Rob Partridge

[robpartridge]

A sunny day at last but still plenty of annoying winds. I'm still struggling to find any number of butterflies at all. In the garden a Small Tortoiseshell was very welcome, and Orange-tips and Green-veined Whites appear whenever the sun shines. I visited a site where Green Hairstreak has recently appeared - I'm convinced it has not always been there. There is extensive planting around a straw-burning plant which is now about twenty years old. Lots of dogwood among hawthorn and other shrubs, but no sign of the hairstreak between 10.00 and 11.30. Do they have particular flight times? And favourite food plants?

A female Holly Blue allowed a couple of photographs.

My local churchyard is managed very well for wildlife. I managed a few species there, including a Speckled Wood which had settled on the mown grass and spent several minutes probing for something, but I could not make out what for certain - presumably moisture or minerals.

There were several Holly Blues in the churchyard, as there always seem to be in this area. Of course, churchyards often have holly and ivy, and resemble light woodland.

I tried to include several more photographs but despite reducing the size to below 5mb, I kept getting the message The submitted form was invalid. Try submitting again.

[robpartridge]

A photo of the Speckled Wood which would not upload earlier:

[Wurzel]

Lovely looking Holly Blue Rob "Do they have particular flight times?" with regards to this I used to really struggle with this species - it was my nemesis or bogey butterfly and then someone told me that they went looking first thing and that they were a morning species.I tried this out and sure enough found them much more easily. Even now despite seeing them as late a 7:45pm I still think of them as an early morning butterfly - whether that's because they're less active first thing when its cooler and the sun hasn't reached it's full power I don't know? However if you do look early that can also be good for Holly Blues opening their wings up as well. Might be worth a punt?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[robpartridge]

Many thanks, Wurzel. It seems you are spot on - I managed brief views of 3 yesterday morning at the site between 10.30 and 11.00, in spells of intermittent sunshine. I've found them easily enough on gorse and broom in Norfolk, but this Cambs site has extensive areas of scrubby hawthorn and they seem to be scattered all over it at low density,

Rob

[robpartridge]

Warmer weather and some butterflies at last, if not in spectacular numbers. A morning visit to the old airfield site saw several Small Whites, much attached to dandelions.

I worked steadily along the old roadway as this has produced Walls in the past - there is plenty of bare ground and this was heating up in the sunshine at 10.00. Sure enough, I found one basking in a very hot, sheltered corner.

The old road runs alongside the disused airfield, which was used by Lancasters in the Second World War. It's an excellent wildlife site but will one day be redeveloped into something nightmarish, of course. Moments after I took this picture, I had good views of a Green Hairstreak, but it was too quick for a photo.

When I arrived back home, there was more excitement; moth trappers have begun to catch Silver Ys, and I've noticed in the past that Red Admirals often show up at the same time. I took a coffee into the garden and there was one on the perennial geranium - magic! I think these have wonderful undersides.

The sunshine continued into the afternoon, so it was time to visit a key site for Wall Browns - a complex of disused and still working gravel pits. In my experience, at least in my area, these often offer perfect habitat. The site did not let me down and I counted 10 Walls in approximately two hundred yards of slow walking. I am surprised and relieved that they seem to have made it through an extremely wet winter.

Finally, I had two more Red Admirals in fast courtship pursuit as I returned to the car. A better day, at last.

[Wurzel]

Great news about the Walls Rob Some species do seem to be in short supply so far this season but not round your way Fingers crossed when/if the good weather arrives they'll all emerge en mass

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Great to see those Wall Browns, Rob.

[robpartridge]

After a rather dismal spring, it's such a pleasure to see butterflies in the garden, and several species at a time. Red Admirals made their presence known on the 16th of May, when four appeared together, and today there are at least six. Silver Ys have also arrived in significant numbers over the past few days and one has to wonder whether they originate from the same areas abroad. Last night there were at least 20 Silver Ys nectaring at the sweet rocket. I think when you can get two Admirals in the shot without trying it must be a good sign!

I rather like Large Whites - they're understated but smart and quietly dignified. We've had both males and females over the past few days.

I don't see butterflies using the perennial geraniums as often as bumblebees, who adore them. However, an Orange Tip had his head down into one, and then a treat - Small Tortoiseshells have been thin on the ground but this was a beauty, and unusually large.

But the highlight of the week was about half an hour ago when the butterfly I've been looking everywhere for since the Red Admirals arrived glided around the garden. It disappeared but they'll often come back if they've spotted supplies, and sure enough the year's first Painted Lady returned and spent several minutes on the perennial wallflowers. For me, always one of the highlights of the season, and one of my favourite butterflies.

[Wurzel]

Brilliant to see you were visited by a Painted Lady Rob There's been a bit of an influx over the last couple of days - I just hope that they don't get on the blower and tell the rest of them not to bother coming over as the weather is so rubbish

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[robpartridge]

I've finally managed a few pictures of the Green Hairstreaks on a local disused airfield site. I'm convinced that they have not always been there but the habitat has apparently become ideal. They particularly favour the the edges of the scrub, where they fly quite low down in amongst mixed shrubs amenity planted when a straw-burning plant was built some twenty years ago.

