Pauline

[Pauline]

Hi Mike, trying hard not to but becoming increasingly despondent - 22 eggs hatched and at this rate of loss I shall have nothing to show for it except a few twigs in water! First the BH. Now I know these have superb camouflage:

but can you even spot it? Given the time I have spent scrutinising these branches I think I am getting pretty good at it but despite the cats getting bigger each day, the number I am able to locate diminishes. I can now only count 4 out of 12 hatched eggs whereas before I could easily find 7/8 ..... and furthermore, there is no additional sign of feeding/leaf damage (despite the presence of the 'intruder'! The monster intruder was on the plant kindly donated by Maximus which initially held 4 eggs, and on which I have previously counted 3 cats. Now I can't find any cats on this plant. This creature was active at night and each day would find it wrapped up in a different set of leaves so tonight, to be on the safe side, it will find itself in a completely new set of leaves, far away from my plants. Not a good picture but by now my patience had worn very, very thin:

Staying with the BH I have been reading and re-reading the wonderful article by Vince on their early stages. How I admired and envied those wonderful images and beautifully marked cats whilst mine were just green blobs. I have tried hard today to replicate those images without much success, although I believe they are an improvement on earlier photos. I tried different backgrounds and different exposures etc to try to obtain those wonderful markings. I'm not sure which is the most accurate representation but a selection reproduced below:

I am even more disappointed by lack of any sightings of PH as most of these were collected close to home. Despite 10 eggs hatching, 6 of them 6 days ago, I have yet to see a second sighting

[William]

That last shot is lovely Pauline, stick at it and don't give up! I'm in a similar situation with some Purple Hairstreak eggs - fingers crossed

[Paul Harfield]

Hi Pauline

Great to see the development of your Brown Hairstreak larvae There is still no sign of my Purple Hairsteak eggs hatching

[essexbuzzard]

Hi Pauline,sorry i'm a bit late checking your pages,i've been away!

Don't give up on your PH cats,they may be burrowed deep inside the oak buds,out of sight,feeding on the delicate folded leaves within.

Are your cats on baby oak trees,in a cage? I don't think twigs in a jar will sustain them long term. Forgive me,if you have already explained this i apologise.

Good luck. I kept a cage with a common blue cat inside,in a cold greenhouse over winter. Because it was warming up in there,i decided to put it outside about 3 weeks back. One night,strong winds blew the cage upside down. Plants,soil,cat-just a muddy heap on the side of the cage. Disaster! I tried to put the plant/soil back together,but there's no sign of my caterpillar!

[Pete Eeles]

I don't think twigs in a jar will sustain them long term.

Just long enough to get them through the early instar(s) and for them to appear on the unfurling bud ... at which point they can be transferred (carefully!) to another twig. I rescued a couple of eggs myself, but they're still kept in the cold because none of the oak trees around here have opened buds - other parts of the country seem to be well ahead of west Berks!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pauline]

Thank you for that William - I really appreciate it ...and see below

Thank you too for your comment Paul - I shall pm you.

Lovely to hear from you Mark. I should have said so earlier but the photos from your recent trip are fantastic - and mating Festoons to boot (would have liked to have seen a shot of the monkeys tho ). I appreciate your helpful comments and shall certainly bear them in mind now that things have thankfully moved on a stage. Really sorry to hear about your Common Blue.

Thanks for the reminder Pete - you will see I have sent you another load of questions Whatever would I do without you guys!

Well, today shall now be known as PH day!!! Late last night I found a PH had emerged and what a size it was:

You just can't imagine my delight and relief followed rapidly by embarrassment for all the fuss I have been making. I went to bed happy knowing I had saved at least one, and best of all, it was one of my local ones (I have them in different labelled pots). This morning was even better as another 4 PH had emerged, a full 8 days after the first hatching, and how well camouflaged they were:

They were lively and curious, exploring their external environment, quite intrepid as they moved from branch to branch:

At one point the largest cat stretched a little too far for the next branch and dropped off, suspended in the air by a silken thread. My immediate instinct was to offer my finger as a 'leg up' but as I watched and waited he successfully managed to get back onto the branch.

Just like the BH these cats are beautifully marked and my photos certainly don't do them justice especially as most of them were backlit, being stood on a windowsill.

