July 2016

[richardjackie]

My goodness Marc, that first stunning picture, I must stop using my phone and get something half decent.

[Mark Tutton]

Had a good trip to Alice Holt with the faithful Flossie and was treated to half a dozen groundings by HIM including two at once.
One spent 15minutes on my trousers and boot - then decided the dog would make a good perch - much to her bemusement
In all I saw about 14 most oak edging but their condition was pristine and my guess is that they have only been out a couple of days. No females here yet.
Kind regards
Mark

Purple or blue?

Cleaning the equipment

Flossie standing guard

Scary to some!

Nearer purple?

Head on

[Pauline]

Smashing shots Mark, especially the one with Flossie. None down this pm.

[Hoggers]

A couple of highly unusual Small Coppers at Dungeness today:

These were among the 244 Small Coppers I saw there today

Happy Hunting

Hoggers

[Pete Eeles]

A couple of highly unusual Small Coppers at Dungeness today

Very, very nice!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

A couple of highly unusual Small Coppers at Dungeness today

Very, very nice!

Agreed! You see an amazing variety of small coppers at Dungeness, Hoggers!

Mark: if Flossie and Minnie ever got together I think they'd have some great tales to tell each other about the strange behaviour of their humans! That's a lovely picture of her standing guard.

Guy

[Mark Tutton]

Thanks Guy
I have had similar thoughts when looking at your photos - they would have endless conversation about the strange habits of their owners I an sure - she is very patient and I would love to know exactly what she is thinking!
Kind Regards
Mark

[Greenie]

Amongst the Heath Fritillaries seen during the week at East Blean Wood in Kent , were these two individuals .
Wondering if they would be classed as abs. ?
No such problem with a pristine White Admiral which came down for minerals .
On the way back home , Norfolk Hawker showed well at Westbere Lakes .

[peterc]

In the evening sunshine I saw my first Small Copper of the year in the Knebworth Woods complex. The orange on the forewings of the specimen does not extend all the way to the top edge - I don't know how unusual this variation is.

ATB

Peter

[millerd]

First Chalkhills at Denbies this afternoon: amazingly a mating pair!

Dave

[MikeOxon]

The weekend saw considerable movement in the butterfly 'season' in my local Oxfordshire woods. Whereas a visit to Bernwood (Oakley Wood) last Friday (8th) yielded no Commas at all and very few other species, except Ringlets and Large Skippers, a return visit on Moday (11th) was quite different!

The first butterfly I saw was a Comma and there were plenty more along the ride. Silver-washed Fritillaries (SWF) were also more abundant. As indicated in my PD, my latest visit did not cover much ground, since I was seriously distracted by a very obliging Purple Emperor in the car-park!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQufcEJuQy4?rel=0[/video]

Although recently emerged, one of the Commas I saw had already acquired extensive wing damage. Like the Purple Emperor, a SWF also visited the gravel surface of the ride, presumably to collect moisture - behaviour I don't usually associate with this species.

Bernwood, Oxon -11th July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400 lens - 1/640s@f/9 ISO1250

After visiting Bernwood, I made the short trip down the M40 to Aston Rowant. A strong wind was keeping all flying insects down, so I had few sightings but did spot my first Small Skipper of this year, well down in the grasses. The prominent male sex-brand removed any need to adopt the 'Essex crouch' to confirm identity!

Aston Rowant NNR -11th July 2016
Olympus E-M1 with Leica 100-400 lens - 1/800s@f/8 ISO800

Mike

[Testudo Man]

Back on the 7/7/16, i dropped into my local patch (after work) to search for some gravid female Common Lizards, of which 3+ were sighted, so good signs of some baby lizards soon to be born(probably early August).

Whilst there, i also sighted a couple of Skippers too, which was a bonus.
The first 3 images are Essex, and i think the last is a Small Skipper...Im happy to be corrected if Ive got it wrong though.

