Padfield

[Padfield]

Last night I cycled Minnie to the river, where we searched on elms by the water for white-letter hairstreaks. The first tree was actually over the mud - over water at high tide - and not readily accessible, but we found two cats on it. This elm has small leaves and is only just now coming into leaf. On some branches, the leaves were still tightly furled. Here is one cat from that tree:



The other tree I wanted to try is a wych elm (I think). It has large leaves, already expanded, but is still in full flower. At first I just saw other cats - moths or sawflies:



Then I noticed a thin glimmer of hairstreak cat - a tiny cat - in a bract, high up the tree:


(look at the size of those elm flowers!)

This is the best I could do for a close-up:



My eye in, I then started spotting more small cats high up in the leaves:





This elm stands on the river wall, half over the wall, half over the mud.

TONIGHT, back to the local meadow. Some of the usual suspects, some new to science:







That last one, you can just see, has an ant behind it. I spotted the ant while I was taking photos, but it never really got stuck in. It was checking all around the leaf and stem as well as on the caterpillar:


(You can just see the cat in this picture, below the stem, behind the ant)

The usual ant host was without its attendant tonight, and was sitting on an entire leaf (with no sign of feeding around):



I could confirm it was the same one because of the dotty pattern on the other side:



It was also sitting on the upperside of the same leaf as two nights ago. I hope it is still healthy. I will continue to check on it.

Guy

[Padfield]

We went to the forest for green hairstreaks today. In the end, we saw quite a few (well I did - Minnie didn't even look up), but almost all were high in the trees, sitting around half-hidden on chestnut leaves or briefly sparring above the canopy.



There were clouds of what I think are Adela reaumurella in the same trees ...



... and sometimes the greenies would be among them:



Here is one of the moths (with arubi antenna at the top of the picture), if anyone could confirm Adela reaumurella:



One greenie did briefly settle lower down for me, but flew before I could get close:



The only other butterflies I saw were orange tip, peacock (one), speckled wood and a single red admiral. No small coppers, despite this normally being a hotspot for them.

In the garden, a very few orange tip cats are growing up on the abundant garlic mustard:



One egg was laid on last year's curly kale, which suddenly flowered and seeded this year. I took this just after it hatched, on 25th May:



Guy

[bugboy]

They look good for Adela reaumurella to me

[Padfield]

Thanks Buggy.

There was a chiffchaff around, sometimes in the chestnut, sometimes singing from a nearby oak, who must have thought he was at an all-you-can-eat buffet!



Guy

[David M]

Those are fabulous, intimate images of the larval stages again, Guy. You've clearly got your eye in for them right now.

I see those Green Hairstreaks are teasing you again. They're thin on the ground this year round my way (seen fewer than 20).

Love the Chiffchaff image. You're right...he has lunch gathered all around him.

[Padfield]

Thanks David. I hope the w-album cats give rise to a healthy adult generation in a month's time. And yes, green hairstreaks are doing to me what white-letters so often do to you - staying in the trees!

The paucity of butterflies around here this year is staggering. On Tuesday - a glorious, hot day - I managed to do our entire forest walk and see precisely one butterfly (one butterfly, not one species) before getting back to the bike. That was a green-veined white. At the bike, there were an orange tip and a peacock. The day before, I had done almost exactly the same thing, seeing only three individual butterflies (three green hairstreaks, sparring above an oak).

Last week I cycled to Ipswich to look for the little blues, and though I did see about half a dozen of these, and a couple of common blues, there was again almost nothing flying. The kidney vetch is very late this year and only about a quarter of it was in flower, so I think the little blue season should improve. I got there rather late, when it was hot, and they were very active but I did get a couple of proof shots:





Yesterday I took Minnie on a day-trip to Cambridge to show her some of my old haunts. The porter at Pembroke College was very kind but couldn't let Minnie in, so she had to appreciate that bit from the Porters' Lodge:



I toyed with the idea of punting her to Granchester, but decided things could get tricky in the event of her having an encounter with a swan or duck while I was at the pole, so we walked. Nothing has really changed in almost 40 years, except that only one pub was open in Granchester (fully booked until 10.00pm) and there were no butterflies (a single red admiral at Granchester, a single orange tip on the walk ... !!). Fortunately, I had some beer with me, and when we got back to Cambridge there was space at the Granta. Then more wandering around the city, without seeing a single butterfly (but zillions of people) and back to the train.




(so where are all these butterflies?)






