DURSEY ISLAND REPORT (31st May)
Here
on Dursey Island, Friday 29 May was a cold day with a strong
south-easterly wind (force 5-6) all day. I checked our garden several times, but
there were no butterflies of any kind.
Saturday
30 May
was a slightly warmer day with a light ESE breeze. David Cooke and
Brendan Finch arrived in the morning, and together we worked the island from end
to end. It soon became apparent that a major invasion of Painted Ladys was in
progress. Only five Painted Ladys were seen by DC and BF on their way out to
Tilickafinna (our ‘village’) in the morning, and I did not see a Painted
Lady in our garden until 10:15. However, DC and BF found about 100 at the west
end of the island, and by 14:00, there were at least 15 in our garden. More and
more kept arriving, and that afternoon we found at least 150 in the central and
eastern parts of the island, where there had been only five in the morning. Many
were stopping only briefly to feed, and moving off rapidly to the NW or WNW. Our
daily total (butterflies seen) went down as 340+, but there must have been at
least a thousand on the island. Along with the Painted Ladys, we found a single
Large White, five Red Admirals, seven Hummingbird Hawk-moths and about 60 Silver
Ys. The highlight, however, was three Striped Hawk-moths – two together in our
garden from 22:00 to at least 22:30, and another by the pumping station in the
valley between Kilmichael and Ballynacallagh at about 22:30. We had at least one
Striped Hawk-moth in our garden during a similar invasion on 11 June 2007,
but this time I managed to get some passable photographs which I can let
you have in due course.
Today (Monday 1 June) has been really warm by Dursey standards (21.5 deg. C) with a light ENE breeze. Most of the Painted Ladys have moved on. DC found several hundred at the west end of the island this morning, but there were only about 20 or 30 in our garden, and maybe a 100 or so in Kilmichael and Ballyncallagh. There are still quite a lot of Silver Ys about, and the two Striped Hawk-moths were still in our garden an hour ago, but we only saw one Hummingbird Hawk-moth all day.
There
were also a few nice birds about: a Hobby on Saturday and a Red-backed Shrike in
our garden yesterday and today were the highlights.
Derek Scott