I've just seen your Clouded Yellow pics. I was stunned by how vivid they were, especially picture number 2. Its not just the depth of yellow but how dark the spots are and how dark the ring on the hindwing is. I was so taken aback I went through all of my own past pics of this species and none came ...

Alice Holt today, not for any particular reason, but just to make a change from Binswood!!! Did see 4 PStreaks there, but all were up in the oaks flitting about as they do. Also L & M White, L Skip, MBrown, Ringlet and Gatekeeper, R&W Ads, H Blue, Peacock, Comma and SW Frits. P1140247.JPG P1...

Wurzel - I get it! Come on down! You are our next butterfly on "The Price is right"! :lol: I liked that backlit Common Blue too. The two pics are not of the same butterfly but both were within a few feet of one another, basking in the sun together. David - I consider myself lucky to have B...

Binswood (again) for Pstreaks. I have come up with a whole new classification for Butterflies. It simplifies everything. There is the classification of "A Purple Hairstreak" for Purple Hairstreaks and there is the classification of "Not A Purple Hairstreak" for everything else. S...

Goldie - Love the Heath Frits. Not a species I have seen unfortunately - we don't get them here in Hampshire to my knowledge. Also - I only found out yesterday that they are going to re-introduce European Bison to Blean Woods. Yes BISON! Apparently they have not roamed Britain since prehistoric time...

Wurzel - Loved your recent Marshie pics and that brilliant Small Blue. Question - Your pic of the Green Hairstreak showing a small portion of its upper hindwing. Was it doing a wing-roll? Is that why we can see it? If so, is it OK to copy this pic into the general forum thread on wing-rolling? Cheers

A Purple Hairstreak doing a wing roll at Binswood on 11th July 2020 at around 8am in full sunshine. Not something they seem to do much, but they do it sometimes. This one did it for about 20-30 seconds. There did not seem to be anything else to disturb it nearby (except me of course), but I was a fa...

Jake, thanks for that. It certainly is an odd behaviour. I am fascinated by it.

I think I might need professional help. I can't stop going to Binswood to see the PStreaks!!! I got there at 6.45am today and saw my first in flight at 7am. By 7.20am they were feeding on the brambles again and generally messing about low down. b1.JPG b2.JPG b3.JPG Yep, that was a PStreak too, an od...

Dave

My favourite image from your recent posts is that "coy" Essex. Fantastic.

I am a great fan of the odd angle if you can get it, and you certainly nailed that one.

Cheers.

Dave - Thanks for the confirmation as to why the heather had died back so much. It didn't occur to me that a short spell of frost at just the wrong time could have had such a dramatic effect but it clearly did. The PStreaks are quite stunning at Binswood this year. At nearby Alice Holt Forest (no mo...

Butterflying can become an obsession of course - we all have it don't we? But at the moment my particular obsession is with PStreaks. I make no apologies - they are a fantastic little creature and Binswood for the third year running seems to be remarkable for them. Yet again today they were down on ...

Thanks, guys. Re the Dartford Warbler picture. I just got very lucky. I once lived in a house actually in the New Forest for 5 years. That was a time before my butterflying days - then my main nature passion was birding and in all that time I never got a picture of a Dartford Warbler anywhere near a...

Broxhead – Silver Studded Blue – End of 2020 season survey results Introduction I have now performed four years of records for this site, the last three are consecutive and with some degree of procedure in that I have visited the lek area regularly during the flight period of the Silver-studded Blue...

Trevor: Thanks for those 20 points. I sure did get lucky that day. Arriving early paid dividends. I was there from 7.15 to 8.45 or thereabouts. At the start the only ones I saw were on the ground. A few minutes later they were moving along the hedgerow. Then a little while later, the hedgerow and th...

Binswood for PStreaks again! But first a short intermission... P1130856.JPG Just good friends? ... and now back to the main feature. I have started to arrive early, today it was 7.15 am. Cool to start but sunny and it soon warmed up. The first one I saw was on the ground creeping through the grass l...

Maurice & Dave - Thanks for the moth ID. Thankfully I have no Box in my garden! David - I am sure you are correct. I have been over Binswood many times these last three years and as I said, never before saw one on a Bramble flower before, and yet now its almost as it I have come to expect it! Wu...

Binswood again! At this time of year I visit almost every day for the Purple Hairstreaks. I found this one on a bramble again, feeding from a flower head well and truly "gone-over". In fact the one adjacent had already started to berry! Puple Hairstreak on berry at Binswood 2020.JPG For so...

This year a fresh female SSB (still with wobbly wings from not being fully "pumped-up") was doing a wing roll. However its method was odd in that it held its wings ajar while it did it, almost as though it was not yet able to close them? I created an animated gif for it but couldn't upload...

I have being going back through my hand-written records about Silver-studded Blues while I compile my report for them this year and discovered a hand-written note I made last year to myself about seeing a male SSB wing-rolling while in-cop, similarly to a previous note that Callum made on this threa...