Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Cheers all I'll reply properly when I get back from the Dordogne (unless I get more Wifi access / currently standing outside someone's house )...seen some great stuff and it's only been two days

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Aha - so this was the trip to Daneway Banks where you got the Large Blue. Brill pics, especially the egg-laying. I didn't get this when I went this year. Are my eyes deceiving me or does she drop her antennae forward to counterbalance when curling her bottom round?

[millerd]

Interesting to see the Large Blues laying on marjoram rather than thyme as they generally do at Collard Hill. It obviously works fine for them.

Dave

[trevor]

Have a great holiday, looking forward to the results !.

Trevor.

[CallumMac]

Glad you got your Large Blues Wurzel, nice shots of them egg-laying!

Regarding the rogue SSB, I have suspected for a while now that the Blues in general are much better at dispersing than we tend to give them credit for. This isn't the first SSB to turn up somewhere unexpectedly, even this year: https://twitter.com/tom_m_brereton/stat ... 0991836161. Small Blues have been reported to colonise new habitat patches very quickly, even at some distance from known colonies (the example of the Weymouth Relief Road springs to mind). And look at how Adonis Blue has swept throughout most of the Cotswolds in the matter of 15 years since it was first detected in the southernmost sites - this from a species that, supposedly, hardly ever moves between sites separated by only 100 m of unsuitable habitat!

[Andrew555]

Great SSB selection Wurzel, and I love your Lulworths and DGF's. Well done with those Large Blues.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, lovely shot of the SSB, Perhaps the hot weather as made them more versatile Your Large Blue is also one I've yet to see maybe Both, Large Blue and the Lulworth Skipper Next Year, Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Mike I wonder if the phantom butterfly spreader, the one that was featured on the Butterfly program a year or so back, has been down to this neck of the woods?
Cheers Mikhail I wonder why they're moving this year in particular?
Cheers Bugboy I had to wait until I got home for some relief from the heat having spent all day in a field surrounded by year 10's Those shots were indeed extremely hard won
Cheers Trevor The trip I'm going to surreptitiously suggest to the Geography teacher is The Algarve in the second week of June
Cheers Ernie Nope you're dead right I've also seen Green Hairstreaks do this when egg laying as well I've got a few more species to add to the wing rolling list
Cheers Dave They do generally do alright at this site Dave, though on both visits that I made this year the weather was less than conducive :roll:I wonder is the Marjoram was cooler as it was higher of the ground?
Cheers Trevor take 2 It was a very relaxed trip, apart from driving on rural French roads and I did okay with over a dozen lifers. Posting ready in time for Christmas hopefully
Cheers Callum I don't know how far their estimated distribution distance is - but the nearest known site is just over 11 miles away :shock:Mind you that could easily be covered in a series of generation jumps; breed imagos emerge distribute further, breed etc etc.
Cheers Andrew I was well chuffed with doing the Treble
Cheers Goldie Go for it - they're at quite well known sites so should be relatively easy to find and there are also good Pubs nearby as well for apres Papillon

And now to start catching up...I need a holiday to recover from the holiday Here's a little something to keep you going...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

On the basis of that one image I'm going to have to do a premptive strike

[trevor]

Southern White Admiral ?. I'm looking forward to the 12+ lifers.
As you have been to that large land mass over the channel before,
those lifers could be quite exciting !.

Trevor.

PS. Back to Wilts on Saturday, for Cheverell Soap Box Derby on Sunday.

[Andrew555]

Wow! Looking forward to more.

[Art Frames]

I shall be looking forward to sharing the trip too. I went to the Dordogne last year, with similar timing, so I am building my expectation list.

[Maximus]

You’ve been rather busy of late, Wurzel. From the great encounter and shots of the mating Lulworths. The rogue Silver-studded Blue you found at Laverstock and the ovipositing Large Blues at Daneway
Then there’s your Dordogne trip with all it’s promise, a place that we visited for a few days on our way back up through France. I know what you mean about rural French roads or rather the French drivers coming the other way on rural roads
Nice teaser pic of the Southern White Admiral, a taste of things to come

Mike

[Wurzel]

Cheers Bugboy The one thing about the holiday is that now I'm even further behind with my posts
Cheers Trevor They were impressive to me as that was the first time I've visited France so it was a chance to catch up with some of the species that I missed in the Czech Republic
Cheers Andrew It could be a while - if I don't go out butterflying from today on I've still got 25 posts to do
Cheers Peter I probably saw slightly less than you as the heat was extreme and I was restricted to within walking distance of the site we were staying at.
Cheers Mike I reckon it'll be forgotten by the time I actually get round to posting - due Christmas 2019 at the rate I'm going

So better start trying to catch up...after the Southern White Admiral back to the more mundane...

