A little while ago I mentioned a behaviour that I termed the wing-roll that I had observed in some members of the Lycaenidae family. Since MikeOxon has just shown an animation of this in the Green Hairstreak, I thought now would be an opportune moment to provide an expanded report of my findings and...

Mike - I scrolled back through my posts to find my first entry on the wing-roll behaviour. If you are interested it is my post dated Sun Apr 29th 2018 and can be found under button [3]

Cheers,

Oh, my God, Pauline. Stunning Cuckoo photos. You should enter them for a nature magazine competition!

Mike - I picked up on this behaviour with Silver Studded Blues last year. I call it the "Wing-roll" but other people have their own names for it. I have seen it in many but not all of the Lycaenidae family. Others tell me they have seen it in members of the same family that I have yet to o...

17th May 2018 Old Winchester Hill DSCF7799 (7).JPG Although very sunny this morning was breezy and quite cool (or should I say downright cold). All the butterflies were at the bottom of the hill keeping out of the wind, but it was quite good. There were two Grizzled and four Dingy Skips, two Common ...

Dave, Thanks for your comment. If you do come down to St Cats, make sure you set aside enough time for Magdalen Hill too.

Great pics of "Padfield", Bugboy. What a find.

May 16th – Selborne Church Meadow If you pass through Church Meadow to Long Lythe and look back you will see what is known as the Zig-Zag path. It is the main route up from the village of Selborne through the Beech Hanger to Selborne Common. An unusual sight from here. The Zig Zag from Long Lythe.JP...

David. Well you wont be green for long. You will definitely see these species soon. But for me to see the PBFs like you have done recently will require a lot of effort from me as they are some distance away.

Wurzel: You mentioned in answer to someone else's post that the PBF's are out at Stockbridge Down. Its a long hike for me to get to Bentley Wood from Alton but Stockbridge is just about do-able. Can you point me roughly to where they might be on the Down? Thanks.

Great Duke pics, Mark. Looks like they are having a bumper year.

May 15th: St Catherine’s Hill From the top of the hill there is a wonderful view across the water meadows to St Cross Priory. St Cross Abbey from the rampart.JPG Today was a beautiful hot, sunny day when I got here around noon and if you got out of the breeze it was wonderful for butterflies. I had ...

Goldie

Do you have a Duke site where you are?

David, fantastic Wood Whites. You got a great sequence of sharp pics of the courting behaviour. Mine were only video quality snapshots. But did you see the way the male extends his proboscis to touch the female? I could not believe how long it is when stretched out fully... ...or that he did this at...

Site Visit: Swelling Hill Pond – 14th May 2018 This pond area today gave me Small, Large and Green-veined White, Holly Blue and Orange Tip all in around 20 minutes of each other. I am sure I read someone on this site comment that you could never have enough pictures of Orange Tips. So here we are – ...

Tell you what Wurzel. I'll give you a few of my Dukes in exchange for a male and female Turtle Dove. How's that?

David, yes I am over the moon Duke-wise. Greatest ever count, pics of courting and mating and variation in colour range. Best Duke year for me ever.

David: The closest PBFs to me that I know about are over an hours drive away at Bentley Wood near Salisbury so I don't get to see them every year. Your batch are great. Love that underwing shot and the m+f encounter.

Love the dandelion stairway to heaven, Wurzel

Noar Hill - 13th May 2018 A cool start around 9.15am but in the sheltered areas there were Dukes right from the get-go. I completed my survey of the reserve today, going to those places I had not been before and to those that had no Dukes before. There were, for example three Dukes in “The Scrape” t...

David, I love the shot of the OT from underneath showing both wings open. You've got the underside markings and the orange of the upperside of the tips at the same time. Fantastic.