Butterfly Bonanza

With a forecast window of dry and sunny weather, the opportunity was taken to embark on what will probably be my last bit of serious butterflying for the year, with 3 new species the target.

Contrary to the forecast of 24 degrees and sunshine, on arrival Aston Rowant was shrouded in low cloud with occasional drizzle, and was cool with a fair breeze, nevertheless within only a matter of seconds of walking out onto the hillside I found my first target a Silver-spotted Skipper.

In reality the poor weather was probably an advantage in some ways with the Skippers being pretty inactive until disturbed and thus allowed close approach making photography much easier than if they were buzzing around the hillside had the weather actually been hot and sunny.

As usual I took loads of photos, some of which are included below.

As is commonplace in this part of the country, Red Kites were an ever present feature in the sky, but sadly the weather and light made any really decent photos out of the question especially with my point & shoot camera, although I was still happy with what I managed anyway.

Next stop was Yoesden Bank with Adonis Blue the target. As this is the only butterfly to date that I've failed to find on two previous tries, I was determined to succeed this time, and after a couple of false alarms over Common Blues, I disturbed a strikingly coloured Blue from the grass which I instantly knew was going to be one, and sure enough once it settled the upperwing colouration, with more importantly the black lines through the white outer fringe, were quickly confirmed and I was delighted to have seen one at last.

About 3 or 4 Adonis Blues were found, plus a number of other species including several Chalkhill Blues although the males were mostly faded and tatty, but were nice to see nonetheless.

With the predicted sunny and warm weather now materialising, and thanks to some excellent directions given to me by another butterflyer at Yoesden, I quickly made my way to Whitecross Green Wood in search of Brown Hairstreaks.

Brown Hairstreaks have a reputation of being probably the hardest butterfly to connect with, being so unpredictable in their appearances and rarely descending from the canopy of their chosen ash tree. Looking like I was destined to fail, just as I was about to leave I noticed a movement in top of an ash and decided to persevere here just in case. After a few tantalising glimpses during the next hour I finally saw it land in view and a quick check through the bins revealed a gorgeous orange underwing with white lines - it was a Brown Hairstreak! It once again moved and I was then treated to it doing a bit of basking, opening up its wings to reveal the orange patches on its brown wings.

Naturally I was hoping to find one lower down but in reality I was just pleased to see one for now, and to grab a quick digiscoped image of one as it moved slightly lower down into the top of an adjacent tree.

During my earlier searching I also chanced upon a very faded and worn Silver-washed Fritilary which was an added bonus.

All in all an excellent trip with three new species recorded, and excluding vagrants, leaving just 6 more species to see, although given their distance away from Norfolk I'll target them over the next 2 or 3 years and combine them with a bit more dragonflying too.

Shags

A look at the sea off Overstrand this afternoon produced a Shag on the sea which was watched slowly drifting east on the tide. After a while it was surprisingly joined by a second and then after a while they both flew off west towards Cromer.

A few Gannets, a couple of Kittiwakes and the odd Guillemot were also noted offshore, along with a couple of Knot, Sanderling and a few Oystercatchers all moving west.

A check up at the reservoir showed that the Common Sandpiper was still present, and a Little Grebe had also taken up residence, the first one I've seen on there this year, and as they frequently do, in the absence of any vegetation to use as cover, it spent most of its time hiding inside the tyres around the edge.

Migrant Hawkers

A walk round Felbrigg Lake today produced the first local Migrant Hawkers of the year with a couple found hanging up in the fairly overcast conditions.

A solitary Black-tailed Skimmer, a Darter sp. and a few Common Blue Damsels were seen, but no sign of any Small Red-eyes on the lake yet. Lots of exuviae were on the walled end of the lake, most of which were Darters, but a few larger ones were collected which presumably were Hawkers.

A Purple Hairstreak was seen feeding on brambles, and a pair of Mute Swans were new in on the lake.

Black Darters and Greenshank

With a warm sunny day in the offing I took a trip over to Dersingham Bog in the hope of finding some Black Darters. Things weren't looking good as after a couple of hours or so I'd just found a number of Common Darters, plus a couple of Emperors and a Black-tailed Skimmer.

Fourtunately a group of birders that I knew then arrived, and with more pairs of eyes looking we saw at least three in the vegetation around the pond.

