ernie f

[ernie f]

Thursley Common - 15th Sep 2018 am

Today I came across a Grayling here. Just the one, but with a bit of patience and perseverance and a lot of stamina running after it each time it flew I was able to get some shots of it close-up.

I also saw a single Small White and a single Small Copper. I was here for two hours. Three butterflies in two hours!

Frensham Common – Big Pond area – same day pm

Six Small Coppers here. Two in one area but the other four all far flung from each other.

So with the one at Thursley this morning that is Seven Small Coppers altogether today. I bet you know what I am going to say next. Yep – I have broken my annual record of 177. It now stands at 183. Hooray! And I still have a couple of other nature reserves up my sleeve where a may get a few more.

The "Record Breaker" - number 178

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day.

All at Thursley. Firstly there was a group of mushrooms on stubble grass on sandy soil right beside a heather moor. I have seen plenty of Deceiver mushrooms at Thursley over the years and I just assumed this was another one. When I got home to look in my books however it just did not have the right coloured stem or surface graininess for a Deceiver. There were only two others that looked like mine that grow on grassy heathlands. One is the Pink Domecap but my one was not really pink, and the Heath Waxcap. Now whilst Heath Waxcaps can be very waxy and yellow when young they can fade to a tan or brownish-orange with age and also this one had greyish gills underneath just like the Heath Waxcap has. So I am plumping for this being a Heath Waxcap although I must say I am not 100% sure.

Then there was a whole bunch of both Common and Black Darters.

There was one Dartford Warbler, one Stonechat and one Kestrel.

And last, but by no means least, the Common Lizards on the boardwalk. I once counted over 100 on this boardwalk in 1 hour. They come out to sun themselves on it. I didn’t count today – instead I concentrated on photographing them. One individual did not scare off as I approached. I was able to use the super-macro setting on my new camera and place one edge of it on the boardwalk to minimise camera shake and got as close as I could before it would not focus properly - about 2 cm away from his face! Amazingly he stayed there. He even moved to adjust his pose while I was taking my pictures. In fact after the photo-shoot I walked off but still he stayed put.

[Wurzel]

Great looking Grayling Ernie, I don't think I've seen one in that particular hue before And I've never seen a Black Darter

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Janet Turnbull]

That's a lovely Grayling Ernie - and like Wurzel I have never seen a Black Darter either, although I went looking for them at Rixton a couple of days ago. I see you are into mushrooms too! I shall look forward to seeing more.
Janet

[Goldie M]

I agree with everyone ernie that's a great shot of a Grayling, there so hard to get shots of so well done Goldie

[ernie f]

Longmoor - 16th Sep 2018

Another heathland which normally harbours a few Small Coppers and so it did today. Another three to add to my count; but this is only half the number I have seen in the past. One was doing a wing-roll. I almost didn't notice because it was so imperceptible. Perhaps this is why I have missed it in the past. It kept it up for a while too.

Also a Speckled Wood.

Woolmer – same day

Woolmer Heath is used by the army for training and is only open some Sundays. It was open today.

They use the cows for target practice. (Only joking).

And this was the last of my nearby heathlands that gave me the possibility of Small Coppers, but sadly it gave me just one more Small Copper. Again a fraction of what I have seen here in the past.

The heather in all places is now mostly gone-over with very few other plants to act as nectaring sources. Even if we do get warm days over the next couple of weeks, the Small Coppers I am sure will continue to go into decline hereabouts.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

You can tell that summer is moving into autumn when the number of species of fungi you see outnumbers the number of species of butterfly!

I saw eight fungi species today and only two butterflies species.

Of the fungi seen, here are two…

Brown Rollrim - toxic

Cep (aka Penny Bun)

Another pic of the Cep - showing the distinctive net on its stem.

[Janet Turnbull]

Thanks for the fungi shots Ernie - it's good that nature always provides something of interest even when there are no butterflies!
Janet

[Wurzel]

Cracking colours on the Small Copper Ernie Is the Penny Bun edible - you'd hope so with a name like that

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Thanks, Janet and Wurzel. I got "switched on" to fungi when I lived in the New Forest some years ago and now I found they are even better near where I live now. Of course I still do not consider myself an expert and never will. To become one you have to be prepared to collect them (which I never do) and scrutinise their spores under a microscope! Only in that way can you be sure you know what you have seen if you have any doubt.

The Penny Bun is one of the most edible and tasty of all the mushrooms. If you have ever had mushroom soup you have almost certainly eaten them without even knowing!

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 17th Sep 2018

Ballooning over Broxhead

I have visited all my local Small Copper haunts now and each time the location came up with fewer than in recent years, except that is for Broxhead. Today there were still 19 Small Coppers in and around the lek at the bottom of the hill and one near the lay-by. I cannot count any of these to my annual total of course as I have most likely seen them all already. There was plenty of activity in the lek with jousting males and turkey-trotting females. Also 6 Brown Argus and 2 Speckled Wood.

