Bugboys mission

[David M]

Good late season images there, Bugboy. Coppers on ragwort and Specklies on blackberries are a sure sign we're approaching the tail end of the season.

[bugboy]

Thanks Paul, I'll always try and find something to point my camera at when the butterflies fail me!

Three Coppers in one day Wurzel is pretty good going for me although I'd have to wait a few years to see the same amount that Hoggers gets in one day

Indeed David, the season may be coming to a close but we've still got a few weeks left before it all ends for another year.

4th September, Coppers, Blues and Heaths

I fancied going to find some more Adonis before they vanish for another year and with Denbies not available for me today (no trains to Box Hill for some reason) I plumped for Malling Down in Sussex. The weather wasn’t particularly good, lots and lots of cloud was predicted and proved to be true, as did the rather strong breeze, the occasional break in the clouds also predicted proving less true! However, it was still quite warm so I figured if I stuck to the sheltered gullies on the Down I might get lucky with some roosting Adonis. Sadly, it wasn’t to be, not a single Adonis was located in the few hours I spent there.

Small Heath and the occasional Meadow Brown flew up as I walked along, vanishing back into the turf when not caught in the wind and I had a brief game of chase with a Painted Lady who for love nor money refused to even have a record shot taken.

After a bit more wandering I spied, from a distance, a speck of orange perched on some Ragwort. Carefully scampering down a slope my suspicions were confirmed and he flew up just as I focused on him. He settled a short distance away, forcing me to carefully pick my way through shin deep Brambles for some shots, worth it though.

Although no Adonis were seen, I did come across several, to the point where you could refer to them as (I hope you’re sitting down) common, Common Blues. More females than males were active, giving evidence to the theory of their darker colouration gives them a head start over the males on cooler days. I made the most of a species that's been anything but Common for a few years now!

Not sure what this female thought she was sitting on...

Female top, male below

The only butterfly more numerous than the Blues today were the Small Heaths and a few did allow some photographs.

Two more days off before back to work, which coincidentally seems to be when the weather looks to improve... sods law strikes again

[bugboy]

6th September, Blue’s and Yellow’s (and Browns and Copper’s and White’s), Denbies. (Part 1)

My last day of freedom before a run of 6 days of work. I’d already made my mind up to go to Denbies to see if the Adonis were still out and perhaps catch up with a Cloudie or two. As I’m sure most of you with eye’s saw, today was a bit on the cloudy side (well it was down here at any rate) but still very warm so there should have been some activity.

Approaching Denbies along the North Downs Way Meadow Browns started to appear, and a Small White stopped off for breakfast

The first thing to appear on Denbies was one of several Brown Argus I was to see. A female showed up shortly after

As I wandered further down the hillside Small Heath and Meadow Browns started to appear in reasonable numbers

Then a rather magnificent Hoverfly caught my attention, just as the sun broke through with what was to become the one and only break all morning. It was a Chrysotoxum sp. and one of the best wasp mimics around!

The brief glimpse of sun woke up a couple of Adonis and just as I was about to snap a few, a Clouded Yellow arose from the path in front of me and floated down the slope. So began (probably not unlike Millerds a few days ago), what would have probably looked like to a casual observer, a rather comical chase up and down the slope. The overcast weather certainly worked to my advantage, he didn’t want to fly too far so it was a case of chase/stalk/’snap’, chase/stalk/’snap’, Adonis Blue’s fleeing my feet, until I finally wore him down and I was able to get some of the best Cloudie pictures I’ve ever taken. I crop most of my pictures but these ones didn’t need any cropping. He sat extremely well in the end, allowing me to ‘garden’ around him and get shots from both sides!

Some lovely pink edging!

I can't help but think he looks really angry in this picture!

Near the end of my chase I noticed a Small Copper and in my vain end of season mission to keep up with the Copper Machine that is Hoggers, I stopped briefly to record him.

I’ll end this post with a couple of Cloudie upper side shots, almost in focus!

[Pauline]

You must be over the moon Buggy! Great Clouded Yellow shots and the open-winged images are the best I've seen in a long time . Denbies - another place I didn't get to this year

[millerd]

Those Clouded Yellows are just amazing, Buggy. Warm cloudy and bright conditions are the best for getting close to this species in my experience, and you made 100% of the opportunity. That male looks really new - I wonder if it hatched locally. The benefit of those upperside shots (for which incidentally it is impossible to award too many ) is that you can see how unblemished the butterfly is. Brilliant - I think I'd hang my butterflying boots up for the year after that kind of day...

Dave

[Katrina]

Wonderful Cloudie photos

[bugboy]

Thank you all, I am really chuffed with those pictures

I certainly did make 100% of the opportunity Millerd, on the downside, the local tick population took 100% advantage of me laying in the grass. I only found one on me when I got home but it looks like they had a party on me!

