Goldie - yes it was stunning. I had never seen anything quite like it before or since. I edged my way a little into the field being as careful as I could and then took a 360 degree video of it.

Magdalen Hill - 21st May 2018 Magdalen Hill is another great chalkhill reserve a short drive from me. It is equally good for butterflies and for flowers. Here is a picture from the hill across the vale in July. vale in july.JPG Today I was a man on a mission. OK, not a very big mission – but it is m...

Hi, Hoggars - I'm glad of your pics and text re Small Coppers. I have a brood near me (much smaller of course) and have been studying them. I don't get to see the Stalk Walk/Stalk Dance/Stem Dance very often (which do you prefer? - and I shall call it that from now on). On the only occasion I have s...

I agree with you Goldie about never taking what other people say as absolute truth. I was over Old Winchester Hill once and met the assistant ranger in the car park. I asked him there had been any sightings of the Adonis Blue and he said none whatsoever. Still, unperturbed, I walked on and what do y...

Noar Hill - 20th May 2018 To compensate for my last verbose post - this one is far shorter! Although the Dukes are well in decline at this reserve now, a run of sunny days has brought out the Dingies. I completed my survey of the site today, visiting all those areas I know Dingies like (and even a c...

I tried and failed to see some spring brood Adonis Blues in Hampshire the other day. I still haven't seen one yet this year. Glad to see you are having better luck than me. I'm not envious...

...OK, yes I am.

Study into the Small Coppers of NE Hants and its border with Surrey Small Copper - female - underside (6).JPG This is not a scientific paper. I am not a butterfly expert. I want to underline that from the outset. I am an interested and sometimes intrigued amateur. Intrigued because this little butte...

Dave Broxhead is the best location I know of near me for Silver-studded Blues. There is a major lek and a number of satellite colonies, in total one year recently I counted over 700 individuals here and last year, although I did not count them - I estimate there were even more than this, perhaps ove...

What a great selection of butterflies in a single day.

Nice crisp PBF shots too.

What a coincidence. Both of us found our first Small Copper of the season on the same day!

Great open-wing Holly Blue shots by the way.

Broxhead - 19th May 2018 Broxhead is a very fine reserve for just about all forms of wildlife, from mammals to birds, bugs to butterflies, fungi to lichen. However it is usually far better from mid-summer onwards. PICT6165.JPG But I visited today mainly to check if there were any spring brood Small ...

David - This Peacock was quite fresh looking and I saw another today equally fresh.

It appears I forgot to provide the link to the paper I have been commenting on in my last post. Sorry. Here it is.

Whenever I am out at a Duke reserve and people pass by asking me what I am doing but know nothing about butterflies they are often astonished at how small a Duke is when I show them. Most of the pictures on this forum are of close-up shots (mine included) and this always exaggerates their size. Your...

How close exactly were you to that very horned cow? And did you remember to bring your red-lined cape for defence?

Ole!

Great mating Speckled Woods.

But love all the moths too. There are so many moths I sometimes don't know where to start. I don't have a moth trap but the more images I see like yours, the more I want to get one.

I have now read the wing-roll study paper (link in post above) a few times and have written my thoughts on it. If interested please open the following attachment.

Noar Hill - 18th May 2018 Another sunny day with a cool start. Ideal. I continued my Dingy count today. I clocked up 17 newcomers in parts of the reserve I had not found them to date so I can add them to the 6 I had already found here – a grand total so far of 23. I found a male making advances to a...

Thanks, Bugboy. You are right - it does make for interesting reading. I have read it once but it will require me to read it a couple of more times before it sinks in properly. My first response right now though is that the tests were performed with the idea that the hind-wing movement is to make any...

I have mentioned on my PD a behaviour I have witnessed some of the members of the Lycaenidae family perform that I call the wing-roll. Other people who have seen this have their own names for it. I have looked it up but found no references to it so I thought I would open up a discussion topic about ...