Thanks David, it may well have been from a second generation brood. I found a larval web here at the end of August about to moult into their final instar which would have meant adults emerging late September!
Now winter looks like it’s arrived I guess now would be a good time for a brief review of my 2016 Butterfly year.
Well this year’s season kicked off with a Comma, seen (but not photographed) on the 22nd March and by the 3rd of April all hibernators were ticked off.
Obviously, I had a few specific targets for the year, a few more lifers to tick off and trying to improve on my lifer snaps from last year. The first of these I had the chance to address was the Green Hairstreak and I was very pleased with the resulting photos, a massive improvement on any I got last year.
At this point I had already ticked of 17 species.
I made several visits to the Chilton’s again to get as much Duke of Burgundy action as possible. I fell in love with these wonderful little characters last year and I think a season without these from now on will be few and far between for me!
With the rest of the usual southern spring emergent’s in the bag (bar the Wood White) by the end of May,
![Orange-tip male, Hadleigh Country Park.JPG (113.49 KiB) Viewed 609 times An Orange-tip for other reason than it's an Orange-tip!](./files/thumb_13753_373e998536096b60f29d92d55509fc0d)
- An Orange-tip for other reason than it's an Orange-tip!
species number 25 was my first 2016 lifer. What was also my first long distance outing of the year, deep into
Wurzel country on the Hampshire/Wiltshire borderlands of Bentley Wood, the 6th June saw me hopping on a train after the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. After a slow start to the day one was finally located and by the end of the day I had filled my camera with various shots and had the rare privilege of finding one for a certain
Mr. Hulme. We were able to stand and watch this pair meet and mate
On the downside, it would seem this population is barely hanging on and I was also to find that the local population of Marsh Fritillaries had all but gone extinct, certainly if any were around they weren’t seen by either Neil or I.
Five days later came not just my highlight of the year but probably the Highlight of my butterfly life. A trip to Norfolk to see the wonderful Swallowtail. It was touch and go weather-wise but on day two of the trip it was just warm enough for a few to become active and I fulfilled a lifetimes ambition to see a wild Swallowtail, an unforgettable experience!
Two weeks later, after much debating as to whether it was worth the trip due to the mess of the summer weather, I took the plunge and went across to the other side of England for an almost lifer. Gloucestershire for the Large Blue. I’d seen this once before many years ago but all I have left are 10 undated slide scans. Thankfully, despite the weathers best attempts at ruining my day with a huge hour long thunderstorm (thank god for The Daneway Pub) I had a successful trip with several individuals including a couple of melanisitic abs.
By the end of June, I’d latched on stubbornly to another lifer, the Black Hairstreak, but it was a battle against the weather. Two damp grey days got me nowhere but on the third trip to Monks Wood on the 4th July, I was finally blessed with enough sun for one female to show up long enough to grab a few snaps. She was a little worn around the edges but at this stage I really didn't care one bit!
I also met
PhiliB here, who kindly offered to help me break my purple duck with HIM with a trip to Fermyn Wood a week later. Being deep into HIM flight season there were quite a few fellow butterfliers around and it was nice to meet
Roselyn here and bump into
Neil Hulme again and
Mark Tutton. It was another day where the weather was a bit hit and miss, and like many species this year, numbers were much lower than is normal, but I finally got my audience with the Emperor who was also species 43 for the year. I really was racking them up this year, I ended last year with 45 species!
Having done the east and the west of the country so far (swallowtail and Large Blue respectively), the end of July found me up north in the land of
Goldie, Arnside Knott where I spent a slendid few days and managed to find two more lifers, the Scotch Argus and the jewel in the local crown, the High Brown Fritillary.
A week later I was chasing the final lifer for 2016, this time down on the beautiful Dorset coast. The Lulworth Skipper taking my years total to 49.
I met up with
PhiliB and
Roselyn again later in August for a trip to Shipton Bellinger to get a decent dose of Brown Hairstreaks. I made it into double figures here with the highlight being two stunning females on one flowerhead! And also meeting another new face,
Willrow
For some weeks now I’ve been rather smugly bragging that I’d seen 50 species this year. In fact, somewhere along the way I’d miss counted, the Clouded yellow a week later actually making it 51!
Like last year my season ended with several trips to Newhaven Tide Mills where Clouded Yellows were quite plentiful as were the familiar faces of
Trever,
Butterflysaurus Rex,
Katrina and
Badgerbob and a new face in the form of
Mark Colvin. I also found my very first Helice here.
I also stumbled across a rather rare bird. An amazingly tame juvenile Red-backed Shrike, Sid, who quickly became something of a local celebrity during his 11 day stay here, chomping his way through the local invertebrate and lizard life.
2016 will go down as a poor year for butterflies in general, many common species suffering significant population crashes nationwide but hopefully things will improve next year. It’s still early but we do seem to be having a proper winter this year and if we get a warm spring with a bit of luck they will bounce back. Here’s hoping that 2017 will be full of butterflies and for those who are curious I have only 6 left to get to complete my mission: Chequered Skipper, both Wood Whites, Northern Brown Argus, Mountain Ringlet and Large Heath. I’ve yet to work out how I’m gonna get to them though…