A little while ago I mentioned a behaviour that I termed the wing-roll that I had observed in some members of the Lycaenidae family. Since MikeOxon has just shown an animation of this in the Green Hairstreak, I thought now would be an opportune moment to provide an expanded report of my findings and thoughts to date. Please open the attached doc.
I am also going to try and open a topic on the general board if anyone wants to follow up on their own observations and ideas – keeping it all in one place.
Cheers,
ernie f
Re: ernie f
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
this might make interesting reading on the subject 
http://www.actazool.org/temp/%7B6028565 ... 6B8%7D.pdf
http://www.actazool.org/temp/%7B6028565 ... 6B8%7D.pdf
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Some addictions are good for the soul!
Re: ernie f
Thanks, Bugboy. You are right - it does make for interesting reading. I have read it once but it will require me to read it a couple of more times before it sinks in properly.
My first response right now though is that the tests were performed with the idea that the hind-wing movement is to make any tail or rear markings appear even more like a head and antennae and therefore increase the likelihood that would-be predators would be confused and go for the "wrong-end", allowing the butterfly to escape with only hind-wing wounds.
I have seen the wing-roll in Purple Hairstreaks and such a hypothesis would certainly work there, and perhaps to a lesser extent Green Hairstreaks too. But I have seen the wing-roll in Holly Blue, Common Blue and Small Blue and in these species there are no tails or hind-wing markings that resemble eyes. The Silver-Studded Blue does it a lot, to varying intensities and with wings open too at times and they also do not possess "eye" wing markings or hind-wing "tails".
I shall read the paper again though, because there is definitely something in it.
My first response right now though is that the tests were performed with the idea that the hind-wing movement is to make any tail or rear markings appear even more like a head and antennae and therefore increase the likelihood that would-be predators would be confused and go for the "wrong-end", allowing the butterfly to escape with only hind-wing wounds.
I have seen the wing-roll in Purple Hairstreaks and such a hypothesis would certainly work there, and perhaps to a lesser extent Green Hairstreaks too. But I have seen the wing-roll in Holly Blue, Common Blue and Small Blue and in these species there are no tails or hind-wing markings that resemble eyes. The Silver-Studded Blue does it a lot, to varying intensities and with wings open too at times and they also do not possess "eye" wing markings or hind-wing "tails".
I shall read the paper again though, because there is definitely something in it.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Noar Hill - 18th May 2018
Another sunny day with a cool start. Ideal. I continued my Dingy count today. I clocked up 17 newcomers in parts of the reserve I had not found them to date so I can add them to the 6 I had already found here – a grand total so far of 23. I found a male making advances to a female who was not keen. You can see in this picture how she moved her abdomen away from him. After this picture she flew off and he, taking the hint, flew off in a different direction.
As the Dingy numbers increase, so the Duke numbers slowly decline. There are still a lot of Dukes here, but in some places that I saw a few in previous days, now they were either absent or in dwindling numbers and some were tatty old examples struggling along. However it has to be said, in some pits there were still groups of three or four and some were quite fresh. I wanted to check out the Dukes for wing-roll since they are a member of the Lycaenidae. I have never witnessed it in this species to date but then I was not looking for it before – now I was and in none of the 20 or so individuals I scrutinised, did any give even the slightest hint of a wing-roll and I looked at a couple of them for a good long time, actually following their movements, while nectaring, basking and also both before and after territory disputes. In some cases I gave them room and looked through binoculars at them while at others, after I let them settle for a while I slowly crept up on them. No wing-roll, they merely flew away.
But I found a female Holly Blue that stopped low down close to me who immediately started to wing-roll. Obviously I was not considered predator material otherwise she would not have landed obligingly so close to me. I noted that as soon as she landed, she wing rolled two or three times. After licking aphid honeydew from a leaf, she basked in the sun for a while then flew to a nearby leaf. As soon as she landed she did a couple of wing-rolls then stopped. She basked in the sun a while longer, flew off a little way, landed and then did a couple of wing-rolls then stopped. Well, you get the picture. Here wing-rolls always occurred directly after landing. I cast my mind back to a Holly Blue I saw last year and remember it was exactly the same then. The wing-rolls for that Holly Blue were also short-lived and directly after landing. My picture below is of the lady Holly today at Noar Hill. Note she only did a wing-roll with wings closed, not when open like this.
Other butterflies today at Noar Hill were Large White, Brimstone, Green Hairstreak, a couple more Small Heath, an Orange Tip and a Peacock which sat neatly for his picture on a log.
I also saw my first Small Blue of the year here today but although it flew around my feet for some while it did not stop so I could not get its picture, however as usual since this is my first of the year, it gives me the excuse to share some past pictures I have taken of them – mostly from that fine location at the top of Magdalen Hill where a sizeable colony make their home.
If you get the angle right and usually if the picture is not taken in direct sunlight you can obtain an image of a Small Blue with a blue sheen.
This pair did eventually go on to mate but the male connected to the female while he was still facing her rear. Awkward.
But this couple got it right.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
Roe Deer are commonplace in Hampshire, you see them at all our reserves but Noar Hill gave me one of my closest ever encounters.
Another sunny day with a cool start. Ideal. I continued my Dingy count today. I clocked up 17 newcomers in parts of the reserve I had not found them to date so I can add them to the 6 I had already found here – a grand total so far of 23. I found a male making advances to a female who was not keen. You can see in this picture how she moved her abdomen away from him. After this picture she flew off and he, taking the hint, flew off in a different direction.
- A Dingy male being rejected by a female
But I found a female Holly Blue that stopped low down close to me who immediately started to wing-roll. Obviously I was not considered predator material otherwise she would not have landed obligingly so close to me. I noted that as soon as she landed, she wing rolled two or three times. After licking aphid honeydew from a leaf, she basked in the sun for a while then flew to a nearby leaf. As soon as she landed she did a couple of wing-rolls then stopped. She basked in the sun a while longer, flew off a little way, landed and then did a couple of wing-rolls then stopped. Well, you get the picture. Here wing-rolls always occurred directly after landing. I cast my mind back to a Holly Blue I saw last year and remember it was exactly the same then. The wing-rolls for that Holly Blue were also short-lived and directly after landing. My picture below is of the lady Holly today at Noar Hill. Note she only did a wing-roll with wings closed, not when open like this.
- Holly Blue resting
- Peacock on a log
- Typical fresh individual
- Showing Blue sheen
- Pair courting
- Mating the wrong way round
- Mating the right way round
Roe Deer are commonplace in Hampshire, you see them at all our reserves but Noar Hill gave me one of my closest ever encounters.
- Roe Buck
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Nice selection of species (and images to go with them), ernie. I still haven't seen Dingies yet so your first shot is making me green. 
I wonder how old that Peacock is? Must be getting on for 11 months!
I wonder how old that Peacock is? Must be getting on for 11 months!
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Re: ernie f
David - This Peacock was quite fresh looking and I saw another today equally fresh.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Broxhead - 19th May 2018
Broxhead is a very fine reserve for just about all forms of wildlife, from mammals to birds, bugs to butterflies, fungi to lichen. However it is usually far better from mid-summer onwards.
But I visited today mainly to check if there were any spring brood Small Coppers because there were four here last year at this time, but no. Yet again I drew a blank on the Copper front.
There were a few Common Heath.
And I counted three Cinnabar.
Kingsley Common is just across the road so I went there too, or to be more precise I visited that patch of ground in front of the Victorian church beside the pond. I saw a Mother Shipton moth – my pic was not great so this is one of my past pictures of one.