(at least there were a few banded demoiselles on the Cam ...)


(... and azure damselflies, as well as a few large red damselflies)


(Yay! A pub!)


(not for Minnie today)


(my old boathouse, from where we conquered the river)

I badly need a butterfly fix ...

Guy

[downland boy]

Guy, that is a fantastic shot of you standing on planet earth surrounded by a wonderful sky-scape. Top drawer. Nigel.

[Padfield]

Thanks Nigel. I like that effect too.

The white-letter hairstreak cats are disappearing one by one (to pupate, I hope) but smaller individuals are still quite easy to find. The dotty one (who had been attended by the ant) appeared not to feed for some days but was feeding last night:



There's no obvious feeding damage in that picture but nearby leaves were bitten into and the end of that leaf was nibbled off too. The behaviour is more normal now - sitting beneath the leaf instead of on the upper surface.

The most advanced orange tip caterpillar in the garden is still well short of full size:



The cat on the kale looked in a precarious position today:



A snail has been completely stripping the kale of leaves and green stem skin:



Since the plant is clearly doomed, I moved the cat to some fresh garlic mustard:



I hope it will take to it. I've often wondered if a cat reared on one foodplant can change to another. I'll soon know. But if he doesn't like the garlic mustard, I fear there won't be any kale to return him to.

Rain all afternoon today (hence the dark, grainy pictures) but enough sun in the morning for orange tips and holly blues to fly.

Guy

[bugboy]

I was not a million miles from you today, just over the border where the norf folk live. Like you there wasn't a great deal of butterfly life to be found, warm and hazy sun til noon and just about made it into double figures. Incredibly, despite the orange-tips I'm rearing at home now all pupated I still found eggs and adults flying!

[Wurzel]

Cracking posts recently Guy - my favourite picture though has to be from the last post but one, the 3rd from last image - what a beautiful sight to behold and I'm not referring to chap in a hat or the follically challenged individual

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Padfield]

I hear you Wurzel! You mean the brunette with the foamy white hair ... Minnie and I were in the Green Man in Tunstall this evening. Normality is on its way.

Buggy, I actually checked myself a few weeks ago reading your diary, thinking I must have been looking at ancient posts, because your orange tip cats were so advanced. You had final instars when I had the first eggs in my garden. I had new eggs laid today, and found a freshly emerged cat on Martlesham Heath. The cat transferred from curly kale to garlic mustard is thoroughly enjoying its new diet and has munched through quite a lot of a seed head. I haven't processed the pictures yet.

Meanwhile, my other home, Switzerland, has just enjoyed its coldest spring for over 30 years:

https://www.lematin.ch/story/la-suisse- ... 5681749313

Nature, I'm sure, will find a way of making up the lost ground, but I'm pining for some lep action.

Guy

[David M]

...Meanwhile, my other home, Switzerland, has just enjoyed its coldest spring for over 30 years:

https://www.lematin.ch/story/la-suisse- ... 5681749313

Nature, I'm sure, will find a way of making up the lost ground, but I'm pining for some lep action.

Seems to be a phenomenon shared by other western European countries, Guy, including France, where freak cold weather devastated huge swathes of vineyards:

https://www.foodandwine.com/news/france ... amage-2021

Every year lately it appears we get hit with something extreme. A 'normal' year would be extremely welcome; mind you, I'm not sure how one would define 'normal' anymore.

[bugboy]

Good to know your OT cat was OK with the diet change. I must update my OT rearing thread but finding the time is difficult. This season of sudden changes between cold/wet/hot is playing havoc with flight periods of some species. I wouldn't be surprised to see an OT in July this year!

[Padfield]

Hi David. Yes - a lot of vines have perished. I saw a clip on the Swiss news some weeks ago about how the vignerons stop the buds freezing. They keep a constant, fine spray of water over them, and as the water freezes in successive layers it gives off latent heat and so keeps the bud at 0°C, even while the outside temperature has dropped well below zero.

I've still got some OT eggs, Buggy. But my biggest is now fully grown and spending more time down among the leaves. He was eating leaves yesterday but had moved back onto a fruit body today:



While the cats were guzzling garlic mustard, the moon was busy guzzling the sun today. We were lucky to have good sunshine this morning until almost maximum eclipse. This shot was taken at about 11h00:



Maximum should have been at 11h13 but thick cloud had just moved in by then.

