Pauline

[Wurzel]

I hope you won't be absent either Pauline, plus I hope you'll be able to make it to the Social

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[andy brown]

Pauline,

A great selection of pictures that sum up your year wonderfully and demonstrating your improving skills with the camera and field work. At least with the moth trap you can keep going all year round.

Cheers

Andy

[MikeOxon]

Oh wow What a splendid 'end of term' report. Exquisite pictures - almost every one an individual work of art.

Thank you for taking the time to present these so beautifully and for sharing them all.

I'm holding off a little longer before writing up my own summary - perhaps a Clouded Yellow will yet put in an appearance! I do hope that you might be able to get away for the social - it would be nice to meet you again.

Mike

[bugboy]

happy hibernating if we don't see or hear from you until spring

[Neil Freeman]

A great summary Pauline and accompanied by some lovely images Its too early yet for me to start summing up my own season, I am hoping there is a bit more yet to come.

I hope your winter activities go well and already looking forward to seeing you post next year.

All the best,

Neil.

[millerd]

Thank you for all the fascinating and beautifully presented stuff you have given us this summer, Pauline - please drop in occasionally with a little update or two! Something interesting is bound to happen...

Dave

[trevor]

HI Pauline,
You've made the most of this good, but not exceptional year for Butterflies, and prompted me to post
many mrgreens on your diary.
Looking forward to a guided tour of Noar Hill next summer.

Very best wishes,
Trevor.

[Goldie M]

Pauline, sorry to see you go, I looked forward to hearing about your animals etc.

I'm not has dedicated to the beginning of Butterflies like you Pauline but it's always interesting to see what you've been up to I just take photos of any thing that happens to be there at the time, talking about photos I don't think you've too much to learn about photography, your photos are always superb. I'm the one with lots to learn yet I'm more into the fun of it with not too much up between the ear's to get too technical about it
Your end of season summary was brilliant with great photos .
Anyway Pauline, please post in if your not too busy at times Goldie PS I'll miss you .

[Pauline]

Thank you all so very much for your amazing comments on my diary last season. I really do appreciate them. It has been a tough winter in more ways than one which has left me keen to get back to this website. As some of you already know I am incredibly sad to have recently lost Chance, leaving my little vixen Saffron entirely on her own. You might remember that in 2014 I lost my cat Stanleigh who was also one of her friends, so we are consoling one another as best we can.

Saffron and Stanleigh

I now have a bit more time on my hands and today I needed to get out for some fresh air and exercise. I was pleased to read recently that there had been lots of BH eggs counted at Noar Hill so I decided to head in that direction but not for the BH. I had the daft idea of trying to find a Duke of Burgundy pupa in the wild. I had found a lot of cats last year and had read that they pupated at the base of the plant so I thought it was worth a 30 minute search in the areas where I had discovered most of the cats! However, when I got to Noar Hill I saw that some of the Blackthorn had once again been cut down. Quite a few bushes were marked with tape, obviously indicators of BH eggs, and thankfully these bushes had been left unscathed. I assumed this must have been well planned to minimise the loss of eggs. However, a 30 minute scan of discarded Blackthorn in just one small area (the Triangle) and I was heading home with 5 eggs - 3 on the one branch. My visit was brief as the rain started so I imagine there will be more to be found. A few shots of the eggs below but I shall be back fairly soon with an update on the immatures of last season.

[bugboy]

Good to see you back up and posting again. Looking forward to seeing lots of fantastic early stage imagies again this year.

Sorry to hear you lost another one of your lovelies , I'm sure he lives on through lots of memories though

[David M]

Nice to welcome you back, Pauline. Seems like a real long time!

Great early stage images (again).

[trevor]

HI Pauline;

Gorgeous animals, it is a shame that their life span is shorter than ours. I've lost a few trusty
friends myself, over the years.
But new life in those BH eggs you found !.

A new season awaits
Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Good to see you back Pauline - looking forward to the next update

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pauline]

Thank you on both accounts Buggy. Not sure what direction this season will take me in - time will tell

Thank you too David for the warm welcome. It HAS been a long time - almost half a year

I appreciate those sentiments Trevor - and I haven't forgotten my promise to show you around Noar Hill this season. It will be good to meet up again but you will have to be going some to exceed your many special sightings and shots of last season

Thank you Wurzel - hopefully you will not have too long to wait but I have a lot of catching up to do

[Pauline]

End of last season - I did continue to actively look for LTB in Hampshire without any success, ending the season as it started, when I failed to see the Scarce Tortoiseshell at Pulborough in April. It was a little frustrating not being able to locate the LTB, especially when viewing Neil’s gorgeous images of this butterfly which he seemed to be finding all over the place . However, having previously seen them in 3 different counties I wasn’t in a position to complain. Moreover, my search resulted in visiting places I have never been to before (eg. Selsey where I took shots of the Gulls and Pagham Harbour nature reserve) and eating some great crab and fish dishes in a variety of wonderful country pubs . Having read the interesting history of Tide Mills I felt compelled to visit – no LTB’s there either despite previous reports of many eggs, but I reconnected with some great people and was entertained by a couple of Kingfishers. I also found several nests of tiny Brown-tailed moth caterpillars on the bramble.