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

On the 9/7/16, this looks like a fresh female WLH? that touched down on my garden lawn.................but the excitement of this sighting was short lived!!!

Image is not cropped. This WLH landed on my lawn, approx 10 feet from my kitchen door.

[Philzoid]

Amongst the Heath Fritillaries seen during the week at East Blean Wood in Kent , were these two individuals .Wondering if they would be classed as abs. ?

I would have thought these are in the range of 'normal variation' for this species but it might be worth chacking the abs page

http://www.ukbutterflies.co.uk/aberrati ... es=athalia

Lovely photo of the Norfolk Hawker btw

Phil

[Greenie]

The High Elms transect ( two and a half hours ) still fails to produce . Just 2 SWF again , Marbled White up to 42 , Small Skipper 27 , but best of the bunch were 6 very fresh Gatekeeper , my first of the year .
Thanks to Philzoid for answer to previous post .

[jenks]

Has anyone seen, or heard of any, Purple Emperors being seen at Bentley Wood this year ? I`m anxious to get my annual " fix" of HIM and Bentley is the nearest location to me. I`d rather drive to that location than Fermyn wood which is a drive of approx.170 miles ! Any info would be appreciated.

Jenks.

[Testudo Man]

A great session in the garden before work this morning (14/7/16)...3 WLH's seen, 2 or all 3 were females? with a bit of ovipositing by 2 of them

Other species seen in the garden were - Holly Blue, GVW, Large White, Red Admiral...several days ago in the garden, both Comma and Small Tortoisehell also seen.

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

PS. I will update my ongoing WLH thread, with more photos and info. soon enough.

One of the females here.

[Mark Tutton]

I spent an eventful day at Fermyn earlier this week and encountered good numbers of Emperors given the cool conditions with intermittent sun.
Also bumped into other UKB members Bugboy, PhiliB, Rosalyn and unsurprisingly Neil Hume - twice in three days 200miles apart!! Glad you broke your duck Buggy

Had to be a dog poo shot

Kind Regards
Mark

[Allan.W.]

Hello all,
Dungeness was alive today ! we had a short visit,but a very fruitful one ,stopped counting the Small Coppers at around 90,i reckon we saw a minimum of 150,they were everywhere ,the Small Skippers were also very numerous,and also the Meadow Browns,the first Coppers,of the Day (spotted by my wife) were a mating pair,a good find ! a supporting cast of 10 Marbled Whites,a few warn Large Skips,my first Essex Skips of the year,and several pristine Gatekeepers, two male Common blues ,but we were not lucky enough to see the Clouded Yellow that had been about earlier,was amazed to see a Male Copper ,"see off" a Small tort (on several occasions) and a Red Ad; I think an early morning trip(weather permitting !) may be in order tomorrow .
Regards Allan.W.

[Allan.W.]

Hello all,
As mentioned on yesterdays post,i thought another trip to Dungeness,for the Small coppers,which were out in very large numbers yesterday, didn,t expect too much too be honest,with complete cloud cover when I arrived at 7am,but it was very warm,within 5 paces from the car I,d already counted 6 , and from then on ,I counted up to 10 at a time ,some roosting ,some already starting to wake,and fly around,and for the next two hours ,I would guess ,easily 2-300 on the wing !! I,ve never seen anything quite like it,but the real icing on the cake,was the variety, I was lucky enough to find ( or re-find) Hoggers very strange individual (Brunnescans ?) ,and also a "Radiata" ,"Extensa" and numerous Blue spotteds,quite an incredible two hours,and still no sun ! I would urge anybody ,that's struggling to see Small Coppers ,and that you live within striking distance of Dungeness,make the trip ,you won,t be sorry.
PS; The sun finally broke through, on the way home at 10 am. Regards Allan.W.

[Hoggers]

What a great selection of Coppers, Allan! And that certainly looks like the one I saw last week, such a very odd looking Copper!

Hoggers