Sunday, 10th May 2020
Before I continue with our tale of derring-do in pursuit of all the butterflies found in Great Britain I need to return to a photograph I included last week.
The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that the second bird on the left has been ringed.
The ring is white with the characters "N03R".
I entered this sighting on the Euring website and within a day I had received a history of this Lesser black-backed gull:
- It received its ring in Malaga, Spain on 15 February 2012.
- Five months later it was spotted in Aldeby, Norfolk, which, to save you having to look it up, is a few miles west of Lowestoft.
- Early in 2013 it was back in Spain, being spotted several times around Madrid.
- It was next seen in May 2013 at a landfill near Albert Village, Leicestershire.
- Nothing more was reported until February last year (2019) when it was spotted on Trench Lock Pool in Telford
- And the final report was the roof of my neighbour's house.
If you are fortunate enough to spot a bird with a ring that you can decipher I strongly recommend submitting the sighting.
Back to our story.
As you will gather from the title, the seed planted in our hero's mind to see one of the most restricted butterflies, in terms of distribution, did germinate, as a plan was formulated on how to get from our homes to Compton Bay on the Isle of Wight and back in a day.
And, remarkably, his frequent travelling companions agreed to accompany him. Even more remarkably there were not too many objections from the companions' families other than a general agreement that:
"They must be mad!"
The weather forecast was consulted - many times - and a date and time of meet agreed.
Early on Tuesday 11th June 2019, we were set forth.
I do not remember much about the trip to Lymington. I must have been catching up on sleep most of the way! But we arrived in very good time to catch the 11 o'clock ferry to Yarmouth.
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| Photograph: Jim Cresswell |
The journey to Yarmouth took about 40 minutes. Plenty of time for a stroll about and a selfie.
We are now in Yarmouth.
On foot.
How do we get to Compton Bay, 5 miles away?
We checked the bus timetable. Yes we could get there, but a bus was not due for quite some time.
An alternative was to take a taxi. But there were no taxis available by the time we found the rank.
Whichever came first, we would use, posting one person at the bus stop and a second at the taxi rank.
A taxi pulled in so we hired it to get us to Compton Bay. Once there we had the foresight to get the driver's telephone number so that we could call him for a lift back to Yarmouth when we were ready to return.
The area in which we were hoping to find our target butterfly for the day was the undercliff. That is the bit between the cliff from where the above photograph was taken and the beach. This has been formed from landslips from the cliff as it eroded. Vegetation has established over the years and provides unusual but excellent habitat. This is exploited by the Glanville fritillary and many other invertebrates and plants.
Fortunately we did not need to abseil down the cliff face to get to the undercliff, some steps had been provided for public use.
Down we went. For some reason I found myself at the front so went down as quickly as my knees would allow. Having got to the bottom I took a small track along the undercliff. I had only gone about 20 yards when I found:
Number 35 - Glanville fritillary.
I have been a bit previous here. It is not number 35 until our hero has seen it and confirmed its identity. So I stood there and waited.
Where was Jim?
He was about a third of the way down the stairs peering at the cliff face.
I shouted.
He did not hear.
I shouted again.
He still did not hear.
So I gave up and just waited, keeping an eye on the butterfly to keep track of where it went.
Fortunately the butterfly appeared content feeding on the flower and showed no inclination to move.
Eventually our hero arrived and, amazingly, the butterfly was still there. So it became officially Number 35.
He was so pleased that we had found one that, when he stood up straight after peering at it, gravity took over. His large and weighty rucksack took charge making him fall over, quite elegantly, backwards into the forgiving vegetation behind him.
Much to the amusement of two young ladies returning up the cliff from the beach!
Fortunately no damage, apart from pride, was sustained.
A bonus.
Number 36: Small skipper.
Of course these are fairly common in our locality but this was our hero's first sighting of the year.
After these successes a much delayed lunch was taken in the company of a Great green bush cricket.
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| Photograph: Bob Kemp |
Taking in the views …
And being very grateful for the warm, mostly sunny weather we were experiencing, whilst over on the mainland the black clouds had amassed. They had not, thankfully, crossed the Solent.
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| Photograph: Jim Cresswell |
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| Photograph: Bob Kemp |
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| Photograph: Bob Kemp |
And the several of the beetle Psilothrix viridicoeruleus which feeds on the Thrift that grows abundantly here.
After all this excitement, time for some personal reflection.
It was time to retrace our steps. But the area held one more surprise.
As we ascended the steps our hero stopped in his tracks and studied, intently, a step in front him.
It was a Boat bug (photographed on the vegetation we placed it on to avoid accidental trampling on the steps.)
The taxi driver responded quickly to our call and deposited us in Yarmouth in time for some quick refreshments before catching the ferry back to Lymington.
The rest of the journey, as far as I remember it, was long but uneventful, apart from difficulty in finding an eating place that would provide a meal that complemented the rest of this extraordinary day.
Two butterflies were causing our hero's "fret" level to rise at this point.
The first was the relatively common Small white. Why had he not seen one yet?
The second was High brown fritillary, which according to my book, is one of the most endangered butterflies. Its flight period was fast approaching so plans were made to return to "known" sites around Morecambe Bay to look for it
I am afraid that you will have to wait to find out if this next outing was successful.
To finish this episode here are a few photographs of recent sightings.
I start with someone who has been digging a big hole in his garden and filling it with water.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
Well, within days there were at least three insects making their living in it despite the lack of any vegetation - to quote, there was a "a bigger beetle sp., a smaller beetle sp. and a pond skater". Not bad!
Here is the bigger beetle.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
And the pond skater taking advantage of a water-logged fly.
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| Photograph: David Williams |
A recent find of note was Shropshire's second record of the Brassica shieldbug, Eurydema oleracea, which was found at Millichope.
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| Photograph: Caroline Uff |
The first was found in the Wyre Forest in 2007. I hope it is not another 13 years before we see another one.
My own entomology has been restricted to moth trapping. Here are a few of the moths that have found their way into it recently.
Angle shades:
Scalloped hazel:
And finally, despite this month being "No Mow May" how do you fancy having one of these to help you keep fit when you do mow? (Spotted by the eagle eyes of our spiderman.)
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| Photograph: unknown |
Until the next time, keep safe and well.
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