Neil Freeman

Wurzel · Post by **Wurzel** » Wed Jul 18, 2012 10:09 pm

Great shots Neil

Looks like I'll have to add brolly to my ever growing list of must have essentials!
Apparently the jet stream is moving north so we might get a summer soon...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:20 pm

Saturday 21st July - No brollies this time

With better weather forecast, Chris and myself decided to pay a return visit to Oversley Wood as during our last visit it had rained for 3 parts of the time we were there.

We arrived mid morning and walked a couple of slow circuits around the wood in warm conditions of mixed sun and cloud.

We had already seen good numbers of Silver-washed Fritillaries, 4 White Admirals and 1 Red Admiral, as well as the now familiar numbers of Ringlets and Meadow Browns, when Chris called out behind me.
I turned round just in time to see a Purple Emperor fly just over our heads and head up into a stand of conifers. It settled about 30 feet up in a tree at least the same distance away and I just managed to get a quick photo before it went up and over the top of the trees.

: Purple Emperor - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

We hung around for a bit but it did not come back so we carried on our way.

: Red Admiral - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: Meadow Brown - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: White Admiral - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: White Admiral - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: White Admiral - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: Silver-washed Fritillary - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

Further along the path I saw a quick flash of purple again but this one was much smaller.

: Purple Hairstreak - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

: Purple Hairstreak - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

Other butterflies seen were a few each of Large and Small Skippers (Definitely Small, I took few head on shots

but all down in the grass and not worth posting), 1 Gatekeeper, and around half a dozen Green-veined Whites.

: Green-veined White - Oversley Wood 21.07.2012

We also saw a beautiful SWF female Valesina

but unfortunately she did not settle long enough for a photo.

We left Oversley mid afternoon as it clouded over a bit and decided to call in to Snitterfield on our way past.

Whilst at Snitterfield, the sun popped out again and we saw around 8 SWFs and 3 White Admirals as well as 2 Commas during the hour we spent there.

: Silver-washed Fritillaries - Snitterfield Bushes 21.07.2012

: Silver-washed Fritillary female - Snitterfield Bushes 21.07.2012

: White Admiral - Snitterfield Bushes 21.07.2012

also notable was the fact that for the first time for ages I noticed various unidentified Whites flying along the verges as we drove to and from these places today

Bye for now,

Neil.

Wurzel · Post by **Wurzel** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 8:39 pm

Cracking shots as per usual Neil

Those White Admirals are practically glowing! I too have started seeing whites again - but still no Small Coppers

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:12 pm

Thanks for the comments Wurzel, the White Admirals were my target for the day, The PE and PH were icing on the cake

Still no summer brood Small Coppers for me either, must admit I saw a fair few first brood in Norfolk when I was there back during the last week of May.

First sighting of a local second brood Small Copper for me last year was 23rd July, so any time now I will be looking for them.

Cheers,

Neil.

jonno · Post by **jonno** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 9:20 pm

Hi Neil

We also saw a beautiful SWF female Valesina but unfortunately she did not settle long enough for a photo

I visited Oversley last week and captured a few distance shots of this Valesina by the bench at the end of the northernmost straight. Photos don't really do justice to this brilliant creature

Best wishes

Jonno

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:07 pm

Hi Jonno,

Nice ones...our sighting was about a hundred yards along from the bench. She flew past us and over a large patch of brambles where she settled briefly before carrying on further into the wood.

A gorgeous butterfly

Neil.

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:20 pm

Sunday 22nd July

A beautiful afternoon, albeit a bit breezy, saw myself, Chris and my Wife Jane trundling over to Babbs Mill / Kingfisher Country Park.

I had two particular reasons for wanting to have another look around this local spot. The first was that last time that went, I had a fleeting glimpse of a Marbled White and wanted to try and confirm their presence at this site. The other was to look for Essex Skippers because as previously noted in this dairy I now had doubts about seeing one here.

We had a slow bimble along the main path towards the area that I wanted to check out, noting the many Meadow Browns and Ringlets along the way along with 3 Commas, a good number of highly mobile unidentified Whites and numerous Cinnabar Moth larvae on clumps of Ragwort.

: Comma - Babbs Mill LNR 22.07.2012

: Cinnabar Moth Caterpillar - Babbs Mill LNR

We arrived at the spot we were heading for which is a rise up onto a meadow area and noticed a dozen or so Small Skippers 'mud puddling'. We spent some time trying to get some head on shots to confirm ID but found it next to impossible due to the fact that they were very flighty in the warm sun.

