Neil Freeman

[Willrow]

Lovely selection of our more common yet favourite butterflies Neil, captured very nicely on your trusty FZ200

Regards,

Bill

"When in doubt - venture out"

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Hoggers, yes it is a very similar pose, the female Common Blue was also fluttering her hind wings as you describe.

Thanks James, glad you like them.

Cheers Bill, some more common yet favourite butterflies, as you so aptly put it, coming up.

Saturday 11th July,

Yesterday (Saturday) morning started with a run up to Nottingham to collect my youngest son for the weekend. He would normally be coming back for the summer but this year he has an internship with Rolls Royce so will be staying up there most of the time with a few weekends back home. We were back by early afternoon so after a bit of lunch and a few quick jobs in the house, I took advantage of a pleasantly warm afternoon to go out for a walk along the footpaths at my local spot at Castle Hills. There was plenty of high cloud cover which made it feel warm and muggy but there was also a blustery breeze blowing. There always seems to be a breeze blowing when I go here, made worse by the fact that parts of the site are very open.

The meadow areas were alive with Meadow Browns and Ringlets bobbing about above the grass closely followed in numbers by Marbled Whites. I have mentioned before that the latter species have spread around Solihull recently and it was fantastic to see the numbers here today, easily 50+, probably more but how do you count these things accurately when they are flying all around you?

Ringlet - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Marbled White - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Gatekeepers are now appearing with about half a dozen seen, all males so far,

Gatekeeper - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Gatekeeper - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Large Skippers were still in fair numbers although fewer than a week ago and mostly looking faded and worn now. They are now being replaced with Small Skippers which were everywhere, including plenty of females amongst them.

Small Skipper male - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Small Skipper female - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

With the blustery wind meaning that most of the butterflies would settle low down in the grass, it was not easy to check the small Skippers or to get the head on shot for ID purposes but I eventually confirmed at least half a dozen Essex Skippers amongst them, all fairly fresh looking males.

Essex Skipper male - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Essex Skipper male - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Quite a few whites were seen along the hedgerows, mostly at a distance and unidentified but at least a couple were definite Large Whites.

Large White - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

A couple each of Speckled Wood, Comma and Small Tortoiseshell completed the tally for the afternoon.

Small Tortoiseshell - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Comma - Castle Hills 11.07.2015

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 12th July

We had loads of rain on Saturday night which continued on through most of the morning before fizzling out and by mid afternoon it had dried up and turned into a similar day to the one before, in other words warm and muggy feeling, with a lot of cloud about but also some nice sunny spells. The blustery breeze was still there as well, something that is turning into a bit of a regular feature this year.

With a couple of hours spare in the afternoon I went out for a walk along the footpath at my local spot at Bickenhill near Solihull, not far from the NEC and Birmingham Airport. The first part of the path follows a hedge along the side of a farmers field and I soon started seeing meadow Browns, Ringlets and Gatekeepers as well as a couple each of Commas and Small Tortoiseshells.

Gatekeeper - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Gatekeeper - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Further along, the path crosses a couple of grassy meadow areas which were heaving with Meadow Browns and Ringlets as well as loads of Skippers, mostly Small but with a few faded Large as well. Performing the usual contortions to get the head on view I managed to confirm at least one Essex Skipper here amongst all the Smalls. Most of the Small Skippers here looked quite fresh and they are usually starting to look faded before the Essex numbers start to build so I reckon it will still be a week or so before I see many of the latter around here.

Small Skipper - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Small Skipper - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

One of the male Small Skippers looked a little different and a closer look showed him to have a couple of light patches on his forewings which I thought was quite unusual. I don't think I have ever seen a Small Skipper looking anything other than the usual standard shade orange.

Small Skipper - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

There were also a few more Commas and Small Tortoiseshells along this bit making it something like half a dozen of each seen here this afternoon.

Comma - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Comma - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Comma - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Comma - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Bickenhill 12.07.2015

A few unidentified whites passing in the distance and a fly past from a rather large looking Red Admiral competed a pleasant hour or so before I headed back home.

Bye for now,

Neil

[David M]

Looks like Vanessid numbers are building impressively, Neil.

Can't wait till I can get out again to see a few. Your images have whetted my appetite!

[millerd]

The variety of Commas you have seems to match those round here, Neil. Lovely shots of my favourite Fritillary substitute.

