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November 2024

Monday 4th. A check of the tides sent me down to Two Tree Island for a bit of Wader watching, high tide being at a reasonable early afternoon. Before settling down in the hide overlooking the western lagoon I did a lap around the eastern side which is often a good late season butterfly spot. I wasn’t holding out much hope today though since the sun was very much at a premium and the Ivy had now mostly gone over. One of the old water treatment pools, now christened Egret Pools, was living up to its new name. There was also a Queenfisher here, much more nervous than my local ones, the slightest noise or sudden movement easily spooking her. A Kestrel stopped by briefly too. The walk along the south of the Island showed the tide coming in quickly with the last of the sand banks still above water full of waders, and the occasional cormorant looking like some sort of Pterodactyl amongst them. There were modest numbers of Waders sitting out high tide on the lagoon. The most numerous were Dunlin but there were good numbers of Ringed Plover too. Redshank were here too. The majority were calmly roosting in flocks but two had serious beef with each other for no apparent reason. This Grey Plover also had beef with an innocent Lapwing. Sunny spells had increased as the afternoon wore on, so I took another wander to the eastern side, and found a butterfly, although not the species I was expecting. Probably the latest Small White I’ve come across. There was also a fleeting Red Admiral, heading determinedly in a south westerly direction into the wind so I suspect it was migrating. Even more surprising was the second Small White I found, it looked very fresh. Happy New Year!

Sorry Wurzel, missed your last reply. Not sure how she was clinging on, perhaps she knew she needed to help recover her species for the 2025 season!


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November 2024

On Saturday 9th.. The weather wasn’t up to much this weekend, more gloom and rain, so it was just a local wander on the wetlands today hoping a Kingfisher would brighten the day. It was a quiet start with little about making me reach for the camera until I came a cross a gang of Tufted Duck pillaging what was probably a fresh water Mussel bed (some sort of shellfish anyway). I had to wait until the end of my walk to catch a glimpse of ultramarine, azure and orange. Poor light meant the pictures are a bit ropey but still good to see him.

November 2024

On Thursday 14th.. The sun actually came out today but I didn’t have time to go anywhere but locally. Sadly there was no sign of any Kingfishers to dazzling in the sun. There was a curious Magpie a Coot messing around A Canada Goose having the best bath ever And some smaller birds picking their way through the foliage.

"perhaps she knew she needed to help recover her species for the 2025 season"...Biological imperative gone large. More cracking images from those recent reports and I loved the description of the Cormorants as Pterodactyl

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel, some less ancient looking birds now whilst we wait for the butterflies to return.


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November 2024

On Thursday 28th.. It was another couple of weeks before another sunny day coincided with some free time, and once again the call of the Kingfishers beckoned. Safe to say I had better luck than last time. I spent a good 25 minutes following him up and down the channel. I wandered off for a bit to see what else was around, Some Goldfinch also glowed in the sun And the Tufted Duck were still ravaging the mussel bed It wasn’t difficult to locate the Kingfisher upon my return who was still fishing the same stretch of water Whilst up above on ‘Peregrine Pylon’ another of the locals was cleaning up after lunch, if the faint stain was anything to go by! Couldn’t leave without saying goodbye to the Kingfisher though, marvellous little bird.

Wonderful Kingfisher shots !

Sunset times are going the right way + a taste of proper winter too.

Thanks Trevor, my local Kingfishers do make the winter a bit more bearable. Lets hope this cold spell is a good omen for a good season.


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December 2024

Tuesday 3rd. It had been a while, but I had time to escape London today, and the weather cooperated as well! I went to the Hills around Amberley. A quiet start with not much to bother my camera until just after midday when I put up a Short-eared Owl. Despite having wandered these hills for a few winters now, a known wintering spot for these birds, this was the first time I’d seen one here and only the second time I’ve seen one. I managed a couple of record shots before it dipped over the hedge at the top of the slope, never to be seen again. As I made my way to where I’d found the Red Admirals laying eggs back in October, I was being monitored by a curious Dunnock. Some careful scrutiny at the nettle bed gave me one tiny first instar Larvae. I’m sure there were more since there were plenty of eggs. This was the last ‘butterfly ‘ I would see in 2024. The usual selection of common BoP were around, Kestrels and Kites being particularly numerous. Pheasants seemed bolder than usual, perhaps they know its not shooting season It was good to get out of the city for a day!

December 2024

Thursday 12th. More local fare. It was a bit chilly today, as illistrated by this rather rotund Robin. A Heron was claiming ownership to a Hawthorn. Kingfisher was around again And he caught a prize that should keep him going for a while. A young Perch makes a change from the usual Stickleback tiddlers! In the second picture you can see he’s rung. Most of my previous sightings I think are the same bird (all males with a ring on the same leg).

Cracking view of the Shortie Bugboy, really shows the dark carpels on the underside of the wings - cracking

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel, I’m quite pleased with those shots since I had about 2 seconds to take aim and shoot!


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December 2024

Sunday 22nd. My last post from 2024, once again a local outing. A bit of sun on what seems to have been a particularly grey, dreary winter. I found the Kingfisher quite quickly doing what he does best. Can’t always win though. Here he is looking for the fish he just dropped (and in one shot making room for more fish). It was a breezy day, not good if you have a fancy hairdo like these Tufted Ducks. A also popped over to peruse the horse paddocks but a prowling Fox made sure there was little else around!

When the colour has drained from the landscape like it does around the winter solstice, that burst of vibrant blue and deep orange of a kingfisher is a wonderful sight, Paul.

Thanks David, they certainly do help me through the winter months.


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2024 roundup part 1.

Well, its safe to say it wasn’t a vintage year for many species, but it wasn’t a complete right off for all. Due my traveling around it’s not always easy for me to notice trends of some species but there were some very noticeable ones last year. My season got off to an early start with my first January sighting for several years. A Brimstone fluttering feebly along in the weak sunshine. The other usual suspects appeared slowly as winter gave way to spring, all in average numbers to what I would expect. I even had a Red Admiral egg laying at work before the end of March With the pupal hibernators starting to emerge there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary afoot. Multivoltine species starting off slowly as you would expect (Speckled Wood, Holly Blue etc) Some of the spring univoltine species did have a good season: Green Hairstreaks and Dukes for example, with the former having the best season I can remember. I had the bonus of adding them to my in-cop list and also discovering what seems to be a thriving colony on my local patch where they’ve never been recorded before (apart from a single one I found during covid times). How they got there is open to question but a natural colonisation is a perfectly realistic conclusion. I didn’t have any problems tracking down Orange-tips either

2024 roundup part 2.

Pearl-bordered Fritillaries had an ok…ish showing at Rewell Wood (I’ll leave it to others to rate their year, but I’d guess at a mid-table Man U placing compared to previous post Sussex re-introduction seasons) The spring Skippers had a relatively poor showing and my trip into Wiltshire in search of Marsh Fritillaries gave me a spectacular ab. to compensate for their also mediocre numbers. And as Spring gave way to summer the more species succumbed to the damp conditions that never really seemed to allow summer to get going. Large Skippers spluttered into existence and basically spluttered along for the rest of their flight period. The other two common summer Skippers also were somewhat thin on the ground, better than Large though (Essex perhaps a bit better than Smalls and also appearing earlier) and three other species that should have been around, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Small Coppers were practically a no show for most of the summer with just sporadic sightings here and there. I missed the main flight of Wood Whites (both times) only catching the tail ends, so I have no idea how they did. There were still enough around to capture the traditional tongue whipping the females endure. I’d say Black Hairstreaks had an average to good year, and I found some quieter places to observe them at the Surrey colony which is always nice.

Fantastic sights from your catch-up Bugboy and a sight for sore eyes in the doom and gloom of January

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel, glad to help, it does seem to be a particularly gloomy January but it’s always darkest just before dawn.


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2024 roundup part 3.

As summer progressed my main issue was trying to get butterfly friendly days to align up with my free time. I had two stabs at the Hutchinson Bank Glannies, but the afore mentioned weather meant I only found a handful, not even double figures. I don’t know how the Surrey Silver-studded Blues did last year, but there were plenty to be found on Great Orme. Obviously, I have no idea whether what I saw was normal/average but safe to say there were hundreds! Heath Fritillaries also seemed to be having a decent season, bearing in mind I did spend my time with them in just the one clearing on one day! White-letter Hairstreak’s on the other hand are not looking so good at my regular Essex patch. No mystery as to why though, the Elm’s this particular colony rely on have been hit by DED and visits over the winter suggest I’d be lucky to find any there this year since it looks like virtually all the Elms have now succumbed. They are found widely on the site though so in the greater scheme of things this is just a tiny blip for them, and as soon as the roots send up new sucker growth to an appropriate height they’ll return.

Some of the Satyrids had a decent showing, Ringlet always prefer wet summers. Meadow Brown were likely lower than normal, but they start off at such a high number and are somewhat overlooked it’s difficult to gauge. I didn’t note any worrying trends in Marbled Whites and Speckled Wood trundled along. Large Blue seemed to have an average year, but again that’s just based on a single day with them. I had one day searching for Swallowtails too, and found one right at the 11th hour. Judging by social media though I feel like they simply had a rather protracted emergence rather than a poor season. In the woodlands White Admiral could be found, again I’d say an average season for them and for the first time in several years, I didn’t find a ‘black’ Admiral at Bookham.

