Updated at last, etc. etc.
Part 1, anyway..
[What? Something better than nothing!]
So, where were we?
Ah yes, I'd gone hunting for Silver-studded Blues and in a shocking development, actually seen quite a few.
😄
After an interval of work and so on, I decided to carry on with this and go after some more. News of fritillaries had me going to the Usual Place in hope of the High Brown Fritillary, and maybe the Dark Green, too.
The Sun was shining and it was good and warm, but the wind was also quite fresh, more so than forecast [oh, what a shock]. I used the cunning tactics of finding somewhere sheltered from the wind, with nice sunny Brambles in flower. High Brown Frits duly turned up and I even got some pics; see Bluesky. My first Large Skipper of the year also appeared, so it was quite good.
Scores; High Brown Fritillary 6+ male, 1+ female; Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary 2+ male, 1 female; Green Hairstreak 4+; Large Skipper 1; Small Heath 1; Meadow Brown 6+; Brown Silver-lines Moth 17+. [Purple Hairstreak reported by others]
11 days later I had another go and in more heat and less wind got very little on camera, but there were 10+ High Brown, 2+ Dark Green, and 1 Silver-washed Fritillary, with 5 Meadow Brown and singles of Large Skipper, Small and Large White. [Green Hairstreak reported by others].
I followed this visit with a trip to Heathfield, where 2+ White Admiral, 1+ Silver-washed Fritillary, 1 Large Skipper, 1 Comma, 2 Meadow Brown were present, with 5 Golden-ringed Dragonfly, 1 Emperor Dragonfly, and 2+ Beautiful Demoiselle. It was sunny and everything was bombing around and not posing, but I eventually got a couple of pics [again, see BLUESKY {no butterfly emoji on here, wonder why? pathetic from gaggle}]
Ahem.
Time for a yomp up on t'Moor!
I went up to see The Man*, after a wild letterbox chase that took me to a new bit of the Moor, which in turn came after finally re-finding the Conies Down Stone Row [first seen many years ago on a wander with the Folks slightly by accident, and a couple of looks in recent years failed to find it, despite looking all over the right hillside...], that itself came after 'trying to photo stuff while fighting off Horseflies' at Holming Beam.
::Deep breath::
Skylarks aside, the high Moor was enjoyably quiet. Ok, as you may have surmised, there were a few Horseflies about, too [yikes], but not up on the tops. I did find some juvie Wheatears, which was great.
Time for more butterfly-hunting!
In order to see all 8 species of fritillary in one year, you have to go looking for the harder ones. Perhaps hardest of all is the Heath. There is a site in Devon, but you're not supposed to go there, so I went to Zumerzet, where there are sites you can access. Theoretically, anyway.
I turned up somewhere new - to me for Heaths, anyways - to find I was not alone. A half-dozen seekers were soon joined by twice that from the local BC group.! The Heaths were having none of it, though, and in the five hours I was on site I had three sightings, each of an in-flight butterfly only.
Feck.
There were a whole lot of other insects to look at - and a lot of Horseflies looking at us...!! - and Tree Pipits up high and a Spot Fly messing about the treeline to keep me distracted, at least.
I went elsewhere and found a site where I'd seen them before was now totally overgrown with me-high Bracken. CENSORED!!!! So that colony's dead. Well done National Trust [their land, their fault], as ever missing the real problems.
I did get Fritillary No7 the same day, though, with the very distinctive form of a Silver-washed flitting over the Exe-side road as I was heading back.
Silver [washed] linings and so on!
Now, as to No.8, and indeed all the other things I've been up to [before hot and muggy weather - oh and work 😔 - almost stopped play], I shall be getting to that. It has taken me so long to get this far, though, that it's 'better something now', so here we go;
I will, honest,
Be Seeing You...
[[*The Beardown Man, that is. But he is the manliest Man on the Moor - or possibly anywhere else - as you will learn if you go and see him from th South.! 😉]]
