Bugboys mission

[Padfield]

I was surprised you described your large tortoiseshell as 'she', Buggy, as the behaviour was all 'he'. But I was on my evening dog-walk, tapping on an iPhone. If Neil can find a she and you a he, they can definitely find each other. In fact, Neil's she looked as if she might already have found your he. This is very exciting!

Guy

[bugboy]

Thank you all, definitely a day I shan't be forgetting anytime soon. Looks like I chose the right day as well. What started off as looking like a decent week now seems to have turned into a damp squib, cool and cloudy all week now

Welcome to the UK large tortoiseshell club, Buggy! Mine was back in 1985. I know just how ecstatic you felt - they are wonderful insects in their own right, but on UK soil just out of this world.

Guy

1985, I was only 14 then and probably rearing its Small cousin in my bedroom at the time! They are a magnificent insect, their flight reminds me of HIM and White Admirals, lots of casual floating and very few flaps.

No-one can ever take that away from you, Bugboy. Your abysmal start to the day was recompensed several times over!!

So, that's TWO different mainland LTs photographed on here so far in 2017. How many more are out there?

All we need now is evidence of breeding.

Things are looking extremely positive.

not just two mainland sightings David but a male and female on the same site! Difficult not to jump to any conclusions

Hi Paul,

You superstar! Congratulations - just rewards for battling against the odds and showing such tenacity. I had hoped that by providing accurate grid references on the BC Sussex website it might encourage others to go out looking, as working on this species in the UK requires a significant investment in time - the more eyes the better. Large Tortoiseshells are incredibly elusive and highly skittish, unless you catch them under marginal flight temperatures.

The very good news as far as I'm concerned is that your specimen is a male. Your sighting provides a valuable piece in the UK Large Tortoiseshell jigsaw I've been working on, which is discussed in the forthcoming 'The Butterflies of Sussex'. Far from being 'proof' of anything, it is pertinent to point out that this sheltered river bluff hosts the largest population of healthy Wych Elm I know of in West Sussex. The slope faces south and south-west, but is sheltered by the crescent-shaped topography - and it's in a river valley close to the coast.

We need more eyes out there, collecting more data. Those living in East Sussex would do well to search the Litlington/Friston Forest/Lullington Heath area.

BWs, Neil

Thank you Neil for providing the site location, even if it did take me half the day to find it I wasn't sure of the sex at the time but I knew it was a different Insect the moment he landed. I did notice all the Elm growing along the bank and had an inkling how the topography would be beneficial.

[bugboy]

I was surprised you described your large tortoiseshell as 'she', Buggy, as the behaviour was all 'he'. But I was on my evening dog-walk, tapping on an iPhone. If Neil can find a she and you a he, they can definitely find each other. In fact, Neil's she looked as if she might already have found your he. This is very exciting!

Guy

To be honest I wasn't sure either way at the time Guy, calling it 'she' was simply a slip in my excitement of my write up Indeed it is extremely exciting stuff. As Neil mentioned there is a hell of lot of Elm there all coming into leaf so maybe a late summer visit with some Binoculars would be worth pencilling in.

[bugboy]

Done with style and restraint, I have so much too learn - I am also extremely pleased for you. Sorry I don't really do jealousy but I can do great happiness . Hope your holiday continues in similar style. best of luck.

Haha, I like to downplay these once in a lifetime events

[MrSp0ck]

Double Post

See Below

[MrSp0ck]

Great work finding the male part of the jigsaw, the spot with the vein running through it was a stripe in Neils female [7 spots and a stripe], and just the spot in your male. If any others are photographed, it will be important to see if there are more than the 2. If you had given up earlier, we all would have missed this event. A spring pair in the same location has been a rare event since the 1950s.

A book being published, is always a good trigger for events not mentioned in it, or long lost species turning up. The Ghost Orchid was declared extinct in 2009 after not being seen since 1987, only to be refound a few weeks later.

The Butterflies of Sussex will be an interesting read. Ive attached the left forewing patterns of the 2 for reference

BC LT01.jpg (62.36 KiB) Viewed 589 times

Female

BC LT02.jpg (51.31 KiB) Viewed 589 times

Male

[Wurzel]

Nuff said...

Have agoodun

Wurezl

see I'm so jealous I can't even type!

