Sunday 26th April 2020
First, the answer to the puzzle I set at the end of the last report.What is this?
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| Photograph: Les Hughes |
This week's episode of our hero's quest to find all of the butterflies, normally found in Great Britain, details trips to find three of the most difficult ones to find, especially when you live in Staffordshire or Shropshire. They are rare and involve long journeys to any of their known sites.
Chequered skippers are BAP Priority Species restricted to damp grassland sites in western Scotland. The skippers used to be found in England but these colonies died out in the 1970s. Recently there has been a great deal of publicity about their re-introduction into the Rockingham Forest but, as far as I know, the exact location remains secret and visits are discouraged.
So if you want to see a Chequered skipper you have to go quite a way into Scotland. A very long way from our locality!
Scanning the weather forecast for the week ahead on the Monday our hero sent his "support team" the following email:
"Hi Chaps,
"The forecast remains rain and shine over much of the country.
"The main targets this week are:
"Swallowtail, Chequered Skipper, Lulworth Skipper, Glanville Fritillary, Heath Fritillary.
Strumpshaw, Oban, Portland, Croydon/west Solent area, Southend.
"I need one day nearer home so as to get stuff done, it could be tomorrow, if it is friday then Oban is out.
Where do we want to go on thursday?"
I seem to remember that Bob and I were unavailable for some reason on the Tuesday but we agreed to go to Strumpshaw on the Thursday.
In our absence our hero went to Oban on the Tuesday.
All by himself.
Over 700 miles there and back.
All in a day!!!!!
And was it worth it?
You bet!
Number 26: Chequered skipper
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| Photograph: Jim Cresswell |
7.08am: Set off from home
9.25am: 20 minute stop at the Tebay Services on the M6.
From the M6 took the M74 over the southern uplands, followed by the M8 and the M898 taking the Erskine Bridge over the River Clyde. Took the A82 north.
Stopped just north of Glasgow then on to Loch Lomond. (Made a note of vacancies around Loch Lomond in case an overnight stop required!) From Loch Lomond continued north to Tyndrum then headed westward towards Oban. At Connel headed north on the A828 to Creran (nearly there). A little way north of Creran turned left onto the minor road that leads to the car park at Glasdrum Wood.
Arrived at 2.16pm.
An easy journey!
There was beautiful warm sunshine but a stiff westerly wind to greet him, with the occasional large white clouds. Fortunately, after such a long journey, there were quite a few Chequered skippers about in the scrub that is found in this Celtic rainforest.
The journey home was achieved by retracing his route there, with stops on the way and frequent decisions whether to find a bed for the night or plough on.
He ploughed on.
The only real concern was a lack of fuel but our hero made it home just after midnight with his car showing a range of 0 miles on its fuel gauge.
Two days later he was off on another adventure, this time with his "support staff", to RSPB Strumpshaw Fen.
Although primarily a bird reserve, the site is well known for its populations of the rare Norfolk hawker and, what we wanted to see, the Swallowtail butterflies.
On arrival it was quite a struggle to find a parking spot, but we managed find one in the end. No sooner had we entered the reserve than we saw a crowd milling around a large raised flower bed.
"If you had been here 5 minutes ago you would have seen Swallowtails" was the helpful information we were given.
"But they may come back." was added as a consolation.
Snacks were obtained from the RSPB kiosk and we set up vigil at the flower bed along with a few others.
To be fair we did not have to wait long until a large, elegant butterfly fluttered into view and settled to start feeding.
It was immediately surrounded by lenses of grotesque proportions as well as the more modest ones toted by the likes of myself.
Number 27: Swallowtail
Yes. There it is on the flower head just to the left (as viewed through the lens) of the person with dark glasses.
When the hubbub had died down I did manage to get close enough to take a photograph or two.
What a delightful animal.
It was still pretty early in the day (before lunch) so we had a wander about the site.
A Norfolk hawker was observed but at a distance and out of my camera range. However, I did manage a snap of another dragonfly rarity - a Scarce chaser.
As we wandered along a path that bordered one of the many ditches we came across a moth on the path - a Small China-mark
Our trip around the car park ended with a confrontation with an enormous dog that was off the lead and bounding around the car park "only being friendly" with everyone it met. My response to the owner is best not printed.
Bliss! Two days rest.
Heath fritillary is, according to my butterfly book, exceedingly rare. It is found on Exmoor and Devon in the west and a handful of woods in Essex and Kent in the east. And it was to the east that we headed. To Hockley Woods, a few miles north west of Southend.
Despite the distance we had a very easy journey there, with little traffic and no holdups.
The habitat that we were looking for was recently cleared areas within the woodland.
We searched and searched for what seemed hours, but was probably about an hour, and could not find any sign of any habitat that held the promise of seeing the butterfly.
Stress levels rose!
Did we give up?
Don't be daft.
Eventually we stumbled across a sizeable clearing that had scrubbed up a little and had plenty of well grassed areas between the scrub.
And hey presto! There was a Heath fritillary, and then another, and another.
Number 28: Heath fritillary
Having found the target species for the day we could relax and enjoy the other things that the wood had to offer.
Needless to say, having relaxed, we found other spots where the butterfly was reasonably abundant.
Other species that we saw included:
A Parent bug guarding its eggs.
The striking micromoth Dasycera oliviella.
A beetle Clytra quadripunctata.
And a leatherbug that has been recorded in Shropshire for the first time recently, Box bug
And, NO, I did not bring this one back with me and release it in Shropshire in order to claim the first record for the county!
As we meandered about the site we noticed a police helicopter overhead.
It was still overhead five minutes later.
And ten minutes later … yes it was still there, appearing to track our movements.
All of a sudden we felt very guilty.
Later we met another walker who told us that the police were searching for an elderly gentleman with dementia who had wandered off and was last seen in the wood. Clearly the police in the helicopter thought that one of us may have been that gentleman.
We heard nothing more so, we assumed, the gentleman had been found and the police had stood down.
Having had a very easy journey to the woods, the return home was a little more difficult. Soon after joining the A127 to make our way to the M25 and home, we ground to a halt and stayed still or only advanced a few yards for quite a long time. There had, unfortunately, been an accident a little way down the road and it was taking time to deal with those involved and create a passage through for the rest of the traffic.
We got home eventually, safely.
The following day it was off to the Lake District to look for Mountain Ringlet. No rest for the dedicated pursuer of the 58.
But the chronicler does need some rest. You'll have to wait for the details of this outing.
As in previous weeks I now include some of the photographs that I have been fortunate enough to receive this week, plus a couple from my moth trap.
We'll start with spiders.
A male Dieae dorsata:
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
A Noble false widow spider Steatoda nobilis:
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| Photograph: Bob Kemp |
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| Photograph: Bob Kemp |
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
A young Old lady:
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
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| Photograph: Nigel Cane-Honeysett |
Keep well.
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