More "trotting"

I lost my lens-cap over here a few days ago and I found it again today. What’s the chances?

Non-butterfly Snapshot of the day.

Not an image recorded today but one from the recent past alongside the path just above the Copper lek. I’ve always assumed this was some kind of protective web made by caterpillars but I never could see any. Does anyone know what this is?

[CallumMac]

Not an image recorded today but one from the recent past alongside the path just above the Copper lek. I’ve always assumed this was some kind of protective web made by caterpillars but I never could see any. Does anyone know what this is?

Your assessment is pretty much spot on. Given that it looks like it's on Gorse, it's more likely to be Brown-tail Euproctis chrysorrhoea than any of the various species of Yponomeutidae that also build such webs.

[Wurzel]

Interesting observations and great shots Ernie I saw a mating rejection from a female Copper today but she did a manic wing flap rather than the strutting Did do a hind wing roll though

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Well done on officially breaking your Copper record, ernie. It’s certainly been a good year for them.

Good that you caught up with a September Grayling too. I suspect that’ll be the last you see in 2018.

[PaynterQ]

Nice photos. The webbing on gorse is due to the gorse spider mite Tetranychus lintearius, if you zoom in on the image you can see tiny orange dots in the webbing (easiest to see on the edges of the webbing), which are the mites. Cheers Quentin

[CallumMac]

The webbing on gorse is due to the gorse spider mite Tetranychus lintearius

I stand corrected! Every day's a school day. Thanks Quentin

[Goldie M]

Very interesting shots ernie, love the Coppers, I've never seen seen a Penny Bun fungus before, keep the shots coming they make the awful weather here forgetful for a while Goldie

[ernie f]

Wurzel - Nice to see you found a Copper do a wing-roll and (almost) a Turkey Trot.
Quentin - Thanks for the ID of those web-weavers. I wondered why I could see no tell-tale larvae inside.
David - Thanks re my Copper Count. I am rather pleased about it.
Goldie - Thanks for your enthusiasm about my recent posts. I thought today would be too bad to get out but I was wrong, we got a little bit of sunshine around mid-day and I was really happy because it enabled me to get out and I found a rather nice bracket fungus. See next post.
Callum - That's one of the great things about this forum. We all learn from everyone else. I know I have learnt from others here many times and more than once from your good self.

[ernie f]

Kingsley - 18th Sep 2018

A short trip today but in the 30 mins I was there I saw three Speckled Woods, 2 Small Coppers and a Common Blue. They were all in reasonably fine fettle for the 3rd week of September after a night of strong winds and a dousing of rain.

Alice Holt Woods – same day

Then it was on to the woods at Alice Holt to see what fungi might be coming up. Often you come across a Speckled Wood here at this time of year, but there were none – in fact no butterflies at all. Even the fungi were absent, except for one notable exception...

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

Alice Holt is a mixed woodland. One part is mainly larch and on previous years I have come across the Dyer’s Mazegill here which is a bracket fungus that can grow from the trunks or roots of such trees. There was a big one here today which was bedecked in its fresh yellow and orange colours. An unusual fungus.

I have read that it is called “Dyer’s” Mazegill because before the advent of synthetic dyes in 1856, it was used to dye yarn yellow, orange or brown. All I can say is there must have been an awful lot more of it about then than there is now, because its not a species I come across too frequently.

The following pic show how difficult it can be sometimes to identify fungi. This is a rosette form of the same species in exactly the same spot as the one above but during a previous year. It is a bit more aged too, being a lot blacker in the centre as it gets older. In fact they blacken progressively and deliquesce until they finally melt away altogether.

[Wurzel]

Lovely pristine Specklie Ernie and some really fascinating fungi

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Wurzel - Glad you like the fungi. As the butterflies slowly decline its likely there will be more fungi in my non-butterfly section.
The next one is no exception!

[ernie f]

Sleaford - 19th Sep 2018

My wife wanted to go to the garden centre so after I dropped her off I had 30 minutes at Sleaford Common nearby. This location had been excellent recently for both Small Copper and Brown Argus but we had blustery winds and a morning of rain. Luckily the sun broke out for a short while early afternoon. There were however only 2 Small Coppers that I found and no Brown Argus at all.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

But now as if to replace them, there were rather a lot of Common Darters. One stayed on the ground while I crept up to take a picture. I got so close I almost banged my camera lens into him but he only flew off when I moved away.

Alice Holt – same day

Looking for fungi and found three species. Another example of the one I reported on yesterday but also, this time there was a Scarlet Brittlegill and a Scleroderma cepa Earthball under the Oaks in the car park. The beauty and the beast!

There are a few red-capped Brittlegill species but this one can be identified as it prefers to be under Oak trees.