: Small Skippers 'mud puddling'

: Small Skipper on the mud.

In the end, both Chris and myself managed to get enough shots to confirm most of their IDs as 'Small' although Chris does have one head on shot that looks 'Essex' but I will leave that for him to post if he wants

.

We saw loads more 'small skippers' further up the hill but taking photos of them was a real trial in the warm sun plus the breeze up there that had them settling low down in the grass when they did stop for a brief second or two. Nevertheless I did manage some head on shots, all of which were definite 'Smalls'.

I was more successful in my other 'mission' in that we saw 3 Marbled Whites including a mating pair thus confirming their presence at this site

: Marbled White mating pair - Babbs Mill LNR 22.07.2012

Other Butterflies seen were a couple of Small Heath and Red Admirals and a few Gatekeepers all of which were male.

A good couple of hours but a bit warm and breezy for photographing the skippers, I may try again sometime this week but in the early evening.

Bye for now.

Neil.

Post by **Pete Eeles** » Sun Jul 22, 2012 8:52 pm

I feel like I've arrived late at a party

But the second brood Green-veined White female is a cracking shot of a cracking individual! Thx for posting in the species-specific galleries!

Just goes to show that we (well, me anyway!) can get as much pleasure from a "common" species as from those that are extremely rare, as Vince constantly demonstrates with his lifecycle studies which are superb! And I watched a Small White ovipositing on some cabbage in our garden today - a very simple pleasure and simply wonderful. I hope the offspring munch away!

Great stuff; keep up the good work all

Cheers,

- Pete

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:33 pm

Many Thanks for your comments Pete

I quite agree with you regarding the more 'common' species, in fact the Green-veined White is one of my favourites, I like its more 'subtle' beauty.

Monday 23rd July

My back lawn has finally dried out enough to give it a cut and whilst doing this earlier this evening I was visited by a faded Speckled Wood, a hyperactive Red Admiral, and a second brood Holly Blue that actually stopped in the garden long enough for me to get my camera

: Holly Blue - Coverdale 23.07.2012

Neil.

Wurzel · Post by **Wurzel** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:54 pm

Great shot of the Holly Blue

What is it about mowing the lawn? I hadn't seen a butterfly in my garden for a long while, I get the mower out and there's a Red Admiral, Comma and Small and Large White! Next time I think I might mow the lawn I go butterflying instead!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Post by **Mark Colvin** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:00 pm

Hi Neil,

I just wanted to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying reading your diary. I particularly like the Purple Hairstreak from Oversley Wood and well done with the Holly Blue

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 7:16 pm

Hi Wurzel and Mark, thank you very much for your comments

The Purple Hairstreak was perched 7 or 8 feet up on top of the leaf. Those shots show the advantage of the articulated screen on my FZ150, the camera was held at full stretch above my head with the screen angled down.

All the best,

Neil.

David M · Post by **David M** » Mon Jul 23, 2012 8:30 pm

Mark Colvin wrote:Hi Neil,

I just wanted to say that I'm thoroughly enjoying reading your diary. I particularly like the Purple Hairstreak from Oversley Wood and well done with the Holly Blue

Agreed. These are two fairly widespread butterflies that are hard to nail down with a photograph.

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:08 pm

Tuesday 24th July – Fermyn Woods.

With glorious sunshine forecast for a few days I had booked a day off work in order to take advantage of it.
I had not made any particular plans on where to go but reading the reports of Purple Emperor numbers growing at Fermyn over the weekend, this was far too much of a temptation to resist.

Fermyn is only 60 miles or so from my house and I arrived there just before 08.00am to find a few cars already parked by the gliding club.
Passing a few pleasantries with a fellow enthusiast (more of whom later

) who had arrived just before me, I set off down the ride.

Last year when I came here, I had seen my first Purple Emperors down at the southern end of the Lady/Souther/Titchmarsh Wood complex so I figured that I would head straight to there and then take a leisurely bimble back through the rides.
Sure enough, I saw my first PE at 09.05am down at the south end doing the usual thing of sitting on top of a pile of ‘pooh’ taking in minerals. I took a few photos but I already had loads of ‘PE on pooh’ photos from last year and really wanted to try for some shots of Emperors on ‘green’
Leaving this individual to carry on obtaining his nourishment, I started back up through the woods seeing a few more including two having a bit of a dogfight by a stand of pines.