And two Brown Argus which I had never seen at this location before and the first one I came across was doing a wing roll – the first time I have seen a Brown Argus do this. I took a video but here is a photo of it, although of course you cannot actually see it in action from this.
He was doing the wing-roll with his wings ajar (as in the photo above) and just as I have noted in the Silver-Studded Blue, parts the fore and hind wings slightly at the end of the roll. Just like the Small Blue he does not keep the forewings still when he rolls the hind-wings.
And then, at last, my first Small Copper of the year but he was very low down in the grass so my pictures again were not great, therefore I shall rely on my historic photos. As usual my first sighting of a species in the year gives me the excuse to show some of my past encounters. However for the Small Copper I am going to have a bit of a Hoggars moment. Because Broxhead and Kingsley Commons are usually excellent for this species in late summer since they nectar from the heather then, I have been able to do a study of them. There is such a lot to cover I am going to have to break my report down into smaller chunks. I will not start today as its a bit late as I write this but here is a photo of one to start with.
Non-butterfly snapshots of the day
There were quite a few Green Tiger Beetles flying about. These are quite common on our sandy heaths around here and are always fun to watch. You find them basking in the sun and if disturbed they rarely go far so you can follow them easily.
Broxhead is a very fine reserve for just about all forms of wildlife, from mammals to birds, bugs to butterflies, fungi to lichen. However it is usually far better from mid-summer onwards.
- Broxhead sand cliffs
There were a few Common Heath.
- Common Heath
- Cinnabar
- Mother Shipton
- Brown Argus
And then, at last, my first Small Copper of the year but he was very low down in the grass so my pictures again were not great, therefore I shall rely on my historic photos. As usual my first sighting of a species in the year gives me the excuse to show some of my past encounters. However for the Small Copper I am going to have a bit of a Hoggars moment. Because Broxhead and Kingsley Commons are usually excellent for this species in late summer since they nectar from the heather then, I have been able to do a study of them. There is such a lot to cover I am going to have to break my report down into smaller chunks. I will not start today as its a bit late as I write this but here is a photo of one to start with.
- Small Copper
There were quite a few Green Tiger Beetles flying about. These are quite common on our sandy heaths around here and are always fun to watch. You find them basking in the sun and if disturbed they rarely go far so you can follow them easily.
- Green Tiger Beetle at Broxhead
- Pair mating
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Broxhead is a spot I've been meaning to visit at some point, Ernie. Is it good for Silver-studded Blues and Graylings in the summer, as well as the Coppers?
Dave
Dave
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Re: ernie f
Dave
Broxhead is the best location I know of near me for Silver-studded Blues. There is a major lek and a number of satellite colonies, in total one year recently I counted over 700 individuals here and last year, although I did not count them - I estimate there were even more than this, perhaps over a thousand? The brood flies right at the start of the usual flight period shown in the books so it also falls off earlier too. I will obviously post about it closer to the time when I start to see them fly there. You can then plan your visit. If you let me know when you want to visit, let me know. If you like we can arrange to meet up and I can give you the "guided tour".
I have never seen a Grayling at Broxhead (which is a bit of a surprise I suppose) but there are good numbers at nearby Longmoor and at Folly Hill.
As you will see in my next post - Broxhead can also be excellent for Small Coppers in late summer. Its a pity they don't peak when the Silver-studded Blues peak. It means two visits!
Broxhead is the best location I know of near me for Silver-studded Blues. There is a major lek and a number of satellite colonies, in total one year recently I counted over 700 individuals here and last year, although I did not count them - I estimate there were even more than this, perhaps over a thousand? The brood flies right at the start of the usual flight period shown in the books so it also falls off earlier too. I will obviously post about it closer to the time when I start to see them fly there. You can then plan your visit. If you let me know when you want to visit, let me know. If you like we can arrange to meet up and I can give you the "guided tour".
I have never seen a Grayling at Broxhead (which is a bit of a surprise I suppose) but there are good numbers at nearby Longmoor and at Folly Hill.
As you will see in my next post - Broxhead can also be excellent for Small Coppers in late summer. Its a pity they don't peak when the Silver-studded Blues peak. It means two visits!
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Study into the Small Coppers of NE Hants and its border with Surrey
This is not a scientific paper. I am not a butterfly expert. I want to underline that from the outset. I am an interested and sometimes intrigued amateur. Intrigued because this little butterfly has some surprises up its sleeve as I am sure you are aware if you have read Hoggars diary on this forum.
I shall from time to time be referring to Hoggars diary because of his fascination with the species and the fact that he is lucky enough to live close to one of the largest Small Copper populations in the UK (arguably the largest of all). I have not sought his permission beforehand – I hope you are OK with that, Hoggars if you are reading this.
This is a report on an observational study I have made of this species in my own area over the last two years and is not complete because I will continue to study the Small Copper throughout 2018 as well. The reason why I am able to do this is because on my doorstep (well within a radius of a few miles anyway) there is a network of lowland heaths and grassy commons which harbour good numbers of this species. In particular, from summer onwards they inhabit a group of heathlands which can be considered continuous, these are Broxhead, Kingsley, Sleaford and Shortheath and form the main study area. However there is a good-sized lek in the reserve at Broxhead and my study centres there.
I am going to split my report into parts that I shall post separately and they will cover all sorts of things such as population, abberation, behaviour, habitat, etc.
First some book data to set the scene.
Flight Periods
All May, June wks 1,2. All July, August and September, October wks 1,2,3. There are usually three broods per year but as these dates suggest, the latter two broods can overlap. On very good years there might even be a fourth brood overlapping the third which takes them well into October.
Primary Habitat
It likes dry grassland, meadow, grassy heath and shingle coast.
Larval Food Plant
Common and Sheep's Sorrel, and to a lesser extent Dock.
Central study area
Broxhead, along the sandy path of the southern section of the reserve that runs down to the sheep field where there is a fair-size lek in a sheltered enclave.
The habitat of the brood at Broxhead is grass intermixed with heather and sorrel banked with scrub containing plenty of bramble and some fern on a very sandy soil. The area is dotted with high gorse and low trees such as young oak, birch and elder but the butterflies stick mainly to the open ground near the sandy path toward the bottom of the hill where it meets open fields normally populated by a flock of sheep. The area coincides with a rabbit warren. The picture above shows part of the location where the sorrel grows giving the ground a rust-red wash in late spring/early summer.
It is in late August and all of September which sees the brood at its best. The sheep's sorrel flowers have died back by this time though so you cannot see them anymore but the heather is out in full and this attracts the nectaring butterflies. On very sunny days in early September its perfume fills the air while you watch the butterflies whirling and chasing about. The males are very territorial and even chase other butterflies away, for example the Brown Argus which also has a small brood here at this time. On one occasion I witnessed one Small Copper chasing off a Red Admiral successfully. They are feisty little creatures. Another time I stood in the centre of the grassy open lekking area to have at least six Small Copper and two Brown Argus all circling around me at once.
There are, relatively speaking, fewer Small Coppers to be seen elsewhere on the reserve and I think this is because the areas that do have them also harbour rabbits. The rabbits chew away and keep the scrub and heather down and also keep the grass low. This makes an attractive habitat for the sorrel to grow and this is just what the larvae of this little butterfly need to sustain them.
To put my study area into context here is a list of the sites I have found in NE Hants and its border with Surrey.
1. Kingsley Common, anywhere where heather and grass meet. There is also a spring brood here but in the main at this time of year they hug the area behind the houses and in front of the church as there are more nectaring plants there such as stitchwort and white dead nettle.
