millerd

[Wurzel]

Love that Smoky looking Green-veined Dave Looking forward to the puddling in pairs photos

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

I'd certainly agree that fresh spring brood GVW females are very attractive butterflies with their smoky colours, Wurzel. More Hollies to come soon, but first another diversion from the local.

On Saturday 29th April, a rare forecast for a whole day of sunshine prompted me to head down to Denbies Hillside for the first time in 2023. I was hoping some early skippers might appear, but instead I had to make do with my first Green Hairstreaks of the year. I found half a dozen or so, with examples popping up in a variety of spots across the slopes. I suspect the whole site is a network of loosely connected pockets of the species. As ever, the first one seen was between me and the sun...

...but others were more obliging.

Other butterflies seen included Peacocks, a Comma, a single Orange Tip and numerous Brimstones. The frequent clumps of buckthorn were attracting the attention of Brimstone females, though the buds were only just unfurling. I watched one particular female selecting spots to lay, and taking uncharacteristically long about laying. Previously all I've seen is the briefest dab of the abdomen and it's off to the next bud. Still, it enabled me to get a few shots of the procedure.

touchdown of the abdomen

the egg emerges

a close crop of the shot above

the abdomen is withdrawn, leaving the egg

a second egg emerges from the abdomen

the egg can clearly be seen on the twig

While all this hard work is going on, the males are indulging in the butterfly equivalent of going down the pub...

Dave

[Katrina]

Wow - you are on a roll with the egg laying shots this year! Interesting

[millerd]

Thank you Katrina - an egg roll, eh?

Coming up soon I think there may be some more butterflies laying - GVW this time.

On 29th I had time for a quick scoot round locally. The recent rain has been a boon to the steadily increasing numbers of male Holly Blues - they (like Peppa Pig and George) cannot resist a muddy puddle. I found two indulging, and the second one had to share...Goodness knows what was in that patch of mud.

Dave

[millerd]

It was another half decent day on Sunday 30th April - six hours of sunshine and highs of 18 degrees locally. I elected for a longer walk around my local patch, and counted a respectable total of 73 butterflies. However, only seven species accounted for this tally:

Peacock 23
Orange Tip 21
GVW 12
Holly Blue 9
Small White 3
Brimstone 3
Speckled Wood 2

The Orange Tips provided the majority of interest, and I don't think I've ever had so many posing so well for me.

Green-veined Whites had a sudden peak in numbers today, and with so many Orange Tips (including females) there were surprisingly few Small Whites among the whites seen. Here's one Small White from amongst them.

The Green-veined activity included this selection...

...and another egg-laying female butterfly.

This close crop seems to show that GVW females lay more than one egg at a time - I think you can make out two ova there.

I don't know what the foodplant used here is - there is lots of it, which may explain why GVW appears in good numbers here.

Any offers of an ID are very welcome!

Despite the plethora of Peacocks today, I took very few photos of them...

...and unusually for me, I was restrained with the Holly Blues too.

Overall though, the day belonged to the Orange Tips.

At least for a while - I decided to squeeze in a look at Staines Moor as well later on, which I will leave for the next post.

Dave

[bugboy]

The plant I think is Hoary Cress Lepidium draba. I have quite a bit growing on my patch and have often seen whites laying on it. Female OT's sometimes take and interest too but can't remember if I've ever seen them lay on it.

[millerd]

Cheers for the plant ID, Paul. Yes, I've seen Orange Tips of both sexes take an interest, but they seem disappointed to find that it's not Garlic Mustard!

30th April: continued...

The walk down to Staines Moor from home is only 15 to 20 minutes, or it would be in dry conditions. The path turned out to be very muddy as the recent rain had caused the adjacent River Colne to overflow, and negotiating a way through was tricky. On the way down, I came across several more Peacocks, Holly Blues and Orange Tips, but on the Moor itself, there didn't seem to be much. However, as I completed a loop around the area where I have found them in the past, I was intercepted by the characteristic red-orange flash of a Small Copper. It was very active and I kept losing it, but eventually a bit of cloud grounded it in a spot where I was able to pick it out against the green.

That rather made my day.

With no other butterflies in sight, I had a go at photographing a damselfly (they, like the butterflies have been slow in appearing this spring). I believe this is a male Banded Demoiselle, and is about as close as I've ever got to one!

Dave

[Wurzel]

A cracking set of recent reports Dave It's great to see the range of species increasing in the reports and that was a cracking sequence of shots of the Green-veined White It's funny how butterflies seem to turn up in the same spots year after year - the wonders of micro-habitats

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel. Yes, it is amazing that the same few square metres produce the same butterflies year in year out when to our eyes there are wide expanses of similar-looking habitat with no butterflies at all. It does make life easier sometimes of course...