Having read the helpful advice by Mark and Pete I examined my branches that were home to the cats and noted that quite a few of the buds seemed to be dying. I wondered whether the activity of the cats was a result of hunger rather than curiosity so I positioned a new branch just touching the branch containing the most active cat. He was onto it like a rat up a drain pipe and when I left him he was still happily munching away. A visit to the woods is imminent!

[Pete Eeles]

That's excellent Pauline - glad to see the youngsters are growing fast!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Lee Hurrell]

What a wonderful story so far, I am hooked!

Good luck, Pauline.

Best wishes,

Lee

[Maximus]

Great stuff Pauline, I told you there was nothing to worry about

[David M]

Fascinating stuff, Pauline. I shall enjoy seeing how things unfold.

Best of luck.

[Pauline]

Thank you all for your support, encouragement, reassurance and interest. There will definitely be more installments to come but today I needed to escape from the nursery (my eyesight was becoming blurred from continually looking through that magnifying glass ). I decided to risk the toxic smog and make a short visit to Wrecclesham in search of all these Orange Tips I have been reading about. I shall not dwell on the history or use of this site as it has all been well documented in previous posts:

When I arrived at the site it was quite overcast but I thought I would take the opportunity to look for roosting OT's as I have done before at other venues. It wasn't long before I located one.

As I wondered along the track I heard the sound of a Chiffchaff and mindful of Mike's advice to search for them before the leaves are on the trees I think I might have had my first sighting - but it was way off in the distance as this shot shows:

Even over a short space of time the weather was very varied - warm, windy, cloudy, cool - but despite this there was a lot of butterfly activity, initially mainly Peacock, Brimstone and lots of ST:

It would be very easy to start to take all these ST for granted given the current numbers but there is no danger of that for me as I remember the months I spent looking for a single one, just a couple of years ago. It is a pleasure and a joy to see so many of them and in excellent condition too.

But where were these OT's? After all, that is what I came to see. My excitement grew as I saw a small white butterfly coming towards me only to find it was a Small White - not that I was disappointed mind as it was my first of the year:

During the brief warm spells I eventually managed to see 3 males and 1 female which I tried to keep an eye on for those cloudy moments. At one point I couldn't see any of them so decided to walk up the track to the right of the main path which is warm and sheltered. Oh, had I walked up there a few minutes earlier. On a bramble overhanging the path was a mating pair - I can't describe the excitement as I have never seen a pair of OT's mating but as I carefully approached, so did a male Small White. My heart skipped a beat but I was sure that once he realised they were OT he would move on - which he did. Sadly, so did the male OT leaving the female alone on the branch. They could not have been there long as I had walked that path not 10 mins earlier! My first frustrating moment of the new season but I am sure it will not be the last:

I did manage to get a few more OT shots but nothing in the same league as the one that Kipper posted recently so I'll just have to keep trying

[Pauline]

I am becoming (a little) more relaxed about rearing these cats but no less fascinated by their behaviour and growth. I continue to bombard 'the experts' (AKA Pete and Vince) with very many questions in my quest for understanding and to give the cats the best possible chance of reaching the next stage and being released. I have always been very interested in the camouflage which butterflies employ to improve their chances of survival and longevity but I hadn't before realised just how adept the cats are at this particular skill. I took this shot last night and I was hard pushed to see the cat until it moved - the camouflage is remarkable:

Pete had informed me that the cats would soon make a 'tent' to catch any debris whilst they were out and about and which also would provide excellent camouflage. I imagine that this is what he was referring to:

The cats are becoming much more mobile now and much more adept at roaming around their branches (without falling off). Whilst I see this as being encouraging it certainly makes keeping track of them more difficult and almost impossible to accurately record which one is which. I know for sure that I have at least 6 PH cats (2 of the eggs didn't hatch and I have not yet seen the other 4) and I know which of the 3 locations they came from but beyond that ......... Anyway, a few more shots of the cats exploring:

To change tack back to the BH, I have been astonished how one minute they are impressing me with their stunning patterns and markings and the next I can't see them at all because of the light and the camouflage:

Can you even see it? It's there and it's big enough but a mirror image of a leaf!

Butterflies are different in shape, size, colours and markings so I am not sure why I am surprised to finds these cats so individual. Even within a species, eg PH, the cats vary in shade from a medium beige to a pale chocolate brown and I have been trying without success yet to get the 2 together for a photo. They are of similar size so I am ruling out the colour variation being age related and they are in the same pot which means they came from the same location so not geographical or temperature related. Anyway, back to the BH and a few more shots taken either last night or today:

[Maximus]

Brilliant photos and great observations Pauline, you've done very well to get the photos of the Brown Hairstreak cats ours still remain hidden for much of the time

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Pauline,

Interesting stuff following the tales of the caterpillars and great photos Also good to see you have been out and seen some butterflies . No Orange Tips yet for me but can't be long now, weather permitting.