2. Shortheath, around the Bronze Age Barrow and with a lek to its east. Can also occur in and around the grassy plat in the reserve to the west, closest to the village.
3. Frensham Little Pond, on the right-hand hill flank near the first car park if driving from Frensham.
4. Woolmer, beside the sandy hillock behind the pond (but this is MOD land with extremely tight opening times).
5. Folly Hill, dotted about the reserve away from the pond.
6. Longmoor, the heathland paths parallel to the main track between the car park and the first crossing.
7. Frensham Big Pond, either side of the main car park.
8. Thursley anywhere on the dry heath away from the bog. Also the MOD tract of heath down a dirt lane on the opposite side of the road to the main reserve. There is a car park at its end and Small Coppers can be found in the grassier areas near this.
9. Sleaford Heath, could be anywhere but its a very small area.
10. Binswood, beside the meadow.
11. Noar Hill, typically in the central pits of the reserve.
12. Ludshott Common. Surprisingly for such a large reserve there are few parts that have the grass/heather/sorrel combination but I did find one Small Copper here so there must be others.
Small Copper Survey
Part 1 of my report is going to focus on the population numbers. I would argue this is the most boring bit to read about but it was not the most boring bit to research as it enabled me to make comparisons between locations and ponder the reasons why different populations exhibited subtly different behaviours.
Lets start therefore with some data I have collected so far in the form of the spreadsheet attached.
This table attempts to show results without double counting. For example the repeated values of 9 recorded at Broxhead on the 28th and 29th of September are of different individuals, they are not the same count of the same butterflies in the same place counted twice. I visited entirely different parts of the reserve each day and the fact that the total was 9 each time is a co-incidence. Equally I counted 7 at Shortheath on October 5th but have not included them for fear of double-counting those I saw there on September 25th, because I went to precisely the same part of the reserve on that occasion. I was still seeing Small Coppers at Broxhead on 15th October 2016 but guessed these were individuals already flying on 30th September even though they were mostly in very good condition, bright colours with no nicks or tatty edges.
In locations where there are a lot of Small Coppers, investigation has shown that the end-of season decline falls off gradually as per the chart attached below.
That is, if there were, lets say, 40 at peak, then during decline there would be 20 after a given time period, then 10 after an equal period, then 5, then 3, then 1 and finally none. Given an individual in a brood can live for up to three weeks, averaging around 2 weeks, these time periods can be anything between 1 and 3 days. In 2016 it was 3 days. Of course this natural fall-off is largely dependent on clement weather conditions throughout this time. If there was a sudden cold snap or if torrential rain occurred for a few consecutive days, the fall-off would be more abrupt.
What follows are the more specific results from a survey of numbers of Small Copper at the Broxhead Lek only. See attached chart below.
It seems that there was a fast ramp-up of the 3rd brood from early September with a gradual decline of the 4th brood into mid October. The weather across this entire period was fairly good and quite even although there was of course a slow natural decline in temperature, this being Autumn. Some of the nights toward the end fell to 5 degrees centigrade but the daytime temperatures were usually between 14 to 19 degrees with many, long sunny spells. There were no truly bad windy days and never any long runs of days of rain here. Even on days when the ambient air temperature never increased beyond 15 degrees, at the Broxhead Lek on sunny days, being sheltered on all sides, direct sunlight brought the ground temperature microclimate on the valley bottom closer to 19 degrees. For this reason there were more Small Coppers in the lowest parts of the valley than the higher parts. They only moved to the higher parts if the nectaring plants were available up there when they ceased elsewhere. For example there came a time toward the end of the study period when one of the last blooming bell heather clumps could be found on the ridge when almost all the rest in the lek had gone-over. It was only then that I started to find a few Small Coppers on or near the heather on the ridge.
The red bars on the chart are the actual numbers seen on the days the numbers were surveyed, the blue curve estimates the rate of increase and decline based on the actuals.
The survey was from the 8th September to the 15th October 2016. All these figures were taken between 10 am to 1 pm on the survey days. If one visited before 10 am usually the Small Coppers would be hiding themselves away in shrubs and low in grasses because the temperature was too cold for them at that time. If you visited after 3 pm the lower sun at this time of year with the ridge on the west side in the way caused a larger shadow across most of the valley so even though the air temperature could be higher at that time of day, there were fewer opportunities for the butterflies to bask in the sun, so again they hid away, being reluctant to expend energy in flying when there were few blooming plants from which to gain nectar AND little direct sunlight to replenish their energy needs.
A bit of recent history from the 2015 Hampshire & Isle of Wight Butterfly Report now. It does not mention Broxhead as a recorded site. In 2015 the only recorded site in Hampshire that had Small Coppers in double figures was Keyhaven on 15th May, totalling 24 in one day. It appears that the autumn numbers only increase during “Indian Summers”. 2016 certainly fell into this category, at least for Southern Britain with hottest temperatures on record for September. Therefore this survey may have been anomalous for its great numbers over an extended period so late in the year. The Broxhead reserve as a whole peaked at a count of 24 between September 8th and 11th.
There were still 24 across the whole Broxhead reserve from September 28th to October 1st but the profile had changed, they increased in some areas and declined in others so although the number was 24, they were largely different individuals and it is just a coincidence that they totalled 24 in both periods.
Also there was a peak at adjacent Kingsley Common of 29 around September 29th and taken together (you can walk from the edge of the Broxhead Reserve to the edge of Kingsley Common in a few minutes) thats 53 at peak.
These results are quite remarkable for Hampshire. Other locations in Hampshire usually record Small Coppers in singletons or less often in twos and threes. There was only one site better than this in the official 2015 report for Hampshire and you had to cross the Solent for that. In 2015 there were 55 at Whippenham Fields on the Isle of Wight. It must be said though that the IOW site had a count of 351 across the whole year of 2015, not something that could ever occur at Broxhead and Kingsley for lack of nectaring plants earlier in the year (all the heathers flower in the summer and there are few other plant species to take their place earlier than this). The official 2015 report calls Whippenham Fields a “star” location for Small Copper but I would suggest that in 2016 at least, Broxhead & Kingsley was no lesser a location later in the season.
After my initial 2016 numbers count it subsequently come to my attention that an area of the Broxhead reserve that I did not visit in 2016 because the entrance path was overgrown by ferns was visited by someone else who reports he saw upwards of 200 Small Coppers there. I cannot myself vouch for this but if true, that would make the Small Copper count for the whole of Broxhead, Sleaford and Kingsley, an area of heathland we can consider to be contiguous, to be greater than that at Whippenham Fields! At least in 2016.
Unfortunatley 2017 was no so good for the Small Copper at Broxhead or Kingsley so when I visited this new Broxhead location in the same year it did not yield anywhere near 200 individuals, more like a dozen or so instead. Nevertheless although it is difficult to access for humans, the Small Copper does appear to like it there too.
Because of the notability of the Small Copper in Hampshire I decided to extend my survey to cover a period of 12 months. Most surveys I do cover a whole year but in 2016 my count of the Small Copper started mid-year, so I just completed the 12 month period by wrapping round into spring and early summer of the following year. All the data is in the spreadsheet attached above.
There were no great surprises I suppose. The numbers at all surveyed locations were low but consistent. I guess my only finding was that there were a fair number on Odiham Common in 2017. I found this site for the first time in 2017 and visited repeatedly because of the White Letter Hairstreaks there but in the places where the council had cut the grass low so that people could walk across the otherwise tall grassland meadows they had, perhaps inadvertently created the right habitat for Small Coppers. Without actually searching for them, I came across 4 in the time period surveyed - but outside these dates and inside the White Letter Hairstreak flying period there were more Small Coppers that I have not accounted for in my survey. I think they must like the dock here as their food plant because I did not find their preferred sorrel.
