Sunny Saturday Pembrey

Pembrey Forest on a sunny day is always enjoyable, but numbers of Dingy and Grizzled Skippers were disappointing on my second BC monitoring visit of the year yesterday. Both were widespread through the forest but Grizzled, in particular, has been well down in abundance on last year (only 2 individuals in the main hot spot for this species, compared with 16 in 2014). A single Marsh Fritillary was also slightly disappointing; after seeing one there 10 days ago, I thought more might have emerged by now. There were none at all on the Butterfly Ride where I've seen 5-6 in each of the last two years.

Better news on the Small Blue front - this butterfly has been at a low ebb in the forest for a few years, but this year its foodplant, Kidney Vetch, is much more abundant and Small Blue is already more numerous than it was in 2014, and is probably a little way off peak season.

Other species seen included singles of Green Hairstreak and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, and a surprisingly large number of Peacocks. Moths included the usual Pembrey suspects Burnet Companion, Mother Shipton and Common Heath, but Small Purple-barred was a highlight.

No lepidoptera photos I'm afraid, so I can only offer a couple of beetles. I also saw several individuals of the impressively large dune robberfly Pamponerus germanicus.

The leaf beetle Cryptocephalus aureolus

The click beetle Ampedus balteatus

George