Stock Dove on the mound- up to 60 on there recently
Six-spot Burnet- 10+ on the mound
Marbled White- one of two today around the horse field
Black-tailed Skimmer- 20+ on the lakes and mound
Hoverfly
Essex Skipper
Busy night in the moth room including a good number of micros
Loads going on on the moth and insect front in this heat wave and also a good display of flowering plants with the melliots and goat's rue transforming the valley into a colourful pic.
11 Green Sand on 100 acre and 1 LRP on the southern lake. Hobby, Buzzard and 4 Kestrel, 20+ Stock Dove on the mound, 1 Shoveler, 2 Teal and 3 Shelduck (including the growing chick). Some warblers still singing- Blackcap, Lesser White, Whitethroat, Reed Warbler and Chiffy. A handful of Goldfinch, Greenfinch and Linnet.
Butterflies- loads including a large bright yellow black veined swallowtail looking beast which flew past me by the 100 acre gate- didn't nail a record shot and couldn't rule out some exotic for sure. Other than that 2 Marbled White, 2 Gatekeeper (first ones) 150+ Meadow Brown, 50+ Essex Skipper, 15 Small Tortoishell, 10+ Ringlet, 2 Green-viened White, 5 Large White, 1 Red Admiral, 4 Common Blue, 5 Speckled Wood, 1 Comma and 5 Large Skipper.
Beetles coming to the night light and moth highlights included Peach Blossom, Wormword Pug and a load of micros that I'm still working on.
Hi Peter,
ReplyDeletere your exotic butterfly, could it have been an escapee from the Hampton Court Gardening Festival. I believe the Eden Project stand has a display containing a few thousand butterflies and are experiencing a few escapees(BBC2 friday 1900)
Ian Grant
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteyes definately a possibility. The NHM had a butterfly tent last month and we saw exotic butterflies flying around South Ken along the footpath so escapes are presumably pretty common from those kind of things. However this really did look pretty good for a Swallowtail too but just too fast for me to get a photo to confirm. Hopefully will find it, whatever it is, 2moro. Cheers.