There were sufficient males along the “Elm Walk” on Odiham Common in mid-July 2017 to exhibit some of the lek behaviours I have become accustomed to at Broxhead although I would not class this site as a lek per se as their territories align along the path rather than exist in an “area”. It reminded me more of the situation you find Red Admirals in along many a woodland ride at Alice Holt. You could almost pace-out individual territories of male Small Coppers along the Elm Walk. Something like 15 paces or so for each one.
Now all of September and the beginning of October 2016 was remarkable for a long heatwave, a veritable Indian Summer as I have said, but August 2017 was wet, cold and windy, and the start of September was very variable with frequent thunderstorms and higher than average winds, so I though I would make a comparison.
The first two observation days saw a drop of around 1/3 on the same period the previous year. Indeed I went to the Broxhead lek twice not shown on the spreadsheet because it was devoid of Small Coppers. (I guess I should have recorded these entries on my spreadsheet with zeros – but as I said at the top of this post – I am an amateur!) The visit on August 26 also yielded two Brown Argus in exactly the same spot in the lek as last year when I saw six in early September but by the time the storms at the end of August finished, the Brown Argus had been wiped out. A far cry from the previous year. The observation for September 2017 was on the first warm, sunny day for a week but hides the fact that there were only 3 Small Coppers in the lek and two of these were at its bottom extreme, the area most secluded from winds. The other seven all came from the Broxhead area mentioned earlier that I suspect the unconfirmed sighting of 200 Small Coppers was witnessed by an individual I do not know personally. In 2016 I tried and failed to get to it so all my Small Copper records in that year exclude this area, thus the figure of 10 this year on this date being almost the same as it was last year on Sep 9th cannot be taken at face value.
The weather had not improved into the middle of September. I wanted to monitor the Broxhead lek in particular because in 2016 I spoke to others about this location, so the lek got a bit of trampling underfoot (not least by me). I needed to see if it effected the population of Small Coppers by comparing it to other known sites, for example neighbouring Kingsley Common and Shortheath which suffered the same weather conditions but not the trampling effect. I am pleased to say that I am pretty sure the crash in numbers is due to the very inclement weather. I visited Kingsley Common on 12th September 2017 and only found three Small Coppers, 1/10th of the number around this time the previous year. All of them were far flung from each other and all in the most sheltered locations possible. The heather, both ling and bell had mostly gone over by that time so there was little opportunity for nectaring out on the heath. This explains why they were so far flung from each other as they hung around the last few remaining heather blooms and these too were far flung from each other. At Shortheath it was the same story. On 19th September 2017 I found only 1 in the lek there and none elsewhere. This is 1/3 the number seen the previous year on September 14th 2016. After visiting Broxhead, Kingsley and Shortheath in 2017 what struck me the most was how little Bell Heather had bloomed. This may have been critical as the Small Copper favours this plant to nectar from in late summer.
This ends part 1 of my Small Copper Report – as you can see its a bit of a marathon but please stick with it because it gets more interesting when I start to talk about behaviours. Honest.
I shall from time to time be referring to Hoggars diary because of his fascination with the species and the fact that he is lucky enough to live close to one of the largest Small Copper populations in the UK (arguably the largest of all). I have not sought his permission beforehand – I hope you are OK with that, Hoggars if you are reading this.
This is a report on an observational study I have made of this species in my own area over the last two years and is not complete because I will continue to study the Small Copper throughout 2018 as well. The reason why I am able to do this is because on my doorstep (well within a radius of a few miles anyway) there is a network of lowland heaths and grassy commons which harbour good numbers of this species. In particular, from summer onwards they inhabit a group of heathlands which can be considered continuous, these are Broxhead, Kingsley, Sleaford and Shortheath and form the main study area. However there is a good-sized lek in the reserve at Broxhead and my study centres there.
I am going to split my report into parts that I shall post separately and they will cover all sorts of things such as population, abberation, behaviour, habitat, etc.
First some book data to set the scene.
Flight Periods
All May, June wks 1,2. All July, August and September, October wks 1,2,3. There are usually three broods per year but as these dates suggest, the latter two broods can overlap. On very good years there might even be a fourth brood overlapping the third which takes them well into October.
Primary Habitat
It likes dry grassland, meadow, grassy heath and shingle coast.
Larval Food Plant
Common and Sheep's Sorrel, and to a lesser extent Dock.
Central study area
Broxhead, along the sandy path of the southern section of the reserve that runs down to the sheep field where there is a fair-size lek in a sheltered enclave.
- Part of the Broxhead Small Copper lek
It is in late August and all of September which sees the brood at its best. The sheep's sorrel flowers have died back by this time though so you cannot see them anymore but the heather is out in full and this attracts the nectaring butterflies. On very sunny days in early September its perfume fills the air while you watch the butterflies whirling and chasing about. The males are very territorial and even chase other butterflies away, for example the Brown Argus which also has a small brood here at this time. On one occasion I witnessed one Small Copper chasing off a Red Admiral successfully. They are feisty little creatures. Another time I stood in the centre of the grassy open lekking area to have at least six Small Copper and two Brown Argus all circling around me at once.
There are, relatively speaking, fewer Small Coppers to be seen elsewhere on the reserve and I think this is because the areas that do have them also harbour rabbits. The rabbits chew away and keep the scrub and heather down and also keep the grass low. This makes an attractive habitat for the sorrel to grow and this is just what the larvae of this little butterfly need to sustain them.
1. Kingsley Common, anywhere where heather and grass meet. There is also a spring brood here but in the main at this time of year they hug the area behind the houses and in front of the church as there are more nectaring plants there such as stitchwort and white dead nettle.
2. Shortheath, around the Bronze Age Barrow and with a lek to its east. Can also occur in and around the grassy plat in the reserve to the west, closest to the village.
3. Frensham Little Pond, on the right-hand hill flank near the first car park if driving from Frensham.
4. Woolmer, beside the sandy hillock behind the pond (but this is MOD land with extremely tight opening times).
5. Folly Hill, dotted about the reserve away from the pond.
6. Longmoor, the heathland paths parallel to the main track between the car park and the first crossing.
7. Frensham Big Pond, either side of the main car park.
8. Thursley anywhere on the dry heath away from the bog. Also the MOD tract of heath down a dirt lane on the opposite side of the road to the main reserve. There is a car park at its end and Small Coppers can be found in the grassier areas near this.
9. Sleaford Heath, could be anywhere but its a very small area.
10. Binswood, beside the meadow.
11. Noar Hill, typically in the central pits of the reserve.
12. Ludshott Common. Surprisingly for such a large reserve there are few parts that have the grass/heather/sorrel combination but I did find one Small Copper here so there must be others.
- In front of Kingsley church in October 2016
Part 1 of my report is going to focus on the population numbers. I would argue this is the most boring bit to read about but it was not the most boring bit to research as it enabled me to make comparisons between locations and ponder the reasons why different populations exhibited subtly different behaviours.
Lets start therefore with some data I have collected so far in the form of the spreadsheet attached.
This table attempts to show results without double counting. For example the repeated values of 9 recorded at Broxhead on the 28th and 29th of September are of different individuals, they are not the same count of the same butterflies in the same place counted twice. I visited entirely different parts of the reserve each day and the fact that the total was 9 each time is a co-incidence. Equally I counted 7 at Shortheath on October 5th but have not included them for fear of double-counting those I saw there on September 25th, because I went to precisely the same part of the reserve on that occasion. I was still seeing Small Coppers at Broxhead on 15th October 2016 but guessed these were individuals already flying on 30th September even though they were mostly in very good condition, bright colours with no nicks or tatty edges.
