Trip to the seaside

On Sunday I joined up with the Donegal Butterfly Survey group at Murvagh, west Donegal. Murvagh is on limestone and has excellent coastal grassland and forested areas inland, with the occasional dune and also scarce foodplants, so there is a wide range of unusual butterflies to be found.

When I arrived I immediately saw half a dozen Small Heath butterflies. These are very flighty at this early part of their season, so decent shots are quite difficult:

Small Heath butterfly

A little further along we found Horseshoe Vetch:

Horseshoe Vetch

Horseshoe Vetch is the sole foodplant of the Small Blue butterfly - the smallest butterfly in Europe - so we started to look in sheltered areas behind the dunes:

Small blue butterfly

The wingspan of this specimen was roughly 15 - 17 mm.

Dingy Skippers were seen, although not by my group, so I didn't get a shot of those. I did, however, get a decent shot of the day-flying Burnet Companion moth, which can very easily be mistaken for Dingy Skipper, and is often found in the precise locations that Dingy Skippers prefer:

Burnet Companion moth

One of my favourite early summer flowers is Heath Speedwell, with its tall, thin, elegant spikes of pale mauve flowers. It never gets very tall, with the tallest spikes reaching perhaps 15 cm from ground level. The following shot, however is quite fantastic:

Heath Speedwell and Creeping Willow

The oval-leaved plant surrounding the Speedwell is Creeping Willow, which is actually shorter than the Speedwell, so this 12-15 cm. flower is actually towering above the tree tops!

Here's a shot of the Creeping Willow seeds being produced:

Creeping Willow seed production

Further along the route, we turned more towards the Atlantic and found an interesting mix of plants and insects. This is Marram - the grass that binds the dunes together:

Marram

And this is Lyme Grass, another dune associate:

Lyme Grass

Close to these we found Wild Pansy:

Wild Pansy

And Spiked Sedge (if you think grasses are tricky, try doing sedges):

Spiked Sedge

I also spotted the larva of Garden Tiger moth:

Larva of Garden Tiger moth

And the larva of Dark Green Fritillary (a wonderful and scarce butterfly):

Larva of Dark Green Fritillary

Mouse-ear Hawkweed is identified by its lemon-yellow petals which are squared off and the fuzzy oval leaves:

Mouse-ear Hawkweed

Back at the car park, I noticed a single Cinnabar Moth:

Cinnabar Moth

Cinnabars are entirely dependant on Ragwort for their survival.

Heath

This heathy area was under coniferous plantation until about 8 years ago, and the original flora and fauna are now slowly returning as the land reverts. Willows, heathers, rushes and mosses are the early colonisers, and these largely dictate which other species can be found.

Despite the awful month of May - during which it rained every day - most species are still a bit early this year, so I thought it was time to catch some Spotted Orchids before they reached full flower, when they are not nearly as attractive as they are in the early flowering stages.

This area has Spotted Orchids that cover the spectrum between Common Spotted Orchid and Heath Spotted Orchid, although the closely-related Northern Marsh Orchid that I showed last week is only about 1 kilometre away. These orchids all hybridise freely, and back-cross, so there cannot be any 'pure' specimens left. I can safely predict where I will find specimens that look most like Heath Spotted Orchid, and those are generally on the very edge of ditches, or even in lying water. I strongly suspect that the form of these hybrids is tightly governed by the micro-climate that they live in, and happily refer to all of these specimens as ecomorphs of hybrid Spotted Orchids. To that end I have started to give them a 'parentage percentage', which specifies how much of each of the parents I think are present in each specimen.

Here are a couple that I would place firmly in the Common Spotted Orchid camp, because the front lobe of the flower has a strong tooth:

Common Spotted Orchid

Common Spotted Orchid

The next pair have the outer sides of the flower more rounded and frilled, which sees some aspects of Heath Spotted Orchid creeping in. The spike is also often flatter:

Spotted Orchid

Spotted Orchid

I have included the next shot because it shows the rotation of the flower, which forms upside down, and then rotates into its upright position as it opens:

Spotted Orchid

I think that's my new favourite orchid photograph. Absolutely lovely.

The next shot shows an oddity that appeared in this location about 5 or 6 years ago:

White Bush Vetch

It's Bush Vetch, but rather than the normal blue/purple, it's purest white. When I first saw it, I suspected that some chemical dumping had taken place, but it has spread over the years and has jumped to an area that used to have the normal blue type. It's not unknown for blue or purple flowers to have white variants, and I'm told that this is more common in the west. Maybe the dampness has something to do with it.

Another few heath species have made returns. The first is Heath Milkwort, with the flower just opening:

Heath Milkwort

And my favourite Speedwell, Heath Speedwell, which forms tall, elegant spikes:

Heath Speedwell

The next two shots show two very closely-related micromoths, each about 5mm. long, and which are both leaf-miners on grasses. The first is Elachista luticomella:

Elachista luticomella

And the gorgeous Elachista argentella:

Elachista argentella

I spotted these ants attending their aphids on Willow:

Ants farming aphid for honeydew

Ants often 'farm' aphids, taking the exuded honeydew back to their nest, and protecting their aphids from attack by other species.

Quarry visit

The local disused quarry is excellent for wildlife. It's a suntrap and the bottom level is flooded, which is good for Damselflies and Dragonflies. I also find a few plants here that I don't find locally elsewhere.

Damselflies are pink on emergence, but quickly change to their proper colour. This male Common Blue Damselfly is just showing tiny hints of blue: Enallagma cyathigerum.



And here are two females:



Last week I showed the male Large Red Damselfly. This is the female:


Heath Speedwell is one of my favourites, with its large, mauve flowers.


Mouse-ear Hawkweed is quite distinctive. This is the only place I find it locally.