West Park Small Copper update

An evening wander through West Park and the Small Copper appeared more relaxed, at rest on grass seed heads and buttercups.

I looked back through the previous day's photos and can identify 3 seperate individuals. Now I know that the females are larger than the males with less pointed forewings but I found it too tricky to scale them equally by size and angle. So I had to differentiate by markings - the left one is the freshest of the three with boldest markings, and a tiny mark on the right forewing margin, the middle is the most worn with bits missing from both the left hindwing and forewing, the right one has a light mark on the right hindwing and I'd say has the pointiest wings (a male maybe?). I'd welcome any thoughts on the sex of each butterfly.

West Park Small Coppers

Today I was gifted with a local view of three Small Copper at my new favourite patch on the grassland at West Park near the university campus. I firstly located two seperate butterflies near the path in a sheltered, low lying area of the grassland (to the left in the pic below).

I watched two tussle and shoot off at incredible speed and I lost sight of them for a minute before one reappeared on the path in front of me. Then I noticed another amongst the grasses on a sorrel plant where it crawled its way down the stem, typical behaviour of the female searching for suitable host plants.

A female Green Veined White, more heavily marked than the males, nectaring on Garlic Mustard .

Here's the sheltered path bordered by Hawthorns and other native species where I spotted the Green Veined White and a male Orange Tip.

 

Letchmire Pastures, Allerton Bywater

On our first trip to Letchmire Pastures Local Nature Reserve a wetland and grassland site on a former coal area, we spotted a few firsts of the year, including our first dragonfly sighting. I have to admit that I'm out of practice but we think this is a female Four Spotted Chaser, broad tail,black tip & spots on wings. Below the same dragonfly a little closer.

In a South facing sloped patch of grassland I spotted my first Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) of the year (3 males), not such great pics so this one's just for reference.

And my first Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) of the year.

We also heard our first Cuckoo of the year and saw it briefly perched on a telegraph wire before it flew off into the woodland. Its shape was familiar to me as a result of having viewed cuckoo photos on blog postings, so thank you to everybody who has shared their cuckoo photos recently, its a great way to learn about unfamiliar species. Other bird sightings included Partridge, Lapwing, Jay, Swallow, Cormorant.

Small Copper in the Churchyard of St John the Baptist, Adel

During this weekend's variable weather we made the most of periodic sunshine and dropped in to the churchyard of St John the Baptist, Adel to see what was around.

Amidst the grassland, in sunny intervals, we were delighted by five or six Small Copper (Lycaena phlaes). Showing their bright copper coloured forewings, this pair headed towards us from the centre of the grassland to settle arms length away and feed from a buttercup. The churchyard contains patches of other foodplants, Hawkweed, Daisy, Dandelion, and Common Sorrel the larval foodplant of the butterfly.  

A Robin settled on a gravestone, accompanied in the churchyard by Blackbird, Wren, Goldfinch, Dunnock, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Chaffinch, Crow and Magpie.

A common moth Silver Ground Carpet (Xanthorhoe montanata) settled in the grass.



Dersingham Bog

This is the last of my posts from our trip to Norfolk, on the homeward leg of our journey where we stopped at Dersingham Bog National Nature Reserve. An interesting landscape of mire, heathland and deciduous and coniferous woodland. The reserve was mentioned in Field Guide to the Dragonflies and Damselflies of Great Britain as a good spot for dragonlflies and we did see Common Darters and Southern Hawkers but what caught my attention the most were the numbers of orange topped cap and stem fungi.

A Small Copper

A great end to a really fantastic trip, made all the more enjoyable by the availability of online information provided by the websites of  Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Leicestershire and Rutland's Wildlife Trust and the wonders of satnav.

Fairburn Ings

From a recent visit to Fairburn Ings RSPB, here are a few butterflies and dragonfly sightings that we enjoyed during our wander.

Thanks to Dean for confirming this pair as Common Darter Dragonflies (yellow stripes on legs and yellowish patches on the thorax).  

A Six Spot Burnet (Zygaena filipendulae) on a thistle

A Burnet with worn wing scales, thanks again to Dean for his help with this.

Small Copper on thistles.

Green Veined White

Adel Churchyard

As of last week I hadn't managed to capture any shots this year of Green Veined Whites at rest. Our trip to Ben Rhydding Gravel Pits provided the first pics and a visit to Adel Churchyard offered a few more opportunities to catch them feeding from the same flower Lady's Smock or Cuckoo Flower. The black tip on the forewing suggests that the first two are male Green Veined Whites.

A now familiar Small Copper, I watched it settle repeatedly on patches of earth where the vegetation was dried or worn away.

As we sat to admire the view this Mistle Thrush landed on a gravestone, other churchyard birds included, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Blackbird, Chaffinch, Wren.