6th September, Blue’s and Yellow’s (and Browns and Copper’s and White’s), Denbies. (Part 2)

So once I’d left the Clouded Yellow alone I turned my attentions to the Adonis Blue’s, which seemed to be relatively plentiful. This time last year I was still coming across freshly emerged Chalkhills here, making female identification a little tricky but today it was virtually all Adonis and number wise I’d hazard a guess that they are on a par with last year. Most seemed to be in reasonable condition and scattered amongst them were some quite fresh individuals. The hotspot for the best activity was the area around the rabbit warren in the centre of the hillside. Mixed in with the Adonis were lots of Meadow Browns and Small Heath, also mostly at the fresh end of the spectrum, as well as a few more Brown Argus and a female Small White.

In amongst all these fresh butterflies I saw a couple of oldies, a barely recognisable Chalkhill and a Silver-spotted Skipper.

The muggy warm air was keeping everything active but not crazy active so it was easy to follow individuals. One female Blue Looked very nice and worthy of a few snaps but as I turned to follow her my foot found a hidden rabbit hole and my leg vanished up to the knee. Thankfully my blushes were saved in that I had the place to myself, so nobody was there to witness my ‘graceful, elegant’ collapse, except perhaps a confused family of rabbits…. All I left was my bum print in the turf!

Further afield I stumbled across a second Small Copper and then I noticed another (or perhaps the same) Cloudie feeding. A couple of snaps was all I took this time as another female Adonis caught my attention, very fresh and with a very generous dusting of blue scales, a stunning looking lady!

I had initially planned to head off to Bookham for a few hours in the afternoon but chasing Clouded Yellows up and down steep slopes in what felt almost tropical humidity had taken it out of me, that and also ending up with about 600 pictures to sift through.

As I was leaving one last butterfly caught my attention, an aberrant female Adonis, which upon closer inspection was even more unusual, one side of her wings was noticeably more spotted than the other, very odd!

A pretty decent haul for 3 hours on a cloudy morning at the end of the season!

[Goldie M]

Just catching up Bugboy, lovely Clouded Yellow's and it's great your still finding Butterflies, they've become few and far between here now. Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cracking Cloudy shots Bugboy Interesting Adonis abs too Hopefully we might be able to squeeze a little more out of the season yet...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Another great selection, Buggy. I didn't find any decent Adonis females at Denbies a few days later, and certainly not any marked like that one! The blue female is a nice one too.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

I'm Catching up again Buggy...great Clouded Yellow photos

Cheers,

Neil.

[Butterflysaurus rex]

Great to see you're still going strong buggy, it's nice to have some Clouded Yellows to chase around this year. If the weather stays good they could last us until early November like they did in 2009.

Perhaps I'll see you out & about somewhere in 2017.

Cheers

James

[bugboy]

Thanks all

Great to see you're still going strong buggy, it's nice to have some Clouded Yellows to chase around this year. If the weather stays good they could last us until early November like they did in 2009.

Perhaps I'll see you out & about somewhere in 2017.

Cheers

James

Maybe sooner than that James if these LTB hang around!

14th September

So whilst others were out photographing Long-tailed Blues at Newhaven Tide Mills I was a few miles down the coast on the Downs overlooking Eastbourne!

I’d initially thought to go to Denbies again but with the ridiculously hot weather I decided I might want a sea breeze to keep me going. I stopped off at Lewes and Malling Downs first, just in time for a large dark cloud to roll in and for an hour all I saw were a couple of Red Admirals which I’d disturbed and a Speckled Wood.
Eventually the clouds dissipated and a few other butterflies came out to play, like last time Common Blues were active again, a few Small Heath and Meadow Browns were about but the star of the show was a beautiful fresh Comma who posed briefly for me.

As I was leaving I couldn’t resist a few backlit shots of a Small White on Devil’s-bit Scabious.

have to say, Malling Down has been a bit disappointing for me this year, numbers of Silver-spotted Skipper and Chalkhills both way down on what I saw last year and not a sniff of either Walls or Adonis for me here

By the time I got the Downs overlooking Eastbourne it was significantly warmer and everything was going full steam ahead, Common Blues, Small Coppers, Small Heath and a male Clouded Yellow all tormenting me with flybys

Eventually I found a Blue that wasn’t quite so manic and I watched it flying around, trying to decide what Ragwort to land on. Unfortunately that was probably it’s last thought, it flew into a rather large spiders web and was immediately wrapped up for later by the owner, its fate sealed by a rather large female Araneus diadematus. Oh well, such is life (and death). Given his condition (like all the others I’d seen so far), there’s little doubt he’d already done his deed for his species.

Next up was a Brown Argus and then some more Coppers who were somewhat more accommodating.

The scrubby area these were hanging out, which consisted largely of Nettles and Brambles was also home to several Comma, Red Admiral and Peacocks. All of which looked very fresh but were very uncooperative, with only some long distant Comma shots achieved. The presence of the fresh Peacocks perhaps suggestive of a second brood occurring here.

As I was trying for some Vanessid pics (and failing) I had a little avian observer, I wasn’t sure at first but after a couple of snaps and closer inspection I able to confirm I had a Spotted Flycatcher watching me! I’ve only ever seen these from a distance before so that was nice.

One of the reasons I chose this site was to see if any third gen. Walls had emerged after Trevor’s recent post. I’m happy to say I found none, hopefully it will remain this way since most evidence currently suggests this often leads to local extinctions .

