White Scar, Whitbarrow 10 August 2016 Whitbarrow is a prime butterfly site. The limestone cliff of White Scar faces south and on the hottest day on record, Thursday 25th July, there would have been a butterfly spectacle toward the foot of the cliff. Our field-trip is two days later, temperatures nearer a July norm. Rain set in later in the morning. And persisted. How about a virtual reality butterfly field-trip? What we’d see if the sun shone. What has been seen by aficionados of White Scar and Farrer’s Allotment who are our guides.
Chris helps create butterfly habitat here and he talks of structure, ensuring different heights of vegetation to suit different species, to provide shelter. Working with a bow-saw to make sunlit clearings in the woodland, corridors for fritillaries, and up toward the open fell a sheltered space between trees and crags where butterflies can retreat to roost and shut down when it is too cold and the wind too strong for flying. He tells of the barrier of rising ground- a divide some species will not cross because it's too windy. His enthusiasm keeps us buoyed up through rain that turns limestone slippery, with trip-hazards of trailing brambles, and rank summer bracken.
There are bramble flowers, hemp agrimony and ragwort, the nectaring plants of the silver washed fritillary. Chris tells of its wondrous courtship dance, the male in arcs of flight and a wash of pheromones around the female who emits an aphrodisiac. A single mating fertilizes her eggs which she lays singly in crevices of bark in a mature oak or beech, having made sure the common dog violet grows at the base of the tree. So when the silver washed fritillary larvae crawl down the tree in spring they’ll come directly to their food plant. He shows us violets returning where he has been busy with bow-saw, making clearings in the woodland to let in the sunlight.
The large silver washed fritillary is not flying in the rain. But a male winged his way from the Julian Alps into my email, courtesy of an adventurer. Four dark streaks on the forewing contain androconial scales from which he emits pheromones In courtship flight. This woodland fritillary may be enticed into the tree tops by the female, where they copulate. This male came seeking mineral-rich moisture, or sweat, where the adventurer was camping for the night. The silver washed fritillary is named for its under-wing, shown on one of the sequence of images.
Chris does a butterfly transect here at White Scar, knows this spot intimately, knows what’s here even if rain renders butterflies invisible as they’re sheltering. We discover which species are more able to cope with these conditions.
There are bramble flowers, hemp agrimony and ragwort, the nectaring plants of the silver washed fritillary. Chris tells of its wondrous courtship dance, the male in arcs of flight and a wash of pheromones around the female who emits an aphrodisiac. A single mating fertilizes her eggs which she lays singly in crevices of bark in a mature oak or beech, having made sure the common dog violet grows at the base of the tree. So when the silver washed fritillary larvae crawl down the tree in spring they’ll come directly to their food plant. He shows us violets returning where he has been busy with bow-saw, making clearings in the woodland to let in the sunlight.
The large silver washed fritillary is not flying in the rain. But a male winged his way from the Julian Alps into my email, courtesy of an adventurer. Four dark streaks on the forewing contain androconial scales from which he emits pheromones In courtship flight. This woodland fritillary may be enticed into the tree tops by the female, where they copulate. This male came seeking mineral-rich moisture, or sweat, where the adventurer was camping for the night. The silver washed fritillary is named for its under-wing, shown on one of the sequence of images.
Chris does a butterfly transect here at White Scar, knows this spot intimately, knows what’s here even if rain renders butterflies invisible as they’re sheltering. We discover which species are more able to cope with these conditions.
White Scar is a grayling hotspot. I hear peregrine calling but don't see it because I’m slithering down scree from photographing a grayling camouflaged ( we have sharp-eyed spotters) on a chunk of limestone below the cliff. By mid-day rain has set in, and we find another grayling- wings closed and camouflaged on limestone.
Small skipper appear on grass and on knapweed, exposed to the weather on flower- heads- as I’ve seen earlier in the week on Scout Scar. Small skipper on saturated knapweed, water droplets visible on the butterfly’s head and on the flower. Some of my images show water droplets on the butterflies so I ask Chris is they are water-proof. Yes, his eyes light up as he tells of a friend’s photographs of a fritillary shimmering with dew drops in the early morning.
If butterflies cannot obtain nectar over days they will lose energy , become unable to fly, and starve. A sorry sight to see.
Several small heath, and ringlet in flight.
Image of ripening hazel nuts- where was that gatekeeper with open wings? We found another, wings closed, in bracken.
A speckled wood alighted, and closed its wings, on a frond of bracken on the woodland fringe. Both with speckled wood and grayling the under-wing has effective cryptic colouring and a blur of pattern. Tricky to make them show when evolution has brought them to such perfect crypsis.
Small skipper appear on grass and on knapweed, exposed to the weather on flower- heads- as I’ve seen earlier in the week on Scout Scar. Small skipper on saturated knapweed, water droplets visible on the butterfly’s head and on the flower. Some of my images show water droplets on the butterflies so I ask Chris is they are water-proof. Yes, his eyes light up as he tells of a friend’s photographs of a fritillary shimmering with dew drops in the early morning.
If butterflies cannot obtain nectar over days they will lose energy , become unable to fly, and starve. A sorry sight to see.
Several small heath, and ringlet in flight.
Image of ripening hazel nuts- where was that gatekeeper with open wings? We found another, wings closed, in bracken.
A speckled wood alighted, and closed its wings, on a frond of bracken on the woodland fringe. Both with speckled wood and grayling the under-wing has effective cryptic colouring and a blur of pattern. Tricky to make them show when evolution has brought them to such perfect crypsis.
I was on Farrer’s Allotment looking for butterflies on 10th August 2016 and here are some of the images I took. The day was brighter and there were more butterflies on the wing. Our route was similar but we spent more time out on the fell, overlooking the Kent Estuary, out toward Morecambe Bay.
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