Bugboys mission

[Wurzel]

Grayling are great value for money butterflies - cryptic colouring, different habitat, interesting behaviour - they've almost go it all, great stuff Bugboy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Grayling are great value for money butterflies - cryptic colouring, different habitat, interesting behaviour - they've almost go it all, great stuff Bugboy

Have a goodun

Wurzel

This years challange with the Grayling will be to get an upperside shot from the little buggers!

[David M]

This years challange with the Grayling will be to get an upperside shot from the little buggers!

Look out for pairs indulging in courtship. These usually present good opportunities for upper wing shots.

[bugboy]

This years challange with the Grayling will be to get an upperside shot from the little buggers!

Look out for pairs indulging in courtship. These usually present good opportunities for upper wing shots.

Yup and if that fails I shall resort to a combination of flash, fast shutter speed and pot luck! We should never underestimate the role of pot luck in wildlife photography.

[bugboy]

So yesterday I did a couples of reccies of possible good local sites for the new season. First was Alexandra Park, I quickly located a load of Elms, looked like quite old suckers of English Elm but definately big enough for WL Hairsteaks to breed on. Couldn't get close enough to them, thick undergrowth of bramble around them, so couldn't do an egg hunt but come the summer I will be poised with camera and binoculars. Lots of hedges and open natural woodland as well as the more manacured parkland so this should be another good hunting ground close to home.

Second was a place a friend told me about last year but never got round to visiting, Gillespie Park near Finsbury Park in Islington. This is a tiny patch of woodland/open grassland, about 2.8 hectares which became a local nature reserve in the 80's. It was nearly sold to developers at the end of the 80's but locals rallied and it was officially saved in 1991. Despite its small size it does have quite a good selection of habitats making this another site well worth a few visits this year. Googling the reserve last night it would also seem to have quite a stunning Lepidopteran claim to fame, which if true I'm sure many people on here may already know, but apparently in 1990 the first recorded breeding in the UK of the Long Tailed Blue was on this very site! Various web pages claim it has between 20 and 24 species, although I suspect the 24 total would be 23 + Long Tailed Blues.

Anyway it was a nice day for a wander.

So tonights butterfly is the Holly Blue.

Dollis Valley walk, 2002

Dollis Valley walk, 2004

Dollis Valley walk, 2004

and here's a pic I got of a larvae and what seems to be the remain of the eggshell.

Dollis Valley walk, 2004

[bugboy]

Think I'll share some ringlet pictures tonight:

Didn't get any fresh ones this year,

Lea Valley regional Park, 23/7/14

But got some very nice ones back in 2009 down in Torquay,

Torquay, 30/6/09

Torquay, 30/6/09

[bugboy]

Taking a break from the natives tonight, here's some pics from London Zoo's 'Butterfly Paradise'. It was a very dull day and was struggling with light levels so you may notice I resorted to flash in a few

Papilio rumanzovia

Morpho sp.

Papilio thoas

Siproeta epaphus

Found another Sipreota here who had had some sort of accident, maybe on emergance or just as likely an unfortunate encounter with a member of public

Siproeta epaphus with no sense of smell

Quite a few emerging in the on show 'puparium'

Caligo's emerging

Phoebis sennae freshly emerged

Freshly emerged Papilio rumanzovia

Despite the low light levels this time of year (there is obviously artificial lighting as well) there is still a fair amount of breeding going on:

Greta oto

Papilio larvae

Papilio larvae

Caligo eggs

Playing with angles and closeups.....

Caligo sp.

Closeup Morpho eyespot

Papilio rumanzovia

This Comet Moth was definately showing who's the Boss in the world of silkmoths!

Argema mittrei

One of the dining tables

Feeding table

Although it's only a small poly tunnel, it is very well planted out which does give it a 'tardis' effect once inside. On a cold winters day you can happily spend an hour or two wandering up and down discovering new residents. The Morpho's were all particularly active and I do love the way they take no prisoners when flying from A to B, "out of the way, coming through". I'm always stunned by the amount of people that duck and scream as one flie past.

[Goldie M]

I love that Comet Moth Bugboy, I've never seen one before and I've been in a few Butterfly Houses Goldie

[bugboy]

I love that Comet Moth Bugboy, I've never seen one before and I've been in a few Butterfly Houses Goldie

They are quite regular at London Zoo. The cocoons are incredable, they look like a network of liquid mercury!

[bugboy]

A few pictures of the outside of Butterfly Paradise I forgot topost yesterday, as you can see you enter through an inflatable caterpillar head and exit out its exit!

As you can see, the sun had decided to come out later but no time to take more pics.

Anyway, here's a few pics of Large Blues I took quite a few years ago at Collard Hill. All scanned slides and unbelievably I haven't recorded the date on any of them

an egg laying female here

and these phones show just how long ago they were taken!

[Goldie M]

I think that Caterpillar Idea for the Butterflies is great Bug boy London Zoo I'll have to visit there.

I've not seen the Large Blue yet so that's another one on my list. Goldie

[bugboy]

a couple of pics of a female Essex Skipper tonight. I only have a few pics of them, despite them generally being as common as Small Skippers on the sites I visit so looks like I need to search them out this year for some one to one moments:

[Wurzel]

Great Essex Bugboy Is Tottenham Marshes between Tottenham Hale and Walthamstow? If it is it brings back some memories for me as I got banned from a pub on the edge of it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Great Essex Bugboy Is Tottenham Marshes between Tottenham Hale and Walthamstow? If it is it brings back some memories for me as I got banned from a pub on the edge of it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hahaha, did you have an Arsenal top on ! it's just north of Tottenham Hale, just follow the canal up past Hale and it takes you to a patchwork of meadows and woodland.

Did you live in the area or just passing through?

[Wurzel]

I lived in Tottenham Hale for a couple of years just over the road from what used to be the Lidls by the tube station. The pub was just on the very edge of the marshes - my mate/Guitarist was slightly worse for drink and so left via the window rather than the door which was enough to get us both banned

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

I lived in Tottenham Hale for a couple of years just over the road from what used to be the Lidls by the tube station. The pub was just on the very edge of the marshes - my mate/Guitarist was slightly worse for drink and so left via the window rather than the door which was enough to get us both banned

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Sounds like an average friday night in this part of the world

[bugboy]

So still awaiting my first butterfly sighting of 2015 I went for a bit of twitching at the London Wetlands Center in Barnes, South London. The regular winter visitors were all putting on a good show in the morning sun, Shoveler, Teal, Wigeon, a couple of Pintail and of course the Bitterns, with a grand total of 40 species seen by the end of the day. I did take some pictures but since I've always prefered macro photography, I've never invested in a lense to do long distance so if you cant see the bittern, just squint . I can confirm that he did look in very fine fettle through my binoculars though.

After forcing my lense to deal with those subjects I figured it was only polite to practice on some closeup stuff and the reed seedheads did look particularly lovely with the sun shining through them...

All in all a very pleasent way to spend a chilly winters friday in London

[Padfield]

I had no idea bitterns bred in Barnes. Great views of an iconic bird.

Guy

[bugboy]

I had no idea bitterns bred in Barnes. Great views of an iconic bird.

Guy

They don't Guy, they just visit for the winter, four or five turn up every year. I saw two out of the four showing today. I suppose there is always a chance a pair will hang around one year and nest but this has yet to happen.

[bugboy]

Another days twitching yesterday, this time on Waltamstow Marshes. Finally saw a decent flock of Redwing & Fieldfare, the first for this winter and a good sighting of an occasional visitor, a Peregrine being harrased by a Crow.

Back to Lepidoptera, here's some Speckled Woods :