Psyche-delight

Psyche being the greek for the soul or spirit and also the word for butterfly - testament to how ephemeral life is and how butterflies hint at departing souls in their own brief lives.

Pseuds corner in Private Eye would lap it up!!

Here's a few butterflies - lapping it up too...meadow brown

Meadow Brown On July 16th Barry and I spent a half day at North Cave. All was pretty quiet but we saw a few nice things. More butterflies nectaring...small tortoiseshell...

Small Tortoiseshell Small Tortoiseshell Green-veined White Above: green-veined white

If you've had a stiff drink you might want a chaser... Common Darter

Common Darter It was a warm afternoon. These two had flaked out in the new workings. Hares? Mystery bird: assumed to be a juvenile reed bunting in the North Hedge.

Reed Bunting

July 18th - circular tour!

After a dentist imposed late start we headed for Ellerburn Bank YWT. No sign of dark green fritillary reported earlier by a woman we met but plenty of marbled whites.  Marbled White Marbled White Marbled White Marbled White Also seen: ringlet pair; female common blue and small skippers. Ringlet Common Blue See male sex brand like a lightning strike!

Small Skipper Small Skipper Large white I think. Large White

On a few miles to Fen Bog YWT. A couple of dark green fritillaries: one a bit battered the other quite smart. You'll spot the difference! Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Dark Green Fritillary Also seen: small heath and a lifer dragonfly for me, a keeled skimmer. Apparently the orange pterostigma are diagnostic. [Normal english: go by the orange wing marks!] Small Heath Keeled Skimmer Keeled Skimmer Finally I saw a spotted flycatcher flitting about. I wasn't quite quick enough to photograph it! A few seconds later it appeared in another tree feeding a youngster. I wasn't quite quick enough to photograph that either!! But I did catch the juvenile.

Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher Next stop: failure to find white-letter hairstreaks at Tockett's Lythe near Guisborough. We saw a few other butterflies bringing our day total to 11.

Heading north for Guisborough we called at Scaling Dam. Surprised myself by instantly spotting a mediterranean gull. Also lapwing close to hide. Mediterranean Gull Mediterranean Gull Lapwing
Small Tortoiseshell Ringlet An almost hidden speckled wood. Speckled Wood I decided to make South Gare our last stop. We struck lucky by immediately finding good numbers of grayling. Grayling Grayling Grayling

So we finished with a day's haul of 12 butterfly species - probably 13 as a fritillary at Fen bog up top towards the car park crashed down into the grass and heather and promptly disappeared. This seems to me more likely to have been a small pearl-bordered fritillary - but we'll never know for sure.

Asda used to slap the back pocket and promise: 

There's more to come!

Let's hope so.