Bugboys mission

[trevor]

SUPERB CLOUDY, SAW 2 SAME PLACE FRI. 9

[Goldie M]

Oh! well done Bug boy, I bet you'll go back there again shortly Goldie

[millerd]

What a splendid butterfly, Buggy! Well done indeed. It just shows - expect the unexpected... and a few for good measure.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Fantastic find Buggy, you lucky, lucky bug-ger

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thank you for all the comments and I shall treasure all those green faces . Simply a case of right time, right place . It really was my last visit there this season I think, having now come down with a serious case of manflu. Hopefully I'll pull through and be raring to go for next season though

[Goldie M]

Get well soon Buggy Goldie

[bugboy]

Thanks Goldie, I'm struggling manfully through it!

Musings of a butterfly addict.

Well with my butterfly season drawing to a close it must be time to do an end of term review.

My first full year as a member of this forum was, for me, a year of firsts. I’ve never really ‘twitched’ anything before this year but twitching butterflies all over south east England gave me 12 lifers to get my personal challenge off to a flying start and of the 45 species I saw I managed to photograph 44 of them, only that Purple Emperor eluded me.

However that was only a small setback with so many highlights filling the year. Looking back my top five highlights are catching my first sight of a Duke in the Chilton’s, which happened to be a fresh Duchess.

A day trip to Wurzels Wiltshire Wonderland to watch hundreds of Marsh Fritillaries materialising as if by magic from the course turf as the day warmed, as well as many other late spring species.

Watching masses of Heath Fritillary flit and glide around a sunlit glade.

Catching sight of my first ever Brown Hairstreak.

And finally, finishing off my season with a rare Clouded Yellow ab. Even if I wasn’t aware of it at the time!

2015 was also notable for an ever present wind ; I can count the number of days on one hand when there wasn’t at least a stiff breeze to annoy me! Despite this and the rather topsy turvy weather I have very little to complain about. Going through my records for the year I find I’ve amassed over 5,800 photos (and that’s just butterflies and ignoring all the ones that got binned! ). Most species seemed to appear a week or two late, certainly from June onwards. I suspect the cool May had something to do with that.

At the beginning of the year my list looked like this:

2015 started off slowly for me and I had to wait until 7th March to see my first butterfly, a Brimstone.
Six weeks later in April I had the first of my 2015 lifers, a Green Hairstreak, quickly followed by two more, Dingy and Grizzled Skippers all on the same day.

Despite the below par May weather, I managed 5 more lifers; Pearl Bordered Fritillary, Duke of Burgundy, Glanville Fritillary, Small Blue and that trip to Wurzels Wiltshire Wonderland for his Marshies.

The ‘June gap’ still gave me the East Blean Wood Heath Fritillary experience.

July arrived with me discovering Bookham Commons in search for a Purple Experience. I only had two fleeting glimpses of HIM but my repeated visits were still rewarded by some excellent Silver Washed Fritillary action, a couple of close encounters with the little purple one and another lifer, the White Admiral.

I discovered a fantastic White-letter hairstreak site, thanks to a tip through this forum, where most of the colony seems to come down to feed on waist height Bramble blossom, and spent two very happy afternoons enjoying the company of that lifer.

Back at Bookham Commons I started to follow some White Admiral larvae and into August my continuing visits there got me the Brown Hairstreak, lifer number 12 for the year.

The end of my year was spent with repeated ‘final’ visits to Newhaven in search of the illusive LTB. Despite not seeing any I did stumble across a rather lovely Clouded Yellow which unbeknownst to me at the time turned out to be a rather rare ab. A great high to finish off my season

I also had the pleasure to meet fare few fellow butterfliers including 3 UKBers, Mrsp0ck, Susie and B’rex, whilst discovering lots of beautiful places to visit, perfect antidotes to life in the big city even without all the butterfly chasing !

All this butterfly twitching improved the look of my list no end !

Looking back at all my pictures, and there is an awful lot of them , I’d say my photography has improved over the year.....but then after so many pictures you would hope something would improve! I’ve actually started using fully manual settings after years of letting my camera do all the work for me.

Roll on 2016!

[David M]

It's been quite a year for you, Bugboy. It must have been particularly satisfying to stumble upon that immaculate female Brown Hairstreak though?

[Goldie M]

Great year for you Bugboy, I envy your White and Brown Hair Streaks which I've still to encounter, hope fully next year I will ( at least it gives some thing to aim for next year,) also like you I want the PE so a vist I put off last year because of the bad weather I hope to put right Next year Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

That's a cracking Clouded Yellow ab. a lovely looking butterfly, almost like something from the tropics

A great roundup of your season too. I am particularly jealous of your White-letter Hairstreak, a species I don't often see and totally missed out on this year.