In locations where there are a lot of Small Coppers, investigation has shown that the end-of season decline falls off gradually as per the chart attached below.
That is, if there were, lets say, 40 at peak, then during decline there would be 20 after a given time period, then 10 after an equal period, then 5, then 3, then 1 and finally none. Given an individual in a brood can live for up to three weeks, averaging around 2 weeks, these time periods can be anything between 1 and 3 days. In 2016 it was 3 days. Of course this natural fall-off is largely dependent on clement weather conditions throughout this time. If there was a sudden cold snap or if torrential rain occurred for a few consecutive days, the fall-off would be more abrupt.
What follows are the more specific results from a survey of numbers of Small Copper at the Broxhead Lek only. See attached chart below.
It seems that there was a fast ramp-up of the 3rd brood from early September with a gradual decline of the 4th brood into mid October. The weather across this entire period was fairly good and quite even although there was of course a slow natural decline in temperature, this being Autumn. Some of the nights toward the end fell to 5 degrees centigrade but the daytime temperatures were usually between 14 to 19 degrees with many, long sunny spells. There were no truly bad windy days and never any long runs of days of rain here. Even on days when the ambient air temperature never increased beyond 15 degrees, at the Broxhead Lek on sunny days, being sheltered on all sides, direct sunlight brought the ground temperature microclimate on the valley bottom closer to 19 degrees. For this reason there were more Small Coppers in the lowest parts of the valley than the higher parts. They only moved to the higher parts if the nectaring plants were available up there when they ceased elsewhere. For example there came a time toward the end of the study period when one of the last blooming bell heather clumps could be found on the ridge when almost all the rest in the lek had gone-over. It was only then that I started to find a few Small Coppers on or near the heather on the ridge.
The red bars on the chart are the actual numbers seen on the days the numbers were surveyed, the blue curve estimates the rate of increase and decline based on the actuals.
The survey was from the 8th September to the 15th October 2016. All these figures were taken between 10 am to 1 pm on the survey days. If one visited before 10 am usually the Small Coppers would be hiding themselves away in shrubs and low in grasses because the temperature was too cold for them at that time. If you visited after 3 pm the lower sun at this time of year with the ridge on the west side in the way caused a larger shadow across most of the valley so even though the air temperature could be higher at that time of day, there were fewer opportunities for the butterflies to bask in the sun, so again they hid away, being reluctant to expend energy in flying when there were few blooming plants from which to gain nectar AND little direct sunlight to replenish their energy needs.
A bit of recent history from the 2015 Hampshire & Isle of Wight Butterfly Report now. It does not mention Broxhead as a recorded site. In 2015 the only recorded site in Hampshire that had Small Coppers in double figures was Keyhaven on 15th May, totalling 24 in one day. It appears that the autumn numbers only increase during “Indian Summers”. 2016 certainly fell into this category, at least for Southern Britain with hottest temperatures on record for September. Therefore this survey may have been anomalous for its great numbers over an extended period so late in the year. The Broxhead reserve as a whole peaked at a count of 24 between September 8th and 11th.
There were still 24 across the whole Broxhead reserve from September 28th to October 1st but the profile had changed, they increased in some areas and declined in others so although the number was 24, they were largely different individuals and it is just a coincidence that they totalled 24 in both periods.
Also there was a peak at adjacent Kingsley Common of 29 around September 29th and taken together (you can walk from the edge of the Broxhead Reserve to the edge of Kingsley Common in a few minutes) thats 53 at peak.
These results are quite remarkable for Hampshire. Other locations in Hampshire usually record Small Coppers in singletons or less often in twos and threes. There was only one site better than this in the official 2015 report for Hampshire and you had to cross the Solent for that. In 2015 there were 55 at Whippenham Fields on the Isle of Wight. It must be said though that the IOW site had a count of 351 across the whole year of 2015, not something that could ever occur at Broxhead and Kingsley for lack of nectaring plants earlier in the year (all the heathers flower in the summer and there are few other plant species to take their place earlier than this). The official 2015 report calls Whippenham Fields a “star” location for Small Copper but I would suggest that in 2016 at least, Broxhead & Kingsley was no lesser a location later in the season.
After my initial 2016 numbers count it subsequently come to my attention that an area of the Broxhead reserve that I did not visit in 2016 because the entrance path was overgrown by ferns was visited by someone else who reports he saw upwards of 200 Small Coppers there. I cannot myself vouch for this but if true, that would make the Small Copper count for the whole of Broxhead, Sleaford and Kingsley, an area of heathland we can consider to be contiguous, to be greater than that at Whippenham Fields! At least in 2016.
Unfortunatley 2017 was no so good for the Small Copper at Broxhead or Kingsley so when I visited this new Broxhead location in the same year it did not yield anywhere near 200 individuals, more like a dozen or so instead. Nevertheless although it is difficult to access for humans, the Small Copper does appear to like it there too.
Because of the notability of the Small Copper in Hampshire I decided to extend my survey to cover a period of 12 months. Most surveys I do cover a whole year but in 2016 my count of the Small Copper started mid-year, so I just completed the 12 month period by wrapping round into spring and early summer of the following year. All the data is in the spreadsheet attached above.
There were no great surprises I suppose. The numbers at all surveyed locations were low but consistent. I guess my only finding was that there were a fair number on Odiham Common in 2017. I found this site for the first time in 2017 and visited repeatedly because of the White Letter Hairstreaks there but in the places where the council had cut the grass low so that people could walk across the otherwise tall grassland meadows they had, perhaps inadvertently created the right habitat for Small Coppers. Without actually searching for them, I came across 4 in the time period surveyed - but outside these dates and inside the White Letter Hairstreak flying period there were more Small Coppers that I have not accounted for in my survey. I think they must like the dock here as their food plant because I did not find their preferred sorrel.
There were sufficient males along the “Elm Walk” on Odiham Common in mid-July 2017 to exhibit some of the lek behaviours I have become accustomed to at Broxhead although I would not class this site as a lek per se as their territories align along the path rather than exist in an “area”. It reminded me more of the situation you find Red Admirals in along many a woodland ride at Alice Holt. You could almost pace-out individual territories of male Small Coppers along the Elm Walk. Something like 15 paces or so for each one.
Now all of September and the beginning of October 2016 was remarkable for a long heatwave, a veritable Indian Summer as I have said, but August 2017 was wet, cold and windy, and the start of September was very variable with frequent thunderstorms and higher than average winds, so I though I would make a comparison.
The first two observation days saw a drop of around 1/3 on the same period the previous year. Indeed I went to the Broxhead lek twice not shown on the spreadsheet because it was devoid of Small Coppers. (I guess I should have recorded these entries on my spreadsheet with zeros – but as I said at the top of this post – I am an amateur!) The visit on August 26 also yielded two Brown Argus in exactly the same spot in the lek as last year when I saw six in early September but by the time the storms at the end of August finished, the Brown Argus had been wiped out. A far cry from the previous year. The observation for September 2017 was on the first warm, sunny day for a week but hides the fact that there were only 3 Small Coppers in the lek and two of these were at its bottom extreme, the area most secluded from winds. The other seven all came from the Broxhead area mentioned earlier that I suspect the unconfirmed sighting of 200 Small Coppers was witnessed by an individual I do not know personally. In 2016 I tried and failed to get to it so all my Small Copper records in that year exclude this area, thus the figure of 10 this year on this date being almost the same as it was last year on Sep 9th cannot be taken at face value.
