Hi Michael I'm sure we'll probably bump into each other whilst out bird watching. I'll possibly have a couple more weekends down on the south coast for butterflies. You never know what might turn up. Neil was at Hope Gap yesterday and found three Clouded Yellows including a female helice form. That ...

Hi Zonda and Michael. Apologies for the no show at Portland but I ended up at Mill Hill to try and catch up with Clouded Yellow and finally after four visits there I managed to film Clouded Yellow. Only brief footage whilst a cloud brought him down to earth but that makes my number 58 for the year a...

Hi Zonda

Thanks for the map showing where the car park is. Any ideas on where would be good to walk from there as I've never visited the area before.

Advice appreciated.

Paul

Looks like we both posted a message at the same time Zonda.

if you are all meeting up earlier and closer to the spot I'll try and meet with you all. Let me know a definite meet and time and I'll confirm.

Regards

Paul

Hi Zonda I'm hoping to get there a bit earlier as I'm hoping to try Mill Hill in Sussex again for Clouded Yellow. I'll need to try both on Sunday due to the weather and being back at work on Monday. As I'm heading down from Nottingham I may be on Portland by 9 in the morning. If you could give me so...

Hi Folks Has anyone been to Portland to look for the LTB and if so does anyone have any accurate directions of where to find it, what area is it in. I can't find any good reference to Cheyne Weares on the net. Thanks in advance. Hi Michael are you planning a trip to Portland this weekend. I may be h...

Thanks for the info Neil

I had a good walk around the area you mention but no luck last Sunday. Possibly didn't wait around long enough. If the weather is ok I'll try again this Sunday.

Thanks again

Paul

Help please I've visited Mill Hill a couple of times in the last two weeks specifically to find Clouded Yellow and travelling from Nottingham it's a fair distance. Two Clouded Yellows were seen last Sunday and as I missed these I must have been there at the wrong time during the day. I moved on to M...

Hi

The damselfly looks like a female Common Blue Damselfly as the blue ante humoral stripe on the thorax is thicker than the black one.

The small dagonfly is definitely Black Darter a young male or most likely a female.

Cheers

Paul

Hi Vince We saw a single female Lulworth Skipper at Ballard Down. From the lay-by we walked uphill and left past the cattle trough to the area where there is a Budleia and a lot of Marjoram with paths crossing through it. The Lulworth Skipper was beside the path that goes up hill to the right of the...

Thanks guys. It fits with the fact that any CHB's on the day were extremely tatty and looking closely there does appear to be a small amount of blue showing.

Thanks again.

Paul

Looks like some sort of Heliconid species from tropical South America. Very difficult to ID I think and I'm no expert on these foreign jobs.

Paul

Apologies for butting in, but we visited Durlston on Saturday and Monday over the bank holiday weekend. Unfortunately missing the Clouded Yellow on the Saturday but we did see a few Lulworth Skippers, one at Ballard Down and two or three at Durlston. A good spot at Durlston was up on the right from ...

The following images are video grabs of a female Blue taken at Mill Hill on 14th August. Ground colour was a powdery brown and no real blue around lunules made me think Chalkhill Blue but condition was good compared to all other Chalkhill Blues which were very worn. All Adonis Blues were in good con...

Good point Vince

Paul

Hi Vince I found one almost identical to your first photo at Durlston Country Park this year. The blue colouration was extremely irridescent compared to that of Common Blue aberrants as you say. The second photo could almost be mistaken for a worn male if it wasn't for the body shape. I've seen a fe...

Hi Vince I agree there are some definite pale markings where you would expect to find the orange markings. The lack of black lines across the white edging of the wings rules out adonis blue but taking this into account it does exhibit similar patterning to some of the female Adonis aberrations I hav...

Any comments on what I think is an aberrant female Common Blue.

These photos were actually taken by my mother at Aston Rowant Nature Reserve

Just like to thank all those who replied to my post. I remember you now Michael and nice photo of the Purple Emperor on my grubby mit. Hello Jack we've bumped into each other a few times and it's been a pleasure. Not sure about the pic of me though. Definitely not my best side. Around the back is pr...

Paul, I saw two painted ladies at Grafton Wood today - Grafton Flyford, Worcester (Thursday 18th August) and theoretically (!!) you should see Brown Hairstreaks there. I will post a proper summary tonight on the August Sightings once I've uploaded & processed my photos (I didn't get any shots o...