From late May, through June and into July, my attention slowly switches to butterflies. However as July goes on, my focus on birding gradually returns, as autumn bird migration slowly rumbles into life! Right now, the main bulk of the butterfly season has come to an end and though we'll still be seeing those commoner species with multiple emergences throughout the year, most of the more unusual ones are drawing to a close. I had a day to myself on Sunday 22/07 and having not spent a day out birding for a while, I decided on taking a trip to Frampton Marsh in Lincolnshire. In the previous few days, it had produced a great range of returning waders and quite simply, I fancied a bit of that! It was forecast to be another scorching hot day and although I arrived under cloud, this would soon turn to hot, humid conditions. I somehow failed to track down Pec & Wood Sandpipers, both reported on site during the day, although I still enjoyed a very relaxed, leisurely day's birding. Highlights included 4 Spoonbills, a late in the day Turtle Dove, a summering Whooper Swan, single, distant summer-plumaged Curlew Sandpiper & Little Stint, 4+ Spotted Redshank, a neck-ringed Pink-Footed Goose & a singing Corn Bunting.
It was cool too, to take in the 2,000 or so islandicaBlack Tailed Godwits spread across the reserve. They're lovely looking things in their breeding finery.
The 360 Hide was great in providing point blank views of several Snipe busily feeding outside. Some of the best views of Snipe I've ever had!
Other waders seen through the day included plenty of Ruff, 3 Greenshank, 2 Knot, a Turnstone, Dunlin, Avocets, both Green & Common Sandpipers, Lapwings, Oystercatchers, Ringed Plovers and quite a few Little Ringed Plovers, including a mega cute chick close to the 360 Hide!
A Peregrine did it's best to empty the reserve of birds, harrying the Godwit flock for a good 5 minutes! A couple of Marsh Harrier cruised past and a noisy bunch of Egyptian Geese were about too. Frampton is also an impressive site for the sheer amount of wild areas left, great for butterflies and insects, with swathes of thistles, grassland and flowers for them to enjoy. It was no surprise then, that were healthy numbers of butterflies on the wing, including 4-5 Painted Lady, quite a few Small Heaths and stacks of Common Blue, plus several other commoner species.
The last couple of weekends, I've spent quite a bit of time in my Brackley garden. Our mixture of Scabious, Buddleia, Globe Thistles and Marjoram have drawn in quite a selection of butterflies including numerous Large and Small White, a few Green-Veined Whites, Gatekeepers, Meadow Brown, Small Tortoiseshell, Holly Blues, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, a Brimstone and a Ringlet.
A couple of very unexpected oddities have also made appearances. Firstly I had an absolutely BONKERS sighting during the early evening of 15/07, as a female Purple Emperor cruised at rooftop height over my head! I stared open-mouthed at it for a few milliseconds, not able to calculate what it was. It then dawned at me, culminating in me just shouting at Em, "PURPLE EMPEROR, PURPLE EMPEROR!!!" An insane sighting and unsurprisingly a garden first. On 07/07, I also had 2 Essex Skippers drop in for a few minutes, just allowing me enough time to grab a couple of photos before they were off on their way again.
I'm not the only one to have out of the ordinary butterflies visit my garden in recent weeks. In fact, there has been quite a spate of Purple Hairstreaks, Emperors and Fritillaries venturing away from their woodland home in a search for moisture and salts. Due of course to the now long-term scorching weather and lack of rain.