The weather had not improved into the middle of September. I wanted to monitor the Broxhead lek in particular because in 2016 I spoke to others about this location, so the lek got a bit of trampling underfoot (not least by me). I needed to see if it effected the population of Small Coppers by comparing it to other known sites, for example neighbouring Kingsley Common and Shortheath which suffered the same weather conditions but not the trampling effect. I am pleased to say that I am pretty sure the crash in numbers is due to the very inclement weather. I visited Kingsley Common on 12th September 2017 and only found three Small Coppers, 1/10th of the number around this time the previous year. All of them were far flung from each other and all in the most sheltered locations possible. The heather, both ling and bell had mostly gone over by that time so there was little opportunity for nectaring out on the heath. This explains why they were so far flung from each other as they hung around the last few remaining heather blooms and these too were far flung from each other. At Shortheath it was the same story. On 19th September 2017 I found only 1 in the lek there and none elsewhere. This is 1/3 the number seen the previous year on September 14th 2016. After visiting Broxhead, Kingsley and Shortheath in 2017 what struck me the most was how little Bell Heather had bloomed. This may have been critical as the Small Copper favours this plant to nectar from in late summer.
This ends part 1 of my Small Copper Report – as you can see its a bit of a marathon but please stick with it because it gets more interesting when I start to talk about behaviours. Honest.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Noar Hill - 20th May 2018
To compensate for my last verbose post - this one is far shorter!
Although the Dukes are well in decline at this reserve now, a run of sunny days has brought out the Dingies. I completed my survey of the site today, visiting all those areas I know Dingies like (and even a couple that they normally don’t) and clocked up another 10 today. This brings my grand total for this site this year to 43. OK, it might not seem “grand” but it smashed my previous annual record for Noar Hill which was only 15! Indeed it also broke my 2017 counts for Rake Bottom (20) and Oxenbourne (15) by a wide margin.
Also today another, very fresh male Small Blue. This one performed a wing-roll for me. Just like the Holly Blue the other day, he started to do it as soon as he landed, but unlike the Holly Blue he kept it up for longer and sporadically on and off for some time. He did it with wings closed and with wings ajar but he never once opened his wings fully flat so I don’t know yet if they wing-roll in that situation. I will investigate at Magdalen Hill when the Small Blues in the scrape congregate at peak time. I will get more opportunities to observe more individuals then.
In the meantime – this is the Noar Hill fellow.
Also here today were Speckled Wood, Large White and Comma.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
Well it appears its time for Noar Hill’s Orchid number 3 to show itself. One of the Fly Orchids began to bloom today. All the others I found were still only in bud.
To compensate for my last verbose post - this one is far shorter!
Although the Dukes are well in decline at this reserve now, a run of sunny days has brought out the Dingies. I completed my survey of the site today, visiting all those areas I know Dingies like (and even a couple that they normally don’t) and clocked up another 10 today. This brings my grand total for this site this year to 43. OK, it might not seem “grand” but it smashed my previous annual record for Noar Hill which was only 15! Indeed it also broke my 2017 counts for Rake Bottom (20) and Oxenbourne (15) by a wide margin.
Also today another, very fresh male Small Blue. This one performed a wing-roll for me. Just like the Holly Blue the other day, he started to do it as soon as he landed, but unlike the Holly Blue he kept it up for longer and sporadically on and off for some time. He did it with wings closed and with wings ajar but he never once opened his wings fully flat so I don’t know yet if they wing-roll in that situation. I will investigate at Magdalen Hill when the Small Blues in the scrape congregate at peak time. I will get more opportunities to observe more individuals then.
In the meantime – this is the Noar Hill fellow.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
Well it appears its time for Noar Hill’s Orchid number 3 to show itself. One of the Fly Orchids began to bloom today. All the others I found were still only in bud.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Magdalen Hill - 21st May 2018
Magdalen Hill is another great chalkhill reserve a short drive from me. It is equally good for butterflies and for flowers. Here is a picture from the hill across the vale in July.
Today I was a man on a mission. OK, not a very big mission – but it is my own.
I needed to find out if the Small Blue can do a wing roll with its wings wide open. I had seen it in males who had their wings closed and those who held them ajar, but never fully open.
The top of Magdalen Hill in “The Scrape” is the best place near me for Small Blues and since I had already seen two at Noar Hill I thought I might increase my observational chances at this better location for them.
And so it turned out to be. There were seven in all, six males and one female. The fourth male I saw landed on my camera case. I was wearing the camera case at the time so effectively he had landed on me! I looked at him for awhile expecting him to spook but he didn’t. He just sat there without a care in the world. But my camera was IN the case. I thought “He’ll fly off in a minute”, but he didn’t. Maybe if I just undid the flap of the case he will fly off. Nope – I got the flap open so I struggled to get the camera out. Still he just sat there. I got the lens cap off and was just about to take his picture when, yes – you guessed it – he flew off! Huh!
But not very far. He flew down to a blade of grass and immediately started to do a wing-roll there. First with wings shut, then ajar and then….
…. he walked along the blade of grass, stopped and continued his wing roll with wings ajar. Then he walked a little bit more and repeated the process.
Next he flew to a leaf nearby and wonder of wonders, opened his wings wide and did a wing-roll there. Success. Mission accomplished - and I had really only been there for a few minutes.
I saw quite a lot of Brimstone, an Orange Tip, a few Common Blues, one in pursuit of a female, one of which did a wing-roll, a female Holly Blue egglaying, a Mother Shipton, a Mint Moth, a Burnet Companion and a Common Carpet.
Then I saw that female Small Blue that I mentioned above. She rested awhile with wings ajar and then opened them wide and did a wing-roll. I could not believe my luck. This was the first Small Blue female I had seen this year, the first time I have seen a female Small Blue do a wing-roll and she just so happened to do it with her wings flat. Mission accomplished twice.
Finally to add icing to the cake I saw a Grizzled Skipper. Now at Magdalen Hill you usually see these at the bottom of the hill. This was the first time ever I had seen one on the top of the hill.
Here is the Small Blue who landed on my camera case and finally did an open-wing roll for me. I have no pictures or video of the open wing roll but I do have a picture of him doing it with his wings shut.
And here is the picture of the female – ditto.
Non-butterfly snapshots of the day
A couple of weeks ago the northern slope of Magdalen Hill was carpeted with Cowslips.
A little bit later in the year the nearby fields will be populated by masses of poppies. One year recently a farmers field close to the base of Magdalen Hill even got into the local paper because it was fully covered with poppies as far as the eye could see and there was open access to it.
Magdalen Hill is another great chalkhill reserve a short drive from me. It is equally good for butterflies and for flowers. Here is a picture from the hill across the vale in July.
I needed to find out if the Small Blue can do a wing roll with its wings wide open. I had seen it in males who had their wings closed and those who held them ajar, but never fully open.
The top of Magdalen Hill in “The Scrape” is the best place near me for Small Blues and since I had already seen two at Noar Hill I thought I might increase my observational chances at this better location for them.
And so it turned out to be. There were seven in all, six males and one female. The fourth male I saw landed on my camera case. I was wearing the camera case at the time so effectively he had landed on me! I looked at him for awhile expecting him to spook but he didn’t. He just sat there without a care in the world. But my camera was IN the case. I thought “He’ll fly off in a minute”, but he didn’t. Maybe if I just undid the flap of the case he will fly off. Nope – I got the flap open so I struggled to get the camera out. Still he just sat there. I got the lens cap off and was just about to take his picture when, yes – you guessed it – he flew off! Huh!
