Seeking And Finding. Pt.2, Up On The Hill

A whole lot of it; me seeking fritillaries and a vast array of Horseflies seeking me.....

While both sets of hunters found their quarry, only one got to go home with something tangible,

 

Exciting Brown Butterfly!

You see the contrast to this;

 

Zzzzzzzzzz

 

*

o;)

High High Brown Fritillery, double wing shot!

Underwing, overwing,

fluttering free,

sucking on a Bramble whi-

AARGH! GetoffyadammHorsefly!!!

Ahem.

I will not apologise for mixing animé and Wombles.

[And speaking of... can you just imagine it? :D]

[THIS BLOG HAS BEEN SUSPNDED WHILE THE AUTHOR IS SECTIONED]

[ELECTRO-CONVULSIVE THERAPY COMPLETED. POSTING MAY RESUME]

::Eyes Persons In White Coats.::

I am much better now and apologise for my previous actions.

Ok, they've gone.

Now, where was I?

Oh yes,

HBF.

Not a subtle insect.

Trying to hide

Dark Green Fritillary

trying a bit harder.

Though not always.

Dark Green rarely as helpful 

as High Brown, though.

"I'm just feeling a bit

crinkled, alright?"

Highs are brighter and

more uniform-looking

With a more pointed forewing.

**

Otherflies;

Small Heath.

Sometimes they're helpful,

sometimes less so.

Large Skippers laugh

at cowardly fritillaries.

"And we don't fear spiky things, either!"

I like skippers.

[Sometimes]

Brown Silver-line

Lots of these, flushed out from every other step in some spots!

Good year for grasshoppers

Small Gorse Mining Bee?

Heath Bee-fly

Elachista argentella

Also a good year for

Chaffinches!

It was really rather humid and horrid; except under the trees, where there was a mellow, cool, and generally pleasant environment and the Horseflies thought so, too....

While I was attacked so many times I lost count, and in return got 3 swats but nothing confirmed, I didn't get bitten [I LOVE Nosilife shirts and baggy trousers] so consider it a win. Allegedly, if you can arrive, find, photo, and leave before 0900, the Horseflies won't be around to get you. I am far too bad at getting up to find out if it's true, though.

And yes, despite the weather and frisky wannabe vampires, it was rather fun. 

In places, anyways.

Certainly once I found a nice area with lots of frits and no Horseflies, it was quite fun.

:)

Be Seeing You...

[[* Ok, maybe pushing it a bit, but I'm frankly offended that a post headlined by these is outdoing my Glorious Wonderful Lime Hawkmoth. For shame, peoples, for shame.***]]

[[** Also forewing dots, arrowheads vs crescents, white bits, and that's not counting the underwing green wash vs brown circles!]]

[[*** And the treatment of a post filled with Beautiful Scarce Chasers..? I just do not understand.]]

Seeking And Finding. Pt.1, Down By The River

Well, sort of. It was right over there ::Points::

I'd heard stories of vast numbers of Scarce Chasers [contradiction in terms, surely?] having appeared at Exminster, and they being most favoured by myself, I decided to go and have a looksee. [Reports of a Lesser Emperor may have helped matters... Ahem.]

Turns out, not exagerrated.

Oh yes

Scarce? Chaser

Scarce?  Oh no. Not at all.

Also, many even felt quite helpful.

Yup

Another.

This one very helpful,

Young one

Googly eyes...

Very pale below

From behind

Note that broken twig is the same insect, all the rest are different. I photo'd more Scarce's in an hour than I had before. Total.

Wowzer.

Dark and scary from the front

[Appropriate!]

But it wasn't all Scarce joy [I even had a couple of females and a pair in wheel, though no sitting and posing for them...].

The Lesser Emperor I was hunting was not between the M5 and Turf Lock, he was N of the M5, opposite the Sludge Beds [traditional site]. He popped over the reeds, flew along in front of me, showing off his lovely blue arse, then popped back over and stayed canalside, out of reach... Then a Horsefly found me.

Drat.

So still no LE pic for this little black duck. But here's a few other things;

BTS

How do you tell a Black-tailed Skimmer from a Scarce Chaser?

If he's on a twig, he's Scarce, if he's on the path, he's Black-tailed!

Ahem.

Empress getting on with it

Also,

Alexander

[a Mordellid sp.?]

Big red pondskater!

[Lake?]

Oh no....

If you'd like to take a go at hoverfly ID, be my guest.

Common Comfrey

[pink form; note extensive wings

ruling out Russian]

While none of them felt like being photo'd, I was serenaded by Cetti's, Reed, and Sedge Warblers accompanied by Skylarks, while assorted hirundines and Swifts zipped about overhead [and not so overhead, yoinks!]

Rather a fun time had by nearly all  [the Horsefly didn't get lunch but did get swatted, though not terminally. We agreed a draw; I'd move on and she'd bite someone less belligerent..!], my SC count went well over 20 without ever leaving the canal bank....

[And I even got a decent space in the end car park..!! ::Faints:: ]

Be Seeing You...

Boring Brown Butterflies

You can't get boringer or brownerer than the Meadow Brown.

Nope, can't do it.

Meadow Brown

It's brown and lives in a grassy meadow.

Behold the trick;

"Boo!"

 

 

 

 

"Did I scare you..?"

Yeah..

Note the single white dot in the eyespot, which is an easy distinguisher from Gatekeeper [some of which are quite big*], which has two white dots in the spot. MB starts earlier, but with this weather, I'd be not entirely shocked if we get Gatekeepers soon [and we get LOADS of them around here]

I went back to That Small Blue Site and found only brown butterflies. [I wasn't expecting much else, but you never know]. These and a lone Marbled White [which is a brown, but don't get me started] which really didn't want to be photo'd and a Red Admiral which posed just in the 'too grainy' range band.

A few pale brown moths flushed out of the grasses, but only one landed where I could see it;

Chrysoteuchia culmella

Possibly the least well-marked Crambid, but hey, at least I hit it.

However, there was also this;

Ain't she gorgeous?

Note the claws. [Yes, I always check**]

Just flew up and perched very close to me. Then withstood a bored Crow [whose flying was rather sub-par; can't even git a Kestrel...]

Flower time.

Pyramidal Orchid

Pale one

Lots of heads [I lost count - distracted by flyover - at 37] in a small area where the public can't trample / pick and discard them easily...

Far less vulnerable to mundanes are these beauties;

Musk Thistle

Back away from thoughtless feet,

Wild Rose with

Flower Beetle sp.

Valerian with

Buff-tailed Bumblebee

Reflexed Stonecrop

Hairy St. John's Wort

Purple*** Iris

making bid for freedom

Common Broomrape

Ivy Broomrape

[Insert amusing summing-up comment here]

Be Seeing You...

[[* Gatekeepers are very naughty and can be big and Brown-y or tiny and bright and very like a skipper if you only see it briefly as it zips by... Tut. ]]

[[** Common or 'our' Kestrel has black claws. Lesser Kestrel {or "Holy BLEEP!!!" as it's often known by UK birders} has pale claws. There are other differences, but when you see a Kestrel a' perchin', always check.]]

[[*** I dislike the name Stinking Iris. There are far worse-smelling flowers, and you have to admit it, they're lovely to look at. ]]