Neil Freeman

[Goldie M]

The Comma's look great Neil but the Tortoiseshells stand out for me Goldie

[Hoggers]

What glorious photographs, Neil!

Am I letting down my favourite butterfly when I admit that I like the Comma photographs the best?!

I can live with the guilt...!

Best wishes,

Hoggers.

[bugboy]

Those Commas look lovely, they really stand out on that Michaelmas Daisy. I was hoping for a similar scene on Friday but my local rather large patch was totally devoid of anything but Bees!

[Allan.W.]

Hi Neil,
Just sitting here perusing your excellent personal diary,while the rest of my crowd are being tortured by the "X" factor",and I came across your excellent shots for the 14th May, page 67, that Grizzley looks like an Abberation to me ,if you,re interested in such things,have a look on the Cockayne website,at the Grizzled Skips; bottom line ,I believe your specimen is Ab; Scabellata,thats a cracking ab,i,d love to find one .!. Regards Allan.W.

[Neil Freeman]

Thank you Dave, Trevor, Wurzel, Goldie, Hoggers, Bugboy and Allan for all your comments

Wurzel, I think the orange marginal band looks large because the marginal black spots are smaller than they often are in second brood which tends to be a bit darker. These third brood examples are more like the first brood. Also, they are both females which tend to have smaller black markings in general which can make them appear lighter and more 'orangy'.

Hoggers, I can't imagine you are letting your favourite butterfly down at all considering how much time you spend with them

Allan, interesting observation regarding the Grizzly back in May. I will have to look into that one.

Sunday 11th October

With the season now winding down it has come to the time of year when I have to catch up on some of the jobs around the house that I have been neglecting during the weekends through the summer. Consequently last weekend was spent at home although I did manage to sneak out into the garden a couple of times on Sunday afternoon which was sunny albeit a bit nippy.

The Speckled Woods were still about and taking a few photos confirmed at least four different males in varying condition,

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 11.10.2015

Yesterday morning, on the way to work, the frost warning symbol was showing on my car for the first time this year and it looks like cold mornings for the rest of the week.

With the 'favourite photos' threads now started it is time for me to start looking back through my photos and putting a report or two together on my thoughts on my season.

Bye for now

Neil

[Paul Harfield]

With the season now winding down it has come to the time of year when I have to catch up on some of the jobs around the house that I have been neglecting during the weekends through the summer.

I know that feeling My wife keeps reminding me as well

Lovely to see Speckled Wood doing well in your garden

[Wurzel]

Me too Mrs Wurzel has trapped me in various rooms of the house with various paint brushes, rollers and tins of paint for the last couple of weekends now Mind you come next season I'll have a huge amount of number of Brownie points stashed

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Jack, the Specklies have had another good year in my garden. They also seemed to have a particularly good autumn showing around here with loads at most of my local spots

Yep, time to rack up those brownie points Wurzel...next season will soon be upon us and there are plans to make

Saturday 17th October

Not much to report since the previous weekend, nights are closing in now when I get in from work and the temperatures have taken a definite drop with a cold north-easterly blowing for most of last week.

Saturday afternoon was quite pleasant if a bit chilly and a couple of Specklies, both males that I recognised from the previous weekend, came out to play for a while.

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 17.10.2015

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 17.10.2015

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

I don't know what it is about it but that first Specklie shot just seems perfect Back to the Brownie Point earning...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel, I actually prefer the second shot myself...just goes to show how subjective these things are

Sunday 25th October

A reasonable day, dry but quite nippy with a proper autumn feel to it. It looks like the Specklies have finished now in the garden... oh well, they had a good year there this year

Autumn in the garden.

Loads of birds in the garden including Bullfinches, Chaffinches, Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tits, Sparrows, Blackbirds, Robins, Wrens, Nuthatches and a couple of GS Woodpeckers. Photos below were taken through the back window whilst I watched them between jobs in the house.

Nuthatch - Coverdale 25.10.2015

Nuthatch - Coverdale 25.10.2015

Coal Tit having a bit of a go...

GS Woodpecker - Coverdale 25.10.2015

Barring possibly an odd hibernator, I'm not expecting to see any more butterflies now this year, especially now the clocks have gone back and it is getting dark when I get in from work.

Bye for now,

Neil

[Goldie M]

Love the Bird shots Neil, I think my Butterflies have all gone now in-spite of the mild weather. Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Goldie, I think I have seen the last for around here now, it may be mild but we have had thick fog all day here and the forecast is for it to be replaced by rain.

Saturday 31st October

We had a run down to Stratford on Saturday afternoon for the Warwickshire BC AGM. My son Chris is living with his girlfriend just around the corner from the NFU mutual head office where the AGM was being held and whilst we were waiting for him to walk round to meet us a Speckled Wood flew across the road in front of us.
The AGM was followed by a great presentation by Steve and Debbie Cheshire on the butterflies of the Maritime Alps where they had been earlier in the summer.

Sunday 1st November

A foggy morning cleared by midday to a beautiful sunny afternoon with wall to wall blue skies. I couldn't resist the temptation to nip around to my local spot at Castle Hill for a little wander to see if anything was about.

