Weather worsens and butterflies 'fall off a cliff'

 The weather has been uniformly rubbish both spring and summer and no obvious signs of improvement for the last half of the school summer break. Last week the skippers along 'Butterfly Alley ' fell off a cliff going to zero virtually overnight.  Just a few whites and browns left. And the local warblers have all gone quiet with this year's young presumably having headed south already. 

With the local swan's having vanished/died, despite being almost adult size, the locals contacted the council and the remaining two were removed.  Click here for more swan info.

A Sparrowhawk was up being hassled by noisy crows and magpies but seemed to shake them off as it was circling high over the pond 20 minutes later. The gull loaf today was just 50 odd moulting BHGs.

Below Eriothrix rufomaculata, Eristalis arbustorum and Ptychoptera contaminata

Lunch, brunch and two outings

 

(Chrysotoxum bicinctum, Common Blue, Gymnosoma rotundatum, Rutpela maculata, Phasia hemiptera)

First outing away from base to SC for lunch with family saw a few insects, all above, plus a few other bits and pieces. A Red Kite over the access road, a calling Nuthatch, a few Phylloscs, some twittering Swallows overhead but otherwise quiet.

Today's second outing was to QECP (no camera)  where still virtually no birds despite nice weather but 10 species of butterfly (at least) the best being Dark Green Fritiliaries and Chalkhill Blues. Plenty of hawkers, all appearing  to be Migrant, and a single Slow Worm in the usual spot. The open areas near the fenceline were too overgrown for Adders. Plenty of insects on umbellifers but not enough time to check them out. 

30 til 66!!

 

(Ptychoptera spp,  Black-tailed Skimmer, Volucella inanis x3, Oedemera nobilis, Reading matter including glittering green spine!!)

A couple of short walks again covering the same old ground and limited to about 3000 steps or less ( just over a mile) saw little change other than slightly cooler conditions due to the previous day and night's rain and thunder. Swifts were a little more obvious with seven or so high overhead and three Swallows were buzzing about. Two Cetti's  were calling in the roadside scrub and there were enough 'hoo-eets' coming from the same area to assume that the odd Willow Warbler was heading south. A heard-only flyover Greenfinch was only the sixth this year!!

Butterflies limited to 5-7 (Whites  and Skippers not checked) species and hovers to just 6 with the V.inanis above the best.

Swollen-thighed Beetles are now disappearing and being replaced in similar areas by Rhagonycha fulva. Finally, a couple of hawkers dragonflies over the pond were distant but probably Southern.

Another local walk (or two)

 

Female Spherophoria spp , Tachinid Phania funesta  and Yellow Loosestrife

Too hot to do much other than admire people's photos of the Black-browed Albatross at Bempton (of which there have been rather a lot - photos not albatrosses!!)

Locally the Purple Loosestrife is blossoming and this small patch of Yellow stood out.

The swans seem to have carelessly lost four of there six large youngsters - foxes or human 'intervention' ?? Who knows.

A heron is present most days but incurs the wrath of larger gulls especially when flying around.

The gull loaf was about 90 strong mostly moulting adult BHGs plus some juveniles and nine or so Med Gulls, again all moulting adults, and none ringed.

Noise from multiple Great Spotted Woodpeckers on both sides of the field indicated successful breeding and a family group of calling Whitethroats by the last house proved the same. 

Butterfly numbers are dropping a little or else they're  hiding from the heat.

This  Tachinid Phania funesta (above) was the only obviously interesting insect in the midday heat.

Hornet hovers

Little change today although fewer Gatekeepers. Azure Damselfly was NfY, some Long-tailed Tits were the first since January(!!), a couple of Swifts overhead and this male Volucella zonaria  in the usual hedge on bramble. Again, the skippers all seemed to be Essex. Despite the amount of Ragwort this was the only Cinnabar caterpillar I could find.

And finally an Ant Damsel Bug (Himacerus mirmicoides) also on Ragwort.

Smessex galore

 

Yesterday was a coffee and sausage roll at the park with sis (in the rain). Despite the council's best efforts a few roadside Pyramidal Orchids have survived and, at the park, the usual spot was full of CSOs.

Today, a drier day, saw a slightly longer hobble to the main field where the vegetation has gone wild after such a long absence with much more Ragwort than last year and masses of bindweed flowers for Buff tailed Bumblebees and Swollen-thighed Beetles (above) to use or rest  in.

Many Small/Essex Skippers along the path trying to hide of out the wind with only Essex being identifiable in a quick look, plus one Large Skipper. 

The older Meadow Browns are faded and tatty whilst the similar numbers of Gatekeepers were pristine being newer on the wing. A Nomada bee, probably Gooden's, was too quick for me as was a flushed Silver Y moth. Plenty of the grass moth Chrysoteuchia culmella also disturbed.

Tachinid Eriothrix rufomaculata  (above) was plentiful whilst these two Dock Bugs were 'docked'.

Birdwise, still calls and songs from multiple Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs and a single Whitethroat slipped past silently. Slightly more surprising were two juvenile Jays being chased off by irate Blackbirds, the first of the former, according to my notes, for nine years at this site.

Nearly three months!!

With no positive effect from months of drugs, the last three months have been housebound all bar hospital appointments and with nothing over the garden except singles of Swift, Common Buzzard, Holly Blue and precious few other insects. 

Today was a short but exhausting local walk where the swans still had six large young, having only lost one, and a very juvenile Black-headed Gull was still being fed by an adult. Scanning the skies found just three Swifts and in the distance a male Blackcap was still singing from Squirrel Wood. Sadly, not a peep from Reed Warbler, so presumably no breeders this year.

(Four of six below)