[bugboy]

5th April, Bookham

I took a day off from butterflying yesterday after all the excitement of Monday. The weather seemed mostly cloudy so I did some housework, nothing like some hoovering and giving the bathroom a spring clean to bring back down to earth!
Anyway, today I visited Bookham and what a lovely day it was. Had I believed the forecast on my phone's weather app I may not even have left the house, that app is now deleted!

It started off a bit chilly and for the first couple of hours all I disturbed was a male GVW and a Specklie.

As the day warmed up though so did the butterflies with Peacocks turning up regularly, probably 20+ by the end of the day and the occasional Specklie.

The odd male Orange-tip flew past but I was most surprised to find OT eggs already, mostly fresh and still white but I did come across one that had gone orange. I found seven or eight by the end of the day.

I checked on a few other eggs, The Brown Hairstreak egg close to the station has still to hatch but a twiny I re-located had, as had my Purple Hairstreak.

There was also evidence of life at the Small Copper nursery but no culprits were seen and no adults were seen either although it can only be a matter of days for them.

The next species to turn up was a Comma, the first of several, most of which seemed to be females. Perhaps the males have all worn themselves out into an early grave!

Following a couple of battling Specklies a Red Admiral swooped up into the tree tops from under my feet. It didn’t take long to descended again though. Just as I was taken her picture a Holly Blue appeared and settled close by. The dilemma now was how to get close to the Blue without disturbing the Admiral.

It proved impossible and the Blue shot after the Admiral only to drop down and start nectaring on some Celandine. He didn't pose well but it's not often you catch one nectaring so I recorded it for posterity nevertheless.

At one point there was a sudden disturbance in the avian world as a female Sparrowhawk drifted over the treetops

Now well after midday things were starting to warm up, Peacocks fighting over sunny glades left right and centre and back in the scrubby fields male Orange-tips flew past regularly, only stopping briefly to check out any spot of white which mostly turned out to be bird poo. The Peacocks and Commas which continued to annoy each other were now joined by the occasional Small Tort and at one point I had a triple nymphalid battle on my hands.

Despite all this action the day did feel a bit odd. Apart from Orange-tips there was a distinct lack of Pierids. Not a single Brimstone was seen and I only had one other unidentified white flyby. Also, despite almost every blackthorn being in full flower I had yet to see a single butterfly nectaring on it.

By now I was probably into Orange-tip double figures, only males though, and I noticed how one Cuckooflower seemed to be rather popular with surrounding ones all but ignored. A close inspection revealed a fresh egg, perhaps so fresh that essence of female still hung in the air around it .

As the afternoon wore in I decided to do one more circuit of the scrub in the hope of catching some settled Orange-tips. True to form their batteries were starting to run low and several were settling to try and soak up the weakening sun and feed. Another odd moment was when I saw one nectaring on blackthorn, something I've never witnessed before. Shame he didn't come lower but still worth recording. When you think about it it’s not surprising it’s a rare sight, the two wouldn’t normally appear at the same time after all.

Others were feeding on more regular fare.

Elsewhere I finally had a peacock on blackthorn, just the one though. Out of 30+ Nymphalids seen this was the only one I saw feeding.

An interesting day but I left feeling something just wasn't quite right. I have to keep reminding myself its only just April. I think the warm March has skewed up the spring. It's interesting that the Orange-tips seem to have responded to this warm spell but other whites seem to be lagging behind on a more 'normal' emergence here. Could it be that Orange-tips do a lot of their developing over the summer in their pupae so they can ‘spring forth’ as soon as the warm weather appears in the spring whereas other whites don’t start developing until winter has ended? It would make sense for the Orange-tip since it’s larval food source is quite seasonally restricted unlike the others food sources. As for Brimstones I have no idea what's happened to them.

[Pauline]

Morning Buggy

Some great shots there. I have yet to capture any early butterfly on blossom but it makes a lovely composition. With regard to your shot of the PH egg, I don't think it has actually emerged yet but is on the brink of doing so. I'll post some shots later in my diary to explain what I mean. Smashing photo tho' and better than I have managed to achieve.

[trevor]

HI Buggy,

10 Points, and a large quantity of mrgreens , you lucky b-----r.

Well found,
Trevor

[Wurzel]

I had a similar dilemma Bugboy when I found my first OT, in the end the Red Admiral lost out so I still don't have a shot of one Interesting shot of the males hanging around after the female has visited

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

I really like that Orange Tip up on the blackthorn, Buggy. I wish a few more of them decided to have a more varied diet!