Do you have a lull between broods of Speckled Woods? I always look forward to your posts of each generation as they appear. Only one or two here at present.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Some interesting variation in those Commas Neil and great Skipper shots...best of all though, an underwing-6-spot Hedge Brown

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Willrow]

Some of our commmoner species are also some of the most visually beautiful too, can you imagine how much effort we would all put into chasing such species as Small Tortoiseshell if they were rarities...so I always treat them as if they were rarities Neil...but still rarely get images to do them justice...but you do ...and you can give me that fiver you promised me for saying that next time we meet

BW's

Bill

"When in doubt - venture out"

[Neil Freeman]

Hi David, there were good numbers of Vanessids at Fermyn Woods on Wednesday as in the report below .

Thanks Dave , I am still seeing one or two Specklies in the garden regularly but only a few out at the moment around my other local spots. I usually have a short gap sometime in June after which numbers gradually build again through July and into August/September. The lull this year was a bit later, and numbers don’t seem to be building up just yet. In fact most things are a bit later around here this year so far.

Cheers Wurzel, loads of Gatekeepers appearing now so plenty of spots to count

Thanks Bill, comments like that are worth every penny

Wednesday 15th July.

Last year I missed out on seeing Purple Emperor due to spending my available time in other parts of the country and concentrating on seeing other species. This year the season seems to have caught me out a bit and due to work commitments in the week and family stuff at the weekends I haven’t yet had the time to catch up with His Imperial Majesty. I was keen to get over to Fermyn Woods this year and noticing that the Purple Emperors had already been flying there for a couple of weeks, I had taken a gamble on the weather and booked this Wednesday off work, this being the only day that I could manage to get at short notice.

After a pretty grotty couple of wet days on Monday and Tuesday, the forecast for Wednesday was a bit so-so with cloud and showers in the morning clearing away for mixed cloud and sunny spells in the afternoon. Nevertheless, I decided to make an early start, mainly to get clear of the M42 and M6 at Solihull before the traffic built up too much, and after a 80 minute drive, pulled into the car park opposite the gliding club just before 8.00am. Despite the dull and drizzly conditions there were already a couple of cars there which showed that I was not the only one taking a chance on the weather.

I started off slowly wandering down the main ride and across the field to Lady Wood and at exactly 8.24am saw my first butterfly of the day… a Ringlet, not surprising really as this species will fly in quite dull conditions. During the next couple of hours I had a slow wander around the Lady Wood/Souther Wood circuit during which time there were a couple of showers of light rain when I took shelter under the trees. Between the showers more and more Ringlets were appearing and were soon joined by Meadow Browns and Speckled Woods and then a little later, Large and Small Skippers.

Nicely spotted female Ringlet - Fermyn 15.07.2015

One particular female Meadow Brown attracted my attention by having an unusual amount of orange, not only on her forewings but on her hindwings as well.

Very Orange female Meadow Brown - Fermyn 15.07.2015

By late morning the clouds were beginning to thin and the sun was starting to breaking through, just like the forecast said it would for once. More species were now flying including Gatekeepers, Large and Green-veined whites, Small Tortoiseshells and Commas.

Male Gatekeeper - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Male Gatekeeper with smaller forewing eyespots - Fermyn 15.07.2015

As it got warmer around mid-day Silver-washed Fritillaries started appearing in good numbers along with a few of both Red and White Admirals plus a couple of summer Peacocks.

Male Silver-washed Fritillary Fermyn 15.07.2015

Silver-washed Fritillaries - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Silver-washed Fritillary - Fermyn 15.07.2015

This male SWF was seen on the main ride in Fermyn wood later in the afternoon

I also saw my first Purple Emperor of the day flying high up by the conifers at the southern end of Souther Wood.

After wandering about for a bit longer and seeing a couple more Purple Emperors flying high up, but none on the ground I decided to wander back to my car and dump my jacket and haversack as it was now feeling much warmer and having eaten my lunch I could lighten my load for the afternoon. Just a couple of hundred yards from the car park I came across a small group looking up into the trees and they pointed out a Purple Emperor settled about fifteen feet or so up.

Purple emperor looking down from on high

Apparently he had come to ground a few times earlier and just as we were talking he flicked his wings and glided down onto the ride again. After letting him settle for a bit half a dozen cameras were aimed and photos taken before he was off back up into the trees again.

Purple Emperor - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Having dumped some of my stuff back in the car I then slowly retraced my steps back to Lady Wood where, talking to a couple of fellow enthusiasts by the first ride junction, we were buzzed by a Purple Emperor that then proceeded to settle on the ride a few feet away. This one was showing more wear and damage and was quite skittish and kept gliding a few yards down the ride and landing for a short time before moving on. After ten minutes or so of this he took off and disappeared high up into the row of conifers alongside this section.

