Dream duo

While long periods of drought are not really to be celebrated, the continuous hot weather has produced a lot of interest in terms of migrant butteflies and moths.

It's been one of the best years for Painted Ladies, Clouded Yellows and Hummingbird Hawkmoths I can remember. HBHMs in particular, have been numerous and we've been very lucky to have them in the garden daily!

Nationally, it's also been a very interesting year for rarer migrant butterflies. The Queen of Spain Fritillary has been a particular headline grabber, with a good spread of records across southern and eastern England. For many years I've longed to see one in the UK or abroad, mesmorised by it's beautiful metalic underwing pattern. 

Following a sprinkle of early summer sightings, it became apparent that by early August the offspring of any migrant egg-laying females, were now emerging, with a number of freshly hatched individuals in several locations.

One such place, was a wildflower field margin, close to the village of Monk Sherborne, Hampshire, that produced a remarkable double figure count! With myself and the family travelling down to the New Forest for a long weekend on 21/08, I just had to shoehorn this into our journey!!

Arriving at lunchtime, we parked up close to the footpath down to the site, a flower-rich field margin. I soon left the family to enjoy their picnic, whilst I headed off to hopefully enjoy something a bit special! The sun was a bit in and out of the cloud, however the main thing was it was warm, so would surely mean they would be active.

Ten minutes later, I reached the field, with a handful of people in view, hunching over photographing something - this looks promising! Before I'd even reached them, something bright orange flicked up in front of me, quickly resettling on some dead grass - an absolutely pristine Queen of Spain Fritillary - WOW! 

It was a truly enjoyable 45 or so minutes, (despite us encountering a very obnoxious local dog walker!) enjoying great views of approximately 5 QoS as they wizzed about, offen battling eachother and heading up some 50 feet into the sky before coming back down and going their separate ways. Despite the amazing spectacle, one thing began nagging me - the lack of an underwing view! When settled, all they wanted to do was spread their wings wide to absorb some sun. Thankfully, one finally obliged and I very slowly dropped to the floor to get some half decent shots of that outrageous underwing - get in!!

I could've lingered so much longer, but the time had come to drag myself away, albeit as a very chappy!

Could it get any better?? Possibly so!

Just one week later, during the afternoon of 28/08, I got the the exciting news that I had the opportunity to see a local Death's Head Hawkmoth!! For anyone interested in moths and nature in general, the Death's Head is quite simply the holy grail of moths. It is a creature of enormous size, in fact the biggest moth to visit our shores. They're pretty scarce too, with only a few recorded every year, although they literally can turn up anywhere. But to potentially see one in the land-locked midlands was just an opportunity not to be missed!

I headed over after work and before too long I managed to find it as described, roosting on a children's playground climbing frame of all places! It was pleasingly super pristine, suggesting an emergence not too far away, perhaps from a local's Potato patch!

I was immediately blown away by it's size - an absolute monster of a moth! The legs were super chunky, eyes massive for a moth and the colours exquisite, with even some subtle blue tones amongst the greys and black. I must've spent a good half an hour staring at it and taking photos, mesmerized by it's sheer aura! Unbelievable!

Heatwave insects

The record-breaking summer continued from July into August, with a drought officially declared locally, along with many other areas throughout south, central and eastern England.

As such, insects were generally my biggest focus, with the garden continuing to produce a great range of interest - it's been a joy! Further reward for the efforts to attract nature in. 

A string of garden firsts (pretty notable considering we've been there for 14 years now!) included Small Heath on 22/07 & 09/08 (the 25th butterfly species for the garden) and a surprise visit from 2 Willow Emerald Damselflies on 29/07, which is an excellent record for our small garden pond! Another appeared on 09/08, so they must be established somewhere nearby.

The fine weather and warm nights meant mothing was worth persisting with, producing three garden firsts - long overdue Jersey Tigers on 25/07 & 09/08, a Dewick's Plusia 26/07 and a migrant Vestal on 14/08. A good run of Gypsy Moths was also pretty cool; as was a brief visit from a monster Privet Hawkmoth caterpillar, a creature looking more suited to a rainforest than a humble garden in central England! 

It has been a remarkable summer for Hummingbird Hawkmoths - we've had them pretty much daily for the best part of 2 and a half months. I've become pretty blaise with them! It was also the very first time I've actually seen one settled!

The garden has predictatbly done well for butterflies with frequent Painted Ladies, many more Common Blue than would be normal, as well as a shortish visit from a Small Copper on 11/08 - plus all the more commoner, expected species.

Elsewhere, Clouded Yellows were beginning to pop up here and there. Was lucky to actually see a couple stationary at Hinton Airfield on 08/08! As well as the garden Jersey Tigers, the day before the first garden one, I also bumped into one sat in a hedge at Ardley Quarry on 24/07, which at that point was my first locally!

From a birding point of view, the settled weather was hugely condusive for anything particularly spectacular, however birds did start dribbling through with the likes of Yellow Wags, Green Sands, Snipe and Teal all beginning to appear - all classic early autumn movers!

Spot Flys began to appear, with a couple of family parties appearing at Ardley Quarry. I finally encountered a local Redstart, having strangely struggled for one in 2025 and so far this year. It did the honourable thing of sitting out sunning itself at Grimsbury Res on 09/08. My first local Black-Tailed Godwit of the year, a moulting adult, was at Boddington Res on 27/09 and a juvenile Ruff also hung around there for a few days.

A summer mega from the east!

Nowadays, it has to be something pretty decent for me to get my twitching boots back on! County ticks and local scarcities mainly. But there are certain birds within a reasonable distance that can still be irresistable - a rare shrike for example!

Early July brought the amazing news of a 1st-summer Long-Tailed Shrike up in eastern Scotland, a UK mega, in fact just the 2nd ever record. 

Incredibly, news then broke of another one, no more than an hour and a bit from home, seen on private farmland in inland Gloucetershire of all places! Gutting, as that would've been something I'd have made every effort to see. It's a bird I have enjoyed before, with fond memories of seeing then in Vietnam on my honeymoon some 9 years ago - giving some perspective as to how far ths bird had travelled. A stunner of a species that you could only dream of seeing in the UK, particularly that close to home.

Fast forward a few days and welcome news arose that the Gloucs Long-Tailed Shrike had been re-found by a local birder and after a few coversations in the background, the bird was now twitchable, with the farmer kindly arranging parking in a nearby field. Get in!!

While I couldn't go that day (Sunday 19/07), I hastily arranged to duck out of post-work Dad duties the following day and head straight to Eastleach Martin, near Burford after work. On a lovely sunny early evening, I got over in good time, paid my fiver at the field car park (a collection for further conservation work on the farm) and marched off down the road and footpath to the area. There would be no confusion as to where to go, with plenty of birders arriving and departing. It was though pleasingly not as caotic as it was likely to have been the day before!

After noting a couple of Clouded Yellows along the footpath, I joined the assembled 40 or so people and immediately zeroed in on the bird sat in it's favoured hedge. What a treat - Long-Tailed Shrike! This field boundary actually ran along the county border between Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, causing quite a stir amongst Oxon birders initially, as to where exactly Oxon was and ensuring it was added to their county list!     

Luckily, the Shrike began to move a bit closer along the hedge, each time dropping down to the field to grab prey, usually grasshoppers, before returning to a prominent pearch in the hedge. I then managed to get my closest views of all, as it made it's way to the other side of the hedge and into Oxon, sitting on a small hawthorn on the edge of the field for a while. The bird then flew to a different hedge, signalling my moment to reluctantly drag myself away, however with a very satisfying buzz of seeing something very special!