ernie f

[ernie f]

Noar Hill - 30th May 2018

So I went to Noar Hill on a gloomy day not expecting to see any butterflies and that exactly what I saw - not even any roosting.

So instead today I thought I would post the spreadsheet that I keep for my records on what I have seen, when and where I have seen it. If anyone is ever visiting my neck of the woods in NE Hants, you may find it useful.

Note these are my own records of what I have personally seen - they are not official in any way.

Hants butterfly location grid.xls

(30 KiB) Downloaded 32 times

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day.

But the summer-time orchids are beginning to show. There were quite a few Common Spotted Orchids starting up and one Fragrant Orchid. These are numbers 5 and 6 of the Noar Hill Orchids. Obviously the Twayblades were in full force still and the Fly Orchids are getting good, but the Early Purples, while still out in places are well into their seasonal decline.

I took some record shots but they are not good enough to show here, so instead here is a pic I took at Noar Hill from a previous year that has both in it.

[Wurzel]

Cheers for posting the spreadsheet Ernie I'm always wondering what others sites there are out there to visit so that'll come in handy I managed to find a few Fragrant Orchids on a down near me yesterday - I was struggling to work out if that's what they really were and then I thought about their actual common name , kneeling down sure enough they're fragrant

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Wurzel - glad you liked the spreadsheet. Obviously its not fixed. I update it all the time - but it is firmed-up enough to use now.

And yes - Fragrant Orchids are fragrant as you rightly point out. They also have more open spacing between their blooms than the Common Spotted Orchid (and the slightly later Pyramidal Orchid too).

Best Regards

[ernie f]

Noar Hill - 1st June 2018

Is this the end of Spring and the start of Summer? Well it was warm but very overcast, although the sun did peep through on occasion.

I came here primarily to check up on the Fly Orchids but of course any butterfly that came by would be a treat. And unlike the other day when it was very gloomy, they did actually come by today. Lots of Common Blue, Small Blue, Small Heath, one Green Hairstreak and one Small White. Usual moths for this location seen were Cinnabar, Mint, Silver-Y and Common Carpet.

I am pleased with the way the Small Blue is ramping up at this site. I have lived in Alton and visited Noar Hill for a number of years now but it was only a couple of years ago that I started to see them here and in very low numbers in only one or two pits. Then last year there were a few more and in places not seen the previous year, now they seem to crop up just about anywhere at this reserve. But today was really the day of the Common Blue. Even though the ones I saw were really just those I disturbed roosting (so there must have been a lot more), even so numbers were good. I didn't actually keep count but there must have been more than a couple of dozen. OK so not notable numbers but surprising for such an overcast day as today.

And being overcast they were not as skittish as they may otherwise have been allowing me to get in close.

Here is one of a male - we were almost eyeball to eyeball for this pic.

And as Pauline has just mentioned in her post today - the variety of blue on the females varied quite a lot.

I got in close with an underside shot of one of the females too.

Although I have already posted about Common Blues before, I forgot to add some of my past pics of them at the time - something I have been doing when I spot a species for the first time in the year. Mind you - my pics today beat most of my others I already had except for the mating pair pics and conventional brown female. So here we are ...

Non-butterfly snapshots of the day

As I said at the top of this diary entry - the main reason to come here today was to see how the Fly Orchids were doing. Well, they were all in full bloom. And like every year, there was a green variety also in bloom. This is the "ochroleuca". One normally grows on the bank and is usually easy to find because of the muddy footfall marks where people have climbed up to get a picture but I could not see it today. However the new one was not in a position I had noted one grow before and it had a degree of speckling that I had also not seen. Here is the one I saw today.

And here is a pic of the one on the bank from last year.

I was only here a couple of days ago and saw a few Common Spotted Orchids starting to bloom and just one Fragrant Orchid. Now, this short time later they are blooming everywhere.

So, yes. Summer is here after all.

[ernie f]

Beacon Hill - 2nd June 2018

A South Downs chalk hill, topped with a small woodland. A stream passes below which supplies the watercress beds here.

Beacon Hill from the Watercress beds

There is a good variety of butterflies here but I usually visit at the beginning of June to combine them with the orchids.

Today’s butterflies were...