But not very far. He flew down to a blade of grass and immediately started to do a wing-roll there. First with wings shut, then ajar and then….
…. he walked along the blade of grass, stopped and continued his wing roll with wings ajar. Then he walked a little bit more and repeated the process.
Next he flew to a leaf nearby and wonder of wonders, opened his wings wide and did a wing-roll there. Success. Mission accomplished - and I had really only been there for a few minutes.
I saw quite a lot of Brimstone, an Orange Tip, a few Common Blues, one in pursuit of a female, one of which did a wing-roll, a female Holly Blue egglaying, a Mother Shipton, a Mint Moth, a Burnet Companion and a Common Carpet.
Then I saw that female Small Blue that I mentioned above. She rested awhile with wings ajar and then opened them wide and did a wing-roll. I could not believe my luck. This was the first Small Blue female I had seen this year, the first time I have seen a female Small Blue do a wing-roll and she just so happened to do it with her wings flat. Mission accomplished twice.
Finally to add icing to the cake I saw a Grizzled Skipper. Now at Magdalen Hill you usually see these at the bottom of the hill. This was the first time ever I had seen one on the top of the hill.
Here is the Small Blue who landed on my camera case and finally did an open-wing roll for me. I have no pictures or video of the open wing roll but I do have a picture of him doing it with his wings shut.
- male wing-rolling with wings shut
- female who also did the wing-roll
A couple of weeks ago the northern slope of Magdalen Hill was carpeted with Cowslips.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Hi! ernie, if there's one thing I love to see it's a field full of glorious red Poppies 
I don't things there's many things can beat it.
Goldie
I don't things there's many things can beat it.Goldie
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Re: ernie f
Goldie - yes it was stunning. I had never seen anything quite like it before or since. I edged my way a little into the field being as careful as I could and then took a 360 degree video of it.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Minely Manor - May 22nd
This is a new location for me. A large network of meadows, scrubland and woodland that form part of the Minely Estate near Fleet.
Today I came across six Green Hairstreak, four Small Copper, many Common Blue, Small and Large White, one Peacock, a Speckled Yellow moth and a few Brown Silver-line moth.
This Green Hairstreak sat pretty for me so I could get a pic of him against the skyline.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
There were quite a number of Green Woodpecker. I wasn’t counting but think I saw six and heard the yaffle of others in the distance.
This is a new location for me. A large network of meadows, scrubland and woodland that form part of the Minely Estate near Fleet.
- Minely Manor - The Meadow
- Brown Silver-line
There were quite a number of Green Woodpecker. I wasn’t counting but think I saw six and heard the yaffle of others in the distance.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Yew Hill - May 23rd
A small-ish chalkhill reserve bordered by grass meadows, arable fields and wooded rides near Winchester. It forms part of a group with Magdalen Hill and St Catherine’s Hill.
Small Heaths were the flavour of the day. I counted 45 and I did not cover all the pathways. There were a dozen or so Common Blue, 11 Dingy Skippers, 3 Green Hairstreak, 3 Holly Blue, 1 Orange Tip, 1 Grizzled Skipper, a few Brimstone and lots of Small and Large Whites. It seems like only yesterday I was seeing my first Grizzled Skippers and Common Blues and yet here a few of them were already showing signs of wear and tear.
One pair of Small Heath had found a quiet place out of the breeze to mate. Unfortunately not “quiet” enough because I came bumbling along to invade their privacy.
Non-butterfly snapshots of the day
The flowers here are wonderful. There were the usual things like Russian Comfrey, Yellow Rattle, Milkwort and Horseshoe Vetch but also vast “banks” of White Campion and Wild Mignonette. Also Hound’s Tongue, Columbine, Common Broomrape, Salsify, Common Spotted Orchid just starting to bloom and Greater Butterfly Orchid in bud.
A small-ish chalkhill reserve bordered by grass meadows, arable fields and wooded rides near Winchester. It forms part of a group with Magdalen Hill and St Catherine’s Hill.
- View of Yew Hill from the lower path
- Grizzled Skip starting to look a bit tatty
- Small Heaths mating
The flowers here are wonderful. There were the usual things like Russian Comfrey, Yellow Rattle, Milkwort and Horseshoe Vetch but also vast “banks” of White Campion and Wild Mignonette. Also Hound’s Tongue, Columbine, Common Broomrape, Salsify, Common Spotted Orchid just starting to bloom and Greater Butterfly Orchid in bud.
- Bank of Mignonette
- Salsify
- Common Broomrape
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
Great set of reports recently Ernie with some lovely accompanying shots - great Greenstreak, Mr Yaffle and that poppy field 
Have a goodun
Wurzel
Have a goodun
Wurzel
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Re: ernie f
Thanks, Wurzel - The poppy field may have been a once-in-a-lifetime thing.
Love your shots of a Speckled Wood on your hand by the way.
Love your shots of a Speckled Wood on your hand by the way.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
It’s a cool, cloudy and wet day here in Hampshire and the forecast is for this to be with us all day. Next to no chance to get in a spot of butterflying today for me so I thought I would report the next instalment of my study into the Small Coppers of NE Hants and its border with Surrey.
This is part 2. In part 1, I explored the population fluctuations of the Small Copper colonies near me, especially those in my central study area at Broxhead. In part 2, I want to share my experiences regarding the visual characteristics of the butterfly. As I stated in part 1, I am no expert and am learning all the time, especially from others who post on this forum but I take an interest in those species that I can study regularly and easily at close quarters, and for me the Small Copper is one of those.
At first glance it is not obvious that it is a cousin of the Blues other than the orange zig-zag markings on its hind-wings which resemble that of the Brown Argus and the small black dots under the wings which are reminiscent of the Holly Blue. However, when an old one fades, I have found they can have bluish scales appearing under their wings like this one sitting on a Ragwort.
Also sometimes its body can have a distinctively blue-ish tinge or even the upper hind-wings on a fresh one if the sun is at the right angle.
This is a great little butterfly to watch, especially the antics of the brood at Broxhead where in an area of no more than 50 paces in any direction you can witness males sparring, males courting females and mating with them, egglaying, nectaring, basking in the sun, doing the “Turkey Strut” and the “Stem Dance”, etc. Terms aptly coined first by Hoggars in his own diary entries.
I find them mostly close to the ground on low vegetation, grass or actually on the ground, also at head height on trees and shrubs. On occasion one might decide to fly high but they rarely perch high in my experience. I have seen one fly over the top of a Silver Birch tree without stopping on it for example.
Because there are so many males and females flying around at the Broxhead lek this is the best place to be able to tell them apart in my neck of the woods (North East Hampshire). There are few clear differentiators between the sexes and therefore I sometimes find it difficult to tell a male from a female when seen singly. The females are very slightly larger than the males on average and their wing-tips are slightly more rounded, but I find this hardly noticable really. It has to be said that the size ranges between males and females overlap by 6 mm and thus its possible to find males that are larger than females so size is not an absolute indicator of gender! Personally I don't see a great difference in wing shape between males and females that cannot be explained by wing-set in different circumstances or natural variation but I do still try and use this at times.
The orange patches on the tops of the rear wings are just a little bit narrower in the female and the dark blobs on the upper forewings are a bit bigger in the male. Also the black patches adjacent to the forewing edge are darker in the male than they are in the female, but there is a lot of aberration in this species.
Being a Lycaenid, the male is disposed to perch using only its rear four legs, keeping its front two tucked up in front of it but this is not always readily observable.
And finally, the body of the female is fatter than that of the male.
