Bugboys mission

[bugboy]

I can neither confirm or deny anything Trevor

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The second half of June was rather busy as all things Purple appeared. The Hairstreaks as usual were in bountiful supply at Bookham and were joined by it’s much larger superior. Chiddingfold and Knepp also came up with the goods of the latter.

In between these the big Fritillaries appeared, along with White Admiral, the Silver-studded Blue, some Skippers, the first Gatekeeper and Ringlets.

Taking a days break from all things Purple I had my best yet encounter with the Large Blue over at Daneway, a combination of perfect weather and oodles of fresh adults.

[Wurzel]

A fantastic set of Round-up shots Bugboy I reckon Trevor is onto something with his previous cryptic suggestion

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Ok, looks like I might have been rumbled, so here you go

January 2024

Sunday 7th, no longer a mythical bird of folklore and legend!
I’ve never been a bird twitcher, much preferring to go for a wander and just see what I see, but there is one bird that I have wanted to come across for a very long time now. It’s usually a scarce winter visitor prone to occasional irruptions, and this winter is one the of best in recent years, so I bit the bullet and went on my very first avian twitch.

The location I chose had been very well publicised for a few weeks and approaching the spot I could see I was in the right place, on one side of the road a row of about twenty long lenses pointing up at the trees on the other side in which sat a group of starling sized birds, my very first Waxwings.

I did feel a bit of a plonker standing on the side of a reasonably busy road pointing a camera seemingly randomly up into the trees but at least there was safety in numbers, and it didn’t take too long for the targets to descend for a quick feast, only the noisiest passing van was enough to send them back into the treetops. Many pictures were taken over the first hour.

Then they buggered off into town. Catching up with them again we found most high up in a tree but a lone one had settled in a Rowen in the middle of a housing estate. More awkwardness as local curtain twitchers (all by now probably used to the twitchers outside) watched the watchers.

In the afternoon the sun was lost behind a thick grey blanket and the Waxwings had relocated back to the original site but I noticed they kept darting down the slope to the edge of the housing estate so I wandered down there to find myself standing just a few feet away from them, many many more pictures were taken.

A bonus Starling looking resplendent before I lost the sun.

So finally! These bloody birds made me go on a twitch, not really my kind of birdwatching, but at least I can say I've seen them now.

[Wurzel]

Cracking shots Bugboy! It's been a while since I've seen them and I didn't get any photos but your shots take me back - they're a delight to see

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, fabulous birds and bold as anything, near the end of the day I was having to move backwards because I was too close for the lens to focus on them, I could’ve switched lenses and used the macro!

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July marks the home straight for the butterfly season (although admittedly it is a very long home straight these days), not many species left to add to the yearly tally. Chalkhill Blues had a reasonable season and Lulworths down at Durlston were plentiful on a less than perfect day, but the real stars of July appeared in almost unprecedented numbers later in the month, Bookham along with most other sites in the south were practically raining male Brown Hairstreaks!

Second/third gens bolstered numbers, aristocrats provided welcome splashes of colour and female DGF are always worth chasing. A ‘Black’ Admiral was found at Bookham, pretty much an annual event for me these days! And the Silver-spotted Skippers also appeared at the end of the month although they went on to have a mediocre season at best. WLH also get a special mention in this post because I forgot to add them to the June post when I caught up with them at the end of the month.

[bugboy]

January 2024

Thursday 11th, back down to earth with more usual birdie fair on my local patch. Starting as I often do these days on the wetlands to see if the Kingfishers were about. No sign this morning but a Heron seemed to be using some form of semaphore and quite a few Shoveler have turned up here this winter.

Also wintering were a small flock of Redwing, polishing off the berries before any passing Waxwing spot them.

Working the hedgerows were flocks of noisy Long-tailed Tit.

In the horse paddocks on the Marshes were more Thrushes of all five flavours you get at this time of year.

Song Thrush, Blackbird, Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush, Redwing.

A Jay with a gob full of presumably acorns was busy stashing them for leaner times.

Finishing the walk back on the wetlands I came across a Queenfisher. She only stayed for a few shots but always a pleasure

[trevor]

Wonderful shots of those Waxwings. After my PM to you I took it as a given
that you would track some down, hence my prediction!

Great stuff!

[Neil Freeman]

Just seen your Waxwing photos Paul, some great shots of lovely birds.

There has been a flock of around 20+ lurking around Rugby recently, about an hours drive away from here, that has been attracting twitchers from all aound the midlands. I don't twitch anything, either bird or butterfly, but if they came a bit closer to Solihull, I might well be tempted to stir myself into going for a look.

Cheers,

Neil.

[bugboy]

Thanks Trevor, yes, I picked the Uckfield posse which had been very well photographed over the previous few weeks and exact places to see them were well publicised, I was not disappointed!
Thanks Neil. There's at least three facebook groups dedicated to Waxwing sightings if you're that way inclined to keep tabs on them in the local area.