Purple Emperor - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Purple Emperor - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Purple Emperor - Fermyn 15.07.2015

I then carried on round the Lady Wood/ Souther Wood circuit again, this time in the opposite direction to earlier. This time I saw maybe half a dozen more Purple Emperors flying high up and a couple on the ground but none close enough for photos.
The last one that I saw on the ground was just after 4.30pm and I am ashamed to say that I nearly trod on it. I was walking through a quite shady section of ride when I spotted a Purple Emperor sitting on the ride with his wings closed and facing me, just where I was about to put my foot down . He flew up into my face and after buzzing me around the head a couple of times flew up into the trees in a huff. I really didn’t expect to see one in what was really quite deep shade and I think we were both taken by surprise.

I then slowly wandered back through the woods seeing loads more of most of the other species already mentioned plus a few Purple Hairstreaks flitting about high up around Oak trees in the late afternoon sun.

Peacock - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Comma - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshells - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Fermyn 15.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Fermyn 15.07.2015

White Admiral - 15.07.2015

Red Admiral - Fermyn 15.07.2015

From the perspective of seeing Purple Emperors, I have had better days here but I reckon that is down to the recent weather and my timing for this visit. The back end of last week and last weekend seems to have been the optimum time this year with the past couple of days of wet weather looking like it had put the brakes on things a bit. No-one that I spoke to had seen more than half a dozen Purple Emperors today although everyone commented on the numbers of Commas and Silver-washed Fritillaries that were here.

Nevertheless, the sheer number of other butterflies made for a very pleasant day in a lovely location once the morning clouds and early rain had cleared away .

Bye for now,

Neil.

[trevor]

HI Neil,

Smashing report from Fermyn, and excellent PE.images too. My PE.hotspot didn't perform quite as welL
this year either.

Best wishes,.
TREVOR.

[Butterflysaurus rex]

Dazzling array of lovely woodland butterfly photos there Neil! Your Purple Emeperor and Silver Washed Fritillary photos are especially good.

Best Wishes

James

[Wurzel]

Fantastic images Neil, brill Emperors and SWFs but you already know which was my favorite
Very intersting Meadow Brown - almost Meadow Brown/Hedge Brown hybrid

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[William]

Great shots from Fermyn, Neil - sounds like quite a place . That male Silver-Washed on the ride is particularly nice!

BWs,

William

[Goldie M]

Hi! Neil, fantastic shots We're going to call at Fermyn on the way to Kent, we won't have long there but if I can just see an Emperor I'll be happy Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Trevor, James, Wurzel and Goldie for your great comments

Yes Wurzel, I knew which one you would like

Hi Goldie, If you don't have long at Fermyn, stick to the main rides in Fermyn Wood itself rather than yomping over to Lady Wood which is a longer walk. The whole wood complex is a big place and you can easily spend all day there. The first two PE photos in my report above were taken just a couple of hundred yards from the car park opposite the gliding club on Harley Way.

Thanks William, sorry I missed your comment earlier. Yes, Fermyn is a great place

Thursday 16th July.

A decent sunny afternoon and getting in from work I went into the garden to unwind with a coffee. A couple of faded male Speckled Woods were holding territories as usual at each end of the garden plus a couple of Large and Green-veined Whites passed through along with my first summer brood Holly Blue.

There were also three or four Ringlets bobbing about around the brambles at the bottom of the garden along with a couple of Meadow Browns, including the female below,

Meadow Brown female - Coverdale 16.07.2015

Saturday 18th July

A busy couple of days on Friday and Saturday has meant that I haven't had chance to get out but at least yesterday I managed to grab a couple of spells in the garden between jobs. I was A decent day with some cloud and sunny spells but again a blustery wind blowing most of the time.
Increased numbers of Whites are about now with mostly Green-veined passing through but with a scattering of Large as well. The couple of male Specklies are still there, looking faded now but no less feisty for it, especially the one at the bottom of the garden who was constantly trying to chase Ringlets away from the brambles. A female Specklie passed through at one point and spent some time investigating the short grass on the mown section of lawn before carrying on her way. I don't think she laid any eggs here, at least I couldn't find any afterwards.