This gave me my first ‘PE on green’ opportunity albeit at long range as one of them broke off and settled about 15 feet up in one of the pines.
Further along in Souther Wood I came across an Emperor on the ground at about the same time as another ‘PE hunter’, and this was soon joined by another male as well as the chap I had spoken to earlier in the car park who turned out to be none other than fellow UKB member ‘Tuts’.

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

These two PEs stayed on the ground here for quite some time during which Tuts saved them from potential disaster from a passing vehicle by gently lifting them on to his fingers to move them out of the way.
This gave a photo opportunity that just begged to be taken

: 'The Purple Emperor Bookends'

After this they continued to remain here, occasionally taking off and circling around the growing number of watchers and they were still there when Mark (Tuts) and myself continued on through the rides.
During the morning I think we saw 16 individuals including a dozen or so on the ground, a few of which would occasionally take off and settle on nearby shrubs fairly low down

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

By midday it was getting very hot and butterfly activity had definitely quietened down with those that were still about being very mobile.
We walked back through Fermyn to the cars for a bit of lunch seeing our only female of the day diving into some Sallow.

The afternoon was much quieter than the morning and we only saw a few, which, I believe due to their locations, were some of the same individuals we had seen during the morning. Those that we did see low down were very flighty, only settling for seconds before rising again
Walking right through to the south side again at around 4.30pm we found a male on the ground taking minerals by a puddle and this one stayed around for a while but kept his wings clamped tightly shut in the heat.

: Purple Emperor - Fermyn Woods 24.07.2012

Mark made the observation that the habitat at this end, where you are actually coming out of the woods, was unlike any he was used to seeing Purple Emperors in, being much more open and more like a hedgerow.

: Last grounded Emperor seen just beyond puddle.

We then walked slowly back towards the cars seeing just one more flying rapidly along the ride in Lady Wood.

Other butterflies seen during the day were;
A few White Admirals
Silver-washed Fritillaries – more of these than last year.
Purple Hairstreaks – High up flitting about as usual.
White-letter Hairstreak – 1 individual in the ride from the gliding club in almost exactly the
same position where there was one last year.
Meadow Browns, Ringlets and a large number of very active Large Skippers.
Large, Small and Green-veined whites in encouraging numbers.

A great day, which whilst apparently quieter than the previous one, was highly enjoyable with enough Purple Emperor action to keep me happy

Bye for now,

Neil F.

GOLDENORFE · Post by **GOLDENORFE** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:24 pm

very good Neil , what an amazing place it is!
great shots on the trees

does sound at lot different to monday when i visited , presume alot more people on the tuesday upsetting them ? they where still grounding well after 4 pm along the main track monday.

Pauline · Post by **Pauline** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:33 pm

I love your PE shots Neil - so glad you had a good day (PS love your P Hairstreak shots too)!

Mark Tutton · Post by **Mark Tutton** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:44 pm

Great shots Niel and good company I must say

.
We certainly seemed to have done better than most on Tuesday? Matthew Oates seemed to be of the opinion that sometimes when you experience a 'super purple' day like Monday when males fly into the evening the next day can be quieter. It was certainly very hot and the first time I have experiences an emporer flying across a corn field. Mark

Neil Freeman · Post by **Neil Freeman** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:56 pm

Hi Mark,
Yes, it was a great day and I really enjoyed wandering around with you, many thanks

It may have been quiet by the previous days standards but for me, something like 30 or more sightings of 15/16 different Purple Emperors counts as good going

Hi Phil,
Thanks for the comments

I am not sure if there were many more people than Monday, we didn't see masses but then again I think we wandered further into the woods than most. There were times when we were alone with our Emperors.

Pauline, glad you like the shots, yes it was a very good day and passed amazingly quickly.

Neil.

David M · Post by **David M** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 7:59 pm

What a bonanza! You deserved your good fortune, Neil, for all the effort you've put in.

Post by **Mark Colvin** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 9:37 pm

Hi Neil,

Congratulations on some really good shots. The Emperors of Fermyn appear to be in far better condition than those in my local woodland. Of the five seen today all were very tatty.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Neil Freeman

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