Lots of Common Blue and Small Heath. Fair numbers of Small Blue and Brown Argus. Large, GV White, Brimstone. One Speckled Wood, one Green Hairstreak, three Meadow Brown (1st for year) and a Grizzled Skipper (1st for this location).

Grizzled Skipper at Beacon Hill

Meadow Brown at Beacon Hill - male

And the moths...

There were a good number of Silver-Y and Burnet Companion and one Mother Shipton moth.

Burnet Companion at Beacon Hill

As usual I will add some past pics from the species I saw for the first time in the year. The Meadow Brown.

Meadow Brown - female

Meadow Brown - pair mating

Non-butterfly snapshots of the day

Not only is Beacon Hill probably the best location in this area for the Green Hairstreak that I have found, it is I believe the only remaining place in Hampshire where one can find the Man Orchid. This is a small but amazing-looking orchid and even here is a rarity. To many people the blooms look like little men, hence the name – but I would go further and say they are wearing cycling helmets that are a tad too big for them.

In 2015 I counted only three Man Orchids, in 2016 there were six. This is good considering for many years they were thought to be extinct here. However in 2017 I found none at peak flowering time. But this year there were five in full bloom.

Man Orchid - yellow form

The flowers can range from completely yellow to those with red edges on the same plant. Because of this some plants are noticeably redder overall than others.

Man Orchid - redder form

I have read one report that these have been an unofficial reintroduction from elsewhere because one seemed to have been crossed with a Lizard Orchid (Kent harbours both species in local abundance and the argument has it that hybrids could have occurred there and been seeded here), but until this year the ones I had seen on Beacon Hill were all standard Man Orchids, no hybrids, so for some time I questioned this interpretation of their recovery. However on June 2nd 2018 I found one that was hybridised strongly with a Monkey Orchid and this could only have occurred had the plant seed originated in Kent or Oxfordshire.

Man Orchid x Monkey Orchid

[David M]

Some stunning flowers amongst those butterflies, ernie. This is the time of year to make the most of the shorter sward, before the grasses and the bracken gain the upperhand.

[ernie f]

David - You are right. When you are keen on butterflies, you just can't help getting into flowers a bit too.

[ernie f]

Old Winchester Hill - June 3rd 2018

Old Winch lower slope path

Quite a fair number of butterfly species here today. Small Heath, Common Blue, Small Blue, Small Copper, Small, Large and GV White, Brimstone, Red Admiral, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Dingy Skipper. Also Burnet Companion moth.

However, my target today was the Adonis Blue. Old Winch was the location for a reintroduction programme for this species some years ago and there has been some success. Both the late spring and late summer broods are still here. It has to be said – not in the kind of numbers in some locations posted on this forum but nonetheless any success is good. I counted six males today. Because it was so sunny and warm they were pretty skittish but I was able to get a couple of decent shots. They are to be found on the lower slope below the car park as shown in the photo above.

These are todays pics.

Underside of male

This years Adonis Blue on last-years Dwarf Thistle

As this is my first spot of this species this year, as usual here are some past photos I have taken of Adonis Blues, both here and at Magdalen Hill.

The metallic blue sheen can flash into the green end of the spectrum at the right angle.

A mated pair at Old Winchester Hill right beside the path. They can stay like this for a long time. This pair were stuck fast for at least 30 minutes and hardly moved in all that time. I walked away before they parted so I did not time their total contact.

Adonis Blue - pair mating

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

Sheep are kept on the hills and surrounding fields. No I am not in a helicopter for this shot. This was the view of a flock from the hillside above.

[ernie f]

Noar Hill – June 2nd 2018

The Noar Hill "Meet and Greet" Butterfly

A short trip yielded a few butterflies but nothing new. For the record in 1 hour I saw five Small Blue, many Common Blue and Small Heath, a 6-spot Burnet, a Green Hairstreak and 2 Dingies, one which had wings so tatty and torn it was a wonder it could fly at all – but it could.

6-spot Burnet

Non-butterfly snapshot of the day

While the Common Spotted Orchids and Fragrant Orchids were coming up nicely, none yet were in full bloom – almost but not quite. And there were now a few Pyramidal and Musk orchids in bud, but only one pyramidal had started to put out a couple of blooms. I shall wait until they are in better bloom before I post pics of them.