The rest of the afternoon was mainly taken up with Small Coppers, who were turning up pretty regularly, in a variety of conditions…plus a rather surreal moment with a grown man dressed in a full Spiderman costume filming himself with a selfie stick…

I easily made it into double figures with them today !

The last species for the day took me by surprise, a rather late Small Skipper.

[Butterflysaurus rex]

"a grown man dressed in a full Spider-Man costume filming himself with a selfie stick" WELCOME TO SUSSEX you'll soon get used to our little ways and customs.

I had another look for LTB's today hoping the southerly breeze had blown a few more across the channel. Unfortunately none were seen by me or the 3 other hopefuls I met there today. Unless the numbers being seen start to increase it's likely to be a risky trip for you.
Given that they've reached UK soil 3 times over the past 4 years I think it's probably safe to say that the trend will continue. If we see another influx like the one in 2013 your chances of finding an LTB would be many times greater.
On the other hand you could come down here on the off chance next week and get lucky, this is the way these things seem to work out sometimes.

It's great to see you found some small Coppers, they've really been struggling around here and numbers appear to be on the up. I saw a fresh one myself today.

All the best.

James

[Wurzel]

Nice to see so many Small Coppers outside of Dungeness Bugboy Good luck with the LTB, give us a holler if you get lucky with them
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Thanks James and Wurzel, Don't worry if I track down a LTB I shan't be keeping quiet about it!

18th September, Newhaven Tide Mills

With the only sun forecast today on the south coast, (within reach for a day trip at any rate) there was only one destination for me… I could almost hear the LTB’s calling my name from afar!

Thankfully the weather people got it right and I had mostly unbroken hazy blue sky for the first few hours. Other than good numbers of Whites, mostly Small’s as far as I could tell, not much was about though to start with. I flushed a Red Admiral as I arrived, a camera shy Small Copper made a brief appearance and a few Small Heath were flitting around. As the temperature crept up a few more butterflies began to show themselves, a male Cloudy doing his thing and a few Common Blues were busy having arguments in a small sheltered patch. Since the butterflies were all being too active I turned my attention to the Common Darters, of which there were quite a few.

Birdlife as usual was also plentiful, and snapping a few Stonechats just in case there was a Whinchat amongst them (a bird I’ve never seen), I inadvertently caught this female just as she had a poo…

For obvious reasons I spent most of my time lurking around the various patches of Everlasting Pea, hopeful that the poor weather of the previous few days and todays brisk northerly breeze had kept Wednesdays male LTB here. There was no sign of him or any others though .
2 hours into my rambling I heard some voices and saw a couple of silhouettes waving over at me which turned out to be Trevor and Katrina, it was no real surprise to come across these two after Wednesdays excitement here!
Together we wandered around but even so, between the three of us our quarry still eluded us .

We did stop every time a Blue appeared but they all turned out to be Commons and after an hour they said their goodbyes leaving me to continue the search with Katrina saying that one should appear within 5 minutes for me!

Well Katrina, you were nearly right, I did get a lifer not 10 minutes you two left, just not the target species. As I was enjoying the sight of a backlit Small Heath a Clouded Yellow flew past who wasn’t yellow. Last year Tide Mills got me the very rare intermediate aubuissoni Cloudy ab. Today I had the far commoner (but still a lifer for me) helice form. Luckily it had begun to cloud over making my stalking that much easier so I was able to get some shots good enough to rule out any rarer Colias sp. An almost in focus upper side confirming beyond all doubt this was definitely not hyale or alfacariensis. (I’m quite happy if someone out there wants to tell me I’m completely wrong with my ID of course )

After she went on her way I returned to the Common Blues who were still squabbling between sunbathing.

Joining them now was a tatty old Small Copper and nearby a female Speckled Wood posed nicely.

After 4 ½ hours I decided to leave, stopping briefly as a nicely marked GVW landed in front of me.

No LTB’s again but still a worthwhile trip and good to catch up with a couple of butterfly friends too. Including everything mentioned already I ended the day with 11 species, with a couple of Peacocks, a Comma, a Painted Lady also seen .

[Allan.W.]

Hello Bugboy,
Brilliant Cloudie open winged shots Bugboy,and also finding and getting a partial open winged shot of the "Helice ",nice one , seen a few Cloudies down here in Kent,but haven,t managed any shots that approach yours !! funnily enough ,of the four Abberant Adonis Blues I managed this year,one of mine showed completely different markings on each underside, glad to see that your finding a few Coppers out and about as well ,I checked another couple of areas this afternoon, and managed 5,at one ,11 at another and 2 (in poor weather conditions) at the third. (and 13 ,at Dungie !) Regards Allan.W.

[Butterflysaurus rex]

A shame there weren't any LTB's around for you today buggy, but I'd say that Helice made the trip worthwhile. I saw one there on Friday but I think yours might be in better condition. That makes three different Helice CY's seen at Tide mills so far - well at least to my knowledge anyway.

ATB

James

[trevor]

That's a magnificent Helice, Paul. That one certainly laid low while Katrina and myself were there !. .

[millerd]

Nice shots of that helice, Buggy. I haven't seen one for a few years now.

Dave