www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Love that last shot of the female Brimstone Neil. Seems like Green Hairstreak isn't the only green butterfly!

Thanks Pauline. The first shot of the female Brimstone was take when the sun was out and then the second shot was taken shortly after when a cloud covered the sun. Just shows how the same butterfly can look different under different lighting conditions.

Friday 27th May.

After a pretty dull and cool week with lots of wall to wall grey cloud, Friday was much better with mostly clear blue skies and plenty of warm sun, although it was still fairly blustery with a cool wind blowing from the east.

Most of the morning was spent around my mom’s doing some gardening for her and a few little jobs in the house but around 10.30am I had a break and wandered down for a quick look around the park just down the road.

A 20 minute circuit produced few butterflies, just a couple of worn Speckled Wood and a tatty Green-veined White plus a male Common Blue with a deformed hind wing. Despite its condition, I was pleased to see the Common Blue here as they only show up here occasionally and not every year.
Back home a bit later there were a couple of Speckled Wood in the garden, one of which looked fairly fresh but by now they would only settle with their wings closed in the bright sunshine. A couple of Holly Blues also passed through without stopping.
In the afternoon I decided to have a wander down to my local spot by Wagon Lane Park to see if anything was about. I looked for the first Large Skippers here but without success. In fact, like earlier in the morning, there were few butterflies flying and my tally was just 4 Green-veined Whites and a couple each of Speckled Wood and Holly Blue.
One of the Green-veined Whites was a tiny female, much smaller than a male which chased after her briefly. I saw her go down on some brambles and just had time for a couple of long distance shots before she was off again. She was an interesting looking individual with faint markings on her wing-tips which made the line of dark scales running from the trailing spots on her forewings stand out more.
Over the previous few days, I had seen that the first Clearwing Moths had been turning up with reports of both Red-tipped and Yellow-legged Clearwings from elsewhere around the midlands. Before going down to Wagon Lane I put my FOR lure out in the garden although I did wonder if it might be a bit too windy for any success. On my return I was pleased to find a single Red-tipped Clearwing in the trap, one of my favourite species and my first Clearwing for this season.

The first shot below was taken in the shade which helps to keep clearwings a bit calmer for photos and then I risked moving him into the sun and managed a couple of shots before he was off.
Checking my records this is around a week earlier than last year which was also the first year that I had tried for this species here.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

Saturday 28th May.

With a few hours spare this afternoon and with the weather looking to turn much cooler again from Sunday for a few days, I thought I would go and check out my local spot at Castle Hills by Solihull while I had the chance. I had not visited here much last year due to access being made difficult by development of JLR’s new logistics centre which involved some substantial disruption to the lane where I would normally park my car. Thankfully, this has now finished and I can now access the public footpath leading to the area as before.

There was a lot of cloud building up but during the couple of hours that I wandered around here there were enough gaps to allow the sun to warm things up so that it felt reasonably pleasant.
Butterflies were not particularly abundant but I managed to find half a dozen or so Small Heath and a few fresh male Common Blues, plus a single female Brown Argus. I was particularly pleased to find the latter as Brown Argus are very hit and miss around my local sites and some years, like last year, I don’t find any at all.
The common Blue above closed up when the clouds covered the sun and showed his underside to have that washed out look with pale orange lunules. A named ab. apparently but I forget the name.
At least two and possibly three Peacocks were still hanging in there, one of which did not look too bad still apart from a bit of damage, but the other one that I got a close look of was really tatty now.
I also saw a couple of Red Admirals, my first locally this year, one of which was a flypast but the other one, probably a female was checking out some nettles deep within a patch of brambles.
A couple of Orange-tips were still on the wing with one looking a bit worn around the fringes…
… but the other one was in remarkably good, almost fresh, condition still.
I have since heard of more fresh looking Orange-tips being reported from around Warwickshire, a bit of a second wave perhaps.

Around half a dozen Speckled Woods were flapping about around the hedgerows with some looking well past their best whereas a couple looked recently emerged. I would hesitate to guess whether these were the first summer brood or late emergences of the second wave of first brood that overwinter as larvae as opposed to the earlier ones that emerge from overwintering pupae. The way the weather has been here this year they could easily be either.
This is the time of year when day flying moths usually outnumber butterflies at my local sites, often by some margin, and today was no exception. These were mostly Burnet Companions with some 25-30 seen with almost as many Latticed Heath and around half a dozen Mother Shipton.
A couple of Cinnabar Moths were also spotted along with lots of micros that I didn’t bother to try and photograph as they invariably settled low down amongst tangles of grass stems.
Around 3.30pm the clouds had filled in most of the gaps and it was turning into a dull grey overcast so I made a move for home. All in all, a pleasant couple of hours that in some respects felt that we are approaching summer but in others still felt like we were in the middle of spring.