I spent some time watching a couple of females, and was not surprised to see them laying on unopened flowers of dogwood - I had guessed this would be the food plant on this site. Typically, though, they spend a lot of their time perched on hawthorn.

However, I noticed one female in amongst the ground herbage. Eventually I saw it laying or attempting to lay on a species of vetch - I have to say "attempting" because I failed to mark properly which among the many stems it was on as I took the photo, and could not find an egg. Jeremy Thomas does mention Green Hairstreaks laying on "various vetches", of course.

[robpartridge]

Good to see that the Green Hairstreaks discovered on a disused airfield at Mepal in Cambs a few years ago are still present, though not in great numbers yet this year. We must enjoy these while can as there are rumours the place will be developed soon - for developed, of course, read destroyed.

[essexbuzzard]

Yes, we’re already one of the most wildlife depleted countries. And the destruction of nature continues apace.

[Wurzel]

It's a little depressing that whenever nature seems to take back somewhere we soon put paid to it Perhaps they'll move to a new site, another little island of habitat?

(try to) Have a goodun

Wurzel

[robpartridge]

The truly bizarre things to me is this - all over these isles we hear of proposed and actual re-wilding schemes, where land is supposedly given back to nature, and the cost involved can be considerable. Here on the airfield is a site of hundreds of acres which has rewilded itself over many years - it was a Lancaster bombers base - which will now be destroyed.

To be honest, nothing in conservation politics has made sense to me for a very long time. I have given up memberships of most national organisations - the only one I still support is Butterfly Conservation.

[Padfield]

The truly bizarre things to me is this - all over these isles we hear of proposed and actual re-wilding schemes, where land is supposedly given back to nature, and the cost involved can be considerable. Here on the airfield is a site of hundreds of acres which has rewilded itself over many years - it was a Lancaster bombers base - which will now be destroyed.

To be honest, nothing in conservation politics has made sense to me for a very long time. I have given up memberships of most national organisations - the only one I still support is Butterfly Conservation.

It is worth fighting back. When the Americans left Rendlesham in Suffolk, my father fought tooth and nail to prevent the proposed developments, which would have entailed new roads and infrastructure in the Sandlings. I advised him, as a lawyer, from Switzerland but I couldn't be present. Many others got onside, and the development was quashed. I still have the many box-files of work it involved for him. Nimbies are good. If we don't protect our nearest and dearest, who else is going to protect them?

Guy

[robpartridge]

Hello Guy, and thank you. A small resistance group is already forming. I've fought a number of these battles before and usually lost, but there will be a fight to save at least a part of what has become a good butterfly (and bird) site, especially for the county of Cambridgeshire,

Rob

[robpartridge]

Slowly the season is developing here - I'm not seeing numbers of anything yet. A morning walk was in order as at three o'clock yesterday afternoon it was apparently too hot for much to be flying, which seems odd in April. A few stretches of the Ouse Washes flood banks are less intensively managed; the length I walked this morning is lightly grazed by some tough-looking ponies, and often has some decent butterflies as the season progresses.
In my childhood every meadow had masses of buttercups, and so the bank here takes me back to that time:

Large Whites are quite common at present - as you can see, most of my photos I would describe as authentic rather than artistic;

Two Small Tortoiseshells were present; strange times in which we feel the need to take a picture, just in case;

Wall Browns have favoured the flood banks for many years, seemingly to find the microclimate and microhabitat to their liking - two were found this morning, both males;

No sign of the hoped-for Small Heath or Common Blue, but they should appear here soon.

[robpartridge]

Still trying to sort out what's happening with this year's Green Hairstreaks at a local site. Having had 'several' reported to me by another observer, I have revisited the place on three occasions - first mid-afternoon when it felt too hot (in April), so then at 09.00 in sunny more comfortable conditions, when two hours' searching produced nothing, and then yesterday evening, still in very warm, sunny weather. This time I took a trusty stick and tapped all bushes within reach along a 150 yards stretch, again seeing no hairstreaks.
Eventually I located one on a west-facing hedge, high up on a field maple - it spent most of the twenty minutes I watched it apparently basking. I was able to get some record shots. Further searching along the same hedge produced no more. Despite the unseasonable warmth I wonder whether the hairstreaks have not yet reached anywhere their full emergence, or whether it's having a lower numbers season after a very good one last year. Do recorders with more experience of Green Hairstreak note them flying into the evening sunshine?
I noticed in the photos that this one had almost no white markings on the underwings.

[Wurzel]

I too have noticed that there don't seem to be as many Greenstreaks this season Rob - hopefully it's a case of slowly building rather than a 'poor season' in the offing

Have a goodun

Wurzel