Dave

[bugboy]

6th April, Box Hill and Denbies

Another day when the forecast was rather wrong, hardly a cloud all day and it ended up feeling like a mid summer's day! Today I had company on one of my epic rambles across Surrey, a new colleague at work enjoys getting out of the big smoke and asked if she could tag along. "Sure, as long as you don't mind me stopping at every butterfly we see!"

Today was the years first trip to Box Hill and Denbies. The main targets being Grizzled Skipper and Green Hairstreak. We arrived at Box Hill nice and early, just after 9, and to warm up headed straight up the side of the hill. Predictably it was too early for anything to be up but an hour after arriving I found a roosting female Orange-tip, complete with egg.

Singletons of Peacock and Speckled Wood completed a trio of species before we headed of to Denbies via the North Downs Way. Things were warming up nicely and Specklies were popping up regularly enough for the inevitable fights to break out but we were both distracted when a few Holly Blues showed up, not particularly cooperative as usual but I managed a few shots. By this stage I seemed to have infected my friend with the butterfly bug. She'd already managed Orange-tip and Specklie pics and now had her heart set on the Blue. She learnt the hard way what little s***s they are!

Nothing much else appeared until we were close to Denbies when a few male Orange-tip and Brimstone began to appear and gave my friend a few more hard lepitopteran lessons, no point chasing them in the heat of the day. Luckily we did find a couple of grounded ones during the rare cloudy spells.

male

female

Denbies itself was pretty much bereft of butterfly life. Over an hour gave us singles of Peacock and Small Tortoiseshell, a pair of Brimstone and a solitary grizzled skipper who remarkably turned out to be an compositing female! *Edit gotta love auto correct, that's an ovipositing female obviously

I impressed my friend when I casually pointed out a trio of Brimstone eggs (I'd already known where the Buckthorn was from watching an ovipositing female last year)

I remember last spring there was some discussion about the state of Denbies, then it was overgrown. This year it looks the complete opposite, almost overgrazed and parched. I suspect though the answer lies in the preceding 6 months: last spring was very wet and followed an abnormally mild winter meaning plant growth was able to go mad. This year we had a colder winter and are in the middle of a very dry spring which obviously isn't conducive to plant growth. I did also notice several half grown Burnet moth larvae wandering across the paths suggesting foodplants are scarce, making me wonder how well the Blue's will fare this year. I think we need a wet spell to get some decent plant growth or we may be in for a barren year at this site

The journey back was peppered with the same, numerous Specklies, Holly Blues, the odd Orange-tip and a Comma or "dead leaf butterfly" as my friend had started to refer to them as.. He was another species that foiled all attempts to add to her growing collection of butterfly pictures

Bee Flies were out in great abundance all day and I witnessed the remarkable aerobatic coordination of a mating pair. Unlike other flies they mate bum to bum like butterflies but unlike butterflies they both fly at the same time, meaning one has to fly backwards and one forwards to remain together , how do they know who does what, does one sex always go forwards, whatever's going on its amazing stuff!

By late afternoon we arrived back at the base of box hill to find several male Brimstones in feeding mode allowing my friend to finally grab a few shots she was happy with. Despite the abundance of Dandelions, fights still broke out.

Unfortunately the male Orange-tips were far less helpful and only tormented my friend relentlessly. To be fair they were being annoying, this being the only shot I was able to grab!

I had better luck with a female, most likely the same one we had found 8 hours earlier.

Ultimately today had the same odd feel to it as yesterday but I think I get why now. The recent weather makes it feel as though it's high summer, dry and increasingly warm, but in reality we are only seeing spring species and not all at the right time with the Orange-tip appearing a month early and joining the adult hibernators leaving other spring emerges in their wake. Also it's interesting how my local patches have Small and GVW but no Orange-tips yet these past two days at other sites it's vica-verca. It's just all a bit off kilter for me this year so far

[millerd]

You're right about that odd feel, Buggy. I am seeing a lot of butterflies locally, but the weather makes it feel like they are the wrong ones! I had to stop myself looking for Common Blues and Brown Argus today. Orange Tips scuffling with Red Admirals seemed odd as well... Anyway, your Grizzlie at Denbies is worth a . I wondered if the Green Hairstreaks might be out there too.

Dave

PS. Holly Blues are not little sh*ts. They are splendid obliging thoroughly decent butterflies and I'll not have a word said against them.

