Bugboys mission

[bugboy]

3rd October, looking for the LTB......again

So on Saturday I decided to have another shot at getting a sighting of a LTB, down at Newhaven again. Another early start with fog for most of the journey down but arriving at the site, the sun started burning through and the sun came out. Unlike Wednesday there was only the merest whisper of a breeze which meant that it felt decidedly warmer, things seemed very promising . In between checking the two main patches of Everlasting Pea, the ‘puny’ patch where the LTB were seen mating and the huge swathe which stretches for about 40 meters along a bramble hedge, I did some proper Birdwatching as well, something I’ve not done since the spring. I’ve never seen Dunlin before so that was a nice one to tick off,

And there was still a nice flock of Redshank feeding in the channel running along the north side of the site.

There were lots of flocks of small passerines feeding in the scrubby patches, Green & Goldfinch, Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Linnets to name a few.

I also noticed lots of these caterpillar webbings. I think they are young Brown-tail Moth cats unless anyone more knowledgeable says differently.

As the day warmed up a few butterflies began to appear. Like Wednesday Small Whites were the commonest species but I also saw one each of Large and Green-veined, here’s a nice one for you David M.

At one stage I missed a few heartbeats when I caught sight in my peripheral vision of something rather large crawling up my arm....

A couple of Small Heath were still flitting around, a Comma made a fleeting appearance and I had a couple of Red Admiral visitations but I only came across the one Small Copper this time. To make up for the lack of numbers she happened to be a lovely fresh animal and posed for me for some time.

Remembering the ovipositing female from Wednesday I decided to see if I could locate the egg she laid on the stone. I surprised myself in finding it quickly despite the stone having rolled down the slope. After a few pics I wedged it up against some Sorrel leaves in the shade. They really are miniature marvels when seen close up.

Still no sign of any LTB’s though, until I was slowly walking up and down the large swathe of Peas, something small and lycid like flitted past along the hedge. With the sun behind me it looked pale brown and had a ‘jinking’ flight pattern. I tried to follow it but it vanished only to reappear a couple of minutes later whereby it flew off across the channel of water.....never to be seen again ! Having no experience of LTB’s I can’t be sure of what I saw, it just looked like what I would expect them to look like, or maybe it was just wishful thinking .

Well a couple of minutes later another small thing fluttered by along the fence line of the scrapyard that borders the site. This time the sun was in my face so I wasn’t able to make out any colours or pattern. The little blighter tormented me for some time, flying back and forth until it eventually settled long enough for me to identify a male Vapouror . He’s lucky I’m not a collector, I might have caught and pinned him out of spite!

I figured my luck was out today but one last consolation prize was this absolute stunner of a Peacock who landed and basked in the hazy sun.

4th October
I woke up Sunday and decided to give it one last shot. What with work and the current weather forcast it was probably going to be my last chance.
The journey took longer than planned, the dreaded bus replacement service (which I wasn’t aware of until after I’d bought the tickets) added nearly an hour so I got there not long before noon, almost immediately bumping into B’rex again who was with a fellow butterflyer. Thankfully for me no LTB’s had been seen yet. Unfortunately that remained the state of play for the rest of the day. A very fresh male Clouded yellow was seen but didn’t settle long enough to grab a snap. Other than a few Small whites and a couple of Small Heath that was it for the day.

I did however manage to tick off another avian lifer. A pale wader caught my eye and at the time neither Rex or I could ID it, my gut feeling kept saying ‘Grey Plover’ but it wasn’t until I got home that my suspicions were confirmed.

So no LTB’s but certainly not a wasted weekend. Overall 32 bird species and 9 Butterfly species seen.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Buggy, your weekend sounded really interesting , sorry you didn't see the LTB's but there's still time, keep at it
30odd species of birds is good going looks like that's what we'll be taking shots of in a few weeks time Buggy when the Butterflies have gone, so you've made an head start Goldie

[David M]

If Neil Hulme's instinct is correct (and it usually is), this weekend should present the premium opportunity to track down any new brood LTBs.

Good luck.

