Specklies in the garden
One last post looking back at 2015 with some photos of a favourite subject of mine that have mostly been posted previously in this PD but I thought I would put them together as a round up.
Anyone who has followed this diary over the past few years will know that I have Speckled Woods breeding regularly in and around my back garden which gives me plenty of opportunity to observe them and take photos. This is a species that is happy to fly in quite cool and cloudy conditions and they seemed to do well locally in 2015 when there was plenty of that kind of weather.
The first one that I saw in the garden was on 8th April, a male whose forewings had not properly developed but was flying about without any obvious ill effects. Throughout the rest of April and May there was a steady succession of fresh males defending different corners of the garden plus the larger and brighter females that would pass through.
I watched a number of courtship attempts by amorous males that often resulted in the females doing the ‘play dead’ thing that they do to reject the males advances.
I also managed to capture a shot of a female as she was depositing an egg on a blade of grass which I entered into the behaviour section of the UKB annual photo competition and was really chuffed when it was placed second
The first broods disappeared by the first week of June and then there was a slight gap lasting a couple of weeks until their first offspring started to show up. These summer brood examples are noticeably darker looking on average than the spring ones, although all broods can display considerable variation when looked at closely. Numbers then built from the third week of June through July and August when I would often have three of four males squabbling over territories around the garden. I always find it fascinating how the males will pick the same spots, often the very same twigs and branches, as their predecessors in previous years.
As the blackberries began to go overripe in late August and into September they attracted the Specklies to a point where I was seeing half a dozen or more in the garden at a time including one particular pale female that really stood out as looking different to the rest.
After a strong showing in September the numbers dwindled into October with the last one seen in the garden on October 17th.
This means that from early April until mid-October I had the pleasure of seeing Specklies in the garden almost every week through the season apart from the couple of weeks gap in early June. Overall, this is fairly normal for me but with both the first and last sightings in the garden being about a week later than normal and numbers being perhaps slightly higher than usual.
Bye for now,
Neil.