Wednesday 25 July 2012

More on fritillaries

After my sighting of a probable Silver-washed Fritillary at Langford on saturday, there have now been several other sightings of a big orange butterfly at the site by staff there, in the same area or nearby. Hopefully someone will get a proper look at it soon!

In other fritillary news, there have been several other sightings elsewhere in Notts that I have heard about. A probable Dark-green Fritillary was seen by botanists at Bentinck Void/Annesley Woodhouse Quarry last week, with another of this species reported from Blidworth Pit Wood recently. Yesterday, staff from NWT and the NBGRC had multiple sightings of a fritillary sp. at Dukes Wood and Mansey Common, near Eakring - probably a Silver-washed, but one was thought maybe to be a Dark-green also. 

Historically, I believe that five species of frit used to occur in the county, with Pearl-bordered hanging on at Cotgrave Forest until the early 1980s. This site produced an intriguing series of records of Dark-green Frit last summer (which I searched for unsuccessfully, but I saw the pics!), and there have been records of Silver-washed from a few sites in the county over the last few years - the latter at least presumably natural vagrants.

Unfortunately, there is some doubt in my mind about the provenance of some of these records, especially those relating to Dark-green, as there is an individual in the county who raises butterflies from eggs and then releases the imagos. This is wrong on several counts, not least because it instantly casts doubt on whether records of anything unusual relate to genuine vagrants (perhaps responding to climate change or improved woodland management) - rather than having just been let out of lunchbox. There are several other reasons why it's wrong, but I'll stop there!

Anyway, an intriguing series of fritillary sightings so far this summer; if time and weather permits, and the birding is slow, I might explore some woods in the centre of the county this weekend in hope. Wellow Wood has potential I reckon...

Silver-washed Fritillary in Alsace, France (August 2010)

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