East Lothian Sightings - July 2017

[ricowells]

Archerfield estate today - had a walk round the paths to the north of the cafe. 2 red admirals, circa 6 ringlets, a GV white and a couple of flyby whites but no small pearl bordered fritillaries (SPBF were apparently sighted somewhere in the estate last year).

[NickMorgan]

I have to admit that I am not seeing as many butterflies as I would expect at this time of year. There seem to be hardly any white about. I hope that this is just a temporary lull between generations, rather than a result of the torrential rain a couple of weeks ago.
Anyway, today I was delighted to discover Small Skippers on my transect on the west side of Haddington. I saw two on the transect and when I returned along the same route I counted six in that same area. I presume that they must have been present last year and managed to breed. It is interesting to ponder how they got there and where else they are going undetected.

[wgell]

Spent a fair bit of time at Saltoun Wood today.

Ringlets (Standard), 3 Flyby Whites, 1 Meadow Brown, 1 Red Admiral, 7 Blues (6 male and 1 female) and 15 Small Skippers.

The Small Skippers were present in nearly every part of the wood. They are doing well there it seems. They were battling with the Blues in two locations.

A Small Tortoiseshell has been visiting the Buddleia in my garden when the sun has been out this last week which is the only one I've seen this year I think.

On Sunday I was along the old Railway at Cotty Burn. Lots of Whites there along the edges of the fields. A mix of GV and Large. And Ringlets of course...

[briart]

Dunbar coastal walk today. Virtually no sunshine and very breezy but saw a lot. My first sightings of small skippers and dark green fritillarys, 1 small skipper, 4 DGF , 2 small tortoiseshell ( my other target species today, so nice to see them back ) 3 speckled woods, 1 red admiral which divebombed me twice !! 5/6 green veined whites. common blues all over, 1 small copper, 1 large white...and the usual meadow browns, ringlets fading fast. Another great day.

[briart]

Juast realised my female common blue is in its "mariscolore" form ...nice !

[jpgn]

Plenty of whites flying today - at long last! Had 10+ Small Whites in Longniddry this morning - plus 4 Large Whites and at least half-a-dozen unidentified fly-bys. Also 6 Small Tortoiseshells.

Had a Comma in Prestonpans early afternoon - plus a few more whites.

Loads of whites during my cycle from Prestonpans to Aberlady mid-afternoon. Then did a couple of BC Big Butterfly Counts on rough ground around Luffness New GC. Unfortuantely Small Heaths and Small Skippers were the commonest species seen - and neither are recorded in the survey! Did get a few Meadow Browns, Common Blues and a couple of Ringlets. Also some Six-spot Burnet moths (as well as some, non-surveyed, Narrow-bordered 5-spots).

Just had a Small Tortoiseshell in the garden in Gullane. Anyone seen a Peacock locally recently?

Jim

[NickMorgan]

I am pleased that some of you are managing to see some butterflies. My spare time and any decent weather haven't coincided for the last few days.

I have been keeping an eye on some Peacock caterpillars in two spots on my evening dog walk for the last couple of weeks. There was one patch of about 50 larger caterpillars and in a different place there were three batches of slightly smaller caterpillars amounting to at least 200 caterpillars.
Last Thursday I cut some nettles and put them into a jam jar of water and collected three of the larger caterpillars, which I put into a net cage I have.
The following day the caterpillars had all started to attach themselves to the nettles.

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On Friday they were all hanging down and I was a little worried as the weather was wet and rainy.

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I put some polythene over the cage to try to stop them getting too wet, but they remained like that for the next 24 hours. Then on Sunday when I looked in the cage I was delighted to see three chrysalises hanging from the nettles.

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One of them has a dark patch on it, which I don't know if it's normal. It twitched yesterday when I picked up the jar to take a picture, so it appears to still be alive.
I kept an eye on the batches of caterpillars over the rainy weekend. They slowly descended from the nettles and hung around near the base of the plants during the worst of the rain. Unfortunately, this evening I couldn't find any caterpillars at all, so I don't know if they have perished. I really hope not. I will be keeping a close eye in the area to check for adults over the next few weeks.

[NickMorgan]

I had a reasonably decent transect yesterday considering the weather we have been having. For the first four sections I only saw one Small Tortoiseshell and I started to worry that I wouldn't see anything else, but luckily the next three sections made up for that a bit. I ended up with 4 Small Tortoiseshells, 3 Green-veined Whites, 8 Meadow Browns, 3 Large Whites and a Red Admiral. Sadly I couldn't find the Small Skippers. The meadow has been cut and it was quite windy, so I hope they were hunkered down somewhere.
On my walk back I saw my first new Peacock of the season and a lovely fresh Comma. I haven't seen one of those for ages!

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[georgehogg]

My only Comma of 2017 at Amisfield this morning. In woodland o/s SE corner of walled garden.
Small Tortoiseshell seemed to be finally increasing at Torness early in the week but it was noticeable all butterflies were keeping to sheltered spots behind woods .
Still only had two Walls at Torness this year and that was in May.
Was in Saltoun Big wood this afternoon and only butterfly was one flyby white !

[jpgn]

Not a great many butterflies on a sunny but blustery morning in Longniddry today - but a wider range of species than of late: 4 Small Whites, 1 Large White, 1 Green-veined White, 3 Red Admirals and 3 Small Tortoiseshells.

Later on in the afternoon I had a Hummingbird Hawkmoth in Nethershot Road, Prestonpans - and then counted 3 Speckled Woods, 2 Green-veined Whites and a Meadow Brown in a 15min Big Butterfly Count on the edge of Craigielaw Strip.