Cheers,

Neil

[Susie]

I don't post much now but it's been a pleasure reading your diary this year, Bugboy. I'm looking forward to reading it again next year

[Wurzel]

A great round up of the year Bugboy, and a hearty "hear, hear" to 2016 rolling one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thank you all, it's been a pleasure sharing my escapades on here

[bugboy]

28th October

After an exhausting 8 day run at work I really needed a relaxing day. I woke up to rain but the forcast seemed promising, particularly on the south coast and so it would be a surprise to absolutely no one that I found myself making another final visit to Newhaven in search for you know what ! I had good feelings this time, not least due to Trevor’s pictures from last night which had remarkably familiar background scenery to the point where I could nearly find the grass seed head it was sitting on! I was pleasantly surprised to find the sun came out when I arrived, mid morning, the weather people got it right! Out of the breeze it felt very warm. I spent an hour or so wandering around the Pea plants, trying to catch a glint of blue in the sun...... nothing.
I decided to go for a wander over to where I found my Cloudy ab. a few weeks ago but still not a single butterfly was seen. I was determined not to go home empty handed so I stalked a few birds, the place is crawling with them. Stonechats were bold as ever and a Goldfinch allowed me to get quite close whilst it was engrossed in its Teasel.

There were also large flocks of Greenfinch, Meadow Pipit and Skylarks were singing!

Wandering back to the peas I still hadn’t seen a single butterfly but as I was looking a man with a camera wandered over and asked if I’d seen anything. After a brief chat I discovered I was talking to the very man who had taken the previous day’s picture, Trevor. He was able to show me where he’d seen it the day before and I wasn’t far from the mark with my guess. A little while later a lady turned up and I was introduced to another UKBer, Katrina. The 3 of us continued searching but still couldn’t find anything small and blue. Prompted by Trevor we decided to look for some Cloudies, he’d already seen 3 that morning and it didn’t take long for a few males to show up, patrolling and occasionally stopping to bask.

Mostly patroling!

Of in the distance we saw someone else who may or may not have been B’Rex. Even through my bins we couldn’t be sure though. We later found that it was B’rex but between the four of us not a single LTB was seen today

I’m beginning to think I’m a LTB jinx, maybe I’m the darkside to everyone else’s jedi LTB skills. If you see me at a LTB site probably best to pack your things and go home

[Wurzel]

Sorry you dipped on the LTB Bugboy - it'll just make it all the sweeter when you finally do catch up with the species - this weekend maybe?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Buggy, it must have been great to hear that Sky Lark, we've not had them a round here for quite a while. It used to make my day complete when on a lovely Summers day you could see them high in the sky singing, sadly we seem to have lost them.
You didn't see your LTB but at least you heard the Sky Lark sing and met some friends Goldie

[Goldie M]

Hi! Buggy, it must have been great to hear that Sky Lark, we've not had them a round here for quite a while. It used to make my day complete when on a lovely Summers day you could see them high in the sky singing, sadly we seem to have lost them.
You didn't see your LTB but at least you heard the Sky Lark sing and met some friends Goldie

[bugboy]

31st October

So Saturdays ‘final visit’ to Newhaven in search for you know what started off rather chilly and grey to the point I didn’t even bother taking my camera out my bag and just stuck to a bit of birding whilst waiting for the sun to appear. It was only when I noticed something small feeding with the usual flock of Redshanks. I spent quite a while playing chase with them, trying to get a proper look at the little imposter to work out what it was. Waders aren’t my strong point birdy wise so I needed to get a good look. I did manage to get reasonably close but being a small brown bird on mud it really didn’t stand out! Having checked with my guides though I’m pretty sure it’s a Common Sandpiper.

It took a while for the promised sun to appear but I did find I wasn’t alone in my search. I found myself chatting to Badgerbob and as the day went on more people turned up, all carefully peering at the patches of Pea but despite all these eyes not a single LTB was seen, at least not as far as I was aware. There were a few Clouded Yellows flying and we had a couple of Red Admiral flybys but despite the warmth, that was it.
A final surprise, whilst waiting for the train, was to have some Black Redstart pointed out to me by a fellow LTB hunter, another lifer for me so not an entire waste of a day

1st November

What a difference a day can make. Today’s trip to Bookham Commons was definitely a season opener after yesterdays warm sunny afternoon. Foggy, clearing to a thick mist as the day wore on, letting me know it truly is Autumn and Winter’s just around the corner.

I saw my first Redwings of the winter, quite a large flock dispersed in the scrub looking for berries, and a couple of Redpoll. Last winter I didn't see a single Redpoll or Siskin down in my part of the world, and the first Redwings to appear I think were in January so maybe we're in for a hard winter this time?

I found myself admiring the beauty of dew bedecked cobwebs which littered the scrubland and got a bit snap happy with them.

All my Hairstreak eggs were present and correct as was Brian II, still snoozing with his little bum sticking out.

The last time I checked on Stan three weeks ago, my only other surviving WA cat, he was still active but showing signs of sorting out his hibernaculum.

Today it took quite a while to locate him and I only found him after taking a few pics of the most likely places and zooming in on the results. Turns out I was right when I guessed he was preparing his final leaf. He’s copied Brian’s sleeping posture, bum exposed to the elements!

Somewhat bizarre to think that yesterday I was searching for a butterfly more at home in the mediteranean when today looked like this!

[badgerbob]

Great to meet you yesterday Paul. I was really hoping we could hunt a blue out between us to reward you for all your visits. Hope you still manage to get lucky.

[bugboy]

Great to meet you yesterday Paul. I was really hoping we could hunt a blue out between us to reward you for all your visits. Hope you still manage to get lucky.

One day Badger!