*Clouded Yellow | Colias crocea - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

HILLTOPPING! I knew this was a thing from the continent, associated with mate location and wondered if it might be connected to migration too. Well, I am pretty sure it is. My lunchtime walks up Longridge Fell have regularly included migrant nymphalids like Painted Ladies and whites moving uphill along the forestry tracks but today was something really special. I was hoping to find a Clouded Yellow, with so many reported moving north through the UK at the moment and a late report of one on the fell on 12 August but I wasn’t expecting it to be quite as good as it was on the top of the fell today. The morning started slowly at Salthills Quarry - only two Red Admirals and then at Barrow Lower Lodge - a Small Copper of note, so I wasn’t very hopeful. Walking up the Seven Bends at Longridge Fell was quieter than usual but maybe things had not got going yet as it had been quite cloudy so far. A faded Wall Brown livened things up and then BAM! Clouded Yellow!

I like them because they are very easy to spot! There’s no other butterfly that bright orange-yellow colour in our landscape. It was very mobile flying up and down a very flowery ride between young forestry plantations, the borders of the sandy track rammed with knapweed. After a while following it back and forth it landed a few times, FAB-U-LOUS! The crazy big green eyes, pink legs and the figure of eight on its hindwing! Ooh! There’s another! There were three more and when I retraced my steps back to the spot of the first sighting with Ribchester pal Phil Larkin, we had three together, so that’s six in total at least!

There were so many other butterflies along the quiet forestry tracks today, at one point I counted 50 nymphalids on a 20m stretch of knapweed alone. Lots of Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshell and smaller numbers of Painted Ladies, Large and Small Whites. There were also residents of the Fell: a single Comma, Green-veined Whites, two Small Coppers, Common Blue, a single Meadow Brown and Speckled Wood and three more lovely Wall Browns! Easily my most exciting day butterflying in East Lancs. 10 species is my benchmark for a good walk and I think 14 must be my highest so far. There were some other good insects today. My first Migrant Hawker of the year was at Barrow Lower Lodge, where there were still at least four Small Red-eyed Damselflies, a late Broad-bodied Chaser, as well as three Brown Hawkers, a couple of Emperors and lots of Common Blue Damselflies. On the fell we saw several Southern Hawkers, including some lovely lime-green females, a Common Darter and a couple of Common Hawkers. However, the best sighting was probably one of the last, Furry Peat Hoverfly | Sericomyia superbiens - an uncommon late-flying carder bee mimic. Thanks to Pete Kinsella for pointing this out to us. What a day today was!

*Wall Brown | Lasiommata megera - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Painted Lady | Vanessa cardui - Longridge Fell - 16 August 2025 (Mike Watson)*

*Forest track, Longridge Fell (Mike Watson)*

*Southern Hawker (female) | Aeshna cyanea, Longridge Fell (Mike Watson)*

*Furry Peat Hoverfly | Sericomyia superbiens - a late-flying carder bee mimic (Mike Watson)*

*Migrant Hawker | Aeshna mixta - Barrow Lower Lodge (Mike Watson)*

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A ‘grey male’ Hen Harrier powers north across the fell in the late afternoon sunshine CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX — *A ‘grey male’ Hen Harrier powers north across the fell in the late afternoon sunshine* **CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LIGHTBOX**

WHAT A WELCOME BACK TO GANNOW FELL! A lovely walk in the evening sunhine with Phil in ‘High Altitude Ribchester’ was further lit up by a grey male Hen Harrier (we didn’t see it well enough to rule out a 3CY bird - thanks to my ID guru Pete Morris). It appeared over the main bog and simply flew north towards Bowland without changing course. Although they do not breed far away Hen Harriers are rare on Longridge Fell and never seem to hang around even though it looks like they ought to! Also here raven, stonechat and Red Grouse were all new for the year. This is the highest I’ve been in the valley so far but it is still less than 3 miles from home. It was also lovely to hear both skylark and curlew singing here too this afternoon and some of the grouse were quite bold, with inflated red combs and lots of clucking display flights. As I got out of the car back at home a pair of curlews flew over there too, I am lucky to live somewhere this happens!

*I wasn’t expecting this male Red Grouse to fly onto a wall in front of me! Err Willow Ptarmigan. No chance of me getting used to that name!*

My morning walk around the village was also quite productive after a cold start. There was a definite push of gulls upstream with 33 Common Gulls being the most I’ve seen here in a morning. Black-headed Gulls exceeded 500 and there were a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, newly returned from points south. A couple of Mediterranean Gulls flew east among the Black-headeds. Their call reminds me of Frankie Howerd ‘s ‘Ooh’ as in ‘Ooh Matron!’ . Curlews were in double figures again with several singing in the fields around the village and lapwings were also very active, songflighting along the lane to Lower Barn Farm. It is so uplifting to have them back again! Groups of insanely noisy oystercatchers chased each other at the river, where there are now three pairs of Stock Doves which appear to all be squabbling over squatting rights to the stone barn of Waterside Farm. There was still a small flock of Fieldfares along the lane today but no Redwings again, they pushed off in the cold weather and have not returned. There may stil be a few hanging on in the woods but I didn’t see any. The day-roosting Tawny Owl I have been watching lately was back on its usual perch deep in ivy and a few other interesting birds like bullfinch and Little Grebe helped me over the 50 species mark. February now stands at 75, the highest total of any month so far, partly thanks to Phil’s Black-tailed Godwit in the week!

*The regular Tawny Owl could be bothered to look at me today! Well, squint at least.*

*A (Northern) Lapwing in display flight, with club-shaped wings spread and whirring through the air. We’ere lucky to still be able to hear its lovely song in Rib!*

*One of today’s Med Gulls, its black hood still far from complete.*

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