All the best,

Neil.

[essexbuzzard]

Great sequence,Pauline,loving it,you are doing a great job. Keep up the good work!

[Pauline]

Hi Mike, I have found that the BH larva can be located most easily in the evening under electric light when they gleam almost a lime green and provide a much needed contrast with the plant

Thank you so much Mark - I really don't know what I'm doing but I'm getting an awful lot of advice 'behind the scenes' so I'm doing my best, but if any make it I shall consider it a team effort

Great to hear from you Neil. It's grey, wet and windy today here in Liphook so I'm a captive audience of these cats. I have taken a few more shots which I hope demonstrates the excellent camouflage and also the variance in colour which is not a trick of the light - the difference is really that marked. I am wondering if it could be gender related or perhaps it is just a natural occurrence which doesn't mean anything at all.

The cat in the last shot is to the left of the egg.

[MikeOxon]

The cat in the last shot is to the left of the egg.

First task - find the egg!

The shot certainly shows how well-camouflaged these cats are. As others have said, this is a great sequence and very inspiring.

Mike

[Goldie M]

Fascinating stuff Pauline, love the photo's Goldie

[Pauline]

Thank you so much Goldie for your comment and compliment both of which are appreciated.

Thank you too Mike - watching them indoors is certainly preferable to being out in this weather but it takes some considerable time to find them. Here's one I prepared earlier , considerably enlarged just to prove I'm not posting images of empty twigs

I had another little panic this morning. I had been cautioned that perhaps my PH were developing too quickly and I should slow down the development. I had noticed that a couple of my larger cats had not moved for a couple of days and I thought perhaps they were so warm indoors they were beginning to decimate . My intention today had been to spray mist them but as there was a fine light drizzle I decided to put them outside for an hour instead. I brought then back in thoroughly soaked but could not initially find my 2 largest cats - eventually I saw them lying still on the cling film cover, in danger of falling through one of the holes into the water . I was convinced I'd killed them! However, after a tricky little manouevre to remove them from the brink of a watery death they both started to move ever so slowly down the Oak branch that I'd placed them on. Surely they can't be about to pupate? I'm not prepared and not sure what to do so I have now pushed the branches into soil and gathered some dry Oak leaves from the garage floor (everywhere else is soaking!) and placed them around the bottom of the branches. The cats are now about 1cm from the soil and leaves and they have now been netted but because I had no-where else to hand they are sharing a space with some BH - hope that is OK. The earliest PH larva emerged 26 March so I hope I am wrong about preparing to pupate. I am not even sure what instar they are in such is my inexperience . They look similar to the photos Pete took on 28 April in a previous year. At the moment I am confident that I have at least 7 PH larva out of the 10 that hatched.

So on my left I have the larva and if I look to the right (thru the dirty, rain splattered windows) I can see one of my bird tables. The photos aren't great but I wonder if they are clear enough for someone to identify what type of Redpoll visits or have I got a mixture and how can I tell the difference? Apologies for all the questions I have been asking recently - I hadn't realised quite how much knowledge I lacked

[dave brown]

Hello Pauline,
The Redpoll species can be hard to separate. Some people used to regard them as one species but in general most of the Redpolls seen in Britain are Lesser Redpolls. They are the smallest and most frequent of the 3 species we see. They can look very dull and brown although the male in summer is smart. The other two species are unlikely to be seen on garden feeders and are not really worth considering unless you are at a Migration hotspot. Just for your information the other two species are Common (also known as Mealy) and Arctic Redpoll. Both are Winter visitors and are larger than the Lesser Redpoll. They are best identified from measurements taken when trapped during bird ringing. Both birds also show a whiter rump than the Lesser. The Arctic Redpoll is also a very White looking bird overall and is often nicknamed the Snow Flake.
I have tried to keep the reply very basic as the Lesser Redpoll is probably the only one worth considering for most people. You have to go out of your way to see the Common and Arctic Redpoll. The number of Arctics seen most years in Britain is probably less than 10.
However, if you do get a very white looking Redpoll on your feeder you may have a few hundred twitchers looking over your shoulder.
Dave