As I write this on Monday (30th) morning, it feels like we have fallen back to March but hopefully things are looking up again towards the end of the week, let's hope so.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

Some nice shots of the day-flying moths in the "honorary butterfly" category, Neil. That unusually fresh Orange Tip has posed beautifully for you as well. Not many more of these this year, sadly.

The Common Blue with washed out pale lunules could be ab. flavescens - though I always struggle to decide whether this is a genuine variation in colour or a feature of age. I have found a couple of fresh ones locally that have had pale yellow markings that probably qualified, but they do vary considerably, especially as they wear. Once again, it's the question of "is it an ab., or is it just normal variation?"

Cheers,

Dave

Cracking set of posts Neil - Dave beat me to the name for the 'ab' - looks like it could be as it still has the all the white fringe hairs intact? Ab or variation it's still nice to see something a little different The late, fresh Orange-tip is a bit of a looker, really darkly marked

Have a goodun

Wurzel

You did real well with the Mother Shipton, Neil - never an easy target.

The Small Heath with its forewing 'popped up' is striking too.

Thanks Wurzel and Dave.
You have probably noticed from some of my previous comments on UKB that I often go with natural variation for what some would call abs. I would have done the same with that Common Blue if it hadn't otherwise looked to be in fairly good condition.

Thanks David. The plentiful clouds helped to slow them down a bit, still very flighty but they didn't fly as far so gave a bit more opportunity.


Since my last garden moth report I have had the trap out just once, on the night of 28th May which actually turned out wetter and colder than forecast and heralded the collapse in the weather we have had over the past few days.
The result was 33 moths of 15 species made up of 21 of 11 macros and 12 of 4 micros, practically half of what I had on my previous session.
Most of these were the usual selection of common species with the best moth of the night being a nice Angle Shades, one of many supposedly widespread and common moths that I only see occasionally here.
The weather here has been lousy this week with the (very) occasional sunny spells being outnumbered by heavy showers of rain. It has also been very cool, cold even, for the time of year, although it is forecast to start improving from today (Wednesday 1st June) towards the weekend.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

Thursday 2nd June.

My daughter Sarah and the grandkids came up from Emsworth on Wednesday (1st June) to stay with us for a few days over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend. Yesterday (Thursday), they wanted to go into Solihull for a wander around so after dropping everyone else off, I carried on to the other side of Solihull to have a look around Blythe Valley Park, my first visit there this year.
I arrived just before 10.00am with plenty of blue sky and warm sun making it feel much more pleasant than it has been here for the past few day, which to be honest have been pretty gloomy here for the most part.

During the approximately hour and a half that I wandered around here, butterflies were once again outnumbered by day flying moths, even more so than at Castle Hills the other day. This time there were swarms of Burnet Companions, so many that I gave up trying to count them but well over 100 would be a conservative guess. Latticed Heath were almost as numerous, in fact I don’t remember ever seeing so many of these in one spot before. Mother Shipton were also present but far less numerous so I did manage to count these with five seen.
All the lycaenids did badly here last year with both the spring and summer broods being hit by poor weather just when they should have been emerging. I was therefore pleased to find about a dozen Common Blues flying, all males so far with no females here yet.
Like last year, I failed to find any Small Coppers or Brown Argus here but both species can be hit and miss locally and it is not unusual for me not to find any first brood of these.

I was surprised at one point to spot a larger brown butterfly fluttering about above the grass and when it settled I saw that it was my first Meadow Brown of the year, surely a sign that summer is supposedly here but our recent weather has made that hard to believe. By now the clouds were building up again and this enabled me to wait for an opportunity to get an open wing shot, not always easy at this time of year.
The only other butterflies seen were a few each of Speckled Wood and Green-veined White.
There were however some Beautiful Demoiselles fluttering along where the path follows a stream for a short distance. That well known law meant that these usually settled on the other side of the stream but I did catch one female briefly touch down on my side, just long enough to get a couple of shots.
With no premium species around here, we are definitely in that ‘June Gap’ time now whilst we await the summer butterfly numbers to build up.

