Site Visit: Noar Hill - 1st May 2018
- Noar Hill Cowslips and Early Purple Orchids
AT LAST!!! My first Duke of Burgundy of the year. Only one and only fleetingly – I was only able to get a record shot of it that is not good enough to post here. I met Pauline while here and she saw an additional one, perhaps two and got there at least 30 minutes before I did, so I cannot be the first to claim a sighting this year here. Thanks Pauline
My first sighting gives me the chance to review my past experiences with Dukes at Noar Hill.
They love the low, sheltered areas afforded by the overgrown medieval chalk-pit workings at Noar Hill. They will often sit on low plants such as cowslips and nectar from them.
- Duke on a Cowslip
Males perch awaiting females to pass by and will attack any males that enter their chosen territory.
In the very best years just about every pit at Noar Hill will harbour a few Dukes but the central pits are the best bet in a typical year. The pit right in the centre of the reserve can also hold a small number of the late-summer brood.
They do not wander far. The Dukes of each pit will typically stay in that pit and the shrubs around it. At worst they will wander into the next pit along for some part of the day.
Dukes are normally low fliers keeping close to the ground and low shrubs but on the odd occasion they will stop off on the lower boughs of trees. The one pictured below landed just above head height and stayed there nectaring for a long while.
On overcast days I once wondered where they had all gone. Well I found in these circumstances they can perch in bushes and on tall grasses and hardly move from their chosen spot until it has warmed up again. Someone else on UK Butterflies posted he witnessed an Orange Tip do this for four days and when it got sunny and warm once again it flew off, none the worse for it.
When they hold their wings very wide open so that the front wings part slightly from the rear ones, then the leading edge of the hind wings show two startlingly white dots on them.
- The white spots
The numbers at Noar Hill can be good or they can be bad - it depends it seems on the weather. One year I found 42, another year they maxed-out at only 12.
But you only need to see one to get hooked on them. Last year in early April I found one on the main central path and within the space of a couple of minutes I was surrounded by eager butterfly enthusiasts, some of whom had come a long way to see one here and this was the first time they had ever seen one. Out came all the cameras and luckily the butterfly was very obliging, staying stock still for them for some minutes before getting bored and flitting off.
One year recently at Noar Hill I witnessed some odd behaviour from a male Duke who seemed to have got very confused. He continually pestered a Burnet Companion Moth as though it was a female Duke. He followed the BCM for ages, sometimes apparently nudging it but surprisingly the BCM did not fly off. It just walked through the grass. Obviously it was not too perturbed by this odd attention it was getting.
- Duke with Burnet Companion Moth
Perhaps it thought it was being pursued by a male BCM! A weird co-incidence if it did.
It has to be said that when the BCM spreads its forewings, the revealed hindwings do have a passing resemblance to the hindwings of a Duke but you would think a male Duke would not be so fooled for so long.
Maybe it thought it was another male Duke and was trying to shoo it away. Who knows? I don’t. Has anyone else got any ideas?
Also here today, one female Brimstone and one male Orange Tip and that was it butterfly-wise but the Whitethroats were in fine song.
Site Visit: Selborne Church Meadow - 1st May 2018
- Across Church Meadow
Took the opportunity while it was sunny of revisiting the Church Meadow. Two Orange Tips, two Small Whites and two Holly Blues – all male.
The Holly Blue photographed was a bit high. He just would not come down to play.
Also a Kestrel, a Red Kite and a Pergrine Falcon! Fantastic.
Non-Butterfly Snapshot of the Day
Noar Hill at this time of year shows its first orchid, the Early Purple. Amongst the thousands of cowslips you will find perhaps over a hundred of these orchids. They tend to cluster in certain areas. Typically the best bunch is along the main central path (which is my first picture in this post). and where I found this particularly purple one just opening up. The colour of their blooms can vary quite a bit, from deep purple to rosy pink. The only other orchid they can be confused with is the Green-winged Orchid but that species does not grow at Noar Hill.
- Very purple Early Purple Orchid at Noar Hill
