The 58 - Episode II - Numbers 11 - 19

Sunday, 12 April 2020

As I fidget in frustration at not being able to get out and about in these last few days of glorious weather I turn my attention to some more butterflies found by our hero (Jim) in his great Quest.

(If you need a reminder the Quest was to see all 58 species of butterflies normally found in Great Britain.)

(A second reminder - I have tried to include photographs of each of the butterflies where they were found. Where this is not possible I have used photographs from other occasions that they were observed. Please do not be concerned if you see late season ivy in a photograph of a butterfly seen in Spring!)

As promised I have used a more imaginative title for this week's account, I hope you appreciate the effort!

And so we come, as mentiond in Episode I, to an outing to the delightfully named Sharpenhoe Clappers, at the end of April 2019.

For those of you who were not intrigued enough to investigate earlier, it is the site of an Iron Age promontory fort and associated earthworks, situated on a chalk escarpment that rises from the generally flatter ground that surrounds it, just north of Luton.

Why did we choose to go there ...?

… It was a nice day.

And what was the butterfly that we went all that way to find?

Number 11: Large white

Photograph: Bob Kemp

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

No, we did not really go to Sharpenhoe Clappers just to find one of our most common butterflies, it just happened that was where our hero saw his first Large white of the year.

Whilst we were there we also found a Small yellow underwing:

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

According to the County Moth Recorders for Bedfordshire this was the first time this moth had been recorded at this site. The trip was worthwhile.

After finding Large white our hero had to wait 11 days before finding number 12. There was a definite tension in the air as the days sped by. Then the floodgates opened and in the next three days EIGHT more were added to the list of sightings for the year, and none of them required a visit to far off lands.

Number 12 was Wood white which are found in some woodlands in the south west of Shropshire. Bury Ditches is a well known Shropshire site for this butterfly. However, our hero found his in Radnor Wood, a Forestry Commission plantation just south of Bury Ditches. In recent times the Forestry Commission has been undertaking work in this plantation to encourage the wood white by opening up the rides with, it seems, some success.

I do not have a photograph of the wood white Jim saw but the Joy of Wildlife group visited the wood, as part of its programme, a few weeks later, on a damp and dreary day and we found half a dozen. They were very docile due to the inclement weather.

Photograph: David Williams

The following day our hero and I went to Lower Butchers Quarry which is situated in the north western Corner of Llynclys Common. Here we found Number 13 - Dingy skipper:

Photograph: David Williams

And number 14 - Grizzled skipper, which our hero did manage to photograph:

Photograph: Jim Cresswell

This following photograph was taken a couple days later:

Despite finding the two skippers the quarry was not "buzzing", although we did find a Hairy shieldbug:

The lack of activity encouraged us to move on to Llanymynech Quarry, which was nearby. As we left the first quarry we passed a large patch of Wild garlic amongst which we found the hoverfly closely associated with this plant, Portevinia maculata.

Part of Llanymynech Quarry is in Shropshire but some of the quarry and the majority of the hill lie in Wales, and it was to Wales that we headed. This was the area receiving the afternoon sun.

And here at the sides of one of the paths along the side of the hill we found three more new species.

Number 15 - Common blue:

Number 16 - Red admiral

Number 17 - Small heath

Heroes do not require any rest!

The following day, reinforced by the presence of Bob, we went to the Wyre Forest in pursuit of Pearl-bordered fritillaries, which would bring the count for the year to eighteen.

We parked in the Earnwood Copse car park, crossed the road to enter the woodland and walked down the ride until we got to the wide clearing that opens out to the right.

Along the vegetation that bordered the rides at the side of and leading away from the clearing we were very pleased to find a good population of our target species for the day. They were quite flighty in the sun and breeze but we did manage to take a few photographs as they fed at some bluebells.

Number 18 - Pearl-bordered fritillary

Rather like Lower Butcher's Quarry, apart from the fritillaries, there was very little else about. The only thing of note from our point of view was a longhorn beetle, Rhagium bifasciatum.

As, for some strange reason, it was decided that Wenlock Edge was on our way home from the Wyre Forest, we travelled to the Edge's Presthope car park. From here we made our way through the trees to the top of Lea Quarry, a well known site for Wall butterfly.

Rather like the Wyre there was not much about but we did track down a couple of Wall butterflies. These were very successful in evading the camera lens. The one below was photographed a few months later.

Number 19 - Wall

That brings us to the end of this instalment. Everything was going smoothly and most had been found close to home. This could not continue … or could it?

Before I finish I must tell you of a chance encounter in the Earnwood Copse car park. Here we met a couple who had travelled from afar to see the Pearl-bordered fritillaries. As always when meeting fellow well-travelled lepidopterans, our hero quizzed them about sites for the more difficult butterflies.

This conversation led us to travelling to Incombe Hole the following day; but you will have to wait to hear about the outcome of this trip.


Finally I was sent a couple of excellent photographs of a Hairy-footed flower bee that I would like you to see:

Photograph: David Williams

Photograph: David Williams