Around 11.30am I made a move as I was under orders to be back by mid-day for more family stuff. As it happened this coincided with the clouds once more building up to become a blanket overcast so I had already seen the best part of the day for my wander around.

It looks like we will be taking Sarah and the kids back to Emsworth on Sunday and with her husband away Sarah has said that she has room to put us up so it looks like we will be down there for a couple of days early next week...fingers crossed that I will be able to get out and see some nice butterflies.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

Totally agree about the June gap. In the whole afternoon yesterday I found just two butterflies,
and one of those, a Dingy Skipper, was on it's last legs.

The silly season awaits!.
Trevor.

Cracking shot of the Mother Shipton Neil - thy normally have an assortment of vegetation between themselves and the camera lens We seem to have escaped the 'June gap'so far as Marshies and Small Pearls are still flying but I can feel it starting to come on, a lot of things are starting to look a little past their best

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Good luck with your trip south Neil. I hope you see plenty of butterflies.

I'm also keeping my fingers crossed for next week, for lots of Swallowtails & good weather!

Sarah

Thanks Trevor. Lets hope that things buck up a bit soon, it is another quite cool and grey day here as I write this on Saturday morning.

Cheers Wurzel. I was watching that Mother Shipton for some time before it finally settled in a better spot. Unfortunately, there are no Marshies or Small Pearls within easy distance around here and I haven't had the time recently to do any longer distance trips.

Thanks Sarah. Good luck to you too with the Swallowtails. From reports I have seen, there seem to be quite a few around at the moment, I have seen quite a few photos this past week from both Strumpshaw Fen and Hickling Broad. You don't actually want it too warm for Swallowtails as they will be constantly on the move. As long as it is not too wet and cold you should be ok.

Cheers,

Neil.

You did really well to get such a great open-winged male Meadow Brown, Neil. As you say, they don't offer this up too often early in their flight season.

Thanks David. At least the cloud was good for something


Monday 6th June - morning.

As mentioned in my last post, our daughter Sarah and the grandkids came up to stop with us for a few days last week and we had arranged to take them back on Sunday and made a bit of a late decision to stop down there for a couple of days. We could do this because, with her husband in Poland as part of the NATO deployment, she had room to put us up so we didn’t need to stop in a B&B like we have on previous visits.

On Monday (6th), with the kids back at school, Jane and Sarah had decided to go and spend some time shopping and so I was free for the day. With stuff like PBF and DoB now being over, or as good as, I was wondering what to go and look for and a shufty through my copy of ‘The Butterflies of Sussex’ provided me the answer, especially as the forecast was for a mostly dull and cloudy day – Silver-studded Blues.

So next decision, where to go? Again, ‘The Butterflies of Sussex’ provided me with the answer and at approximately 10.00am I pulled into the parking spot at Chapel Common. I followed the directions given in the book and found my way through to the central area which looked promising with lots of good looking habitat.

To start with it was quite dull and a couple of times I sheltered under trees from passing drizzly showers. This didn’t deter the numerous Common Heath moths that were flying all over the place and which even in these conditions proved difficult to sneak up on.
It was not long however, before I started to find Silver-studded Blues as their silvery white undersides stood out against the background vegetation and within the next half an hour or so I found about a dozen or so, all males.
I did eventually find a single female.
I figured that, given her darker colours, the female would be the first to open up in any brightening of the sky and this proved to be the case when the dark grey clouds gave over to lighter grey tones, accompanied by a slight rise in temperature.
As the sky continued to become a bit brighter and a couple of breaks in the clouds allowed some brief spells of sun to shine through, I circled back around the males that I had previously found to see if they too were now opening up, which indeed they were.
I also started to see more individuals with some also now taking short flights and in the end counted a minimum of 25, all males with just the one female seen earlier.

Having spent a good couple of hours here I decided to make a move. The warmer conditions had now brought a few more butterflies out and I spotted a couple each of Common Blue, Small Heath and Meadow Brown on the way back to the car park.

I left around midday and with the afternoon still ahead of me I decided to head for Old Winchester Hill.

To be continued.

Neil.

Superb SSB images Neil. Especially as you found some perching in very photogenic poses.
Often they are down in the Heather and difficult to photograph.