But despite knowing all this, I still often get gender wrong. I think this next picture is that of a male.
It has large-ish forewing blobs, nice fat orange zig-zags on the hind-wings and a slim body. If its not can somebody correct me and tell me why? I would genuinely appreciate it. Thanks.
But the way I usually tell is by behaviour. The males are territorial of course and can come to blows in fast, wheeling, sparring matches with each other (and other species) whilst the females generally fly lower and slower or crawl amongst the ground vegetation in search of egg-laying sites.
On very sunny days, especially early when the sun is lower, the wings of the Small Copper actually shine like metal, just like the real thing in fact - this is an aptly named butterfly. Unfortunately when you take a picture of it under these lighting conditions, the sheen just appears white or yellow. See pictures below to see these changes in sheen. The wings have to be in motion to get the full reflective, burnished-metal effect.
I have noticed that if you look closely at the brown upperparts of the hind-wings of fresh individuals in full sun and move your head from side to side you will see some of the scales glinting against the brown like copper-dust. The picture below gives an idea of what I mean but just like the burnished effect of the forewings, you have to actually be there to see the sparkle properly.
If you find a freshly emerged Small Copper with its wings partially up when the sun is directly behind you then the colour can be most vibrantly orange. Of course there is a great deal of natural variation in this too. Some individuals are yellowish orange whilst others are a very reddish orange like the one below. They almost seem to glow with an inner light.
Like one other commentator I have read on this forum, I wonder if there might even be an element of ultra-violet about them that the human eye cannot detect with clarity. I may get an ultra violet lamp one day and test this idea.
Even its antennae tips are coppery-orange!
Aberrations amongst Small Coppers are common and widespread.
The freshly emerged individual below is so pristine you can see the line of silver-blue dots on the hind-wings, a fairly common aberration known as ab. Caeruleopunctata. About 1 in 7 have this aberration at the Broxhead reserve (one day I counted 3 with this aberration out of 22 individuals seen in total).
One of my books suggest there are 140 different, named, aberrant mutations but it doesn't include the one I saw at Broxhead last year which was a midget form. The normal wingspan for this species is between 26mm to 36mm wide for the male and between 30mm to 40mm for the female. Although I estimate this one had a forewing-span to be about an average 30mm, its body and hind-wings were wasted by about a half their normal dimensions. I almost mistook this one for a mint moth! It still flew around OK and was chasing off other butterflies too! See picture of it sitting on a fern leaf below. Its chasing behaviour suggested it to be a male and its relatively wide orange rear-wing bands and slim body seem to confirm this. I have read other butterflies have midget forms too known as ab minor and have seen an example of a midget Silver-studded Blue on this same reserve.
The size of the brown dots and the thickness of the brown borders both suffer a great deal of natural variation in both males and females and is one of the ways I can get confused about gender. This individual has a slight aberration where the dots on its forewings are smaller than average. I guess its a male despite this because its orange hind-wing zig-zag is thick and its body is slim.
One dramatic aberration replaces the copper with white but I have not seen this one. If anyone has seen this, photographed it and posted it on this forum, could they provide me with a link to it so I can take a look? Thanks.
Another, known to occur at Broxhead, has elongated brown patches on the upper forewings.
Note: Hoggars pages are famed for their pics of aberrant Small Coppers.
Well that's it for part 2 of my Small Copper study.
In part 3, I would like to cover behaviours; a most interesting aspect of this butterfly.
This is part 2. In part 1, I explored the population fluctuations of the Small Copper colonies near me, especially those in my central study area at Broxhead. In part 2, I want to share my experiences regarding the visual characteristics of the butterfly. As I stated in part 1, I am no expert and am learning all the time, especially from others who post on this forum but I take an interest in those species that I can study regularly and easily at close quarters, and for me the Small Copper is one of those.
At first glance it is not obvious that it is a cousin of the Blues other than the orange zig-zag markings on its hind-wings which resemble that of the Brown Argus and the small black dots under the wings which are reminiscent of the Holly Blue. However, when an old one fades, I have found they can have bluish scales appearing under their wings like this one sitting on a Ragwort.
- Bluish tinge of warn scales
- Bluish hue to upper hindwings
I find them mostly close to the ground on low vegetation, grass or actually on the ground, also at head height on trees and shrubs. On occasion one might decide to fly high but they rarely perch high in my experience. I have seen one fly over the top of a Silver Birch tree without stopping on it for example.
Because there are so many males and females flying around at the Broxhead lek this is the best place to be able to tell them apart in my neck of the woods (North East Hampshire). There are few clear differentiators between the sexes and therefore I sometimes find it difficult to tell a male from a female when seen singly. The females are very slightly larger than the males on average and their wing-tips are slightly more rounded, but I find this hardly noticable really. It has to be said that the size ranges between males and females overlap by 6 mm and thus its possible to find males that are larger than females so size is not an absolute indicator of gender! Personally I don't see a great difference in wing shape between males and females that cannot be explained by wing-set in different circumstances or natural variation but I do still try and use this at times.
The orange patches on the tops of the rear wings are just a little bit narrower in the female and the dark blobs on the upper forewings are a bit bigger in the male. Also the black patches adjacent to the forewing edge are darker in the male than they are in the female, but there is a lot of aberration in this species.
Being a Lycaenid, the male is disposed to perch using only its rear four legs, keeping its front two tucked up in front of it but this is not always readily observable.
And finally, the body of the female is fatter than that of the male.
But despite knowing all this, I still often get gender wrong. I think this next picture is that of a male.
But the way I usually tell is by behaviour. The males are territorial of course and can come to blows in fast, wheeling, sparring matches with each other (and other species) whilst the females generally fly lower and slower or crawl amongst the ground vegetation in search of egg-laying sites.
On very sunny days, especially early when the sun is lower, the wings of the Small Copper actually shine like metal, just like the real thing in fact - this is an aptly named butterfly. Unfortunately when you take a picture of it under these lighting conditions, the sheen just appears white or yellow. See pictures below to see these changes in sheen. The wings have to be in motion to get the full reflective, burnished-metal effect.
Even its antennae tips are coppery-orange!
The freshly emerged individual below is so pristine you can see the line of silver-blue dots on the hind-wings, a fairly common aberration known as ab. Caeruleopunctata. About 1 in 7 have this aberration at the Broxhead reserve (one day I counted 3 with this aberration out of 22 individuals seen in total).
- Midget form
- Smaller than average spots
Another, known to occur at Broxhead, has elongated brown patches on the upper forewings.
Note: Hoggars pages are famed for their pics of aberrant Small Coppers.
Well that's it for part 2 of my Small Copper study.
In part 3, I would like to cover behaviours; a most interesting aspect of this butterfly.
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.
Ernie F
Re: ernie f
I do particularly like your Green Hairstreak with the background context, Ernie.
And the Broomrapes are a strange group of plants - parasitic (often with specific hosts) and lacking chlorophyll. I think this one is parasitic on the yellow flowers around it (some sort of legume, by the look of it). Fascinating.
Interesting stuff about the Coppers too. This is a link to the page about ab. schmidtii, the striking "white" variation.
app.php/gallery/album/1860
Dave
And the Broomrapes are a strange group of plants - parasitic (often with specific hosts) and lacking chlorophyll. I think this one is parasitic on the yellow flowers around it (some sort of legume, by the look of it). Fascinating.
Interesting stuff about the Coppers too. This is a link to the page about ab. schmidtii, the striking "white" variation.
app.php/gallery/album/1860
Dave
Diary entries for 2018 have been archived. If there are missing images in this post, then they can be found in this archive if one exists. All archives can be found here.