[bugboy]

Well today I had a couple of spare hours in the afternoon so went for a wander on my local patch and saw exactly no butterflies Not even a single flyby which was a shame given all the Michaelmas Daisy in full bloom!

Just a small sample of whats available if there were any butterflies out!

Oh well, I guess thats what I get for living in London!

[David M]

I'm surprised by that, Bugboy, as butterflies are still flying quite conspicuously down here in south Wales.

Perhaps they'd all finished for the day by the time you arrived?

[bugboy]

I'm surprised by that, Bugboy, as butterflies are still flying quite conspicuously down here in south Wales.

Perhaps they'd all finished for the day by the time you arrived?

Possibly, I didn't get out til gone 2pm but it was still warm (shorts and t-shirt weather) with very little wind.... Oh well.

I've managed to get the weekend off so perhaps I'll go further afield tomorrow

[Wurzel]

I'm surprised you drew a blank at that massive patch of nectar rich blooms Nice Grey Plover, when out French teacher used to take some class mates and I out birding that was his least favourite bird. You see it's call is a high pitched, whine like "Steevve", which also happened to be the first name of our teacher...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Butterflysaurus rex]

It was really good to meet you at last buggy. We might not have seen any LTB's but we still had a very interesting chat and saw that Gray Plover you spotted - a first for me too I think.

I hope to see you again out there at some point.

ATB

James

[Hoggers]

Hi Buggy, I've been catching up with your diary and the egg-laying Small Copper!

Before this year I'd never seen a Copper lay her egg - It's a very special thing to witness, as you show so well in your report,

Great Stuff!

Best wishes,

Hoggers.

[bugboy]

I was quite surprised too Wurzel, I would have expected a couple of whites and Vanessids at least.
I now have visions of flocks of Grey Plovers shouting Steeeve at each other in cockney accents, something to look forward to if I ever come across such a thing

Good to meet you too James, if there’s another LTB invasion next year I’m sure we’ll bump into each other again!

Thanks Hoggers, I keep a close eye on your diary, love seeing what your lot are up too . It’s the first wild ovipositing Small Copper I’ve ever seen, plus my first wild egg, (I bred them when I was a teenager when I captured a gravid female.)

10th October,

I’d managed to wangle a weekend off and decided to risk another trip down to the south coast on my now desperate hunt for LTB’s. As it turned out Saturday ended up being a completely wasted event spent getting progressively more annoyed by delayed and cancelled trains. I’d got up later than planned and having run a couple of errands before setting off it was already late morning but I didn’t get to Newhaven until around 2pm .
The weather forecast was also not quite what I was lead to believe either, mostly thick cloud with occasional hazy sun and rather chilly.
I decided not to take my camera out of my bag, partly to tempt ‘sods law’ but mainly because there didn’t seem much point. The latter proved to be true . Even the tide was in so not much in the way of waders to watch. I grudgingly walked around for a bit, without even the hint of a butterfly.

By the time I decided to make a move barely an hour later my dark mood was only slightly diluted by an appearance of an actual butterfly, a Comma milking the weak, hazy sun for all it was worth.

So I’d managed to spend nearly £30 to walk around for an hour and get 3 photos of a butterfly I could see 10 minutes from my house !

11th October

A trip to Bookham was the plan today, a check on the WA cats and a bit of birding. It felt much warmer today with lots of clear blue sky and very little in the way of wind, there were probably huge herds of LTB’s out today if the weather was the same down south !

Anyway another day without any butterflies flying beckoned. All the hairstreak eggs were still where they should be and for those fans of Brian II, he’s still snoozing away, no point boring you with another identical picture of the previous ones of him.

Stan, who I strongly suspected was looking to go to sleep on my last visit nearly 2 weeks ago, was still out and about but definitely hadn’t eaten for some time.

It does look like he’s planning on sleeping on/in this leaf but whether he’s going to be able to make a sleeping bag with it rapidly crisping up is anyone’s guess. As I took a few pics he did go for a little wander,

and upon reviewing the pics there does seem to be a certain amount of silk holding the leaf in place.

Bird wise there were lots of small woodland bird flocks and large charms of Goldfinch. Some lovely long views of Nuthatch and Tree Creepers flitting around with various tits, Goldcrest and Chiffchaff.