2024 roundup part 4.

I’m not sure if Silver-washed Fritillary had a good season, many of my days out looking for them were plagued with overcast, cool weather. Having said that, later in the season when I was looking for second Brood Wood White at Chiddingfold the clearing was full of aged females so maybe they did? Purple Emperors are another species I’m not sure on but simply because I only had a couple of attempts at seeing them and whatever popped up on social media. My gut says they were ok. Entering July and with no real improvement in the weather patterns. Short periods of decent weather interspersed with rubbish weather that invariably waited for my days off made for a very frustrating time. Gatekeepers seemed to do ok though as did the Dark Green Fritillaries. My annual pilgrimage to Dorset for Lulworths was undertaken on one of the windiest days of the year. They weren’t overly difficult to find but they were definitely keeping a low profile. It wasn’t all doom and gloom over the summer, Purple Hairstreaks were down at ground level in good numbers at both Bookham and Epping and didn’t seem too perturbed by overcast conditions. I think Chalk Hill Blues had an average season, ab’s seemed to turn up quite regularly too As did Brown Hairstreaks who after two extreme years (virtually non-existent in 2022 and then five years’ worth in one day in 2023) settled back down to business as usual.

2024 roundup part 5.


Small Heath had bobbled along since they first appeared in the spring, but they definitely swelled in numbers at their third brood. The late emerging Surrey Heathland Grayling showed well and gave me plenty of behaviour to record Silver-spotted Skippers on the other hand basically collapsed at all the places I normally see them. Half a dozen in a day was the best I managed I pretty much completely missed the Adonis first brood but caught up with them in modest numbers at a few sites during their second brood. Small & Large Whites had been pottering along assumedly for most of the season only to explode with a mass invasion in September Walls were definitely a winner. I found them in decent numbers on their first and second brood and then in very memorable numbers on their third brood. They provided a nice consolation, flying deep into October as they did, for not managing to find two species that I’ve grown to think of as dead certs for the season along the south coast: Clouded Yellow and Long-tailed Blue.

A few other species which had been almost non existent for most the season also recovered thanks to their ability to squeeze in third broods in my part of the country, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Small Copper. Obviously, there’s been plenty of discussion as to what happened last year and likely is a lot more complicated than can be discussed in a few paragraphs. There will never be a year that’s perfect for every species, the vagaries of our climate will always see to that. It certainly wouldn’t have escaped anyone’s attention that summer never really got going, it may have been warm, but factor in the damp conditions then you end up with the perfect conditions for microscopic pathogens that immature stages will be especially prone to.

It's notable that most spring species didn’t really seem too badly affected. Their seasons tend to be more closely governed by the previous season but as 2024 continued to be warm and wet more species seemed to be hit, species that would be larvae during wet conditions. Large and Silver-spotted Skippers, Common Blue, Small Copper, Brown Argus all had very poor seasons. Many Lycids actually had decent seasons but looking at their lifecycle they were either species that have close associations with ants (Silver-studded, Large, Chalk Hill Blues) or who’s larvae live in trees, a more airy environment so perhaps less exposed to microscopic pathogens.

Theres always going to be exceptions, many Satyrids seemed to cope, Wall’s certainly weren’t bothered, and Ringlets tend to thrive in wet summers.

Anyway, as I said it’s likely far more complicated and probably quite species specific in many cases and I have little doubt that, given the opportunity, those species that did poorly last year will surge this year.

A very enjoyable read Buggy. Must have taken a while to write up, so thank you.

Your observations are broadly similar to mine overall, though there are exceptions. For me, Green Hairstreaks and Dingy Skippers were very poor in spring, and the same goes for Chalkhill Blues in summer. However, this is not so surprising, as it’s not unusual for a species to be having a good year on one site, and a poor one on another.

Interesting roundups of the 2024 season Paul, a lot of which sounds familair to me too although there were some notable differences.

bugboy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 28, 2025 3:37 pm A few other species which had been almost non existent for most the season also recovered thanks to their ability to squeeze in third broods in my part of the country, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Small Copper.

Three species which crashed badly here, all of which are primarily bivoline here and only ever see a partial third brood in the very best seasons, of which 2024 was definitly not.

Fingers crossed for this coming year although I have concersn about the prospects for some species.

Cheers,

Neil.

An interesting read Bugboy I'm broadly of the same opinion but for the Ringlets which over this way seemed to be 'blink' and you missed them

Have a goodun

Wurzel