Neil Freeman

[Neil Freeman]

Sorry still guess...I mean learning Wurzel

I know exactly whay you mean Wurzel compared with butterflies, some other insects are not at all easy to identify

Friday 4th May.

It was another dull day today with a couple of spells of drizzly rain but otherwise dry. The sun almost broke through this afternoon but only in a half hearted way and soon hid behind grey clouds again.

The Orange Tip from the past two days is still there and settled in for a third night on his forget-me-nots.

Orange Tip - third day roosting

There are some sunny periods forecast for tomorrow albeit with it going a bit cooler. I am hoping that it may warm up enough for him to continue on his way.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

When I found my Orange-tip still outside at 10:42pm I wondered then, as now, do they remain mentally active during the bad weather or do they "sleep"/go into some sort of stasis? Still if there aren't any other butterflies around tomorrow at least you know where to find one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

When I found my Orange-tip still outside at 10:42pm I wondered then, as now, do they remain mentally active during the bad weather or do they "sleep"/go into some sort of stasis?

I have been wondering the same thing myself. I am guessing that being cold blooded, insects will go into some form of torpor when the temperature drops too low for them to function normally. When it gets warm enough, they then resume normal activity as if nothing had happened.
That is certainly how it seemed with the Orange Tip in my garden.......

Sunday 6th May - the Orange Tip has left the garden

Yesterday was another cool and cloudy day and although the sun tried to break through a couple of times in the afternoon, it was just not enough to stir Mr Orange Tip in to action.

This morning I got up to sun and blue sky with a few fluffy white clouds dotted about. The spot where the OT has been settled is in the shade first thing but around 10.00am the sun moves around enough to shine full on him.
Sure enough, after a few minutes of sun he started to open his wings. A few minutes later he took off, did a bit of a circuit of the end of the garden and settled again on a patch of nettles for a couple of minutes before taking off and carrying on his way

Orange Tip - day 4 just before take off

Orange tip - on his way

From the time that I saw him settle until his leaving this morning he spent four days and nights in a quite exposed position in some heavy rain showers and quite cold night time temperatures. When he took of this morning he went off perfectly ok as if the past four days had just not bothered him.

Unfortunatly by early afternoon it had clouded over but nevertheless I decided to have a bimble down to Snitterfield Bushes to see what the bluebells looked like. There were some nice looking carpets under the trees but looked to me as if another week would see them looking even better.

Bluebells - Snitterfield Bushes

Looks like rain again for the week ahead . At least I will be at work. Fingers crossed for next weekend.

Neil F.

[Neil Freeman]

Tuesday 8th May

Well I was at work today and how I wish I wasn't, the sun was out and the temperature had gone up a couple of notches. Not only was I stuck in an office but I was all bunged up and sniffling, hayfever or summer cold or something to make me feel even more dejected

Anyway thats enough of me feeling sorry for myself because as soon as I got home around 4.00pm my spirits lifted.
The sun was still out , so having half an hour or so before domestic duties beckoned, I went straight out into the back garden.

A flash of something orangey at the bottom of the garden caught my attention and proved to be a fairly fresh looking Comma, if this was one that has survived the winter and our spring so far, it is looking surprisingly good for it. It was very flighty and soon disappeared next door.

I next had a visit from a female Orange Tip, the first female I have seen this year. She settled briefly on a straggly cuckoo flower in the lawn and then a couple of times elsewhere before carrying on her way.

Female Orange Tip - back garden

After she had gone I checked the cuckoo flower and sure enough there was a single egg on it. I also have some good clumps of Garlic Mustard but these are not quite in flower and she ignored these.

Orange tip egg - back garden

There were also a couple of Speckled Woods, one of which spent quite a bit of time nectaring on the Forget-Me-Nots.

Speckled Wood nectaring on Forget-Me-Not

Also seen within a period of about twenty minutes along with the above were a couple of Holly Blues.

I also seem to have had an invasion of Ladybirds, mostly Seven Spot but with a few others as well. Standing in one spot and lookng around I counted 26 in plain view without looking too hard.

Ladybird ?? - back garden

In fact the 'wild end' of my garden was positively alive with bees, flies and bugs of various kinds most of which were too mobile for photos, except this pair that look as if they are about to get disturbed

'Oi!! get orf my leaf!'

It actually looks like, after the next couple of days of rain, the weekend will brighten up a bit.

Fingers crossed,

Neil F.

[Nick Broomer]

Your last photo with the mating green bugs, is a lovely and unusual picture, Excellent.

All the best,

Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the comment, glad you like it.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[Susie]

I've been trying to find out what your ladybird is. I am not sure if it is some sort of variation on eyed ladybird or if it is a harlequin or something else. The only thing I can say for sure is that it's a ladybird.

Funnily enough when I was doing an image search on eyed ladybird one of my avatar's came up from another forum. Funny the stuff that's floating around on the web!

BTW, smashing photo of the bluebell woodland.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Susie,

Thank you for your comments.

I think the Ladybird is too small for a Harlequin, its difficult to tell from the photo but it was a fair bit smaller than the Seven Spots that were all over the place. It was nearer in size to a Ten Spot ...which is a possibility as I believe that these can be very variable in colour and number of spots

Cheers,

Neil.

[Gibster]

Hi Neil,

your ladybird is a Cream-streaked ladybird (Harmonia 4-punctata). Nice pics too!

