Tag Archives: Small tortoiseshell

244/366 Butterfly magic

31 Monday Aug 2020

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To celebrate – or, perhaps, to mourn – the last calendar day of summer, here’s a tribute to some of the beautiful butterflies I’ve seen in recent days, just because, when they’re gone, I’m really going to miss their magic.

200831 comma

A Comma doing what they do so well when their wings are closed – blending in.

200831 green-veined white

Most of the white butterflies I’ve seen lately have been Small whites so this Green-veined white stood out from the crowd.

200831 meadow brown

Here’s another that stood out – an aberrant Meadow brown. There always has to be one!

200831 painted lady

The heat wave a couple of weeks ago seems to have brought in a small influx of Painted ladies, though nothing like the numbers we had last year.

200831 red admiral

Have you ever noticed how much Red admirals like blackberries? And their colours blend in to this background rather well.

200831 small tortoiseshell

Small tortoiseshells have been having a good year locally, which has been a real treat. I even found two feeding on Red valerian right at the edge of one of the local beaches this morning.

200831 small copper

A delightful surprise from Saturday’s walk at Cosmeston, a pristine Small copper.

217/366 Lep larvae

04 Tuesday Aug 2020

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Last week we had a closer look at a couple of butterfly eggs; today we have some Lepidoptera larvae. First up, the caterpillars of the beautiful Small tortoiseshell butterfly, which has two generations of eggs and larvae each year – these will be second generation. The eggs are laid in batches and, when they hatch, the caterpillars stay together to create a communal web where they shelter when they’re not out basking in the sun or munching on nettles. The caterpillars go through five stages (instars) before pupating – these look to be 3rd instars.

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In total contrast to the Small tortoiseshell larvae, which are subtle and subdued in their colour and patterns, the larvae of the Cinnabar moth are vibrant, even flamboyant. Their bright orange and black stripes are designed to be seen, warning predators not to eat them as they are poisonous.

200804 cinnabar moth (1)200804 cinnabar moth (2)

92/366 The Devil’s butterfly?

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

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Today’s fascinating information on the once common, now less so Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) is taken from Peter Eeles’s magnificent publication Life Cycles of British and Irish Butterflies (Pisces Publications, 2019). If you like butterflies and don’t have this book, you really should get it, as it’s jam-packed with amazing detail and fabulous photos.

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In the section on the Small tortoiseshell, Eeles reports on the variety of names it has had over the centuries: the Lesser Tortoise-shell Butterfly (James Petiver, Musei Petiveriani, 1699); Small Tortoiseshell (Benjamin Wilkes, Twelve New Designs of English Butterflies, 1742); and Nettle tortoiseshell (William Lewin, Twelve Papilios of Great Britain, 1795).

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Eeles also notes that, in Scotland, in the past, this lovely creature was called the Devil’s butterfly and the Witch’s butterfly, though he doesn’t explain how it got those unfortunate names.

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This particular Small tortoiseshell was the highlight of yesterday’s exercise walk around Grangemoor Park (luckily, Cardiff’s parks are still open, though this is the only one in walking distance for me). It was a joy to see, as we don’t get a lot of these butterflies in my local area, and I was delighted when it settled in a couple of places so I could get some photos.

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197/365 Butterflying at Slade Wood

16 Tuesday Jul 2019

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Yesterday, with my friend Sharon, I went to Slade Wood, in the neighbouring county of Gwent, for a walk and some butterflying.

190716 Slade Wood

The woodland was lovely and a haven from the hot sun but, for us, the best butterflying was to be had just wandering along the country lane leading to the woodland. With high hedges, abundant wildflowers and occasional blooming Buddleia bushes, backed by the tall woodland trees, it was heaven for butterflies. These are a few of the 12 species we saw …

190716 white admiral

My first White admirals of the year, the first I’ve seen in Wales; they seem to float over the vegetation.

190716 silver-washed fritillary

Those giant orange-and-brown speedsters, the Silver-washed fritillaries.

190716 red admiral

Red admiral extracting minerals from poo … mmmmm, delicious!

190716 comma

Comma, incredibly well camouflaged amongst the grasses and leaf litter, also heading for a slurp at the poo.

190716 peacock

Peacock, hiding its glorious bold colours away behind those closed wings.

190716 small tortoiseshell

Small tortoiseshell, a pretty little butterfly that I don’t see very often, so a delight to spot one of these.

86/365 In west paddock

27 Wednesday Mar 2019

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Today I went to Cosmeston for the first time in a few weeks and I was delighted to find its west paddock tinged a delicate shade of purple from all the violets currently in flower. I don’t remember it being so obvious in previous years. Along the edges of the paddock, primroses were in bloom, adding their soft buttery yellow to the colour mix.

While looking more closely at the flowers, I noticed tiny circles of red dotting the soil – a species of Scutellinia fungi I’m guessing, but working out which species requires some serious microscope work.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

And then along flew my first Small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year to add its vibrant hues to the kaleidoscope of colour in the paddock. Just perfect!

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Birding at Peterston & Pendoylan Moors

12 Thursday Jul 2018

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Yesterday I enjoyed another wonderful, if rather hot day’s birding with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, this time wandering a trail alongside the River Ely near Peterston-super-Ely and Pendoylan.