Best spot for me were some Willow/Marsh Tit. I'm not familiar enough with them to seperate them in the field, they rather inconsiderately don't pose like the pictures in the guide books

So with 1 adult butterfly in 3 days it would seem my butterfly season has come to a rather abrupt end. I can't really complain though, it’s been a very good season for me

[David M]

I empathise with you, Bugboy, but the first rule is surely that if you're not there at all, then you can be sure you definitely WON'T see any butterflies.

You made the effort, and although you weren't rewarded this time, there will be other occasions such as this that will bear fruit.

Keep perservering!

[bugboy]

14th October

Because I’m a stubborn git (and I’m not letting my butterfly year end just yet, even if the butterflies are currently playing hard to get with me) I took yet another day trip down to Newhaven, (yes I know I've said I'd already made my last visit there several times ).

Out of the wind and when the sun was out it was very pleasantly warm but for the first half hour or so not a butterfly was seen. Obviously I spent a bit of time lurking around Everlasting Peas, just in case. When that drew a blank I went for a wander. Sticking to the sheltered areas out of the wind I finally caught sight of a butterfly, a White of some sort getting battered in the wind every time it ventured too high of in the distance. I finally caught up to it and it turned out to be a Small White but she didn’t settle for me so I left her to her eternal battle with the wind.

Shortly after this another butterfly came hurtling past me. I could see the distinctive patterning of a female Clouded Yellow but it wasn’t very yellow. The sensible part of my brain came up with “Ooooh helice” but there was a little wishful thinking voice suggesting it may be something rarer so of I went. Luckily for once the wind worked to my advantage, keeping it low and close to the sea defence ridge where she settled often on the Dandelion and Oxtongue, only to fly up as I approached, typical Cloudy. I ended up following her for nearly an hour, trying to get as many open wing shots as I could to make sure I could get a firm ID, and yes it was a helice. My persistence did pay off in the end and I managed to get some half decent close-ups as well as a few lucky open winged shots of varying degrees of focus.

I love how in order to keep their wings in plane to the sun, they just move there head from side to side to reach all the nectar rather than moving around like most others.

shame about the focus......

After leaving her to her eternal flying up and down I went back for another look along the Peas (I’m stubborn!), on the way getting a Red Admiral flyby and a lovely blue badge Small Copper but despite having a good patch of blue sky there was still no sign of LTB. Still a Clouded Yellow helice is a very nice consolation prize, a first for me. Still life in the season yet !

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Bugboy,

You are determined ...

Well done on the Clouded Yellow. However, it's not the helice form of the female. Personally I think you have something better. I believe it to be Colias croceus ab. aubuissoni, though I'm happy to be corrected.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[Pete Eeles]

Personally I think you have something better. I believe it to be Colias croceus ab. aubuissoni, though I'm happy to be corrected.

I completely agree Nice find!

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugboy]

Personally I think you have something better. I believe it to be Colias croceus ab. aubuissoni, though I'm happy to be corrected.

I completely agree Nice find!

Cheers,

- Pete

So what you're both telling me is that I've still never seen a helice then ! If I'd known it was a rarer ab. I'd have spent all afternoon chasing her! I can't find any pics online to compare it to mine. What makes this aubuissoni?

[Pete Eeles]

ab. aubuissoni: "The ground colour yellowish-orange, intermediate between the type and helice. The hindwings dark dusted, with a large orange discoidal."

Here's a superb example from Colin Knight:

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugboy]

Thank you Pete

[David M]

Great find, Bugboy. That's a most interesting specimen.

You got your reward for the previous blanks recently.

[Padfield]

Well done Buggy! Helice are two-a-penny - if you see enough clouded yellows, anywhere in their range - you're bound to see one. You just have to get over the jinx first one ... But it will be a long time before you photograph another ab. anbuissoni.

Guy

[bugboy]

Thank you everyone, very exciting to find something so rare, especially when I had no idea it was when I was looking at her that little wishful thinking corner of my brain is feeling very smug right now

Today I had a nice little present to myself arrive in the post: