Thursday, July 18, 2013

Fermyn: Day 3

Wed July 17th was my final day in Fermyn.  Again, and for the 3rd day running, I managed to notch up a century of apparent individuals, though it was more of a struggle than on the previous days.  It was hotter, and the butterflies had moved on in terms of behaviour: fewer were visiting the ride surfaces (I saw only 30 feeding on the ground, as opposed to 60 the previous day), and many were spending large amounts of time searching the sallow jungles for females.  Nonetheless, I think I saw 106 individuals, including 10 females. 

Please note, I am not the only person to score a century (of probable individuals) in Fermyn this year: John Woolmer did so on Monday and Gillian Thompson and Simon Primrose on Tuesday.  To put this into context, I've been through IRP Heslop's diaries: he never did it!

Neil Hulme visited today, Thurs 18th, and found that although the males were still around in good numbers, including some in pristine condition, fewer were coming down to the rides. 

It is still well worth visiting Fermyn this coming weekend - but don't leave it any later, as the males especially will burn over in this heat.

Here's some photographic highlights from my trip -


A well-baited ride...

2 comments:

JacquiKnight said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JacquiKnight said...

I'm writing from New Zealand - what a beautiful butterfly!

I have a couple of questions about the habitat and your explanation: "well-baited" path - what is the bait? And Gillian (and others) are photographed looking at what appears to be something left by a horse... what is that?

We have few butterfly species in NZ and the landscape can be quite different here to that of the UK - we don't have the woodland type of habitat that you do. So excuse my ignorance. And I look forward to hearing more about your butterfly trails.