Work over the next few days…27-06-2018

After the exertions of the previous day; a Science/Geography fieldtrip followed by searching for Large Blues in the oven that was Daneways, I had a fair amount of work to catch up on and lots of photos to sort through so on Wednesday I didn’t make any stop-offs or head out at lunch. However it seems that if I won’t got to the butterflies then they’ll come to me. When I entered into the chaotic miasma that is my Lab after a day of being covered my attention was drawn immediately to the top left hand window. There fluttering around bedazzled by the early morning sun streaming through the pane was a Large Skipper. He must have gotten in during the previous day as all the windows are closed at the end of the day. Standing on a stool I reached up and quickly cupped my hand over him. After about 15 seconds he stopped buzzing and then I was able to offer him my finger tip which he crawled onto. A couple of shots for my ‘in the hand’ collection later and he was back outside and off he zoomed to continue with his business.

The next day I’d managed to catch up with all the marking and answered all the emails that a day off timetable causes and so I treated myself to a quick trip out to the field at lunchtime. The grasses that had been lush green have taken on a lighter hue and in places have turned creamy or traditional straw coloured. As I moved across towards the large Bramble patch at the Pits the usual Meadow Browns were about as were a couple of errant Large Skippers. As I rounded the Bramble a smaller, brighter Skipper shot past me and then alighted a few feet away. It looked less ‘orange’ and so I reckoned it was an Essex which I was able to confirm when I saw the short, fine and straight sex brand. There were a couple zipping about but this one was the best behaved.

I took a further stroll through the trees and down along the border hedge where Meadow Browns had been warmed to near manic hood and so were impossible to approach. A few whites also fluttered about but never settled for long enough to get anything on them. One must have thought that it was far enough away to be safe and escape my lens and so stopped to take some nectar. Wrong and gotcha!

After this it was back to the Bramble and a while with the Skippers. They seemed to have warmed up in the 10 minutes or so that I’d been down the Hedge and so getting shots was proving to be nigh on impossible so I resorted to the tried and tested measure of just sitting and waiting by a likely looking nectar source. It worked!

Then it was back into work…until the next time.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Very attractive skipper shots, Wurzel - that all seems an age away now, when they were all bright and fresh... Oh and that SWA deserves all those Bugboy bestowed on you!

Dave

[Wurzel]

Cheers Dave So much can change in two months even for someone like me that lives in the past

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Larkhill and on to work…29-06-2018

With the summer fast progressing and rushing away from me today I took a little time to catch up with some of the Browns again. With the heat and arid conditions set to stay I felt that things were going to be tricky with Marbled White in particular as they’re proper Rock n Roll butterflies; life fast die young. Today when I pulled in at Larkhill in the hope of catching up with them it was pretty quiet despite (or because of?) the heat, it felt like midday rather than before 8 of the clock.

I checked out the start of the Westbound path and among the erratic skippers and Small Heath a few Ringlets hung around looking a little tired already and I only saw my first three days ago! Perhaps I’d been a little tardy in looking for them this year but then things seem to be all over the place with some of the spring species emerging late whilst the summer ones have had barely a catnap in the cocoon.
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Down towards the strip of nettles on the main field a few Marbled Whites flew which I was surprised by. I expected Marbled Whites but nowhere near as few as I saw. It was also quiet on the Skipper front. This little area last year was heaving with Smessex so much so that I didn’t know where to point my lens first. This year they seem well down by comparison and also much more alert. So whilst it was easier to select a target the approach was all the more difficult. In the end I managed to find a Marb that was so intent on nectaring that I think a coach load of enthusiasts could have arrived and it still wouldn’t have budged.

After such a dismal return for all much concerted efforts I retired to the car stopping first of all at the corner of the hedge. Finally some easy to photograph butterflies as they’d been in the shade so were cooler. It seemed that this was the place for the Browns to hang out as there were Ringlets on almost every branch. Occasionally a Ringlet would open up and sun itself and it would phosphoresce almost in purple and green tones as it refracted the early morning sunlight wildly. There was also the odd Meadow Brown so usurping a Ringlet’s sunbathing spot.

Having worked through the morning I headed out to the Pits for lunch and drawing near to the Bramble bush I just stood and watched and enjoyed the show out on by the Essex Skippers, almost forgetting to take any photos, so swept up in their bustling and jostling. Well I almost forgot…

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, just when I think you've got some cracking shots you come up with one even better That Admiral shot is really some thing Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie you're too kind I promised myself that I wouldn't go posting any shots from my holiday in France but I couldn't resist that one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Old Wolf]

Great shots as always Wurzel. There's that 'Oily' look in the ringlet wings From your comments on the refracted sunlight I am now wondering if the female Adonis shot Trevor took was refracted light or actual colouration. I would welcome your opinion as I do not know enough about it to be sure.

I have got to ask, seeing as you are posting based on much earlier dates, do you take notes or have a really super good memory?