A beautiful quiet moth morning

 

Mid-July and local stuff

GWH Bug-fest

Summer's over... for a while at least

 

(Miller, Yellow-barred Brindle, L-album Wainscot, Cerceris rybiensis, Lucilia spp, Broad Centurion, Andrena flavipes, Arge pagana, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Heterogaster urticae, Comma, Black-tailed Skimmer, young Tufted Duck, Anthophora bimaculata, Essex Skipper, Sicus ferruginea, Ragwort, Scarlet Tiger, Cinnabar caterpillars)

A rag bag of stuff with bird life being mostly absent over the last couple of weeks. Then again after last Tuesday's heat it's back to typical poor summer weather with little to see and only the local Essex Skippers bucking the trend with plenty of activity along 'butterfly alley'; and the addition of the first few Gatekeepers of the year and the above distant Black-tailed Skimmer replacing the more frequent Emperors.

Pulborough was pretty miserable with just a summer plumage Greenshank, a distant Marsh Harrier and little else between showers. The heathland 'bee bench' area had a few Anthophora bimaculata, Cerceris spp and Ammophila sand wasps but little else.

At QECP, later on the same day, the sea of Ragwort had these first couple of Cinnabar caterpillars and one or two flying adults. This Scarlet Tiger moth was a nice surprise but was off in a flash.

Today at Butser was very windy with no Dark Green Fritillaries. Prior to that about ten Villa cingulata (below) were sunning on the lower chalk footpath at SC and this Rutpela maculata settled for a photo unlike the first Silver-washed Fritillary which barrelled off into the trees.