[bugboy]

You're right about that odd feel, Buggy. I am seeing a lot of butterflies locally, but the weather makes it feel like they are the wrong ones! I had to stop myself looking for Common Blues and Brown Argus today. Orange Tips scuffling with Red Admirals seemed odd as well... Anyway, your Grizzlie at Denbies is worth a . I wondered if the Green Hairstreaks might be out there too.

Dave

I had a good look for the Greenies in their usual place but didn't see any signs. Planning on looking for Dukes in the Chiltons tomorrow so I may yet come across a Greenie there as well.

I'd be interested in your view of the condition of Denbies, this is only my third year visiting the site so I have limited experience.

[David M]

You're certainly re-writing the script so far this year, Bugboy.

I doubt if there are many (if any) who have had such a glorious start to 2017.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Bugboy, just caught up with your Large Tortoiseshell...congratulations and well done for persevering on a day that could otherwise have turned out to be a disappointing one.

Cheers,

Neil

[bugboy]

Thanks David and Neil, I suspect the weather has more to do with re-writing the script than me this year!

7th April, Chiltons

For my last day of freedom before getting back to the grindstone tomorrow I decided to see if there were any (very) early Dukes out up at Ivinghoe, and perhaps a few more Grizzlies on the way. The forecast (oh why do I still bother even caring ) said blue skies all day. I left under a blue sky yes, but arriving at Tring that had turned to cool and overcast which lasted until mid-afternoon…

Butterfly activity was obviously seriously affected and it wasn’t for nearly an hour that I saw anything, a Small Tortoiseshell absorbing what warmth there was.

I took a long, dawdling wander across to Ivinghoe Beacon, enjoying the chilly scenery and the sounds of spring: Skylarks were in full voice, Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings were singing here and there and the hedgerows and thickets were alive with the sound of Chiffchaffs, Blackcaps and my first Willow Warblers of the year.

At Ivinghoe I managed to disturb a couple of Peacocks but it was still too cool and cloudy for much else to be flying. Nevertheless, I checked around to see if I could find anything roosting and finally put up a lovely female Comma.

It was getting close to 2pm before the cloud started to break but apart from the Comma all I managed to find was part of a Brimstone… so in desperation I took some pictures of that!

One of the sheltered paths favoured by Dukes

By now even if there were any Dukes around they would be looking to roost and lets face it, it was a long shot finding one in the first week of April so I decided to make a move back to Aldbury Nowers to see if the sun had woken anything up there. As I was leaving the area behind the car park I disturbed a small herd of Deer. At first I thought they were Roe but getting a better look, and seeing the stags antlers they were obviously something different.

Sika Deer is my thought but if anyone can confirm that would be great. They were very skittish so this was the best I could do.

Back at Aldbury the now clear blue sky had awoken a few, males of GVW and Orange-tip did flybys and another Comma sat for me. No sign of any Grizzlies looking to roost though.

Just as I was leaving I came across another Orange-tip and Comma sharing a basking spot. The OT went on his way leaving the Comma to pose some more, high up but I do love the contrast with the sky.

Again it was an odd day, very little about due to the weather but like yesterday the condition of the turf and sun baked paths made it feel like it was much later in the season. In my considered opinion we need a few April showers, at least here in the south east, or this season my crash and burn by the summer.

Also, regarding Orange-tips, this is usually a good site for them with the primary foodplant being Garlic Mustard (it’s too dry for Cuckoflower here), but I sincerely hope they aren’t about to all emerge early like many other sites, the Garlic Mustard is barely sprouting here. This is the most advanced I could find!

I wander, since Cuckooflower is generally a few weeks ahead of Garlic Mustard, do Orange-tips on sites where Cuckooflower is the primary food source emerge earlier than Garlic Mustard sites? That would explain why I haven’t seen any Orange-tips at my local sites and here (all Garlic Mustard sites) but did at North stoke and Bookham (Cuckooflower sites)

[millerd]

Interesting report from up on the Chilterns, Buggy - I know the spot at Ivinghoe quite well. I'm amazed it was cloudy for the morning as here at Heathrow it was sunny dawn to dusk and it's not all that far away. Incidentally the garlic mustard has shot up from nothing in the last week and the local Orange Tips are very pleased.

By the way, I hope to have a look at Denbies over the weekend and I'll let you know how it compares with previous years.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Some days are like this Bugboy - but I know what you mean about the weather. I find the best way is to just look out the window, it's pretty accurate I'm also with you on Holly Blues , sorry Dave

Have a goodun

Wurzel