29. Monkwood Bird &
Butterfly Reserve – early July 2010.
3rd July 2010. Next week will be busy, so we
had decided to have the weekend off after several days working hard. But it was
such a nice day that we went off to Monkwood Bird
& Butterfly Reserve – a trip just over 25 miles from home. (See No. 17 in
this diary for our last two visits, in 2008, which briefly describes the
reserve.) Above is part of the main path as it was today, horse manure and all.
There was great abundance of butterflies of several species. Actually, 36
species are recorded from this location, compared with possibly 74 species that
might be seen in total in the
Well, the upperside of the male is really quite dark, so as a male
passes with its ‘jinking’ flight – that is how their flight is described, isn’t
it? – the overall effect is of quite a dark butterfly.
Both sexes have the ringlets on the underside. Additionally, the female also
has them – or some of them – on the upperside. And
the female is rather lighter in colour on top. So a female going by would
probably look a bit lighter on balance. Unfortunately we had chosen early
afternoon for our visit. We should of course, have gone at about
This, however, must be a
female. The upperside is rather lighter than the
male, but above all it has the ringlets. Comparing this one with others in
Riley* and on-line http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/ there are a few
differences. Most females have 3 spots on each forewing, while this has only
two. Normal examples also have two spots on each hindwing,
while one is missing on the left hindwing in this
case. Of course, butterflies are really quite variable, so it’s probably OK?
A species quite new to us
was the White Admiral, Limenitis camilla.
Therefore please excuse the fuzzy shot above! Enthusiasm is the name of the game
in the early days… And it also comes to mind that our current camera is
hopelessly inadequate for this sort of stuff. One can defeat the automatic
aperture and exposure, and adjust the ‘film speed’; but I have not yet been
able to defeat the dreaded automatic focus, so that a slim grass stem passing
nearby is in perfect focus, while the lepidopteron which is actually the object
of our shot is quite blurred. This will certainly require the Spending of Money
on a better camera. Alas, at this time, the supply of that commodity is quite
limited. And the Rule Of Not Leaving The Path in Monkwood
certainly needs to be observed, which is why most butterflies that settled, did
so just out of reach of the current
camera – but then: a bad workman always blames his tools…
Later, we found a camilla
(possibly a male, but who knows?) on bramble, quite near the path, which was
very good. Never having seen the White Admiral before, it was thrilling to
watch them weaving in and out of trees and bushes, gliding laconically from
time to time, and really creating a ‘tropical’ impression. They were very
abundant too!
So was the Comma, Polygonia c-album, though I could not get a shot
of an upperside. These Commas fly in a fast, assured,
almost reckless fashion. I once found a butterfly at the bathroom window in my
old house trying to get out. ‘Ah: a Small Tortoiseshell as usual’, I thought,
and enclosed it in my hand to let it out. A Small Tortoiseshell will normally
become quiescent at this, or flap feebly a couple of times. Not this one: it
went FFRRRRRRR!!! in my hand while I was opening the
window. Therefore knowing it was something different, I only made a small
aperture between my thumb & forefinger so that I could see what it was when
it came out. It prised itself through this aperture in an irritable fashion, as
if saying: ‘See what I have to put up with!’ But at least I had time to see it
was a Comma, before it zoomed off. The white mark on the underside of this one
is more like a triangle than a comma. Moreover, it is extracting (or attempting
to extract) useful nutrients, presumably nitrogenous, from a dried piece of
horse manure, probably also in an irritable fashion. The weather has been very
dry so far this year… Perhaps the Comma is the nearest thing we have to a ‘stroppy’ butterfly? 8^)
Lastly, I think we have a
pair of Large Skippers, Ochlodes faunus?
The male on the left, with the diagonal bar of scent scales on the forewing, and
the female on the right, without them. I wonder what attraction bracken has for
them? I have seen other photos. of these on bracken.
To sum up, we had a very good three hours pottering about at Monkwood, and take off our hat to The Worcestershire Wildlife
Trust and Butterfly Conservation, the joint owners of Monkwood.
However, words are a cheap commodity, and I think I will have to send them a
donation. During the time I walked on the major paths & rides, butterflies
were to be seen nearly all the time –
truly vivid proof of the success of this venture. Indeed, at one point on a
narrow path, and walking very slowly, I was nevertheless shepherding before me
a cloud of at least eight Ringlets – and I think that in the current state of
our butterfly fauna, eight butterflies does actually constitute ‘a cloud’ of
them!
P.S. One curious thing
happened today. Few people were about, but as I stepped aside and said ‘Hello’
to somebody passing, a small, white butterfly fluttered into a large sapling
bordering the path. Could this have been the legendary Wood White, Leptidea sinapis? And for
which Monkwood is famous? I waited for several
minutes in case it re-appeared. All butterflies seemed active this day. But nothing
happened. I jiggled one of the branches of the sapling without effect. Growing
bolder, I reached in and wobbled one of the main ‘trunks’. A small, white
butterfly fluttered briefly, and settled again, quite invisibly. Some time
passed. I was hungry by then and wanted to get to a seat and eat my lunch. I
wobbled the trunk again. A small, white butterfly fluttered briefly, and
settled again, quite invisibly. Deciding that I really wanted only to see a
Wood White, and not to torment one, I walked off. But I think I may have just briefly seen a sinapis today. If only that
passer-by had not come at that moment! The were plenty
of Small Whites, Pieris rapae, about:
they did not hide in saplings, not a bit of it! They flew about with great
abandon interacting with others of their kind. What small, white butterfly
would persist in hiding in a sapling? Ah well: there are plenty of small white
moths that would take refuge by day, if accidentally put up. Still, though July
3rd is a bit late for sinapis, you never know. It might have been a
straggler. Such is Wishful Thinking! Well: there’s always 2011.
* Riley: ‘British and Irish
Butterflies’, Adrian M Riley. Brambleby Books,
Page written 3rd July
2010.