180711 2 red kites

On the way there, my friend John and I had incredibly close views of three Red kites and more of these magnificent birds of prey were gliding overhead during our walk.

180711 1 stock dove

We saw Stock doves (one pictured above) sitting obligingly close to Woodpigeons so we could see the differences in the two species.

180711 2 red fox

A Red fox was spotted trotting along in a distant field, its lunch in its mouth.

180711 4 meeting the locals

A large herd of large cows moved reluctantly away from the river so we could pass by. You’d have to be crazy to mess with this lady, who was keeping a steady eye on us in case we ventured too close to her calves.

180711 5 participants

The fifteen participants … well, fourteen really, as I was taking the photo.

180711 6 river ely

The meandering River Ely was running low due to the recent drought conditions here in south Wales.

As well as birds, we also saw lots of butterflies, including these: Cinnabar caterpillars, Comma, Green-veined white, Meadow brown, Peacock, and more Small tortoiseshell than I’ve ever seen in one day before.

180711 7 sandmartins

The highlight of the day for me was watching these Sand martins hawking for food over the fields and then returning to their burrows in the river bank to feed their hungry young. Magic!

Birding at Rhossili and Mewslade

02 Monday Jul 2018

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Yesterday was my second visit to Rhossili with my friends from the Glamorgan Bird Club, though I still haven’t walked along this magnificent beach.

180702 1 Rhossili beach

Our group of 15 met in the National Trust car park at Rhossili, then slowly meandered along the cliff tops towards the point, birding as we walked.

180702 2 Heading towards the worm

I saw my first Choughs, Fulmars were spotted gliding majestically below us, and a Great black-backed gull flew in and landed on a headland.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, here I also saw my first Grayling butterflies. The first, pictured here on a discarded Coke bottle, was spotted by eagle-eyed Tate, and the second by another birder, Rob.

At the point, we enjoyed superb views, and the last of the bright sunny weather, while eating our lunch. Then, despite the rain starting, 11 of our intrepid team headed across the causeway to The Worm, where their scrambling and climbing and drenching were rewarded with views of Guillemots, Razorbills, Puffins and Manx shearwaters.

180702 7 Crossing to The Worm

Three of us chose, instead, to do the circular walk around the headland, seeing lots of Linnets and Meadow pipits in the fields, a Kestrel hovering in search of prey, and two lovely fresh-looking Small tortoiseshell butterflies.

180702 8 Linnet

After some of the team returned from The Worm, four of us went for a brief visit to nearby Mewslade, a beautiful little valley that runs down to a sheltered cove. Here we had incredibly close views of a Lesser whitethroat feeding young, spotted two very yellow-faced Great tit fledglings in an area of burnt gorse, and watched more Choughs and another Kestrel flying through. It was yet another superb field trip with my bird club friends.

180702 11 Kestrel

Ely embankment revisited

15 Friday Jun 2018

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My regular followers will remember that, over the winter months, when there were more birds around, I posted a regular monthly roundup of the action along the embankment where the River Ely flows in to Cardiff Bay. Today, for day 15 of #30DaysWild, I thought I’d take another look. Here’s what I found …

180615 1 Ely embankment

The embankment is a riot of colour, with both native wildflowers and garden escapees in full bloom.

180615 2 linnet

Two Linnets were foraging on flower seeds but were very skittish.

180615 3 wildflowers

Loving these Oxeye daisies.

180615 4 pied wagtail

A juvenile Pied wagtail was feeding near the waterline.

180615 5 feral pigeons

A flock of 7 Feral pigeons was also foraging amongst the flowers

180615 6 mallard

This Mallard had found a sunny spot for a snooze.

180615 7 mute swan

23 Mute swans were floating up the river, many taking the opportunity to preen as they went.

180615 8 coots

9 Coots were congregating at the water’s edge.

180615 9 small tortoiseshell

I saw my first Small tortoiseshell butterfly of the year.

180615 10 colourful embankment

Looking back up the river as an Aquabus shows sightseers the river. The black hulk is a new apartment block.

180615 11 carrion crow

And finally, a Carrion crow was prospecting for tasty morsels.

What’s on the scabious?

16 Saturday Sep 2017

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Perhaps it would be easier to ask ‘What’s not on the scabious?’ because it seems that almost every type of fly, bee, butterfly and beetle loves this plant, though that may also be because the Devil’s-bit scabious flowers in late summer – early autumn, when most wildflowers have finished flowering, and so it provides a last delicious taste of summer’s sweetness.

Small tortoiseshells

13 Wednesday Sep 2017

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I’ve just realised that I haven’t shared any photos of Small tortoiseshells (Aglais urticae) this year – how very remiss of me!

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My excuse is that I’ve hardly seen any and, now that I’ve checked my photos, I’ve also realised that I’ve only seen them on three occasions this summer, the first on 21 August and the most recent on the 27th (though on that last date, at Aberthaw, when I was out with my bird group, a total of fifteen were seen).

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It’s still a worry though, as the population of Small tortoiseshells has plummeted in recent years, down 73% since the 1970s according to the Butterfly Conservation website. Speculation about the reasons for such a severe decline vary from pollution and climate change to predation by the grubs of a parasitic fly that’s popped over from Europe and made itself at home, especially in southern Britain. I hope my few sightings this year are not the norm but somehow I doubt it.

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