze dialled activity right down and I headed home. Good to know that there's Argus here though, and at least they'll be on the wing for a while yet, and it's a site close to home.

28 - Essex Skipper, Broughton Retail Park
29 - Small Copper, Aberduna

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Ok, a couple of corrections before an account of yesterday's action. While most of the Whites that I saw at Wepre on 8th July were indeed Large (along with small numbers of Green-veined), the one whose photograph I attached was in fact a Small White, my first of the year, nudging the year list up to 30.

Which brings me to my second correction, concerning numbers. When I said there were 33 species to go for I had unaccountably failed to include Ringlet & Gatekeeper in that total. So I am in fact hoping for 35 species.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Late yesterday morning, during a rare spell of dry, sunny July weather, I headed off to Marford Quarry to look for White-letter Hairstreaks, a species that I'd never seen before and one that it looked like might start to become tricky after the first week in August.

Good variety of species on offer, including Holly & Common Blues, Small Coppers & Essex Skippers, as well as loads more Six-spot Burnets and a rather smart Spotted Longhorn beetle. I also eventually found what I was looking for, two spiralling round each other above the crown of a thankfully fairly small oak tree. Views & photos were poor though, and after a while the wind picked up and clouds obscured the sun, so I headed home for lunch.

Once fed I headed out again, this time up to Aberduna, where with barely any preamble I finally found myself a nice fresh looking Brown Argus. I had been prepared to dedicate a fair chunk of the afternoon tracking one down, so I decided to capitalise on my good luck by using the time and instead back at Marford. A good call, as I managed to upgrade my White-letter Hairstreak views back where I'd seen them this morning, this time with a rather tatty individual working it's way round a small Wych Elm the other side of the path from the Oak.

31 - White-letter Hairstreak
32 - Brown Argus

 

[Owene]

Any hairstreak photo is a good one. But that’s a nice one

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Got my first Peacock photo at home yesterday afternoon, with a nice looking Holly Blue in attendance too.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Sunshine's been in short supply of late, particularly on days off, so in spite of it being intermittent yesterday, and pretty breezy to boot, I nonetheless decided to head up to Rock Farm to look for Grayling. Hard work but a beautiful location, not all that birdy, but notched up Hobby & Whinchat up on the moors on my way in, and plenty of Wheatears and a few Redstarts on my walk. Took a long time to finally nail a rather distant Grayling, followed a short time later by one much closer, disappearing into the scree, that I managed to shuffle across to get a decent angle

So that's thirty three down, two to go, Purple Hairstreak, which would be a tick, and Painted Lady. Also, I guess a slight chance of Clouded Yellow, but that's not one I'm counting on.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Could I have picked a worse summer to focus on butterflies? The rain and wind through July doesn't seem to be about to depart the scene in early August at least, so with a brief respite with at least a modest amount of sunshine yesterday afternoon we decided to hit Greenfield Valley to look for Purple Hairstreak. This is a species I'd never seen before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I feared it might be rather challenging. Turned out, however, that seeing them was easy. In fact, seeing them in numbers was easy. However, seeing them well was difficult. Photographing them was difficulter. And photographing them well was difficultest.
Almost every time we got a clear view of the crown of an oak tree in decent sunshine we managed views of them chasing and spiraling about.
Views through bins were tolerable at best, and my poor attempts at photos are attached. Not proud of them, and will try for better, if not this year, then next.

34 - Purple Hairstreak, Greenfield Valley

 

[Farnboro John]

Could I have picked a worse summer to focus on butterflies? The rain and wind through July doesn't seem to be about to depart the scene in early August at least, so with a brief respite with at least a modest amount of sunshine yesterday afternoon we decided to hit Greenfield Valley to look for Purple Hairstreak. This is a species I'd never seen before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I feared it might be rather challenging. Turned out, however, that seeing them was easy. In fact, seeing them in numbers was easy. However, seeing them well was difficult. Photographing them was difficulter. And photographing them well was difficultest.
Almost every time we got a clear view of the crown of an oak tree in decent sunshine we managed views of them chasing and spiraling about.
Views through bins were tolerable at best, and my poor attempts at photos are attached. Not proud of them, and will try for better, if not this year, then next.

34 - Purple Hairstreak, Greenfield Valley

I'm sure I remember that they will come down to flowers late in the afternoon so it may be a question of timing. Congratulations on the tick!

Cheers

John

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Cheers, yes, my understanding is that late afternoon to early evening can be more productive. Going to head back this afternoon after work as it happens, looks like there'll be some sun about, so you never know.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Set off midnight Saturday for an overnight drive to Arne for Forster's Tern, arrived to churring Nightjars, successfully made the acquaintance with the Tern, enjoyed plenty of Sika Deer sightings too, as well as a Hummingbird Hawk-moth, my first this year.
With the Tern sorted early doors, the rest of the day would be all about Butterflies, with the first of the day, a couple of Red Admirals, seen before leaving Arne for Lulworth. First up here were Whites, Large & Green-veined first, Small later in the morning. Once we'd negotiated the inconvenient geography (stupid shape for a beach) and made our way up to the steps towards the MOD range we started to pick up Gatekeepers, Walls, Common Blues, Brown Argus and a couple of rather tatty Dark Green Fritillaries.

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Once up on Binden Hill I managed to get a couple of brief flight views of Marbled Whites too, not a tick but one I didn't have any pics of, but these were not sufficiently cooperative to rectify that. Meadow Browns were pretty numerous too, and kept wrong footing me, many looked considerably paler and warmer toned than the ones I see back home. Eventually I came across a pocket of feeding Marbled Whites in a sheltered hollow and was able to plug that photo gap, and also add Speckled Wood to the ever growing day list. It want until the walk back though that I finally found what I was really after, a Lulworth Skipper, soon followed by a couple more. I had hoped there might be Chalk Hill Blue about too, but failed to find anything other than Commons. That wrapped up our Lulworth visit, with the place becoming ever more packed with holidaymakers, so off we headed, with one more stop planned.