ernie f

[ernie f]

25th June 2021, Broxhead, 12.30-1.15, 18 degrees, cloud

SSBs are on the increase. 17 on my regular transect today and my first female of the year.

It was doing a very fine wing-roll. I will add pics of this to my post under the General Forum.

Also 1 S Tort, 2 Common Heath and 1 Clouded Buff. The latter I was lucky enough to get pics of above and below.

[ernie f]

2nd July 2021, Broxhead, 12-1.45pm, 20-21 degrees, partly sunny

Today I tried to take a picture of my finger but these pesky butterflies kept getting in the way!

Notice the male has an aberration where it's right side wings have a faded-out colouration, both above and below.

Today I counted 52 individuals in and around the lek on my usual transect, of which 5 were female and one mating pair.

[Wurzel]

Great Silver stud shots Ernie fourfer in particular (in the hand, in cop, close up and aberrant) That's an interesting peculiarity it looks a bit like 'ink was too dilute' when it was coloured in - could it be what they call 'pathological'?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Wurzel - Yes, I thought it needed a re-spray!

[ernie f]

7th July 2021, Abbots Wood, 4.30-5.30pm, 19 degrees 50/50 sun/cloud

Meadow Brown and Ringlet in medium numbers, a few Large Skipper, 1 Red Ad, 2 Comma, 1 SW Frit, 2 PStreaks, 3 White Ads

This terribly mediocre weather we are still getting for the time of year is taking its toll!

[ernie f]

17th July 2021 - Abbot's Wood, Hot, sunny summers day

I bought a sun-protection cream that I have never had before and put it on for the first time today.

I bet you are glad to hear about that aren't you?

Why do I mention it? Well today I was doing one of my regular purpling visits to the Alice Holt woods - the Abbot's Wood enclosure - when out of nowhere a Comma flew down, circled me inquisitively a couple of times and then landed on the back of my left hand. It proceeded to lick me for salts but I am convinced it was the smell of the sun-cream that first attracted it. It stayed for quite some time while I took out my camera from its bag, set it with my right hand and took stacks of pics. Here are two of them.

It was quite funny because of the tickling sensation.

I have seen four Purple Emperors in this location over the last two days, often flying quite close to me and low enough to see the purple of the upper wings but never once did they land on the ground and certainly didn't land on me. I was wondering if one might though because he did get very close, but no luck I am afraid.

Maybe tomorrow - there is always tomorrow...

[ernie f]

18th and 19th July 2021 - Abbots Wood, hot and sunny

I got here early both days and left before it really heated up.

On the 18th I had 12 sightings of Purple Emperor and on the 19th a further 8 sightings, all airborne at different heights, but I worked out that it was only 5 individuals in total that I was watching. At one point there was a short face-off battle between two males but it didn't come to much.

Since they still refused to come down I did my best to take pictures of them flying.

Not bad but not great. I shall have another go at this tomorrow to see if I can improve upon it.

Also - one good thing about coming early is you get to see stuff like this...

A family of Roe Deer, mummy and daddy with three youngsters in tow.

[Katrina]

Its got to be a good day if you see PEs and a family of roe deer - nice photos .

[Wurzel]

You did well to capture those Emperors in flight Ernie the one's I saw were too fast and kept hugging the trees o focusing was nigh on impossible

Have a goodun and stay safe
Wurzel

[David M]

Frustrating that the Emperors decided to remain airborne, ernie, but that's a lovely sighting of the roe deer family.

[ernie f]

Katrina, David

Thanks. I was quite astonished to see the Roe Deer like this. I called them a family unit but in reality when the male approached from down the track it was only then that the female and young scooted off. I watched them for a good while before this happened and they didn't scare before he came on the scene so maybe it was just a male trying his luck with a female who didn't want to know?

Wurzel

I tried again to get pics of Purple Emperor's in flight yesterday and although I had three opportunities, none came out even though I had preset my camera to the fastest speed for the conditions just for this purpose. Just goes to show how fast they really can be.

[ernie f]

20th July 2021, Abbots Wood (yet again). 7.00 - 10.30am, Very Hot and sunny

Saw almost all the butterfly species I might expect to see in this part of the woodland at this time of year today.

Small, Large and Marbled White. Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekeeper and Speckled Wood. Purple Hairstreak, Purple Emperor, White Admiral, Silver Washed Fritillary, Comma, Peacock. Large, Small and Essex Skipper.

Not seen a Holly Blue for awhile now and although I had seen a Red Admiral here a couple of days ago, none today.

I spent more time chasing Small Skippers to find out if any were actually Essex Skippers than I did watching Purple Emperors today.

I think these may be good candidates for Essex but I couldn't position myself in front of one to see its antenna tips face-on...

[trevor]

You've had some rewarding adventures recently Ernie.
The mating Silver Studs, and the Emperors in flight stand out for me.

Great stuff, stay well.
Trevor.

[Katrina]

I like the warm colours in your skipper shots!

[ernie f]

Trevor - Thanks. I was unusually lucky with the SSB's as this was the ONLY mating pair I came across this year.
Katrina - I didn't actually realise how nice the colour of the background of the Skippers was until I got the pics onto my computer at home.

[ernie f]

My annual report of the Silver-studded Blue colony at Broxhead Common in Hampshire.

I have been studying the ups and downs of this colony for a few years now but only started to do a proper count in 2018.

On the occasions before 2018, the numbers on this reserve were more reflected by my survey results in 2018. In other words, at the times I looked, the numbers across the reserve were up in the 500’s and in the lek area in the 300’s. All the following charts indicate numbers in and around the lek only. The blue bars represent male numbers and the red bars are the female numbers.

Then in 2019, numbers took a steep dive.

And have remained quite low each year ever since. With some hiccups, they started to improve slightly in 2020.

But took another hit this year (2021) I presume due to the terrible weather we have had, often cold, rainy and windy in June/July. We even had a heavy hailstorm at one point.

Notice too how the flight period shifted. This year was the latest in the year (by far) that I last saw an SSB fly here. There was a spell of hot, sunny weather in this period – and this was a large enough window for them to flourish, however in all the times I went there this year I only saw a single mating pair – more usually you come across this many more times - in fact it is not an odd occurrence to see three mating pairs all at once but not this year!

I have in the past done some calculations to try and estimate the total population of the reserve from the totals in the lek but this year I did not because the numbers were so low it was likely that the satellite colonies on the reserve would have petered out entirely due to already low numbers there the previous year. However I did not check the truth of this – it is just my assumption.

The only bit of good news is that there was a “last-minute” spike in the number of females. Let’s hope this is good enough to take the Broxhead colony into the future.

[Wurzel]

Worrying numbers there Ernie - hopefully things will take an upturn next year

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Butterflyboy]

I hope the ssb will recover next year, but does that mean that the ssb are still flying?

[ernie f]

Butterflyboy

The quick answer is - "maybe". I haven't checked and am knee-deep in DIY so its unlikely I will be able to check for awhile and by the time I can, I would guess the answer would then be "no".

[ernie f]

6th Aug 2021, Broxhead, 6-6.30pm Sun, 18 degrees

Well Butterflyboy's recent comment compelled me to visit this site again. After the rain and wind we have had here I didn't expect to see ANY SSB's at all at this late stage but I was wrong. There was one last female flying about on my normal transect. She was in pretty good condition too although a bit faded. This is by far the latest SSB I have ever seen.

Also a Meadow Brown and a Large Skipper (also in fine fettle).