Also around the pool were good numbers of Emerald Damselflies, my first of the year, which were also nice to see.

I'm not really into Moths, although I did go and see a Deaths Head Hawkmoth at Mundesley a few years back, but the one below did catch my eye as it flew low amongst the heather, and which was identified for me as a Beautiful Yellow Underwing.

On the way back to the car my first Migrant Haker of the year was seen feeding over the heather and briefly hanging up to allow a positive id. to be made.

Returning to the patch early evening I headed straight up to the reservoir as a Greenshank had been seen there in the morning. I wasn't really expecting it to still to be there so I was delighted when a glance round the banks quickly revealed it was, along with a Common Sandpiper.

A quick check of the seafront was rewarded with a Hobby flying east, the shrill alarm calls of the local House Martins alerting me to its presence long before I saw it.

Arctic Tern

One of the features on the patch in summer is the small numbers of terns feeding offshore, with frequent gatherings either on the groynes at high tide or on the beach itself at low tide.

Today whilst seawatching I noticed a small flock of Common Terns had gathered on the beach, and even from a distance I was pretty sure an Arctic Tern was with them so quickly dashed from my vantage point down onto the beach below where my suspicions were quickly confirmed.

A nice comparison shot below showing just how distinctive they are from the Common Terns in the background.

Also in the flock was this superb juv.

And finally a shot of some of the Common Terns before the whole flock was flushed by a combination on the incoming tide, holiday-makers and a very large low flying aircraft!

Chalkhill Blues

With finally a nice sunny day, I decided to visit Warham today for the Chalkhills Blues, and certainly wasn't disappointed with good numbers in evidence.

 A few Holly Blues were also seen in the hedgerow along the entrance track including the one below.

And whilst on the theme of butterflies, the Gatekeeper below was taken on the patch earlier this week, with the cold and wet conditions making it reluctant to fly and thus very photogenic.

Seawatching

The first Whimbrel of the year on the patch was seen during the week with one high west over Northrepps.

With brisk onshore winds attention today turned to the sea and although it was far from spectacular, there was enough of a good passage of commoner birds to keep up the interest during a six hour watch.

Most notable was a nice westerly passage of Arctic Terns (mainly juv's) and Little Gulls (both adults and imm's) many of which stopped to linger for a while feeding on the leeward side of the pier.

2 drake Velvet Scoters were also a very notable sighting for the patch, and single Manx Shearwater and a couple of Arctic Skuas were also recorded, along with Gannets, Fulmar, Kittiwakes and Guillemots. Wader passage was also very good with Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Curlew, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Turnstone, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover and Oystercatcher plus the odd Shelduck and Common Scoter also moving.

Back home a Southern Hawker feeding in the road outside my house was a bonus especially when it hung up on the garden hedge allowing close approach.

 

Southern Hawker

With a bit of sunshine today I had a look for White-letter Hairstreaks at Sidestrand, which like the ones at Holkham were seen coming down to feed on privet, although as they have obviously been out for a while now, all the ones I saw were pretty battered along the wing tips like the one below.

I moved on to Gimingham to check out another WLH site and saw one briefly up in the elms, but the undoubted highlight here was the first Southern Hawker of the year hanging up in the vegetation.

A Brown Hawker was also seen patrolling the area, and 2+ Yellow Wagtails were flying around calling and were presumably local breeders.

Always worth a check

Took a phone call this morning from my Mum to say that whilst she had been walking along Cromer prom an hour or so earlier she had noticed a large dark bird with slightly paler underparts on the sea close inshore which just didn't look right for the Cormorants she was used to seeing along there and made a wild guess that maybe it was a diver sp. and although she is a non-birder she has naturally taken in a bit of knowledge over the years so it was certainly worth following up.

A check of the sea where she had seen it drew a blank, so I decided to look the other side of the pier where I quickly found a Guillemot, and then locked on to her bird which I was delighted to see was a Shag and watched as it slowly drifted back west round the pier back to where she had originally found it, an excellent find and my first July record of one on the patch, and maybe anywhere in the county, with my previous earliest being a few which were around in late August '08.

A further scan of the sea revealed that there were 3 Arctic Skuas, all pale-phase adults, wheeling around high above the horizon slowly heading east, my first of the year, and the tail-end of what was undoubtedly a Little Gull was seen disappearing round the pier.