This next picture is interesting because you can see a mini-eclipse at the bottom left. This is where the sun got through a tiny crack in my apparatus and cast a pinhole image of itself on the screen. The main image is cast by a pair of binoculars with one ocular occluded:



This was the set-up:



Minnie would have preferred total eclipse, so in the absence of that she found a bit of shade by the hedge:



Guy

[Padfield]

For a few nights now I've seen now white-letter hairstreak cats, though the lengthening days have made it increasingly hard to see them with UV at the time I go out. I think a majority have headed off to pupate.

The spring has been little short of catastrophic here for butterflies. I've seen a total of one brown argus, three common blues (I think), a handful of small heaths and a handful of small coppers. Last year, all these were numerous in the spring brood. Holly blue numbers were vastly down on last year too. But worst of all, I think, were the commas. Last year, a great majority of these emerged as hutchinsoni and bred or attempted to breed. They were defending territories until far too late in the year, in my opinion, leading perhaps to a diminished hibernating generation. That, coupled with the awful weather when they should have been flying, means that instead of seeing them daily by the dozen, like last spring, I've probably seen fewer than a dozen all year so far. Without doubt, this has been my poorest butterfly year since I was a boy (though to be fair, I've spent most years since then abroad).

One of the three common blues:



It was nice, though, to have a broad-bordered bee hawk buzzing around within camera distance a couple of days ago:



I'm beginning to see more dragonflies too, so maybe a wonderful summer is on the way:


(male Libellula depressa)


(female Libellula depressa)


(male Libellula quadrimaculata)

And here's a whitethroat singing from the gorse, wondering where all the green hairstreaks are (answer - they were all in the tops of the oak trees, strangely!):



Guy

[Matsukaze]

Here in Somerset, I haven't seen Comma at all yet; Green-veined White, Brown Argus, Small Copper and Speckled Wood all seem to be having very poor years, but Common Blue is doing well enough and the scarcer spring species are doing OK. Moths are having a poor time of it, as well.

[David M]

..The spring has been little short of catastrophic here for butterflies. I've seen a total of one brown argus, three common blues (I think), a handful of small heaths and a handful of small coppers. Last year, all these were numerous in the spring brood. Holly blue numbers were vastly down on last year too. But worst of all, I think, were the commas. Last year, a great majority of these emerged as hutchinsoni and bred or attempted to breed. They were defending territories until far too late in the year, in my opinion, leading perhaps to a diminished hibernating generation. That, coupled with the awful weather when they should have been flying, means that instead of seeing them daily by the dozen, like last spring, I've probably seen fewer than a dozen all year so far. Without doubt, this has been my poorest butterfly year since I was a boy (though to be fair, I've spent most years since then abroad).

It's been pretty poor in south Wales too, Guy, although in the best spots numbers have been okay, if down somewhat on previous years.

I agree Commas have had a poor spring. I saw quite a few very early in the season but they fell off a cliff towards the end of April.

Lately, things have recovered and there are plenty of Common Blues & Small Heaths about. However, I doubt I've seen more than 20 Green Hairstreaks when I'd normally expect approaching 100 or more.

One species seems to have bucked the trend: Dingy Skipper. I can't remember ever seeing so many and they are still going right now (my first sighting was on 25 April).

[Padfield]

Thanks Matsukaze and David. There are always winners and losers, but it does seem there are a lot of the latter this year.

My white-letter hairstreaks, at least, are now flying. I watched at least three and perhaps more right at the top of their master elm this morning. I've told loads of dog walkers about them and asked them to keep their eyes peeled but so far I'm the only one who has been able to spot them - showing how elusive this butterfly can be. It was impossible to see where they landed among the canopy leaves but I took about a dozen shots on 65 x zoom and caught a hairstreak or two in some of them. This was typical:



That's the uncropped piccie, showing a hairstreak taken almost entirely by chance on the left (I was pointing roughly where I saw them go up and down). Blown up and lightened, it can be seen to be w-album, but quite possibly my worst ever shot of the species :



This one was right in the centre of a picture but unfortunately head-on to me:



I was pleased to record them as I have a few local patches I need to visit before I go to Spain in a week's time. Yesterday's tick was silver-studded blue on local heathland:





It would be nice to add white admiral and silver-washed fritillary before I leave.

Guy

[David M]

Shame butterfly numbers are so suppressed round your way, Guy. However, I'm sure your trip to Spain will compensate for that. Sometimes you just need to get away.

[Padfield]

You’re right David - Spain is compensating. I’ve just processed a few piccies on my iPad and will post them in the next post.

Guy