Also coming up were the Knapweed Broomrape. This location has a lot of them because it has a lot of Knapweed which it is parasitic on.

Knapweed Broomrape not yet in flower

[Goldie M]

Hi! ernie, I love the shot of the Adonis mating pair , it's great to see a lovely scenic back ground like that, it adds to your photo
Goldie

[Paul Harfield]

Hi Ernie
It looks like you have had a busy few days . Fantastic Adonis Blues from Old Winchester Hill . If only they did as well here as they seem to do at some of those sites over the border in Sussex.
And those Orchids are quite spectacular. Beacon Hill is one of my favourite sites

[ernie f]

Goldie - Thanks. I like pics of butterflies in their setting. I know there are techniques one can use to get the background and foreground in focus at the same time but I don't really know how to do it - in any case I actually don't mind the blurring of the background.

Paul - Yes, I like Beacon Hill a lot too. In a week or so all the CS and F Orchids will be in bloom and there are thousands of them carpeting the hillside.

[millerd]

You do have some great spots within a relatively small radius of where you are based, Ernie! The mating pair with the scenery in the background is a great shot.

Dave

[ernie f]

Dave - Yes I do consider myself lucky. I am always surprised at what I find every year - there is always something new; and I have been living here for 17 years now.

Regards

[ernie f]

Alice Holt Woodland - 4th June 2018

For an hour in the afternoon things brightened momentarily enough to get out. The woods were quiet on the butterfly front with only three fresh Speckled Woods, a Speckled Yellow moth and a micro-moth. I have no idea what species it is. Can anyone help? There was a pair of Banded Demoiselle perched on a bush and a greater-spotted woodpecker calling from within the wood.

The micro-moth is in this picture

In early autumn last year at Alice Holt was the biggest capped mushroom I ever saw. It was growing all alone out of the grass lawn beside the road that leads to the cafe. I have never been fully successful in identifying it but think it might be a Boletus aereus. I called him “Big Bert”.

"Big Bert" the Bolete

Also – can you spot the squirrel in the woodland picture above?

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Ernie,

Just catching up on your recent posts, some really interesting observations, particularly the series of reports on the Small Coppers.

I am going out on a limb with the micro moth but it could be Celypha lacunana http://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/celypha-lacunana

Just found the Squirrel

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great set of reports and shots recently Ernie Those Orchids are quite stunning Big Bert is huge, more of a stool than a Toadstool Love the 'meet and greet' butterfly - does it fly off nd lead to the highlights of the reserve?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Neil - Yep. I am sure you are spot-on with your moth ID of Celypha lacunana. I checked my pic against your reference. Thanks.

Wurzel - I was amazed to find a plant so much like a Monkey Orchid in Hants and I nearly missed it too. I was on my way out of the Man Orchid area when I decided to return and take one more look around. I don't know why and that was when I found it. Spooky.

[ernie f]

Today was one of those good days where everything seemed to go right. I visited three reserves to make the most of the sunny weather - these were Farley Mount Country Park, Magdalen Hill and Broxhead Heath. There is so much to report that I'll do each location on a separate day, in order starting with...

Farley Mount Country Park - 6th June 2018

I try to visit this site once a year around the peak of the Greater Butterfly orchid blooming period. But it is usually good for butterflies too at this time.

Today there were many Common Blue, including this very blue female. There were loads of Small Heath, a Red Admiral, a Small White, a Grizzled Skipper which was quite fresh looking and a fading Burnet Companion moth.

Non-butterfly snapshots of the day

I know there are better locations for numbers of the Greater Butterfly Orchid in the south of Britain (particularly at Badbury Rings in Dorset so I am told), but this is my closest site. Today I found 13 which is about average for Farley Mount. The ones at the top of the slope were already going over but the ones at the bottom were either full or about to get that way, with only a couple of buds remaining.

[kevling]

Ernie,

Just catching up with the diary. Love the Adonis Blues. Their striking colour is wonderful. Some nice orchids too. The scenery in your neck of the woods look beautiful. What could be better on a nice sunny day. I was stuck in the office

Kind Regards Kev