Speckled Wood female - Coverdale 18.07.2015

After seeing a Large Skipper in my garden for the first time a couple of years ago , they have turned up very occasionally with just the one seen two years ago and again one last year. This year there have been four of five different individuals during the past few weeks, both male and female, with the males setting up territories around the long grass and brambles at the bottom of the garden. One male was there yesterday and I spent some time watching him chasing off intruders into his space. Interesting, he totally ignored the Ringlets but would chase the odd Gatekeeper that turned up, I guess it is the orange that sets him off.

Large Skipper - Coverdale 18.07.2015
07.2015

The surprise of the day however was another little orange butterfly, a smaller one this time that settled a couple of times and turned out to be a male Essex Skipper, a garden first for me. I really wasn't expecting one of these in the garden although there are colonies just a couple of miles away so maybe the wind blew him in.

Essex Skipper - Coverdale 18.07.2015

The male Large skipper soon spotted him and chased him off before I could get the classic head on shot but at least being a male I could make out the short straight sex brand on the forewing to confirm the ID.

Bye for now,

Neil

[bugboy]

Just catching upon some diaries, looks like a good time was had a Fermyn , and some lovely shots of your local garden inhabitants too!

[Wurzel]

I'm very jealous of your garden Essex tick Neil When I had my garden a few years back we were visited by a Small Skipper and I always hoped for an Essex but alas it wasn't to be

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

I share your relative frustration regarding Fermyn, Neil. Like you, I arrived a little too late, although unlike you, I didn't see any grounded Emperors (just three that were airborne).

I agree with your estimation of ideal dates for this location. I reckon Wednesday 8th to Saturday 11th was the optimum time this year. The season ain't half short!

[Goldie M]

Thanks Neil, it looks like if I'd have taken the chance and gone to Fermyn on that Wednesday like you did I'd have seen the PE Can't be helped, thanks for telling us about the Car Park etc, I've made a note of it and will make a bee line straight there

We plan on setting off really early so hope fully fingers crossed I may get to see one yet Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Bugboy…yes, it was a great day at Fermyn .

Cheers Wurzel, I’ve still not had a Small Skipper in the garden though.

Hi David, I think ‘relative’ is the right word. At some other sites half a dozen Purple Emperors would be a good result.

Hi Goldie, not sure when you are travelling but at this stage of the PE season you stand more chance of seeing the males high up or flying along the rides searching for females than coming to the ground. Of course there is also the chance of seeing an Empress. There are still plenty of other butterflies at Fermyn worth seeing, SWF, White Admirals, Purple Hairstreaks etc. Good luck down south, ironically I am heading up north next week for a few days and will actually be staying in a B&B right next to Gait Barrows.

Sunday 19th July

After some overnight rain on Saturday night, followed by showers on Sunday morning it gradually brightened up until by the afternoon there were clear blue skies with just the occasional fluffy white cloud drifting across, albeit with the now usual blustery breeze. With a couple of hours free mid-afternoon I had a drive around to my local spot at Bickenhill for a walk along the footpaths.

All the usual suspects were soon seen including Commas, Small Tortoiseshells, Meadow Browns and Large and Green-veined Whites. There were fewer Ringlets about today with many of those seen looking well past their prime but Gatekeeper numbers had increased over the past week with all those seen today being males.

Comma - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Small Tortoiseshell - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Gatekeeper - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Back in the spring there were good numbers of Peacocks flying here after coming out of hibernation so I figured that it would be a likely place to see the some of the next brood and so it proved to be with half a dozen fresh looking individuals busy feeding up on the many thistles here.

Peacock - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Peacock - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

There were hundreds of Small/Essex Skippers zipping about here today with many of these also feeding on the thistles which, due to their height made it easier to get a good head on view for identification. There appeared to be roughly equal numbers of each species present but due to the way they were whizzing about everywhere I didn’t bother trying to count them.

Small Skipper female - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Small Skipper female - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Essex Skipper male - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Not much doubt about this one...

Essex Skipper male - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

I was also on the lookout for second brood Small Coppers and was pleased when I found a male in one corner of one of the meadows…a blue spotted chappie as well

Small Copper - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Small Copper - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

Small Copper - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

I then found another male SC in the next meadow with just a faint hint of spotting this time.

Small Copper - Bickenhill 19.07.2015

With it turning into a beautiful late afternoon I could easily have stayed here much longer but I had promised Jane I would be back by 5.00pm so I headed back home in order to stay out of the doghouse

Bye for now,

Neil.

[David M]

Good stuff, Neil. I'm not yet seeing Small Coppers in my part of the world, but Commas seem to be having some kind of party in terms of numbers.