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Great shots from France Wurzel, love that female Sooty. And an extra for your Tolkien lore!

The SSS's and Laverstock selection are great. But what sights you got of the Brostreak! Those are some fantastic images you captured. Love it.

I felt I could be a little restrained with the mrgreens having seen so many
male Brown Hairstreaks last year. But it then occurred to me that I have
never seen both sexes together on the same day, at one location.

Damn it !

Trevor.

Fabulous set of brostreaks, Wurzel! I thought we would have the timing just about right when we headed to SB a month after your visit but now I can see why we only found one tatty male!

Cheers Dave You're right there butterflies always find some way of catching us out
Cheers Andrew I didn't think anyone would have recognised that Despite the Brostreaks not playing fair this season I did all right for them in the end
Cheers Trevor I reckon you might need to give Shipton a whirl next year
Cheers Callum I reckon you might have missed them by a day or so Still there's always next year

After a interesting Starter and a sumptuous Main on to the dessert...

Laverstock Down Part 3 26-07-2018

SOOOO it had already been a cracker of a day with two 2nd brood Dingies from two different sites, Wall Brown and probably 8 Brostreaks. Now I was back at Laverstock for the afternoon holiday class. It started well enough with a Comma on some Buddleia on the first stretch of path. But as I cut across the field and started up the side of the Down it became quite quiet. Really quiet actually right up to the point when a tangerine cream butterfly hove into view – a fantastic Painted Lady looking really fresh and brimming with vitality. I spent some time with the Lady and she was quite coquettish pretending to be shocked by my advances but not really moving on that far each time. After a while I bade her adieu and carried on round the Down. Sticking to the high path and looking down the hill onto the butterflies below. There were all the usual species on show and round by the gully a reasonable showing (for this site) of six Chalkhills. As I watched a butterfly flew in and out of the corner of my eye I saw that it didn’t fit the expected ‘species’. It was a Cloudy! I got a few grab shots before it was off like a rocket and I tried my best to follow it for a few in flight shots. This meant that I covered most of the ground back to the end of the Down focusing solely on this particular butterfly. It just didn’t stop, it was like a perpetual motion machine. What a fantastic finale to a most awesome day! I don’t think I’ve ever had a better start to the holiday what with 23 species in one day including some oddities.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Good you got yourself a Cloudie, Wurzel - and you didn't have to wait till September either! That Painted Lady is a nice individual too - it looks home-grown. Both those immigrant species have been very few and far between this year, so both in the same spot scores double I reckon.

Cheers,

Dave

Glad you got a Cloudie Wurzel, your Brown Hair Streaks shots are superb and I'm Goldie

The mention of holidays has instantly got my attention....how many sleeps do we still have to wait till we get back to the France trip. Not that I'm not enjoying the build up...but you did give us some teasers...and the tension is building

Pleased to see your Clouded Yellow, and it saved a trip to Bournemouth !.
If that Meadow Brown, in your last shot, is chasing that Cloudie, that must be a first !.
I've never seen a Meadow Brown chase anything.

Trevor.

Wurzel wrote:...It just didn’t stop, it was like a perpetual motion machine...

I saw 3 Cloudies down in Dorset a couple of weeks ago and all three were like that, frustrating but still great to see them flying, the only ones I have seen this year.

Cheers,

Neil.

Cheers Dave I'll take the double The best thing about the Cloudy which I didn't realise until the other day was that it meant that I'd now seen all of the species that had previously been recorded here
Cheers Goldie You'll get yours next year I'm sure, perhaps a trip down South slightly later than usual is on the cards?
Cheers Peter Hopefully I'll be able to get the next installment sorted over the weekend now that Open Evening at work is over
Cheers Trevor I don't know if it's chasing the Cloudy or whether it was sitting there and saw the Cloudy go by and thought "hang on a minute, flying past butterflies and spooking them is my job, I better get out there or I'll be out of work! "
Cheers Neil They're great to watch as they zip around the place, even more so if you've managed a few shots before hand

Have a goodun

Wurzel

The Dordogne: Wednesday 15-08 Part 1 – The First Day Proper…

The first day proper and so it turned out! Another cracker with some fantastic butterflies, a handful of lifers and one very good reason not to use the wood fired Hot Tub…but I’m getting a head of myself.

First thing it was jobs for me after breakfast; make the beds, wash up, empty the loo etc. While I was doing this the girls were already on the lake which meant that chores complete I was able to get away for an hour and so this time I headed along the track and turned left. At the top of the hill a huge track way (for pylons?) had been cleared and it looked promising but nothing much was flying so I carried on further over the breast of the hill. On my right was a large, green field so I wandered the margins and started seeing butterflies. Obviously there were Sooty Coppers and also a few smaller Frits with a Meadow in the hand and a Glanville showing nicely as well as a few Heaths and a Weavers put in an appearance as I was leaving. On the way back down the hill I started seeing a few more butterflies as I got nearer to the Clearing including a glancing shot of a Small Heath. “No wait a moment” I thought to myself “why did it have a grey ground colour and a clear white line? A Pearly Heath but unfortunately only a grab shot. Then another butterfly practically glowed in the grass; an unmistakable male Spotted Fritillary. What a stunner! There were more of the smaller Frits as well and I managed to reconnect with the Pearly Heath. I hadn’t expected this species as the information I’d seen suggested that they’d be over by now. Even better I bumped into the Spotty again and managed a few Stained Glass shots. When I got back, stills lightly mesmerised by the Spotty, I realised I needed to swap the ice packs and so I set off to the house taking my camera with me. I added a few Wood White and Weaver’s shots to the collection before being called back by Sara for the Moth of the Day – a Buff Tip caught by one of the other guests. When I got back my wife called me over as there was a gorgeous frog perched on the edge of the Hot Tub. Looks like we won’t be lighting the back stove for a soak anytime soon! A great start to the day which left me wondering what aprés midi would bring?
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Well worth the wait