Despite the warm conditions, my car display was showing a steady 17 degrees on the way, it was eerily quiet when I got there and it took me a while to realise why... the constant background of bees buzzing and grasshoppers singing was missing. Most of the nectar flowers had now finished with just a few knapweeds still hanging on.

With the sun at this time of the year staying lower in the sky there were plenty of shady corners where the sun had not reached over the trees and where pockets of mist had lingered,

Sunlight through the mist

At least a dozen Common Darter dragonflies were still about which is normal for this species which will fly quite late in the year.

Common Darter - Castle Hills 01.11.2015

A couple of flocks of Goldfinches were also about, many of them tucking into the seed heads of thistles,

Goldfinch - Castle Hills 01.11.2015

So far I had not seen a single butterfly and with the sun getting lower and the shadows lengthening I was heading back to the car when a Small Tortoiseshell flew straight past me. It was heading somewhere in a determined manner and did not stop but at least I had seen a November Butterfly, not something I usually manage to do around here.

Bye for now,

Neil

[Neil Freeman]

Looking back at 2015 – part 1.

As usual during the dark nights at this time of year, I have been looking back through my photos for the favourite photos threads, something which always gets me thinking back on the season and my impressions of it.

This year, a fairly mild winter here in the midlands was followed by a reasonably dry spring with the first hibernators starting to show up in good numbers in my garden and around the local sites from the end of March.
It seemed that 2015 was a late season overall, with a lot of the summer species running a week or two later than usual at my local sites around Solihull. This obviously varied by species and some seemed to emerge around their normal time but then continued to come out in lower numbers but over a longer period. This is just my observation based mostly on what I saw around my local patch and others may have different thoughts in other parts of the country.

As well as my local sites I also travelled about a fair bit, either on day trips which tended to be on days that I had booked off work during the week, and on a couple of longer trips further afield. This year these were 3 days in the Heddon Valley in late June and then 3 days up in the Arnside area in late July. I also had a couple of week-long family breaks, first of which was down in Cornwall where we stayed on the Lizard, and then a week down in Dorset at the end of August/early September when we stayed at Durdle Door. The longer breaks were all booked earlier in the year due to me having to book my time off work in advance so as usual I was taking a bit of a flyer on the timing and whether I would see my target species on each trip. In the end I managed to see all the species that I hoped for plus a few bonuses that I originally hadn’t expected to see this year.

My final tally for the year was 50 species, a number that I have only reached once before and that was in the so called ‘washout summer’ of 2012. Out of interest I looked back at my species counts for 2013 and 2014 and they were 48 and 44 respectively.

Here are the first 25 species, in approximate order that I saw them. The accompanying photos are not necessarily the best that I took (although I was well chuffed with some of them) but have been picked sometimes simply for the memories of particular days.

1. Peacock – Started appearing locally in Late March with good numbers flying from early April. The following summer brood was well down on the high numbers of the previous couple of years.

Peacock - Bickenhill 06.04.2015

2. Small Tortoiseshell – Good numbers seen both locally in spring and at most places later in the summer.

Small Tortoiseshell - Bickenhill 06.04.2015

3. Comma – Good numbers in spring but there didn’t seem to be as many around locally later in the year compared with the previous couple of years, although I did see notable numbers elsewhere, most notably at Fermyn Woods in mid-July.

Comma - Bickenhill 06.04.2015

4. Brimstone – Quite a few seen wandering about in the spring but I don’t seem to have seen many later in the year.

Brimstone - One from the garden 06.04.2015

5. Speckled Wood – These had a good year in my garden and were also seen almost everywhere through the year. They had a particularly good emergence locally through September and into October.

Speckled Wood - One of the early garden Specklies 20.04.2015

6. Small White – Regularly seen in the garden but not that many whilst out and about. Hard to say what kind of season they had as many ‘whites’ seen flying could have been any of the 3 common whites. My feeling is they had a below average year.

Small White on forget-me-nots in the garden 03.05.2015

7. Orange-tip – Although I saw quite a few locally my impression was that numbers were down on the previous couple of years. I also started to see females at the same time as the first males, the latter appearing a little late this year around my patch which made their flight period appear shorter than usual.

Orange-tip - Coverdale 03.05.2015

8. Green-veined White – Same comments in general as for Small White. Quite a few in the garden earlier in the year but definitely fewer around later in the year.

Green-veined White - Coverdale 09.05.2015

9. Holly Blue – Seemed to have a good year, especially in my garden, although not so many seen whilst out and about.

A male Holly blue that paused in the garden for a brief rest 09.05.2015

10. Large White – Seen regularly but as with the Small White seemed to have a below average year.

Large white - Preddanack Cliffs Cornwall 04.06.2015

11. Small Blue – Seemed to be doing well at the 3 sites I saw them, Bishops Hill, Prestbury Hill, and Barton Bushes.

Small Blue - Bishops Hill 04.05.2015

12. Dingy Skipper – I saw good numbers of Dingies at a number of sites in Warwickshire plus loads at Prestbury Hill. My impression was they were having a good year.

