Lynchcombe / Update

Lynchcombe Steps

by Jeff Bevan · Published 16th July 2017 · Updated 16th July 2017

I have been doing the Lynchcombe butterfly transect a lot this year. This partly due to the good summer weather this year. In the passed the weather has been so bad that it has not been possible as all the butterflies would be tucked away in the grass or trees.

Lynchcombe Sheep – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID DSC_0974

The central combe is often full of sheep during the summer.

Gate Keeper

This week saw the arrival of gate keeper butterflies. I had seen them elsewhere during the week so I was expecting/hoping to see them on the transect.

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0433

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0386

Silver Washed Fritillaries

They are still here. Then I noticed something familiar with the first one. Its damaged wing proved it was the same one I had seen each week. Perhaps it really was just one that had got lost after wondering away from the colony in the neighbouring Ebbor Gorge.

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0471

Then later on the transect, in a different part of Lynchcombe, I saw another. Clearly this was not the same individual.

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0632

This one had a damaged wing but not the same. It had a preference for sitting on the bracken rather than up in the trees. Not sure why, but each time it was disturbed by me or a meadow brown it would return to the same patch of bracken.

Silver-washed Fritillary (Argynnis paphia) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0650

Marbled Whites

The numbers of marbled whites were low. However, they had spread out across more of the reserve.

Marbled White (Melanargia calathea) – Lynchcombe, Somerset, UK. ID 823_0744

Common Blue

Each year there seem to less and less common blue butterflies on the reserve. They favour the large central field which is again getting covered by encroaching bracken. I suspect this one is part of the second brood as it looked immactulate.