Butterfly Collector

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBwmdF9R6Ak

In 2015 I missed the few Long-tailed Blues that battled across the channel and set up brief residence on the cliffs at Kingsdown in Kent.  There have been annual sightings since and but as the neither the adult, eggs or pupa can survive the British winter the occurrence of this beautiful butterfly is reliant upon their strong migratory strategy.

2019 proved to see arrivals along the Sussex coast through August and as much egg laying was recorded I knew that this year I should be able to see a British bred Long-tailed Blue.  This was going to involve a bit of a drive and I needed the weather.  A pristine, fresh male was photographed in Wanstead and looking at the days ahead the blue skies of the weekend looked good for an emergence.  I did an early run down to Brighton and by 9 o'clock I was scanning sparse clumps of everlasting sweetpea, the food plant of the caterpillars, across the grassland around Whitehawk mast.

I didn't take too long to get a flypast but it didn't linger, locating suntraps away from the easterly wind proved successful and a territorial battle saw two spiral high into the sky and then rocket back down to a sunny tangle, another was found then another.  The emergence was happening and over the next 4 hours a small group of us watched up to 10 blues going about their frenetic business.  When they did alight it was brief but they did show well and were in very good condition, their tiny filament tails shivering in the breeze.



Grasshopper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZP9mA--TyY

Simon Stirrup, ace photographer around these parts, sent these belting photos of a Great Green Bush Cricket at Aldreth.

I have only seen one of the emerald beasts before, many summers ago at Marazion in Cornwall.  I searched out the pics as I remember getting my little Lumix snappy camera down into the grass to get a Crickets eye view. 



Staying on the Cricket front this Speckled Bush Cricket was brought to me by one of the children at school, not unusual but the first I've seen.

The Insect Trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NPgsxhOtjU

While away in Portugal I was surprised to see that 6+ Vagrant Emperor Dragonflies had been seen at Carlton Marshes in Suffolk, where I had waited over 13 hours for views of the American Bittern last spring.  Vagrant Emperor is a long distance migrant Dragonfly from the sub-Sahara and formerly a major rarity in the UK, the last 12 months has been incredible for British sightings and following a strong autumnal showing there were multiple records following an very warm, southerly airflow in mid February.  Vagrant Emperors can complete a life cycle in a matter of months and the congregation at Carlton were almost certainly UK born.  Following disappointment not getting my timing right to connect with Long-tailed Blue butterflies when they completed a life cycle on this side of the channel in 2015 I decided I could not miss the opportunity of seeing these Vagrants. 

It was a wise move and Ben joined me on another hot and sunny day with dragons.  The volunteers in the visitor centre were not able to help us much with how we might see the Vagrant Emperors but said that if we bumped into one of the wardens and asked them then they would take us to the site as it had no public access.  My optimism started to wobble but we headed out onto the marsh and the first larger Dragonfly we looked at.....

A Southern Migrant Hawker!!  We were pretty confident of our ID but it is still a very rare Dragonfly and turns out to be only the second reserve record following the first last summer.  Not long after we found Gavin, the warden in an all terrain buggy.  He let us in the back and so began an amazing afternoon of Dragonflying with Gavin as our ace guide.  He took us out to some new shallow scrapes on the marsh and it was not long before he showed us one of his Vagrant Emperors, then another and another.  

They were really bright and smart - custard faces, cinnamon bodies with an electric blue saddle.  They were very active and territorial, really hard to photograph but I managed some records.  After a while a different blue saddled Emperor whizzed past - a different rarey, a Lesser Emperor and a few Red-veined Darters added to the exotic and dream like quality of the afternoon.  In think I'd be safe in saying that Ben and I are the only people to have seen these four migratory colonists in the UK in one day and it did just keep getting better.  We spent 3 hrs around the pools and the last hour of this was particularly focused on tracking a pair of Vagrant Emperors ovipositing in tandem.  While doing this the Lesser Emperor returned several times to amuse us and eventually the pair settled in the open and allowed close observation through the scope.  We left with huge grins on our faces having enjoyed a remarkable afternoon.  My greatest thanks to Gavin Durrant for the gift of his time, knowledge and enthusiasm.

Vagrants



Lesser meets Vagrant

Lessers



Purple Haze

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R1DdX6-RBHQ

The second week of our holiday in Portugal we headed inland to the edge of the Penada Geres National Park.  Our stay in a renovated water mill was fantastic as the sizeable garden, bordered by streams and weir in the bottom of a oak clad valley was full of interest, particularly invertebrates.

I had thought the Emperor season well and truly over so I was ecstatic to find that the riverside maples in the garden were the assembly point for Lesser Purple Emperors. Every afternoon we watched them holding territory and engaging in spectacular and violent dogfights, chasing high into the sky at break neck speed.  A little too far for photos on their favoured bits of canopy, it was possible to watch them up close with the scope and grab a few images through the phone.

Beneath the Emperors the meadows and glades were alive with Spotted Fritillary, Cardinal, Swallowtails and Blues.  Metallic fairy Demoiselles  - Beautiful and Copper danced across the sparkling waters alighting on prominent vegetation, inviting close admiration.  Iberian Golden-ringed Dragonfly held prime territory along the weir and Scarce Pincertail skulked nearby sticking to the airspace just beneath the tangled overhangs of vegetation.  Overhead Honey Buzzards were frequent with vocal young just up the hill and huge Mammoth Wasps tumpled drunkenly through nectar rich flower heads.  Following a night and morning of steady, heavy rain Pied Flycatchers appeared all over with a few Redstarts thrown in for good measure.

 

 

  

 

 

Nearby river beach looked like a fantastic spot from the Google satellitfe and was full of Dragonflies, the finest being Violet Dropwing - a northward moving colonist from Africa.  Ultra-vivid and full of verve I spent a wonderful few hours, until the sun dropped behind the valley ridge, wading thigh high through the river between the rocks and little vegetated islets they favoured.

Trips out into the National Park provided spectacular butterflies in the form of Two-tailed Pasha, Rock Grayling and Striped Grayling which included a pair in cop, which we moved from a busy track.

Stay On My Shore

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ktSYVR6cn0w

We decamped en famille to North Portugal during the holidays, we spent a week right by the beach in Apulia.  Early morning birding was pleasant along the nearby estuary where Zitting Cisticola, Cirl Bunting, Serin and Firecrest inhabited the open pine belts and scrub.  On the river Spoonbill and flocks of Kentish Plover and gloriously copper plated Turnstones were to be enjoyed. 

A few seawatches across the shallow bay produced a couple of Cory's Shearwater, Bonxie, Arctic Skuas, a single Manxie and a few distant Balearic Shearwater.  On the last morning I went out at dawn to photograph the old windmills atop the dunes and had a quick look out to sea, quite quickly 2 Cory's rolled by really close in, yellow nose visible and then a pack of 10 dusky Balearics even closer.  During the hour 70 or so passed North in groups.  Within these were 2 birds which looked good for Yelkouan, more research needed though.

I kept looking through the Yellow-legged and Lesser-black Backs on the off chance of an extra-extra limital Cape Gull.  Unsuprisingly not a sniff but interesting to potter through a range of YLG in different plumages.