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Glanvilles, Greenstreak, Common Blue, Speckled Wood, Peacock and Small Heath at Wrecclesham.

Wood White,Brimstone, Dingy, Grizzled and Large Skipper, Common Blue abc Speckled Wood at Botany Bay this afternoon. I'll put some photos on my PD tomorrow once I've finished sorting through the 500 photos I took today

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Spent a very nice couple of hours in the company of Wurzel and philzoid at wrecclesham this morning. It is the first time I have been to this site and I have to say it has a great variety of habitat and the sides of the quarry are very reminiscent of the Glanville habitat on the isle of wight and its former mainland haunt at hordle cliffs. Saw good numbers which all looked very fresh so it would seem that they are surviving well and there is plenty of plantain so the future looks ok if the site remains undisturbed. One individual was very lightly marked The closest I could find in cockayne or Russwurm was ab. fulla or Horvathi I will try and post a ( not very good)photo but I am having trouble doing this with my iPad I am linking to photbucket and it keeps cropping the right hand side of the photo. I am sure that wurzel will have some clearer shots. No underside though sorry Nice to meet you guys

With recent sightings of Glanville Fritillary at Wreccclesham this had to be high on the list of places to go. On Wednesday amidst the showers and bright spells I'd only seen 2 butterflies but today (Saturday) was much much better. After meeting up with fellow UKB members Tuts and Wurzel (EDIT you've got your posts in before me as expected ) we got in amongst the butterflies. Lots of fresh looking Glanvilles, lively and seemingly unperturbed by the breezy conditions. Also seen were Green Hairstreak, Speckled Wood; Small Heath; Common Blue, Large Skipper, Large White and Peacock, but the dominant species in terms of numbers of were Glanvilles. Notable was a mating pair and a specimen bordering on an aberrant: which were photo recorded and will probably be found in Tut's and Wurzel's PD's After a very satisfying morning and early afternoon, Mark went of for a recce at Straits Inclosure Alice Holt, whilst me and Wurzel moved on to Botany Bay, Chiddingfold. The plan was to see if there were any Wood Whites still about? They were, and in resonable numbers on the lead up to, and in the triangle (I reckoned on about 15 individuals Wurzel a bit less). Also seen were Speckled Wood including a dark looking example, Large; Dingy and Grizzled Skipper; Common Blue and Brimstone. Other noteable insects was a Grass Wave Moth; Orange Moth; a Queen Hornet and bumble bees (Eucera longicornis?) with long antennae. Good weather (for a change), good butterflying .

At the Wyre Forrest today we saw

Common Blue
Pearl Bordered Fritillary
Brimstone (would not stop and pose )
Dingy Skipper (if I have my id correct, first time seen and have I got male and female ????) Hope somebody can confirm this for me please. Which Guy has now confirmed as one Dingy Skipper and a Burnet Companion Moth (Thank You)
Speckled Wood
and may be a sighting of Grizzled skipper ????? (no clear photo to be sure)
and a lovely bee and lots and lots of insects.
We saw a bright white insect that seem to hover by, but was too high to idenitfy and a maybe a couple of glances at what was perhaps a sooty moth. (Wow Neil what a lovely Chimney Sweeper Moth )

As you can see from some of the pictures I did play 'Hide and Seek' today.

and a thank you to the unknow butterflyer who pointed out the dingy skipper for me.

Debbie

Hi Debbie. You have one dingy skipper there, which I think is a male. The insect above it is a rather dingy-looking burnet companion moth.This, along with the Mother Shipton, is something you will meet quite a lot while looking for butterflies in summer meadows.

Guy

Hi Debbie,

With regard to your comment about a Sooty Moth, when I was at the Wyre last Monday there were loads of Chimney Sweeper Moths.
Cheers,

Neil F.

[attachment=2]Phil and I decided today the weather looked good for Swallowtails. After last minute checking of the forecast we set out from the Cambridgeshire fens to the Norfolk fens. Strumpshaw did not let us down. We got our garden record shots and then on to the adjacent meadow where we saw 4. Later we walked onto the fen and at one point we saw 6 Swallowtails chasing each other. A cheeky Pheasant approached, it wasn't at all concerned by us
Here are a few of our pics, I haven't succeeded in puting them in order I'm afraid. All told I think we saw 14.

A warmer day yesterday brought a late 1st brood Wall Brown at High and Over. Apart from that the only interest was some fresh Small Blue on Cradle Hill. Today I decided, with the weather going downhill again, to try finding the Scarce Chaser dragonfly on the Cuckmere. With the odd drizzle and temperatures of only 15 degrees I was not expecting too much. I only spotted 2 Chasers with one being a maturing male with the blue colour coming through. Banded Demoiselles were quite numerous though with both male and females active. Mayflies were also showing but no surprise, not one butterfly seen!!
Seeing Rosalyns'' fantastic pictures of Swallowtails I wish I had gone to Strumpshaw Fen!

Rosalyn wrote:A cheeky Pheasant approached, it wasn't at all concerned by us

I've never seen a pheasant so unperturbed by human presence. Normally they're off when you approach within 30 metres.

Nice Swallowtail shots too.

I've never seen a pheasant so unperturbed by human presence. Normally they're off when you approach within 30 metres.

David, It even came looking for us! I think it is used to being fed

Hi Rosalyn,

Love your shots from Strumpshaw.
We were there a couple of weeks ago, a bit early for Swallowtails this year really, they had only been out for a few days. We managed to see a few but they were full of newly emerged vigour and settled only briefly if at all.

We did see your pheasant though, round by the tower hide. we couldn't believe it when it walked straight past us Like you say, it is probably used to people.

cheers,

Neil F.

Thank you for your 'likes' It was a lovely day

Thank you Guy for identifying the butterfly and moth for me.

Wow Neil - What a fabulous moth

Debbie

Rosalyn wrote:

I've never seen a pheasant so unperturbed by human presence. Normally they're off when you approach within 30 metres.

David, It even came looking for us! I think it is used to being fed

It must have been hand reared, as normally even chickens are wary of getting too close (we have approximately 30 and even after 3 or 4 years there are a few that will never eat from your hand).

Hi Phil,

Your moth is indeed a female Orange Moth (Angerona prunaria).

Philzoid wrote:Orange moth (possibly female?)

A nice find.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

A bit of sun this morning and I had two fresh male Speckled Wood patrolling each end of the garden and having aerial dogfights when they met


Neil F.

Went to Wyre forest today, only about 10 pearls in the meadows along dowles brook, and 2 sml pearls but no pics again!!!

but at Hurst coppice still loads of wood whites ))) all in great condition:)) and maybe a dozen pearls & 2 smll pearls seen
and a few large skippers all look fresh today

Phil

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/golde ... .jpg[/img]
WOOD WHITE 2012 #2 by GOLDENORFE, on Flickr[/url]

On the Cradle Hill area of Frog Firle yesterday my 2nd Painted Lady of the year as well as this Small Tortoiseshell.

Whilst I was out & about, in the 10 minutes of sunshine today, 3 Common Blue and 3 Small White appeared...

Before the clouds rolled in it was a beautiful sunny, if cool, start to the day. Caught this female OT waking-up.....