MikeOxon

[David M]

Nice work, Mike. The Orange Tip close up is quite striking and well done with the mating pair of Holly Blues - not something I've witnessed personally.

[MikeOxon]

Thank you David. So far, it's been a very 'hit and miss' spring. It remains to be seen how the season will progress from now on.

[David M]

...So far, it's been a very 'hit and miss' spring...

Very nicely understated, Mike!!

Certainly, the 'misses' have outweighed the 'hits' by some degree. Like you, I hope things even themselves up very soon.

[Art Frames]

Mike

Lovely Orange Tip shot the U/S is wonderful and would love to see it full sized. And I have never seen Holy Blue pairing, well seen and described.

I see Oxford weather is very similar to here. There were a few Orange Tips at Bucknell Wood but then the weather declined and it has been disappointing. I hope to get some OT pairings, if the weather allows. Hope yours picks up too.

Best wishes

[MikeOxon]

I appreciate your comments, Peter. Good luck with the OTs

[Pauline]

Still quite a lot of catching up to do Mike but your close up shot of the OT really stands out - stunning!

[MikeOxon]

Good to see you posting again, Pauline. Butterflying days are still in rather short supply but better weather is forecast for the weekend

[MikeOxon]

On Monday (14th May), I received a phone call from my son, suggesting a visit to Bradenham Woods in the Chilterns, to look for Duke of Burgundy butterflies.

This is a rather special butterfly for us, since it was one of the first of the more 'specialist' species that we found, after my son set the goal of seeing and photographing all the regular mainland British butterflies.

Bradenham Woods - June 1990
Pentax K1000 with 90mm Tamron macro lens

That first visit to Bradenham Woods was made in June 1990, when my son was 13 years old and full of enthusiasm for a new hobby - an enthusiasm that has continued and advanced into a career as a professional biologist.

We parked in the NT car-park on Smalldean Lane and, within a few minutes of arriving, saw our first 'Duke' in the field adjacent to the car-park. During the 28 years since our original visit, this species died out at the Bradenham site but it has recently been the subject of a successful re-introduction, at this and other Chilterns locations.

There were good numbers to be seen, as the day warmed up, including males sparring in their spiralling tussles, high above the clearings. We also watched one individual, trying to deal with pollen that had attached itself firmly to his proboscis. The sequence of photos, below, shows how he drew his proboscis between the two palps and, eventually, was successful and resumed nectaring, as seen in the final photos.

Bradenham Woods - 14th May 2018
Olympus E-M1 MkII with 100-400 lens - 1/800s@f/11 ISO 640

Other butterflies on the site included Green Hairstreaks. I am always surprised by how these seem to be such a dull brown when in flight but show their brilliant iridescent underwings, when posed in the sun. I have noticed that these butterflies frequently move their hind-wings rhythmically up and down while perched. I made the following GIF animation to illustrate this behaviour.

Bradenham Woods - 14th May 2018
Olympus E-M1 MkII with 100-400 lens - 1/1600s@f/11 ISO 640

Grizzled and Dingy Skippers were both present, as well as Brimstone and Green-veined Whites.

Mike

[Pauline]

You must be very proud of him Mike. I expect your grandson is still a little too young to be showing an interest . Great post with illustrations that show off the butterfly behaviour to perfection

[Wurzel]

What a great reason for making a butterflying trip Mike A really interesting sequence as well, a behaviour I've not seen documented before

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[MikeOxon]

I'm pleased that you found these sequences of interest, Pauline and Wurzel. rather than posting yet more 'standard' images, I'm exploring various techniques to display aspects of behaviour.

Is this wing writhing a mechanism for dispensing pheromones, perhaps? The area of the forewing over which the hind wing seems to rub has scales of a different colour - could these be scent scales?

Mike

[ernie f]

Mike - I picked up on this behaviour with Silver Studded Blues last year. I call it the "Wing-roll" but other people have their own names for it. I have seen it in many but not all of the Lycaenidae family. Others tell me they have seen it in members of the same family that I have yet to observe it in.

I also believed it was something to do with scent scales. At first I thought it was an ant attractor (because I saw it in Silver Studded Blues) but now I am not so sure because I have seen species do it who are not known to associate with ants. Nevertheless, with the Silver Studded Blue, it too has a dark band just where it rubs its wings together. It cannot be a coincidence.

Please see my past posts on the matter - in fact I did one post recently mentioning the Common Blue doing it. Also I plan some future posts on the subject. Maybe I shall bring these forward to keep the topic going.

I love the sequence with the Green Hairstreak by the way. It shows the behaviour perfectly.

[ernie f]

Mike - I scrolled back through my posts to find my first entry on the wing-roll behaviour. If you are interested it is my post dated Sun Apr 29th 2018 and can be found under button [3]

Cheers,

[Art Frames]

Mike

I do like the animation. I made one once so appreciate it takes time but it does work. The bit I had trouble with was finding a way to make it function other than viewing it on a webpage. But appreciate you have skills in that area.

The Wood whites are out at Bucknell Wood if it is of interest.