On Sunday (01/07), I arranged to drive down to Somerset to catch up with my mate Dan Watson, as well as visit Collard Hill for my first large Blues. Keeping an eye on the daily posts on the excellent National Trust Large Blue blog, it appears were dropping rapidly. So I decided not to bother with Collard Hill until next year and would instead would meet up with up with Dan straight away. After a crap nights sleep and following a long day in the sun on Saturday, I woke up feeling pretty weary. What's more, I was also unpleasantly surprised to find I had a bit of an upset stomach (I'll spare you of the gory details!). Despite feeling kind of fragile, I was still keen to see Dan and not let the lad down, so just set off a little later than originally planned. I battled on as far as the Cotswolds, somewhere between Burford and Cheltenham, but it soon became clear it just wasn't worth it and was only going to make myself feel worse and more tired. After speaking to Dan, it dawned on me that I'd spoken to someone I know in Bucknell the previous day, who had been to another well known Large Blue site, Daneway Banks near Cirencester, just 20 minutes from where I was! He had seen still good numbers of Large Blues there, several very fresh. Was it best to just get back home and get myself sorted? Probably, but it was a chance to at least not make it a completely wasted journey. It would also cheer me up a bit and get me Large Blue after all. Win win. I arrived at 10am and parked up close to the Daneway Inn pub, located adjacent to the Daneway Banks reserve. It was already swelteringly hot and knowing how Large Blues tend to go to ground in the heat, I hastily made my way up the hill to the reserve entrance and began searching the lovely meadows before me.
There were immediately lots of Marbled Whites floating about barely pausing, clearly already supercharged by the hot morning sun.
Walking down the slope I caught the sight of something blue in front of me. It was not the vivid bright blue of a Common and had to be a Large Blue. The problem was it just wouldn't land and I ended up meticulously tracking it up and down the slope for a good 5 minutes. After bypassing numerous patches of Wild Thyme, it eventually found some to it's liking and FINALLY there settled was my first Large Blue!
It didn't settle for long and after another brief pause, it melted away down the hillside. Thankfully, I didn't have to wait too long for another one and walking around for a bit, I discovered an absolutely pristine female, in a much more calmer mood, slowly moving around the relatively abundant patches of Wild Thyme, both nectaring and egg-laying too!
Having spent a good hour there, it was getting super sweltering and so it was time to drive home, relax and get myself feeling a touch better.
As is becoming an annual theme, I tend to spend quite a bit of time in a handful of my local woods during June & July, as they come alive with a number of special butterfly species including Purple Emperor, White-Letter & Purple Hairstreak, White Admirals & Silver-Washed Fritillaries. Bucknell Wood is by far my favourite and go-to place to visit and I've really got to know and understand the site well over the last few years.
Having seen my first Purple Emperor there on the 22/06, it wasn't until Saturday 30/06 that I had some prolonged time to properly explore. With the forecast looking like a stunning, sunny day, I packed up a load of food and water and headed over to spend the day there.
It turned out to be a heck of a good day. Probably the highlight were the fabulous views of several mostly fresh White-Letter Hairstreaks down nectaring on brambles during the late afternoon.
At least five Purple Emperor were about, with a couple of enjoyable close up encounters! Most sightings though were fleeting, presumably due to the heat.
Impressive numbers of Purple Hairstreaks were on show and over the course of the day, I saw several at ground level coming down for salts. Best of all was one I discovered sat on a leaf, (below) above a valesina Silver-Washed Fritillary I was trying to photograph!
White Admirals were in good supply with at least 25 counted. The last 2-3 years have been far better for them, after a real dip in their numbers previously. They seem to have done very well again this year, so let's hope they'll continue to increase over the coming years.
Silver-Washed Fritillaries rapid rise only continues too. My count for the day was 74+ which was even more impressive due to the fact that females were still in small numbers, with many more still to emerge. On the day, it was also good to connect with at least 3 valesina form females. These have become a real speciality of Bucknell.
The following week or so after, I managed to squeeze in several more visits to Bucknell that yielded yet more great views of nectaring White-Letter Hairstreaks, yet more valezinas, as well as insane numbers of Silver-Washed Frits too.
Away from BuckneIl, I also managed to find Silver-Washed Frit, White Admiral and quite a few Purple Hairstreak during an evening walk around nearby Whistley Wood on 06/07. Best of all though was a surprise & all-to-brief Hummingbird Hawkmoth!
Finally, both Whistley and Bucknell have brought me my first Spotted Flycatchers of the year, with 2-3 vocal family parties knocking about, which is pleasing to find!