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August arrived and bagged me the final three species for the year, Clouded Yellow (rather scarce last year), the Chobham Grayling (the Surrey heathland race routinely some of the latest to emerge) and the now routine invasion of the Long-tailed Blue. The Brown Hairstreaks also continued to have a very good season, the females now the main target although the mad rush and hordes of photographers that attended the males earlier emergence had all but vanished, their loss!

After mostly missing the Adonis first brood, I did better with the second brood. A few interesting abs were also around, a beautiful female Meadow Brown and a male Wall who wouldn’t budge despite me taking many closeups from various angles were a couple of other standout memories.

[Wurzel]

Cracking images again Bugboy the stand out one for me is that Hedge Brown/Gatekeeper ab - a cracking find that

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Love those waxwings, Paul, and the mosaics too. Just serve as a reminder of how the colour will come flooding back to the landscape soon.

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, your Gatekeeper in your most recent post looks like a halfway house between this one (ab. lugens) and the standard issue.
Thanks David, only another eight weeks at worst


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January 2024

Friday 19th, was the first time I’d left the flat in a week, a particularly nasty stomach bug had kept me rather inactive all week, so it was just a tentative wander on the wetlands today. The sun was out though, and it was the tail end of the cold snap we had so the ice had condensed the birds to the areas still unfrozen. The Shovelers were using teamwork to create vortexes to aid their filter feeding.

Flying overhead it’s really obvious to see how appropriate the genus name, Spatula is.

A Linnet boldly ignored me as I stood a few feet away.

However most my time today was spent following a Queenfisher. She was playing hard to get, mostly sticking to the shadows but she was active enough to grab some sunlit shots.

A King replaced her later on and continued to put a dent into the local Stickleback population.

[Padfield]

Fantastic queenfisher shots, Buggy! I never tire of this gorgeous bird!

Guy

[bugboy]

Me neither Guy, those Kingfishers do help me get through the winter


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September arrived with plenty of butterflies still to bag. Several Abs. stick in my mind. The third brood Small Heaths did rather well after a mediocre at best rest of the season and on a walk along the coast between Eastbourne and Beachy head I found a couple of extra spotted abs along with a Meadow Brown similarly adorned. A few days later a radiata Small Copper was added to my collection. Whilst all this was going on the LTB were busy double brooding on UK soil for the first time, eggs littered the south coast and quite a way inland.

Results of these breeding LTB were easy to find in all the usual spots (leading to the annual round of ignorant comments from the usual corners of social media of ‘they must be all releases’). Other migrants were also peaking, Painted Ladies after being largely absent for most of the season started appearing but were completely overshadowed by the thousands of Red Admirals that were erupting all over the place.

[Wurzel]

More cracking shots Bugboy It was a cracking season for Red Admirals - reading your PD round up reminded me of that; some days they seemed to be the commonest species

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Sure was a great September for you, Paul, especially with those Long-Tailed Blues around, although your radiata Small Copper takes some beating!

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, I think they were in many places, they came out on top on the big butterfly count last year.
Thanks David. For good or bad, these days September is just another good butterfly month, a last hurrah for all the regular migrants and those species who can now routinely fit in a third brood as standard.

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January 2024

Saturday 20th. I ventured a little further afield today, another trip to Barnes WWT. Like the previous day, most life was condensed in patches of unfrozen water, or in the case of the Lapwings, around the edge of it.

The siskins were still around, there’s more than enough Alder and Birch to keep them going all winter.

Overall, it was a bit lacklustre, there were an awful lot of Crows loitering menacingly around which probably kept other birds in hiding. Early afternoon A bittern was spotted, as usual on the far side from where we were in the hide. A selection of the usual long distant shots were taken, however these would later be deleted in favour of much better and more interesting ones. This particular Bittern decided to break cover and move to the small patch of reeds in front of the hide leading to a flurry of camera shutters.

I think he knew I was watching him!

A worthy highlight for the day

[Wurzel]

Cracking Bittern shots Bugboy - they remind me of my first ever experience with this species, only in reverse

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, I take it your sighting was a rear end vanishing into the reeds


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October, once a month for winter woollies, raincoats and wellies is now just another butterfly month if you know where to look. I managed to amass fourteen species last year and was still in shorts and t-shirt through much of it! LTB’s were still emerging at last years most well known hotspot. These were joined in places by Common and Holly Blues, Small Coppers, Speckled Wood and Walls who all managed to cram in third broods in places.

Red Admirals continued to reign supreme numbers wise, and the shorter days weren’t putting off the ones that chose to stay from continuing to make the next generation. I also found a small ‘colony’ of Clouded Yellow who were similarly engaged. A few Comma and Peacock were still around fattening up and Small White occasionally turned up. The final three species making up Octobers tally were Meadow Brown, Brown Argus and Painted Lady.

[robpartridge]

Interesting thoughts about the season is often prolonged these days, with lots of good photos to back them up. Roll on spring...