Garden Butterfly Survey - November 2020

 

Those following this blog will know that I have been taking part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey this year. There is one month to go and I am not really expecting to see any butterflies in it, but who knows what December may bring.

As you can see, the only butterfly I noted in November was a Peacock. Like the Holly Blue, the Large White and the Small White, this species showed up here in a total of six different months. For this survey, the number you record refers to the total number seen at a time, rather than the total number per se.
 

UPDATE, 16 January 2021

Not surprisingly, there were no butterfly sightings to report for December 2020.

Garden Butterfly Survey results for October 2020

 

This is the first year I have taken part in the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey. I have the rest of November and December still to go, but am not expecting to see (m)any more of these wonderful insects before next spring. Looking at the chart above, I wouldn't be surprised if the year here didn't end for me in the way it began; but, who knows, I might yet be caught off guard and delighted by the flutter of small wings. 

David, meanwhile, has been recording butterflies seen on his (near) daily walks in our locality. A brief report of his first-part-of-the-year findings has just been published in The Suffolk Argus, the magazine of our local Butterfly Conservation branch. The figures prove to us just how many butterflies, and how many species, are inhabiting our suburban environment here in Suffolk. Butterfly numbers may be in a worrying decline, but we have certainly been finding that a closer inspection pays dividends when it comes to honing our observation skills.

 

Painted Lady at last

Well, how strange... no sooner had I resigned myself to a year without a Painted Lady sighting than what do I see? We decided to return to the point and nature reserve at Landguard in Felixstowe, and there was the butterfly, fluttering about at the top of the long beach, nectaring from flower to flower. I guess it will soon take off on its journey south. This really was such a beautiful insect, with its wings looking like a stained glass window in the sunshine.

You can see how the subtle shades of the outer wing provide camouflage on the shingle. 

The butterfly landed on one occasion in what was clearly a patch of short scrubby turf where rabbits had been grazing. 

There were various groups of people heading in our direction so we turned and walked down to the water's edge where we greatly enjoyed watching this Sanderling hopping this way and that.

I'm guessing it's plumage is in an in-between stage. Aren't those feather markings beautiful?

The photos were taken with my zoom extended to some degree, but the bird seemed totally unperturbed by our presence.

  

We noticed a Common Blue butterfly in a fenced-off area. The notice below was hanging on the fence. The explains that up to 25 species, presumably of plant, can exist in a single square metre of lowland dry acid grassland like the swathe (or sward?) inside the wire. I should have started counting...

The bird observatory sign informed us that a Spoonbill had been spotted earlier in the day.

 

Grayling and other Insects on Sutton Heath (near Sutton Hoo)

Grayling, Sutton Heath, this afternoon

We have been exploring what for us is a new corner of Suffolk this weekend. We know the Sutton Hoo site pretty well, but had never discovered the lie of the land at nearby Sutton Heath ... until yesterday. We liked what we found so much that we returned this afternoon and were treated to a remarkable aerial display by Grayling butterflies. 

The Grayling is not a butterfly we see very often at all; and in this year of C-19, I had begun to think that, along with other wild things such as bluebells, tadpoles and demoiselles, it was going to be just one more species that would have to wait for a future year. How wrong I was. But I had almost forgotten just how camouflaged these Graylings can be when they are not on the wing against a blue sky.

When you visit a new place, I always find it helpful when there is a ready made guide. This information board may have been a bit faded, but it told us about Nightjars, Adders and about the different kinds of heather that one might encounter on this site in the Suffolk Sandlings.

We followed the marked-out trail and were soon heading into the forest, where we saw conifers, rowan, oak trees, chestnut, silver birch and holly.

After a short time we found ourselves in dappled sunlight, and began to wonder if the forest was about to give way.

Having seen an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar near our home on Friday, we checked the Rosebay Willowherb carefully, but failed to see this distinctive larva on the heath.

We came across a Buddleia, presumably a self-seeded one, in a clearing with benches, and there beside it was this Red Admiral.

This grasshopper was spotted in the same place, hopping about on these dead oak leaves.

The butterfly in the photo below is a Small Heath, a species we see not infrequently in this part of the world. It is very small.

I mentioned above that Rowan was one of the species of tree we noticed.

The view below gives an impression of this mixed habitat, with heather giving way to bracken, which in turn gives way to more heather and bracken before you reach a stand of silver birch. There is also a large conifer, and what looks like an oak in the foreground.

These may not be the Scottish moors, but we can't really complain, can we?