Red Kite

Thanks to a phone call this afternoon alerting me to the fact that a Red Kite was over the village and probably heading my way, after a short while I picked it up as it slowly drifted eastwards virtually overhead. As it reached the far end of the village it started to circle and quickly back-tracked to where I was and then landed in a nearby tree. With the almost immediate onset of showers it was obviously sheltering from the elements and so would hopefully allow me enough time to dash home to grab my scope in order to try to get a photo. On my return I was delighted that it was still there and I alerted a few locals to its presence and soon a small but very appreciative group assembled to enjoy rare perched views as it continued to shelter until the showers temporarily subsided and it eventually flew off low west.

Brown Hawker

For a slight change of scenery when visiting Felbrigg Park this week, I've spent a bit of time over a couple of days around the small pond towards the western entrance, with the area proving very productive.

On the bird front 25+ Crossbills were noted flying over heading towards the Lions Mouth, Butterflies included both White Admiral and Purple Hairstreak and Dragonflies were well represented by Ruddy Darter, Banded Demoiselle, 2+ Emperors including an ovipositing female and a pair of Broad-bodied Chasers with the female also noted ovipositing, however the main highlight was a couple of Brown Hawkers with after a lot of waiting one finally perching on the bankside vegetation to allow me to get my best photos to date of the species.

Down by the main lake the Purple Hairstreaks continued to be as non-obliging photography-wise as ever although good numbers continue to be present in the 'master' tree, the White Admiral was still present and good numbers of Gatekeepers were now evident in the meadows. On the lake itself a Green Sandpiper was happily feeding along the eastern shoreline, Black-tailed Skimmers, Emperors and Common Darters were all noted and more exuviae were found along the wall to add to my growing collection.

Willow Emeralds

With news that Willow Emerald Damselflies had begun to emerge, I took a trip down to Alton Water, where I had briefly seen them last year. Shortly after arrival I quickly located one not far from the car park and then over the next couple of hours found another 10 or so in the lakeside vegetation. Most were fairly fresh tenerals but I did manage to find a couple of slightly more mature ones, and managed to get a few decent photos with some reproduced below.

My first Brown Hawker and Ruddy Darters of the year were also seen, with a photo of one of the latter plus a Red Admiral below.

Felbrigg

The highlight of a walk round Felbrigg yesterday was my first White Admiral there, with one seen briefly by the bridge on the west side of the lake.

A Hummingbird Hawkmoth was also seen along with a few Purple Hairstreaks but none came close enough to allow a photo.

Another visit today again failed to get any decent photos of them as again they refused to come low enough down, but I did manage the photos below of a Small Copper and Black-tailed Skimmer.

Heath Fritillary

Had a day out today with Heath Fritillary, which would be a new species for me, the target species. I arrived at Belfairs Wood at c8.30 in lovely warm and sunny weather and quickly found White Admiral and a Silver-washed Fritillary, the latter, looking at the county website, potentially a first site record, so things were looking good. However very quickly it clouded over and the stubborn dark clouds which seemed to be only present over the wood, it was lovely blue sky in all directions, refused to move off and three hours later without success I decided to cut my losses and move on to nearby Hockley Woods to see if my luck would improve.

After about some 45 minutes of searching there, the clouds eventually started to break up and the sun started to warm things up and consequently the butterflies in the wood started to become active. However apart from a very brief flight view of a possible Heath Frit I still drew a blank and started to wonder if I'd just left it too late in their flight season and they were over for this year.

After about a further hour of searching in glorious sunshine, I decided to go back to Belfairs for one last try, with fortunately the warm and sunny weather continuing. Another hour was spent searching, with further sightings of the Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admirals, but still no Heath Fritillaries.

Just before giving up, it was now 16.30, I made one final sweep across the other side of the reserve in Dodds Grove and suddenly flushed an unfamiliar butterfly up from vegetation and I froze as it flew across the clearing, willing it to settle as it went. Knowing that it wasn't any of the common species I was happy that it was one but I wanted to see it perched and thankfully it duely obliged by landing on the far side of the clearing. A quick check through the bins confirmed it was indeed a Heath Fritillary and I managed to take a distant record shot of it before it took flight again but disappointly refused to settle again and disappeared off up into the trees and despite more searching was never relocated.

However after 8 hours of searching during which time I had given up all hope of connecting, I was more than delighted with just the brief view and another new species of butterfly.