Tuesday 3rd August 2010 - Shenstone

Today a did a circular walk around from Back Lane and across the field along the public footpath to the vicarage and along Butts Lane back to my car.

In total 15 Skylarks flew up from alongside the footpath. 6 Linnets, 10 Swallows, 6 House Martins, 2 Swifts, 2 Common Buzzads and a juvenile Kestrel were also seen.

It was a very good butterfly day and I added a new species to my patch! During the walk around I recorded 2 Brown Argus butterflies in the same location. This is the first time I have seen them around this part North Worcestershire, needless to say I was pretty chuffed. It just shows, the time I have spent monitoring the butterflies on the patch this year has paid off. Also counted on the walk were 32 Common Blues, 1 Small Copper, 19 Gatekeepers, 7 Meadow Browns, 3 Ringlets, 6 Essex Skippers, 4 Small Skippers, 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 1 Peacock and a single Speckled Wood. The Whites were too numerous to accurately count. 2 Silver Y moths were also seen.

The Brown Argus butterfly can be confused with the female common blue but there are, if you look closer, a number of key differences. The following websites highlight these differences quite well: http://www.glaucus.org.uk/BflyBlues03.html & http://www.britishbutterflies.co.uk/components/downloads/cb-ba-id-guide-high-res.pdf

Brown Argus (male) - Shenstone, 2nd August 2010:

1 comment:

  1. Lovely little butterflies Jason. Ive confused Brown Argus with female common blue before now!

    ReplyDelete