Get counting

Yesterday's launch of the 2017 Big Butterfly Count reminded me that it has been a colourful summer so far for lepidoptera, including a number of subjects I haven't got round to posting about yet. Many butterfly species seem to be having a good year - the count will help establish whether or not that is true - and I have caught up with some spectacular ones around Dorset and beyond over recent weeks.

After a business trip to Cardiff at the end of June I was travelling back through Somerset and despite the lateness of the hour, the temperature was sufficiently high to make it worth dropping in to Collard Hill, site of a successful Large Blue re-introduction scheme, to see if they were still on the wing. The sky had clouded over by the time I arrived but with a little patience I found one or two of these striking butterflies roosting in the long grass of the down. One opened its wings just enough to get a half-decent photograph of the exquisite finger-print pattern on the forewing.

Large Blue

A close-up of a roosting Large Blue...

... and the same individual from a wider angle

A conservation success story, the Large Blue is now established at a number of sites in the south west

Marbled White was also on the wing at Collard Hill

Back in Dorset, a visit to Brownsea provided me with an opportunity to catch up with the White Admiral, one of our most impressive species. It's so many years since I saw them there that I had almost forgotten White Admirals could be found on the island, but I was reminded when another visitor in the bird hide asked if he might have seen one near the start of the track to the hide. Sure enough, on returning there two or three individuals were still coming to the same flowering shrub to nectar.

White Admiral

The White Admiral is a shade tolerant species

The White Admiral posed above me for an underwing photo

The underwing must be one of the most attractive of the British butterfly species...

...here the underwing catches the light to reveal its bright rust colouration

Silver-studded Blues were also out in Dorset early this year and I photographed several in Wareham Forest and around Morden Bog in mid-June. These diminutive blues have declined historically in parallel with the loss of the lowland heath habitat they prefer, but they can still be found in good numbers on the Dorset heaths.

Female Silver-studded at Morden Bog

The silver studs were particularly prominent on this female...

...but more under-stated in this male

Upperwing of a male Silver-studded Blue

These males seemed to have each other in a head-lock

Much rarer than the Silver-studded Blue in a Dorset context is the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - I called in at its last remaining site in Purbeck on the way back from Brownsea one afternoon and was pleased to find a few among the grass and gorse in a short visit. Hopefully the Purbeck colony will have a good year. Another brief visit last week to Durlston Country Park produced good numbers of Lulworth Skipper, only found in the UK along the stretch of coast between Swanage and Portland. Another local speciality which we must hope benefits from seemingly benign weather for butterflies this summer.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary underwing

Large Skipper was also at the Fritillary site - compare with...

...the Lulworth Skipper, photographed at Durlston

These Marbled Whites were engaged in synchronised nectaring at Durlston

Purbeck's Painted Ladies

A title like that should give the blog stats a boost. The ladies in question are of course Painted Lady butterflies, a migrant which has started turning up locally within the last week or so. The first I saw was on buddleia just outside my back garden in Wareham on Friday but there were a few more at Arne RSPB on the weekend. Fresh ones too. Also one at work today in, of all places, our Butterfly Garden.

Painted Lady, Arne

Apart from a large Curlew flock, there was not much else to report from Arne this weekend by way of birds. The same could be said of my last few visits to Swineham, hoping but failing to photograph the first Marsh Harriers to fledge in Poole Harbour in half a century. A few Yellow-legged Gulls among a large roost of Black-heads have been about the best of it.

Painted Lady, Arne

So butterflies have continued to be the main attraction. Good numbers of Lulworth Skippers were at Durlston Country Park last weekend, close to the eastern extremity of their tiny range in this country, which extends just a few miles along the Purbeck coast.

Lulworth Skipper, Durlston

This will be a short week at work as our family holiday finally approaches - our first high summer trip to the Isles of Scilly, autumn being the usual option. Bucketfulls of sand will be the main attraction, but with a few pelagic trips booked, bucketfulls of seabirds may also feature. Hopefully not bucketfulls of sick though: I'm not a great sailor, but my good friend Matt Jones, over from New Zealand and sharing a house with us on St Mary's, has proper sea legs. And he's promised to drag me from the deck, prop me up on the gunwhales and point me in the direction of passing Wilson's Petrels if need be.

Lulworth Skipper, Durlston