Here's a shot with the Small Copper territory on the right in front of the bushes...

APRIL 2023

Before going on to May, I will give a quick summary of April. Using the stats available for nearby Heathrow, the month was pretty well spot on the average line for temperature (the averages are based on the period 1991-2020), both day maximum (close to 15 degrees) and night minimum (close to 6 degrees). The highest temperature was 19 degrees on 29th, and the lowest was a touch above zero on the night of 4th/5th. There were no air frosts during the month. Rainfall (no surprise here) was about 50% above average, and sunshine was only 70% of the average amount for the month. Despite this, only 26th and 27th had no sunshine at all.

The presence of an increasingly strong sun on most days meant that out of 30 days on my local patch I managed to see butterflies on 23 of them. The best days were 17th (66 seen) and 30th (73). Seven species made their 2023 debut here during April (including a notable early Painted Lady), bringing the year total up to 12. 10 species were the most seen on any one day, on both 14th and 19th.Generally, no species appeared in great numbers, though 28 Peacocks and 18 Brimstones on 17th do stand out.

Dave

[millerd]

Monday 1st May was reasonably warm, and with a bit of sunshine.

Immediately on arrival on my local patch only a couple of minutes from home, I could see a good half dozen Holly Blues flitting around. I chose another one which was sitting on the brambles...

...and as I approached I was aware of two Specklies - one to the left...

...and another to the right.

The Holly Blue soon reacted to my presence, which stirred both the Specklies into life - but instead of a chase and circle around, one butterfly pinned the other to the foliage.

Within a matter of seconds, it was clear to see that here was a male and a female and that they had mated with no preamble whatsoever.

I've encountered mating Speckled Woods a few times, but never seen how cursory (non-existent!) the courtship is.

Today must have seen a big emergence of Holly Blues - I counted 23 today, accounting for half the overall butterfly numbers seen. The wet paths were attracting the males down (especially if there were some bird droppings available too), mostly singly...

...but what I first took to be another singleton turned out to be two in very close proximity.

Another hovered nearby, but did not join them, reinforcing my experience of never having seen more than two on the ground together.

Others assumed classic poses...

...or nectared. I don't think I've seen one on rape flowers before.

Amongst other butterflies was a nice Peacock, showing surprisingly little wear...

...and several Orange Tips.

Amongst all the familiar butterflies, there is always something new...

Dave

[Katrina]

Well done on the mating Specklies, something I have never seen. Interesting observation re the lack of courtship

[bugboy]

It's a curious thing that what we often see as courtship behaviour rarely amounts to anything, whereas when the female is receptive there's no visible courtship behaviour needed. We see Brimstones chasing each other, long after the females have presumably already been mated. I've read reports of Wood Whites mating without all that tongue whipping and wing flapping preamble, I've seen SWF bi-pass the whole dancing around her thing yet I've never seen any of these 'courtship' behaviours end in anything other than female rejection. There's a lot more questions than answers

[Goldie M]

Some cracking photos Dave I'm struggling to find OT's , Tort's , at present, I see you've even got the Small Copper, another green I think Goldie

[David M]

...I've encountered mating Speckled Woods a few times, but never seen how cursory (non-existent!) the courtship is...

Very interesting observation, Dave.

I have only seen this species in-cop four times and have never seen the preamble (or relative lack of it).

One for the memory bank.

[Pauline]

Well done Dave with that Speckled Wood mating sequence. Always interested in the behavioural stuff even tho' it is so much more of a challenge to capture on camera.

[millerd]

Thank you all - it's only when you see the whole thing from start to finish that you find out that butterfly courtship can be an extremely brief affair. In fact, this may be true in the majority of cases, with the long-winded rigmarole indulged in by (for example) Small Tortoiseshells perhaps being the exception rather than the rule.

Tuesday May 2nd was another disappointing day weatherwise, but when a bit of brightness cheered things up late afternoon, I took advantage. I only found four species - Holly Blue, Small White, Orange Tip and Speckled Wood.

Without much sunshine, the Orange Tips were constantly settling and in fact were really just changing roosting positions with brief breaks to feed a little.

spot the butterflies...

However, it was a female Speckled Wood that stole the show.

She was very restless, constantly diving deep into the undergrowth with only the briefest of pauses to rest. Consequently my next attempt at a shot caught the butterfly in a rather ungainly position.

