Royston Wildlife Blog: UK Wildlife Sightings June 2021

The upturn in the weather conditions in early June encouraged me to travel in order to see and photograph butterflies. On the 2nd I visited Bentley Wood (Wiltshire) in the hope of seeing three fritillaries (small pearl-bordered, pearl bordered and marsh) that don't occur naturally anywhere near Royston. Last year, when I visited the wood at roughly the same time of year, the pearl-bordered flight period was over, marsh fritillaries were faded and only small pearl-bordered fritillaries were on the wing in any numbers. This year, presumably due to the appalling weather in May, eight to ten pearl-bordered fritillaries were still on the wing and looking in good condition, whilst small pearl-bordered fritillaries (which have a later flight period) had yet to emerge. No marsh fritillaries were seen. I spent 3.5 hours on site and had the chance to examine the behaviour of a very rare butterfly in the UK in some detail - the males were impossible to pin down, but the females were more amenable to photography as they fluttered around, (presumably) looking for egg-laying sites (common dog-violet is the main food plant). I hadn't expected to spend any time looking for birds but, amazingly, I was able to add two species (tree pipit and firecrest) to my 2021 UK list whilst I was there. The firecrest sang almost constantly from surrounding trees, giving me plenty of time to learn how to distinguish its song from that of the goldcrest (I am lucky to be able to hear both species still - the songs are too high-pitched to be heard by many people of my 'mature' age).

Female Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Bentley Wood, 2 June

My partner's birthday gave us the excuse to spend a long weekend in North Yorkshire - only the second time that I have spent more than two nights away from home since September 2019. During our time there I saw several wall butterflies along the Cleveland Way and added red grouse and dipper (two of the bird species that I notably failed to see in the Peak District last month) to my year list.

Kittiwake in Flight, Staithes, North Yorkshire, 5 June

Knowing that the good weather would not last for much longer, I tried to fit in visits to some of my favourite reserves, looking for and trying to photograph butterflies. Unfortunately, the poor spring weather meant that butterfly emergence was considerably later than it had been in 2020 and numbers were also well down, making it nearly impossible to get high quality photos. Typical of this was a visit to Strumpshaw Fen on the 11th. I didn't see any swallowtails as I walked round the reserve, or when I doubled back to check again at their favourite spots. However, as I was just eating my packed lunch in the overflow car park after 4 hours of frustration I did see one individual, which fluttered towards my (red) car and looked as if it was about to land on it. However, it was a sunny day and the surface of the car was too hot, so it flew away before I could take any photos. I did see all the expected dragonflies on the way round, however, including scarce chaser and Norfolk hawker.

Female Banded Demoiselle, RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, 11 June

Male Norfolk Hawker in Flight, RSPB Strumpshaw Fen, 11 June

Glapthorn Cow Pasture woodland in Northamptonshire is one of the best places in the UK to see black hairstreak butterflies. In 2020 their numbers peaked at the end of May. This year, having not heard 'either way', I decided to visit on the 16th. The hairstreaks were out in small numbers and most were in good condition, but they were only occasionally coming down from their blackthorn trees to nectar on bramble flowers or rest on bushes, so again I failed to get images of sufficient quality to use for my ARPS panel, but at least I was able to get some decent 'record shots' of this very attractive butterfly.

Black Hairstreak Butterfly, Glapthorn, 16 June

With a forecast of dire weather to come I decided to visit Breckland on the same evening. I had no joy searching for stone curlews at Cavenham Heath, but I did get a few photos of the (literally) hundreds of banded demoiselles alongside the river there, whilst concurrently getting bitten all over by similar numbers of mosquitos. Moving on to do a 'recce' for an RSPB trip (see below) at my favourite nightjar spot in the forest I was lucky to hear churring almost as soon as I arrived, and then see a pair of nightjars - all before 9.45pm. I was able to set off on the 30 minute walk back to the car earlier than usual, which was just as well as I started to hear thunder. The rain started just before I reached the car and later became torrential as I drove home, heralding the start of another dire period of 'summer' weather. Fortunately, the weather relented just in time for an afternoon and evening RSPB spring trip to Lakenheath Fen and Thetford Forest on the 23rd. Lakenheath Fen provided us with views of bittern, hobby, marsh harriers, barn owl and cuckoo amongst many others. Instead of visiting Weeting Heath later, as we have done in the past, those of us who were staying on to look for nightjars decided to make the 15-20 minute drive to Icklingham, where a European roller had been located. Although fairly distant the bird performed well for us, occasionally taking off from telephone wires to catch large insects ('record shot' below). Returning to Mayday Farm, we recorded at least three nightjars 'churring' and saw one in flight. We also recorded tawny owl (which I saw), woodcock and stone curlews (both heard only). Between us, we recorded 68 bird species and lots of insects on a very enjoyable trip.

Record Shot of a European Roller in Flight, Icklingham, 23 June

There was more dull and sometimes wet weather over the following few days, but I managed to fit in a very pleasant afternoon walk on my first visit to Kingfishers Bridge nature reserve near Stretham in Cambridgeshire, a venue that our RSPB Local Group plans to visit in the late summer, on the 25th. Fine weather was eventually forecast for the 30th and I was undecided whether to use it to head down to Somerset to look for large blue butterflies and visit 'The Levels' or take a chance on seeing the black-browed albatross and doing some seabird photography at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire. Having already been to Bempton not so long ago I decided on the former course of action but rather regretted it, as the albatross showed well for most of the day. Meanwhile, large blues were hard to find at Collard Hill and, after over two hours of searching, I reckon that I only saw 6-8 individuals, all bar one in flight. My images of the one perched individual are too poor to show here! I went on to RSPB Ham Wall reserve, which was quiet although I did see a few marsh harriers and great white egrets as well as a decent selection of dragonflies and damselflies.