Dingy Skipper - Bishops Hill 04.05.2015

13. Green Hairstreak – I saw more Green Hairstreaks this year than ever before, most notably at Ryton Meadows, Prestbury Hill and Barton Bushes with odd ones cropping up at other sites with the last one seen in the Heddon Valley at the end of June.

Green Hairstreak - Bishops Hill 04.05.2015

14. Grizzled Skipper – This year I saw these at Bishops Hills, Harbury Spoilbank, and Ryton Meadows. Not great numbers overall, just a couple at each site.

Grizzled Skipper - Ryton Meadows 13.05.2015

15. Small Copper – Not sure about this one. Apart from the reports by Hoggers and a few others from Dungeness, a lot of people seemed to be missing seeing this species this year. Personally I saw quite few through the year, not great numbers in any one place but in ones and twos at quite a few sites in my travels. Locally the second brood seemed to be a good couple of weeks later than usual with a partial third brood appearing at one site in early October.

Small Copper - Bickenhill 28.05.2015

16. Small Heath – This is a species of concern in Warwickshire with recorded numbers dropping significantly over the past few years. Locally I found them at all the sites I would expect to where they appeared to be having an average year.

Small Heath - Barton Bushes 28.05.2015

17. Common Blue – This species appeared to be living up to its common name. Seen nearly everywhere I went throughout the year. As in the previous couple of years there were some lovely blue females about in the first brood.

Common blue - Shadowbrook Meadows 28.05.2015

18. Brown Argus – Just a couple seen at one local site this year after finding them at two sites last year. Also seen at a number of other sites whilst out and about and loads in Dorset during my week there at the end of August/early September.

Brown Argus - Prestbury Hill 21.05.2015

19. Duke of Burgundy – I saw this species on just the one occasion, at Prestbury Hill when I went specifically to see them and where I saw around a dozen in both the Bill Smyllie and The Masts reserves.

Duke of Burgundy - Prestbury Hill 21.05.2013

20. Pearl-bordered Fritillary – Good numbers seen in the Wyre Forest where they seem to be doing well and expanding into new areas. Also a couple seen at Grafton Wood where they seem to be just hanging on after a re-introduction by West Midlands BC a few years ago.

Pearl-bordered Fritillary - Wyre Forest 26.05.2015

21. Marsh Fritillary – I have only seen this species once before this year. One of my targets to see during our week on the Lizard in early June when I saw good numbers at a couple of sites.

Marsh Fritillary - The Lizard 31.05.2015

22. Wall Brown – A few seen in Cornwall in early June and a couple in Dorset later at the end of August when some lousy weather just before we arrived seemed to have finished off the second brood.

Wall Brown - The Lizard 03.06.2015

23. Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary – Another of my target species whilst down in Cornwall. Good numbers seen, most notably along the coast path from Kynance Cove to Lizard Point. Also seen at a couple of other spots on the Lizard as well as at Upton Towans near Hayle.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary - The Lizard 04.06.2015

24. Painted Lady – I started seeing these in Cornwall in early June where during the course of the week a bit of an influx seemed to be taking place along with Red Admirals, Large Whites and a few Humming bird Hawk Moths also spotted. Despite media reports of an impending invasion, a proper ‘Painted Lady Year’ never did materialise, although they did crop up throughout the season at a lot of places. Later in the year I saw more locally than I have for some years and I had the first one in the garden since 2009. These were mostly fresh looking examples which were probably offspring from earlier immigrants rather than new arrivals.

Painted Lady - Predannack Cliffs 04.06.2015

25. Red Admiral – I saw my first Red Admirals this year in Cornwall where they were coming in off the sea with other immigrants as mentioned above. After that they appeared regularly through the year with a number showing up in my garden.

Red Admiral - Predannack Cliffs 04.06.2015

That takes my season up to early summer. So far it had been a reasonably good spring with plenty of good warm sun and although there were also plenty of showers there had not been any prolonged wet spells. I was noticing the increasing amount of cloud that had been building up through May and into June and an almost constant breeze was making itself felt on most of the days that I went out.

To be continued …

Bye for now,

Neil.

[David M]

Lovely presentation, Neil, with an interesting commentary on individual species. I'm looking forward to the latter instalment.

[bugboy]

An interesting read Neil. I agree with most of your feelings about the season and what was more or less numerous than 'normal'. My own theory is that the rubbish May we had delayed species that were larvae at the time. All the early spring species seemed to be about normal as far as I could tell.

Looking forward to the next instalment

[Katrina]

Congratulations on your competition place. Your Speckled Wood was my favourite photo posted in diaries on the website this year!

[Goldie M]

Wow Neil 50 species looking forward to the next 25 Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks all for the comments ...I have been a bit busy lately but hoping to get the next instalment done soon.

And thanks for the comment on my Speckled Wood photo Katrina. Competitions are not usually my thing and only decided to stick some photos in this year on the spur of the moment.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Interesting report Neil, and something I'm still working on, if only my 'other job' didn't demand so much of my time Looking forward to the next installment

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel, next instalment is nearly done, just a couple more photos to sort out to go with it now. I know what you mean about 'other stuff' demanding so much time

Cheers,

Neil