Cheers,

Gibster.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Gibster,

Many thanks for the comments and Ladybird ID, much appreciated

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Friday 11th May

I finished work for the weekend at lunchtime and spent the afternoon rushing around shopping etc, the plan being to keep my weekend as free as possible as the weather forecast is looking promising.

There were a couple of showers whilst I was out but by the time I got back home the sun was out and stayed out for a reasonable amount of time.

Twenty minutes or so in the back garden produced a passing male Orange Tip and a Green Veined White that spent some time flittering around a patch of Spanish xhybrid bluebells that have been there since I moved into the house.

Green Veined white - back garden

There were also loads of bees all around the garden including what looked like two different types of Nomadas plus various other types.

Nomada Bee species - back garden

Umidentified Bee ?? - back garden

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Pauline]

Your garden sounds amazing Neil - sounds like it's teeming with insects and with so much going on there you don't have to venture far to get some lovely pics

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks for the comments Pauline.

I am fortunate in having a large garden with a lot of mature trees and shrubs. I had a large sycamore taken out at the end of the garden last year which has opened up a decent space that I am developing as a 'wild area', there are some pics further back in the diary.

The garden truly has been a godsend this spring with the weather being like it has so far. There has been a decent amount of sun hidden amongst all the rain but it has been infrequent and comes in short spells that do not make it worth going out far. I only need a few minutes of sun to make it worth going out in the garden to see what is about.
It has helped keep the frustration at bay somewhat

All the best,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Alright Neil, likewise the garden is a godsend for me too, if only I didn't have to do any upkeep

I think the Nomada is flava and the other bee could be Andrena nigroaenea? Great shots as always

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Saturday 12th May - In the garden again

The heavy rain that we have had so far this spring along with the intermittent sunshine has led to some very lush plant growth and my garden is no exception. I have not been able to do anything like the normal amount of looking after that I would normally do, even the 'wild bit' needs some attention if it is going to develop how I would like.

Therefore I decided that, despite the temptation to get out, I would spend the day getting on top of things in the garden, mowing, pruning, cutting back and generally catching up on at least a months worth of 'stuff'.

The 'wild end'

It was a beautiful day with the sun out most of the time, just being covered by some clouds on the odd occasion and from mid-morning onwards had almost constant visits from Orange Tips, Holly Blues, GV and Small Whites and a Comma.
I could not say how many in total as I do not know how many times I was seeing the same individual butterflys coming round again.

One thing that I did notice was that until today the Orange Tips were nectaring on Forget-Me-Nots mostly but today they were ignoring those and going exclusively for what I believe is Herb Robert.

Orange Tip on Herb Robert

Orange Tip female on Herb Robert

At first I thought the Holly Blue below was nectaring on the bluebell but then noticed it was taking moisture from outside the petals.

Holly Blue on Spanish xhybrid Bluebell

Thats enough from the garden for now, I am off to Prestbury Hill tomorrow

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Neil Freeman]

likewise the garden is a godsend for me too, if only I didn't have to do any upkeep

Know what you mean Wurzel hence my last post

Thanks for the bee IDs, I am slowly getting to recognise some

Cheers,

Neil

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 13th May – Prestbury Hill Gloucestershire

Well, I finally got out of the garden and went out a bit further travelling down to Prestbury Hill in Gloucestershire for a butterfly walk organised by Warwickshire BC.

About 20 people turned up for the mid morning meeting time with the weather being nice and sunny but with a cool breeze at the top of the hill.
It was more sheltered further down the reserve and got quite warm at times before the wind picked up a bit more and it clouded over during the middle part of the day.
Later in the afternoon the clouds cleared and the sun came out again for a lovely end to the afternoon.

The main target for the day was Duke of Burgundy and I think that everyone saw a few with around half a dozen being seen by some.
I believe that up until today (Sunday) Dukes had only been seen here on a couple of occasions so far this year, a single individual each time.
We were obviously lucky with the weekend weather bringing a few more out.

Duke of Burgundy - Prestbury Hill 13.5.12

Duke of Burgundy - Prestbury Hill 13.5.12

Duke of Burgundy - Prestbury Hill 13.5.12

Duke of Burgundy - Prestbury Hill 13.5.12

Other butterflies seen were Dingy Skippers, Green Hairstreaks, Peacocks, female Brimstone, GV white, Small Heath and one very fresh male Small Blue that I saw in the morning but lost track of before I could get a photo. I believe that someone else in another part of the reserve later saw another Small Blue.
The windy conditions meant that the Dingys and Green Hairstreaks kept settling low down in the grass making photos difficult.

Green Hairstreak - Prestbury Hill 13.05.12

Dingy Skipper - Prestbury Hill 13.05.12

Other creatures of interest seen include a glow worm, a Wood Tiger Moth caterpillar and an impressive looking spider.

Glow worm - Prestbury Hill 13.05.12

Wood Tiger Moth larva - Prestbury Hill 13.05.12

Spider ?? - Prestbury Hill 13.05.12

An enjoyable day.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Nick Broomer]

Your spider is a Wolf Spider, If the size of the spider was about 15mm in length then its a female.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for your comment.

I have just had another ID through twitter of a Nursery Web Spider, Pisaura mirabilis. Is that of the same family?

The body lengh was about 10/12mm with a leg spread of a good 35mm.

Cheers,

Neil.

[ChrisC]

it is indeed pisaura mirabilis a very variable spider but one of my favourites.

Chris