Your story brings back the same feelings I always get in France and I get to appreciate them second hand. I get - the fear of missing something whilst you try and follow something else; the confusion of seeing so many different frits in one spot and the need to try and observe quickly each and every one and make sure. But the overwhelming pleasure of being 'in nature as it should be' and often its (just) a spare piece of rough land left alone and untreated ...wonderful.

I look forward to the afternoon delights.

And it made me remember my first tree frog plopping down onto a leaf from nowhere, unexpected, jewel like and posing for its new fan. Fantastic

I think the shots you got of the pearly heath are wonderful. Its makes a change to see a different version of the small heath.

The "legless" frog" is amazing too. (There is a joke in there somewhere but I don't think its politically correct).

Fantastic shots Wurzel can't wait to see more Goldie

Cheers Peter That was the thing that got me too, you'd be driving along a wooded road and here would be Wood Whites and Silver-washed all over the place and then when you park up there's always something different
Cheers Ernie I fell a little bit in love with that species while I was here, I love the metallic flecks along the margins As for the Frog...well I didn't want to go there either, but all I will say is that beer and wine is much more reasonably priced
Cheers Goldie There'll be a few more from back in Blighty but then I'll return to France

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I can only echo Peter's sentiments concerning the ' French ' experience.
As for the Pearly Heath, we found an area where many Small Heaths were present,
with an occasional Pearly among them, it was good fun trying to single out the Pearly's
to photograph.
Your excellent shots of them bring back memories of our trip to the Cevennes, as do your Frits.

Great stuff,
Trevor.

Just caught up with your diary and France posting (haven’t been in UKB for a while and am just beginning to get my own holiday story together) .
Seems like you didn’t have to try too hard for that amazing first day haul. Love the short-tailed blues and the female Sooty with its myriad of colours wow ! Lots of the smaller frits too .. “spotty” is a stunner as is that tree-Frog .

France was an amazing place for me too but you’ve surpassed my 40 total which includes species seen in Andorra .

Looking forward with anticipation to the next round of butterfly and wildlife delights

Phil

Cheers Trevor I played a similar game with the Heaths
Cheers Philzoid Looking forward to seeing how Germany was

Back to reality and Blighty...

Laverstock 27-07-2018

After such a successful day yesterday I suspected that this mornings’ visit would be quieter. There was also a palpable feeling of change in the air. I was still wearing sunglasses at 8:30 in the morning but today I was constantly taking them off and putting them back on again as the sun was hidden by the clouds. There was also a noticeable change in the temperature. With the sun out it was scorching and when the sun went in there was finally some blessed relief from the incessant heat of the past month.

As I walked down the path and started at the by-way along the edge of the field the small Ivy clump had a Common Blue on it and that was how things continued when I started bisecting and traversing the Down. I’d look back down the slope and there would be a multitude of white flags and little sapphires blinking in the slightest of breeze against the sandy coloured background. In amongst the Browns (both Meadow and Hedge as well as Small Heaths) there were also the occasional Whites and not all of the Blues were Common, some were much paler showing them to be Chalkhills. Eventually through my wanderings in reverie I ended up at the far side of the Down at the bottom of the gully. As I followed the course of the bramble filled demarcation hedge a little brown job detached itself from the ground and zipped off, jinking left and right but still heading ultimately in the same direction. Having encountered one only the day before I immediately guessed that it was a second brood Dingy. As I watched it another little brown job took off and set after it. There then ensued lots of argy bargy, chasing back and forth and flying round like a miniature cyclone a la Taz. I took a few Sports Mode shots and then one of the pair settled. So two second brood Dingies hopefully a female will also emerge and then the second brood will continue. After this I checked out the scallops and worked my way along the line of Knapweed and further up the gully. I got very annoyed with the Meadow Browns and Blue was not just the colour of the butterfly I was trying to get a shot of but also the air! I watched a pristine Chalkhill settle and start to open up its wings, a Meadow Brown bumbled over like an overfriendly puppy wanting to say hello and the Chalkhll was off to another flower. I’d follow it and watch it settle, stalk in closer and just get into position, start focusing and then a Meadow Brown did the same thing! This kept on happening so in the end cursing Meadow Browns I started to work back along the side of the Down and back towards the Tutor session. A female Common Blue was present at the side of the field on my return leg and I paused for a moment or two to take in the wonderfully fresh Specklie which was at the junction of the path up to the Down and the path to the Tutors’ house. No earth shattering sightings but still nice to see none the less and with a trip to Wales imminent and a change in the weather this could be the last butterflying trip for a good few days…

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wurzel - I have never seen a second brood Dingy and we have a lot of locations round my way that Dingies like. I must go out and try and find some next year. I'll add it to my 2019 plan!

I'm so far behind everyone's post at the moment! Well done with your Cloudie and I know what you mean about meadow Brown's ruining a good shot, they can be a right pest sometimes. Loved the French post too, those Spotted Frits are lush, can't wait for the next post