Enjoy Sussex!.
Trevor.

So sorry I couldn't join you on this occasion Neil but you seem to have managed just fine on your own . Have to say that your images look sharper on the Sussex site?

Thanks Trevor. Most of them were in fact low down like you describe. The first two shots are of the same individual which was originally perched on top of some heather. As I attempted to carefully remove some intervening vegetation, it took a short flight and landed on the bracken just a couple of feet away and where it stayed and shuffled about a bit in the changing light. The 3rd and 4th open wing shots are again this same individual that was still on the bracken when I went back a bit later to see if it had opened up when the clouds brightened up a bit.
The other shots were all where I found them although I did remove the odd grass stem or other vegetation for a clearer view.
Back home now, that was my only venture into Sussex, I was back in Hampshire in the afternoon

Hi Pauline. I have sometimes thought that photos I have posted as attachments on UKB have not looked quite as sharp as the same photos viewed directly on my monitor. Maybe something to do with the way different sites handle image attachments?...I'm guessing really.


Monday 6th June - afternoon.

After leaving Chapel Common I headed back down the A3 and then came off to head for Old Winchester Hill. I arrived under a thick overcast but with lighter skies on the horizon I figured that I would soon be able to find my target species, Adonis Blue.

I made my way slowly down the slope below the car park and began to zig zag my across the lower part, keeping my eye open for anything that looked like a butterfly. The first things that I noticed were a number of small Pyralid moths and managed to take a couple of photos of what proved to be Pyrausta despicata, a close relative of the more well known Mint Moth (Pyrausta aurata).
The first Adonis Blue I found was a male still roosting under the grey skies but when it brightened up a bit later I went back and found he had opened his wings to warm up a bit.
During the couple of hours that I spent here I saw a dozen or so Adonis Blues, all males apart from one female that I found as I was beginning to make my way back up the slope at the end of the session.
Common Blues were in similar numbers, again mostly males but I did find a couple of females, one quite worn but the other was a nice blue example.
A couple of Small Blues were also spotted in the area of longer grass over the right hand side of the lower slope.
As the sky brightened and occasional gaps in the clouds began to let some sun through, a large bright orange butterfly flew past me, close enough for me to recognise it as a very fresh looking Dark Green Fritillary. I soon began to see a few more of these but for a while the closest I could get to one was when I spotted one land high up on a shrub at the bottom of the slope.
A little later another male plonked down on a hawkweed type flower not far in front of me and stayed there long enough for me to sneak up and get a couple of photos.
I also spotted a very nice fresh looking female that flew much shorter distances than the males. She usually settled low down amongst the vegetation until I finally manged to grab a couple of shots without grass stems obscuring her.
Other butterflies seen included quite a few Small Heath and around half a dozen Meadow Browns. There were also a couple of presumably new summer Small Tortoiseshells, already showing signs of wear and a bit of damage.
Also, I finally joined the Painted Lady club with my first of the year, a tatty example that only offered me the one photo opportunity but at least it was of the underside that looked better than what I saw of the topside.
The final butterfly that I saw was a female Brimstone that fluttered across in front of me and settled to feed as I zig zagged my way back up the slope towards the car park.
Apart from the butterflies, I was quite surprised to see some Badgers foraging about during the daytime, perhaps a sign of how dull it was at times.

Despite being pleased to see these, I could have strangled one of them. I had just watched a lovely fresh male DGF settle a little distance way in a perfect pose with wings wide open on a small bramble patch. As I made my way slowly towards it, I spooked a Badger that had been hidden in the long grass in front of me and which promptly ran full pelt through the brambles, putting up the DGF which departed full speed over the hedge at the bottom of the slope…Oh well! I thought, isn’t nature wonderful, or words to that effect

All in all, a cracking couple of hours to round off what had been a good day despite the less than optimal conditions.

Bye for now,

Neil.

That's a great shot of the badger Neil. I have fallen down their holes many times at OWH but never seen them out there during the day.

What a day that was, Neil.

Beautiful SSBs followed by Adonis Blues and Dark Green Fritillary, the female of which is beyond immaculate.

Thanks Pauline. I have seen badgers occasionally when out and about but usually just a rear view as they scamper away from me. I was surprised how close I managed to get to that one before it scarpered.

Thanks David. I was glad I managed to make the most of the day, the next day was pretty much a washout.

cheers,

Neil.