August 2009 Sightings

[Pete Eeles]

I've been rescuing Red Admiral larvae of late from the local park that gets strimmed to death every month. Some photos below of a larva building a new "tent" and, the last shot, a surprise when I opened up one of the folded leaves

Cheers,

- Pete

[Dave McCormick]

Nice shots, like how you show the leaf being folded up , eww on the last one, must have been a bit of a shock to find that, but thats nature for you, can't always run smoothly for every creature. Good job trying to rescue the caterpillars shame what people can do to the countryside by "trimming" everything so it looks "neat and tidy" natural is always better IMO.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
I saw another five female Brown Hairstreaks at Steyning Rifle Range yesterday, all busily laying eggs. At one point there were two at work in the same small blackthorn sucker. Just around the corner at Mill Hill there are currently three or four Clouded Yellows, including one form helice.
Neil

[Gruditch]

The weather wasn't up to much today, but we did manage to pop out a couple of times and get a few Adonis shots.

Gruditch

[Lee Hurrell]

Walked from Juniper Bottom to Box Hill today.

Juniper Bottom:
Large White x 3
Green Veined White x 2
Meadow Brown x 8
Common Blue male x 4

Box Hill:

I guess it was right place, right time as my seventh ( ) new species of the year was on the slopes...
Brown Hairstreak x 1
Silver Spotted Skipper x 9 (they really look like bees darting around at ground level and are funny chasing Meadow Browns away)
Adonis Blue male x 3 female x 2
Common Blue male x 2 female x8
Small Heath x 4
Gatekeeper x 6
Meadow Brown x 25+
Speckled Wood x 11
Painted Lady (very worn) x 1
Large White
Small White
Green Veined White

Cheers
Lee

[Dave McCormick]

Weather was not great here either, went out to see what was around. Went to a country park, there was people on bikes racing around and rubbish in or or two areas, sucks. There was strong wind and hard to photograph anything. But I did see:

10 Painted Ladies
2 Speckled Wood males
10 Cinnibar Moth Caterpillars
2 Peacock Butterflies
10+ Udea lutealis

2 Butterflies I think were wall browns, they looked like speckled wood from a distance, but looked bit bigger and flying faster than a typical speckled wood. Would not sit to find out. Here are the photos I got:

Cinnibar Moth Caterpillar:


usually see more of these as there is lots of ragwort all over the place, but only saw two ragwort plants with them on it, both beside eachother. Hard to photograph used tripod, but the wind made it hard to get this shot at all.

Udea lutealis, a common moth around here, this one on knapweed flower:


Painted Lady (one of the few that stopped and was able to photograph)

[Paulcrook]

Not a sighting but does anyone know if Lulworth Skippers are still around?

Paul

[Gruditch]

Watched a very slow scrap over a roosting spot this morning, the half awake Adonis v dozy snail. Not exactly heart stopping action, but after 15 minuets of fairly impressive kicking by the Adonis, the snail eventually conceded defeat and returned the way it came, with a triumphant Adonis on board.

Gruditch

[Pete Eeles]

Perhaps we should have a caption competition Amazing shot.

Cheers,

- Pete

[eccles]

The snail will just wait a few weeks for the adonis to die then climb up again.

[Jack Harrison]

Wildlife in the Raw. (presumably not a Jpeg )

An amusing and most interesting shot.

Jack

[vawn]

cadbury camp nature reserve

2 little white
1 large white
3 ringlet
couple of dozen spotted wood
2 common blue
6 little blue (2 female)
and 1 of summat i don't know, very small orange upper wings with a pattern of black spots oh no found it my first copper woohoo !

[Zonda]

Well done Vawn. I went to Portland, and had a trickle around the quarries. Saw lots of worn Common blues, some quite good Gatekeepers, a lot of Meadow browns, and two Small Heath. Couldn't get near any of them. Think i left it too late in the day, they were manic. I didn't arrive there until 2.00pm.

[Ian Pratt]

This year I seem to have been lucky to find several species mating to photograph- green hairstreak, small blue, common blue, chalkhill blue, brown argus, Glanville fritillary, meadow brown, silver-washed fritillary. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

[David M]

That Painted Lady's the most ragged specimen I've ever seen. Boy, he/she's had a hard life.

[Lee Hurrell]

That Painted Lady's the most ragged specimen I've ever seen. Boy, he/she's had a hard life.

I did wonder if they are still migrating in?
Cheers
Lee

[Dave McCormick]

Went out looking to see if there was any second brood Orange-Tips about, weather got cooler when I got to river where they exist, not far from where I live. It was very sunny and warm before I went out. Not the first time thats happened, but was suprised what I did find.

First I saw a very worn Painted Lady (sorry for bad pic, best I could do), must have been around a long time:


Then saw 4 GV Whites (one female)

Then 1 PL caterpillar on thistle, found lots of feeding signs on other thistles that caterpillars were there:


And even though the wind was strong and not much sunlight, I did find one butterfly I have not seen in this area since 2006, a small copper! ab. caeruleopunctata (It was feeding on cow dung and it was the only one there), this is subspecies hibernica:


First Small Copper I have seen this year too. Then finally saw a very fresh painted lady, flew away before I could get shot.

[Zonda]

This year I seem to have been lucky to find several species mating to photograph- green hairstreak, small blue, common blue, chalkhill blue, brown argus, Glanville fritillary, meadow brown, silver-washed fritillary. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

Well,,, i wish.

[Dave McCormick]

This year I seem to have been lucky to find several species mating to photograph- green hairstreak, small blue, common blue, chalkhill blue, brown argus, Glanville fritillary, meadow brown, silver-washed fritillary. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

GV Whites and Small/Large White is all I got and courting Common blues. Not as lucky as you though. Apparently in the wild, its very lucky to see Red Admiral mating as this is so often not seen or rarely seen. I've never seen it before anyway, and red admirals courting is just as rare if not rarer to see in wild. I have seen all the others: Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell and Comma mating, but never the Red Admiral.

[Susie]

A quick walk along the edge of the playing field yesterday where the brown hairstreaks were abundant last year only brought one female brown hairstreak to my notice. She was testing the blackthorn for suitability and then basking in the sunshine but never at close quarters. It was nice to find even one hairstreak at this site but last years heavy pruning of a nearby blackthorn hedge seems to have had a severe affect on numbers.