Going to Scotland at the weekend served many purposes: I saw my son, I picked up many cases of whisky (not all mine) which were purchased years ago but have now matured, I escaped the heat of southern England for the relative coolness of central Scotland, I had a brief look at the Strathbraan Raven cull area and I had a look for Mountain Ringlets.
I’d never seen Mountain Ringlets but this was the time to see them and Ben Lawers, that most wildlife-rich of Scottish mounds (and where Chris Packham is starting his bioblitz travels very soon) is one of the places to see them. As we left Edinburgh the sky was pure blue but after a detour via Livingston (a less wildlife-rich part of Scotland it seemed to me) and a couple of hours’ drive there was cloud blocking out the sun.
The hillsides come alive with Mountain Ringlets if you are in the right place at the right time and the sun is shining. As we strolled a promising-looking slope we knew we were in more or less the right place, at more or less the right time and that over there the sun was shining. But this is a very picky butterfly and ‘more or less’ might not be good enough. A few Small Heaths were our only butterflies as we waited for some bright, hot, direct sunshine. But we never really got it.
It’s amazing how sunny the other side of the valley (I guess it was a glen really) can look, and even though the sun is coming your way how un-sunny your side can feel, when you need a few rays to get the butterflies moving. Weak sunshine passed over us and then appeared to be strong sunshine as it headed further up the hill.
But the wildlife gods were kind to us as just as we were wondering whether to try another area one of our party (and not me) spotted a dark brown butterfly which landed out of sight. When we tracked it down it was a Mountain Ringlet and by the time we moved on we had seen about half a dozen. Not quite the wildlife spectacle of the hillsides shimmering with chocolate butterflies for which we had hoped, but infinitely more successful than heading back south without a sighting at all.
I must catch up with Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Large Blue, Heath Fritillary and Glanville Fritillary some time.
Travelling south again on the road from Aberfeldy to Crieff I was in the Strathbraan Raven cull area. I saw no waders, but then I saw no Ravens either, which proves beyond doubt that one had eaten the other. But it didn’t look a great place for waders anyway. It looked like a grouse moor though. Having said that, I was quite distracted by this part of the journey. Various warning lights on the car dashboard were lighting up like the Blackpool illuminations, although the car seemed to be doing fine, and through a combination of the crackly car radio and our mobile ‘phones we listened to England’s latest victory in the world cup. But by the end of the day the car was fine, the son was fine, the whisky was fine, we’d seen a new butterfly and football was edging a little closer to ‘coming home’.
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I saw my Mountain Ringlets above Honister Pass in the Lakes, must see it again soon lovely butterfly even if it did result in some sheep ticks attaching themselves to me. Of the butterflies you have not yet seen I would like to see three of them in the UK Glanville I have seen abroad and Pearl Bordered I have seen several times including this year but then I haven’t seen Black Hairstreak or Purple Emperor.
The picture by Tim is great as usual.
Paul – come visit next year, late June/early July, and we can see some Purple Emperors.
If you came a bit earlier then we could see Black Hairstreak locally.
It’s possible, but pretty tricky, to time things so that one can see both on the same day – I’ve never done it. They aren’t much separated in space, but usually a bit in time.
hi Mark, enjoyed your Mountain Ringlet blog – I’m heading to Ben Lawers tomorrow for it(hopefully). In case you haven’t time to visit Isle of Wight for Glanville, try Sand Point, a beautiful little headland two miles above Weston-Super-Mare. Its a small NT property with a colony of Glanville Fritillary among thousands of ox-eye daisies – saw my first there and also a hunting Hobby along the Point.