Brown-tailed moth

In the absence of LTB I could not resist a few shots of lovely fresh Commas enjoying the Blackberries, despite having recently taken hundreds of Comma shots following successfully hand rearing them.

Comma on Blackberries

On my return from Tide Mills, despite having a sat nav I took a wrong turn – (those who know me will not be surprised at this ). As I made my way through minor roads to get back on track the car in front of me hit a young Wood Pigeon, driving on to leave in spinning round in the road with feathers flying. I pulled over and ran back to find it lying on its back in the gutter. As I gently lifted it its head drooped and its mouth opened. I was sure I was witnessing its last few moments but as I was running late I placed it gently in a carrier in the car. 20 mins later I arrived home and it was still alive. It was not able to feed itself so it joined one of the other ‘waifs and strays’ in one of the sheds!

Wood Pigeon

(Recently released)

I am going to start wearing blinkers when I venture out looking for butterflies to prevent any similar occurrences!

TBC.

[Pauline]

The large number of Comma photos taken were due to the 11 Comma cats I had been rearing eventually emerging, the last departing on 6 October. I have been surprised at just how long it takes for these butterflies to emerge – not the length of the pupation phase but the actual emergence. Other species I have reared have burst out of their pupa with little warning but the emergence of the Comma is positively leisurely by comparison. Close observation of the Comma pupa however, reveals subtle changes which indicate that the process has started. The very first time this happened I watched for about 40 minutes after which time I became convinced that the butterfly was in some difficulty. I had heard that spraying the pupa with warm water may make it easier for the creature to break out of its brittle case so I went to get the spray. I was gone a couple of minutes and on my return the butterfly was clearly managing perfectly well without any assistance, being now half out of the pupa. I thought perhaps that this was just a ‘one-off’ but having watched half a dozen emerge now, this protracted emergence was repeated, almost as if the butterfly was taking little rest periods in its efforts to break free. This timescale meant that despite the wind I was able to get some reasonable shots:

I was quite astonished by the subtle beauty of the undersides of these insects and also the degree of variation in the colours, ranging from green, turquoise through to a vibrant blue, and even one very pale individual which is considered to be an aberrant - thanks must go to Vince during this period for his advice and guidance.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Pauline, nice to see you back and glad your out and about Love the Comma shots and hope you get to see the LTB this Summer, I know it's a BF I want to see as well. I see you mothered another casualty quite successfully I was sorry to hear about your loss and hope your feeling better now, hope to see you this year Goldie

[Pauline]

Before I continue with further updates on the other species it would be remiss of me not to include a few more shots of the Commas:

It is worth mentioning that the Comma with the pale underside was a result of a markedly pale larva.

[Pauline]

Thank you for your comment and emails Goldie. I am really looking forward to meeting up with you I have such a lot of catching up and reporting still to do so my next post relates to my first visit to the AES:

3rd October was the day I joined Andy to visit the AES at Kempton Park for the very first time. One of the reasons for the visit was to meet up with Martin who was helping out on the Surrey BC stand and who had a few little gifts for me (It was good to meet you at last Martin and thank you for the goodies - more of them later). Thankfully, Andy, Martin and others had prepared me for what I might find there yet I was still somewhat overwhelmed by the sights that met me from the size of the event to the variety of goods available. I made a beeline for the books – always an attraction for me – and brought home a variety of reading material. Richard Lewington was one of a few authors signing their books and prints and although the latter was very tempting I already have far too many framed pictures on my walls. It is definitely the place to be if it is new equipment that is needed and many of the traders seemed very knowledgeable. The livestock too was fascinating from the bird eating spider on sale from £100 to snails that were almost the size of a small tortoise, centipedes, preying mantis and many, many more! However, I cannot get excited about these creatures and it was incredibly sad to see tray after tray of dead butterflies (and other creatures). Pinned Brown Hairstreak for example, were on sale for as little as £2.00! It is difficult for me to express exactly how I felt about this (collecting aside!) but the paltry sum seemed an insult to such a beautiful creature given how highly I value sightings of them in the wild. Likewise, Monarch pupae were on sale for £2.50 (and very attractive they are too) but a bowl of these dead butterflies were being sold for £1.50 each! Given my amazing experience last season when I saw them flying around Brighton I found this quite depressing. A gorgeous blue butterfly caught my eye, the metallic blue the most incredible sight – I imagine its beauty could only be surpassed by seeing it fly in a natural environment. As I admired it the trader approached and without thinking I said ‘what a shame, such a pity, it must have looked fantastic when it was alive’ at which point he quickly turned away and I moved on. Would I go again? Possibly, if I had good reason. It was also nice to meet up with a few UKBers again including Philzoid and Pete – nice to see you both again.

[David M]

Lovely sequence of Comma images, Pauline. I love it when you get a glimpse of that 'verdigris' effect on the undersides.

Regarding your comments about dead specimens, I totally agree. Brown Hairstreaks are so precious when alive it is an insult for them to hawked for £2 when dead. So sad.