Titterstone Clee - Dark Green Fritillary

With Marbled White finally on the Shropshire list, a drive up to Titterstone Clee summit paid dividends today. Dark Green Fritillary finally on the county list! I was primarily looking for insects and knew there was a chance of an encounter with these? A smart male to start off...

An then the somewhat 'washed out colours' of a female!

There's enough detail in the upperwing (no indented third spot on the forewing) to eliminate High Brown but eventually I got a closed wing flash from two perched on the same thistle!

Finally and this is quite early in their flight period, a cracked really fresh male!

Utter indulgence as reasonable views gave way to frame fillers!

What a week for Butterflies!

Venus Pool - Essex Skippers

Not so many years ago, I remember spending ages looking for Essex Skipper. Today was dull with not a lot happening so I photographed half a dozen skippers (ignoring Large). They were all Essex Skippers and with flight periods similar, are they displacing Small Skippers?

The black underside to the antenna tips is key so an angle which reveals this is necessary...

A few full frontals!

Maybe we shjall see Marbled Whites replacing the resident 'Whites' in years to come? :-)

Comet Neowise

A late night was inevitable once clear skies were confirmed for the night of 11th / 12th July and I joined Dave C in a spot of Shropshire dark sky to enjoy this heavenly sight...

Taken with my 500mm lens plus 1.4 extender, it did the job for a close up although looking north, the sky never really went completely 'dark'...

Looking to the South, Jupiter (with four moons obvious) and Saturn were just too obliging to refuse!

It's going to be wait for more clear conditions now...

Venus Pool - Ruddy Darter

I've seen female / immature Ruddy Darter on the sing for the past couple of days and all have been skittish flying high into the hedge in the arable field. This time my luck was in with a very obliging male, rooted to the spot...

The classic pose showing the waisted abdomen nicely!

Always quite obvious from the side too! Note the all black legs in all of the images.

My favourite with the red frons shining out...

The 'new insect' list is steadily increasing and I'll do a big catch up in due course once all thje IDs are sorted. 

Venus Pool - Long-winged Conehead

I'm enjoying a spell of 'insects'. I always give the local Odonata a few sessions during July and August but general insects give you a sense of something new EVERY time! Having got usd to identifying all the VP Grasshoppers, Dave Chapman chanced upon a new Cricket, green with a very dark almost black back on the Causeway. Checking and comparing with images on the web, this looks to be a nymph male Long-winged Conehead?

It's so easy to crop those antennae!

But these are deliberate, to get a closer look...

A change of angle coming up!

The darkly coloured back and just look at those legs!

 

Certainly not common throughout the county but occurs in rough grassland of which there is plenty but the Venus Pool tetrad seems to be the most westerly site for records!?

Venus Pool - Common Darter

Nice obliging female Common Darter sitting up nicely in the arable field, Venus Pool...

The body shape and yellow/black legs separate it from Ruddy Darter

There was also a female Ruddy Darter which 'darted' to the top of the nearby hedge on the two occasions I walked by. The all black legs are visible...

I couild do with a showy male?

Venus Pool - Marbled White!!

July is prime time for Marbled White and my quest to unblock this species on both my County and VP list was still heading nowhere. That is, until I got news from Clive Biddulph to say he had found one off the Causeway at VP. I was working my way along the arable field hedge row (road side) and it must have been a full 20 mins before we got back to the spot he had seen it.... Unbelievably, it was still there - on the same flower!!

Gotta be one of the smartest underwings and indicative of a female.

Giving a glimpse of the black and white chequering (and I'll come back to that proboscis!!)

Eventually a couple of full upperwing shots - not exactly easy with a wire fence and grassy vegetation in the way!!

Now the interesting bit and one I'd never seen before. On emergence the butterfly proboscis is in two halves and needs to develop into a feeding canal which normally 'zips' itself together to form a tube through which it can take nectar. This individual may not have developed correctly and is left with a forked proboscis and unless it can realign quickly, probably doomed?

Whatever, a fantastic fresh individual which was flying free for at least its first day on the wing...