[MikeOxon]

I've read your post now, ernie f, and seen that there are various theories. The fact that this 'roll' is performed by both sexes seems to be against the 'scent' idea. I shall see if I can find out more from my various books. Perhaps, when you make your planned future posts, it would be a good idea to raise the topic in the main forum, rather than the diaries, where it might be seen by more of our 'experts'.

That animation was an afterthought, Peter, and only consists of five frames. Now that I've tried it out, I shall try to refine the technique, using the high-speed shutter on my Olympus. Many thanks for the tip re. Wood Whites. It seems that Bucknell Wood is a gem for interesting species.

Mike

[MikeOxon]

Many years ago, my son and I used to make regular butterflying trips to Somerford Common, just to the west of Swindon. In those days (early 1990s), there were both Small and regular Pearl-Bordered Frits, Marsh Frits, and Duke of Burgundy, all to be found there. And then, sadly, they all disappeared around the Millennium. It was also a good location for several orchid species.

Somerford Common, Wilts. - June 1992
(historical) digital copy from Fuji Negative

I happened to be in the area again, so looked in, to see what was happening there now. There appears to be management work in progress, with the original open area having been cleared and surrounded by a fence.

Somerford Common, Wilts. - 29th May 2018
Olympus E-M1 Mk.ii with 12-50 mm lens - 1/160s@f/8 ISO640

Along one of the rides, I found many Greater Butterfly Orchid spikes (more than we used to find, years ago) and Common Spotted Orchids. I was also surprised to find a tall Bird's-Nest Orchid in the open area, outside the deep shade that it usually prefers. This last is an unusual plant in that it has no chlorophyll and relies on a fungal partner to provide nutrition.

Somerford Common, Wilts. - 29th May 2018
Olympus E-M1 Mk.ii with 12-50Macro lens - 1/125s@f/8 ISO640

It was a day of sunshine and heavy showers and I only saw one butterfly (a Speckled Wood) on the wing, before the rain forced a quick retreat.

I should be interested to hear from anyone who knows if there are current management/re-introduction plans for this site.

Mike

[David M]

A sad tale, Mike, but an all too familiar one. Let's hope there is a sympathetic management plan in place to help return it at least partially to its recent former glory.

[MikeOxon]

Yes, a familiar tale, David. I used to think that extinction was something one read about in books but now, at my age, 30 - 40 years ago feels quite recent and a lot has changed - although not always for the worse. For example, many woodland Fritillaries are much more frequently encountered and several species have done well from habitat improvement schemes. As we take a longer-term view, we have to appreciate that evolution is a continuous process, which involves many gains and losses, as conditions change - which they will do, with or without our human influence.

I'm still hoping that someone may be able to tell me more about the current status of Somerford Common.

Mike

[MikeOxon]

We had been talking over lunch about 'mud puddling', as seen in a recent post by Guy Padfield, and I commented that, although widespread in Europe, this behaviour is not commonly seen in Britain. Later that same afternoon, my wife returned from a local garden centre to report that several Whites were doing just that, in areas where plants had recently been watered - she even had photographic evidence on her smart-phone.

Nuneham Garden Centre, Oxon - 2nd July 2018
Olympus E-M1-ii with 40-150mm lens - 1/1600s@f/9 ISO 640

The following afternoon (2nd July), I took my camera to the garden centre and was able to record the behaviour for myself. The favoured spots were where there was plenty of gravel and where the surface was damp, rather than wet. Pools of standing water or muddy patches were not favoured, presumably because of the risk of getting stuck or too wet to fly.

Nuneham Garden Centre, Oxon - 2nd July 2018
Olympus E-M1-ii with 40-150mm lens - 1/2000s@f/8 ISO 640

Once one or two butterflies had found a suitable location, others rapidly flew in and joined them, so that groups of half a dozen butterflies regularly occurred, although these were subject to frequent disturbance by plant shoppers. Green-veined and Small Whites mixed together freely and it provided a good opportunity to observe the differences in markings between these two species.

Nuneham Garden Centre, Oxon - 2nd July 2018
Olympus E-M1-ii with 40-150mm lens - 1/2500s@f/9 ISO 640

Other shoppers seemed to take no notice of all this activity, nor of me lying on the ground with my photo-gear! But, of course, British people would never comment on the strange antics of others.

Suddenly, I spotted a butterfly that was not a White but a Purple Hairstreak. This was not too surprising, since the garden centre is bordered by the woods of Clifton Heath and Nuneham Arboretum. (In fact, in previous years, I have also see White-letter Hairstreaks there.)

Nuneham Garden Centre, Oxon - 2nd July 2018
Olympus E-M1-ii with 40-150mm lens - 1/1600s@f/8 ISO 640

Unfortunately, most cultivated plants do not provide nectar, to attract butterflies, but during the current warm weather, the damp ground was a significant draw.

[Wurzel]

Some great shots of the mud-puddling Mike, brill all action stuff Then you top it all with a Purple Hairstreak as well

Have a goodun

Wurzel