I then realised the reason for this odd pose was that she was laying an egg. I managed a close-up of the egg, remembering after several attempts to capture some detail that this species' eggs are actually rather smooth and featureless.

While concentrating on the egg, I thought I'd lost track of the butterfly, but she popped up again close by, continuing her earnest mission on behalf of her species.

SpW laying1 cu1 020523.JPG (103.91 KiB) Viewed 410 times

SpW laying2 cu1 020523.JPG (110.08 KiB) Viewed 410 times

I don't think this is the same female I'd seen mating the day before (it was some way away with a lake in between), but in the space of a day or so I'd witnessed two significant events in the life-cycle of this species.

Perfect weather is definitely not essential for the best sightings!

Dave

[trevor]

Great sequence of the egg laying Speckled Wood, Dave.
Something rarely captured before I would think. And ideal OT weather too!

Great stuff,
Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Looks like you're going for the full set with those cracking Specklie shots Dave The only time I've ever found a mating pair something similar happened - I was watching one, it flew upwards onto a leaf and then there were two in cop Perhaps there are different pheromones or concentrations of pheromones at play that negate the other courtship behaviours? Cracking to hear of the good numbers of Holly Blue

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers Trevor and Wurzel - the humble Speckled Wood has certainly excelled itself recently in terms of interesting behaviour!

Wednesday 3rd May was promised to be a sunny one, albeit with a chilly start and a brisk breeze. I headed northeast this time, to Incombe Hole on the Chilterns, near Ivinghoe Beacon. As I drove there, lots of annoying low level fluffy cloud worryingly blew over from the east, but by the time I reached the NT car park on Pitstone Hill, this was more broken and luckily there was a fair bit of sunshine as I walked across the downland to my destination - luckily as it was pretty nippy out in the open.

I was banking on the bottom of the deep dry valley that comprises Incombe Hole being sheltered and much less breezy, and this turned out to be true - it soon warmed up down there, and butterflies soon appeared. The favourable forecast had brought out several like-minded folk, and there were probably a dozen of us watching for what might appear.

Top of the bill here is the Duke of Burgundy, and before too long there were maybe a dozen on the wing. Most of these were males, and some were already showing signs of wear.

I did spot a bit of movement down in the turf around the base of a cowslip, and this turned out to be a female. She may possibly have been laying down there.

all six legs in view

She climbed up and posed nicely in the open.

Perhaps the commonest species today was the Brimstone, with both males and females in good numbers and often interacting, with females constantly shaking off amorous males. With such displays on offer, how could I resist the opportunity to try for another shot of a pair in mid-air? Unfortunately, this time someone had put a tree in exactly the wrong spot...

Oh well.

Aside from the Dukes, I was hopeful of catching up with the spring skippers for the first time this year, and maybe see some more Green Hairstreaks. The last of these weren't difficult to find, and one individual in particular had adopted a lowish bit of scrubby hawthorn and provided good views to anyone who came by.

At one point, this butterfly headed straight down to the grass instead of its usual aerial sorties, and after a bit of fluttering in the low level leaves, another Hairstreak was revealed. I assume that this was a female, and that she had rejected the male (or he'd still have been down there).

Now for the skippers. I had earlier glimpsed what I took to be a Grizzlie heading past me in the opposite direction, but for a while struggled to find another. Then as luck would have it, a nice fresh example of the species came and settled on another bit of hawthorn right next to me - I didn't even have to move.

After that, several others appeared, but none as pristine as the first one.

That left Dingies to find. In the end I only came across the one, and had only a limited opportunity to photograph it. Still - another first for the year.

Also seen were Orange Tips, GVW, Peacocks, two Holly Blues, a Speckled Wood, a Red Admiral and a Small Copper. All that was left was the steep climb out of the Hole, and the walk back to the car in the stiff, and noticeably chilly, breeze that had been all but forgotten whilst down in its depths.

Dave

[millerd]

Returning home on 3rd May, it was noticeably warmer and the sun still shone. After the less common species of the morning, it was good to see all the familiar ones my local patch had to offer. The afternoon produced around 50 butterflies, with 8 species represented - Holly Blues...

...and Orange Tips colourfully predominating. They do appear to be having a decent season here now, after the delayed start.

There were also the first Commas and Red Admirals since 20th April - a gap of nearly a fortnight.

New Speckled Woods are still appearing...

...and some of the Peacocks look amazingly fresh and bright for their age.

One of the white butterflies seen turned out to be a female Orange Tip with particularly large forewing spots.

Dave