We were keeping a sharp eye out for more Grayling butterflies when we noticed this sand wasp, possibly the Red-banded Sand Wasp. We see these from time to time, but had not seen one for ages.

I'm not quite sure what it was doing on this bit of dead vegetation...

I particularly like the way in which the Grayling in the photo below barely shows up beside the pine cone. In a recent post I featured the Spider Wasp, with its unmissable yellow stripes. How strange that that particular insect should protect itself by mimicking a very visible wasp while this butterfly should use camouflage. 

Look for the legs in the photo below...

The undergrowth here on the sandy heath is made up of dead bracken, old acorns, bits of bark and old stalks.

In total contrast, this tiny caterpillar could hardly be missed! Is it a species of (?pine) sawfly?

We noticed two snails (or shells) in close proximity to one another.

It was a joy to watch the butterflies in a little glade. We had not seen Small Coppers (below) for some weeks.

This is certainly a place we are glad to have found. And it feels good to add the Grayling to my list of butterflies seen in this strange year. 

Garden Butterflies in August and a Brown Argus to kickstart September

This post was due to record butterflies seen in August for my Garden Butterfly Survey for Butterfly Conservation, and indeed it will. But I couldn't resist starting with these photos of a Brown Argus who alighted on the long grass this afternoon and stayed in a small patch for quite a while.

We had seen a couple of this species earlier in the summer here in the garden for the first time, but that was a good many weeks ago. My photos are not brilliant, but you can probably make out the prominent dark spot in the centre of the forewings, one of the features that distinguishes this butterfly from the female Common Blue; the thin abdomen (indicative of a male) being another.

And now back to August. As usual in these monthly charts, the figure recorded represents the highest number of a species seen at one time, rather than the total number. 

Looking back over these charts, I am amazed at the Gatekeeper figures, but during the heatwave we sat out for good long spells and they just kept coming. Their season seems to be over now. Sadly we have had not seen any Small Tortoiseshells in the garden (perhaps as a result of our nettle patch which was failing to thrive). We rarely see Painted Ladies here, but thus far my count for this species is nil.

Readers of this blog will know that, with the exception of a single go at preparing a winding path for my lockdown exercise back in March, we have refrained from mowing this year. The photo below, taken three hours ago, shows part of the garden, including the grassy triangle in which we noticed the Brown Argus. 

I wonder what other butterflies will appear in September...

Butterflies and bees

Having waited at base all yesterday for a scheduled delivery that never arrived, we were keen to spend some time outdoors this afternoon. We visited our 'usual' lockdown haunt and were pleased to see a couple of bees on the Ragwort. The male Red-tailed Bumblebee above was the first of its kind I had seen for some weeks. 

We looked hard in case there were any Cinnabar larvae, but there was no sign today of the distinctive stripy caterpillars.

We found a new track that ran between swathes of thistles and long grass, and looked ideal for insects.

I came across the name of this yellow daisy-like flower very recently, but find I have forgotten it. Please feel free to leave a comment if you know. (Update: 24 August. My thanks to Conehead54, who tells me it is Common Fleabane). 

All in all David counted the four Holly Blues, four Speckled Wood, forty-six Small Whites, one Red Admiral and one Comma... in addition to the butterfly you see in the photo above. I had thought it was a faded Gatekeeper and that its 'second' white spots had failed to show, but I'm pretty sure it is a Meadow Brown.  

Comma, underside

 You can see the white 'comma' quite clearly on the underwing of the butterfly above.

The same Comma

When we eventually found a Red Admiral, it was perching with its wings closed. I waited and waited, and in my haste to catch the moment when the wings opened, I cut off the antennae in my shot: what a shame. 

I believe I have mentioned before that the footpath passes beside a barley field. As you can see the grain is ripening well. Barley always reminds me of the west wind in the song by Sting.

We are halfway through a fascinating documentary by writer, naturalist and poet, Helen Macdonald, about urban wildlife around the M25. The diversity not only of species but also of habitat is astonishing in this very busy area that circumnavigates London. 

Our current 'exercise spot' here in Suffolk hardly bears any resemblance to the M25 and yet it is a place adjacent to the port of Felixstowe with goods trains, bulging with containers, bustling to and fro at frequent intervals. The port is in fact Britain’s busiest container port, and one of the largest in Europe.

Industry sandwiched between trees and hedges

Given how close the barley field footpath is to such a hub of heavy industry, we have been delighted to discover a healthy diversity of species over the last few weeks. Slightly to our surprise (given how few butterflies are showing in the garden right now), it was satisfying to find good numbers of butterflies on the wing this afternoon, but there are definitely signs that the season is changing...