Silverdale Weekend, 23rd to 26th of May 2014

Mark Wynn

 

A small group of Highland Branch members had a most successful weekend away in Silverdale, South Cumbria.

 

On their first day the Chairman of the Cumbria Branch very kindly took us to the best places to discover butterflies & moths in this area of outstanding natural beauty. Each site visited exhibited a very different precious landscape. & he could have recommended another 10!!! sites. However, that was enough to keep our group busy. The good news was that they’re all very close. No long drives & all very accessible. Some we could easily ‘self-guide’. However, we were immensely grateful for his tips at other sites.

 
The following day we went to a very favourable site in search of Duke of Burgundy Fritillary – & were successful in seeing this very attractive wee insect, together with Dingy Skipper. For some the highlight was observing a spectacular long horn moth – Nemophora degeerella. The male was especially stunning.

 

After their evening meal the group were given a power-point presentation on the re-establishment of colonies of Marsh Fritillary in Cumbria. Finishing up with some breath-taking magic !!!

 
The following day the Highland Branch group joined the Cumbria Branch for their AGM + various talks. However, the first event was the opening of moth traps. & some real delights were to be observed (list to follow). Moreover, as part of the day we walked a number of a farmer’s fields where in the sunshine literally dozens of Marsh Fritillaries were freshly emerging. Awesome. & some were lucky to see Forester moths too.

 

 Later that same day we were taken to a brown field site – wind factory – & got to see Small Blues & Wall Browns, amongst others butterflies.
 

Our last day we explored a site with panoramic views shown to us on that first afternoon. Here, Fritillaries were flitting about. At first the consensus was they were Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries. Then we were challenged by a another butterfly enthusiast’s photo taken minutes earlier. From his snap he was convinced they were Pearl-bordered Fritillaries. Ahhhhhh well. A Green Hairstreak was spotted as well as a small number of female Brimstones butterflies & at least one male.

 

All in all a wonderful sojourn. & thanks to the party’s convivial company.

 

Butterflies
Brimstone	Common Blue	Dingy Skipper
Duke of Burgundy	Green Hairstreak	Green-veined White
Large White	Marsh Fritillary	Orange-tip
Peacock	Small Blue	Small Heath
Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary	Small Tortoiseshell	Small White
Speckled Wood	Wall
Moths
Adela cuprella	Brimstone Moth	Brindled Pug
Brown Silver-line	Cinnabar	Clouded Silver
Coleophora serratella (Larval case)	Common Carpet	Crambus lathionellus
Cream Wave	Drinker (Larva)	Forester
Little Emerald	Mother Shipton	Nemophora degeerella
Pyrausta cingularis	Pyrausta ostrinalis	Silver Y
Silver-ground Carpet	Small Phoenix	Small White Wave
Speckled Yellow	White Ermine

Photos and species list by Ewan Munro.