ernie f

[ernie f]

Thanks, guys. I have noticed that sheen before and "oily" describes it to a tee.

[ernie f]

Broxhead (Anvil End) - 2nd Sep 2018 (pm)

Anvil End - Broxhead

Another three Small Copper bringing the Broxhead total now to 52. One kept coming back to this Ragwort despite all the heather around about.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the day

I have got a few shots of Dartford Warbler but today I came across a family of 2 adults and 3 young and I got a bit closer than I have been able to in the past.

[Wurzel]

Great shots of the Dartford Ernie That scratchy call they have was one of the sounds of my youth when I was a nipper messing around on Canford Heath

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

...Another three Small Copper bringing the Broxhead total now to 52. One kept coming back to this Ragwort despite all the heather around about....

I find Small Coppers go for yellow-coloured flowers more than any other, ernie, so I'm not surprised ragwort was favoured over heather.

PS - just seen the main index page - many happy returns!!

[ernie f]

Wurzel. Its amazing how those Dartford's can throw their voices. I began "stalking" them for pictures and many was the time I could hear their "scratchy" calls all around me (which is how I knew there were five - 'cos I didn't see them all at once). I scanned the distance, expecting one to fly up and sit on some gorse if I kept very still and was surprised when the one I thought was in the distance suddenly flew out of the heather only a few feet in front of me!

Dave. I have seen Coppers visit the Ragwort here before. I don't know if its the colour that attracts them or the all-round-view. Typically the ragwort here grows in singletons away from other plants so its a very good vantage point for males.

Thanks for the birthday greetings by the way. Another year older, but none the wiser!

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 4th Sep 2018

Another trip to Broxhead and I clocked up another 14 Small Coppers – these are in addition to the ones I have already seen here and my total for Broxhead and the Broxhead Extension (which are just different entrances to the same reserve so I shall add the two together) is now a cool 70. This exceeds my best count for this reserve by 3. I have now achieved my best daily count and my best location count for Small Coppers. It remains to break my record annual count but that will take some doing because that stands at 177 in 2016 when I visited a large number of reserves near me with the purpose of creating that personal record in the first place.

One of the newbies today had quite big blobs on its wings.

As Hoggers et al will probably tell you, the best shot of a female Small Copper doing the Turkey Strut is to get one where her forewings are pressed together while her hindwings are set wide apart. I had a few opportunities to try and capture this today. I have improved on my past attempts but the ideal shot still eludes me. Here are the best of todays efforts.

Also 4 Speckled Wood, 9 Brown Argus, a couple of Small Whites, one Comma but no 2nd brood Silver Studded Blues, despite looking specifically for them in their prime mid-summer haunts.

And this very fine caterpillar mooching across a sandy path, a Fox Moth caterpillar?

Non-butterfly Snapshot of the day

Yesterday it was birds, specifically the Dartford Warbler so today I keep with the theme. I didn’t see one today but Broxhead is an annual nesting site for Stonechat. Here is a past pic from here.

[Wurzel]

Interesting shots of the Turkey strut, which is exactly what it looks like I've not seen that before but now I'm going to keep an eye out for it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Hi, Wurzel. I've got so many pics of Small Coppers now I don't know what to do with them all. I am using the burst mode on my new camera a lot to try and capture that Turkey Trot "essence" so I am keeping sequences of shots of them now. I will be sorting through them all the way up to Christmas no doubt and then of course I'll be eating the Turkey!

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 5th Sep 2018

I went back to the Small Copper lek area today. My intention was not to increase my count because I had been here before recently so would only be counting ones I had already seen but instead to yet again try and improve my Turkey Trot pics. They did not disappoint.

A male would get in tight close behind a female and follow her around, nose-to-tail for the most part. From time to time she would just shudder but often would then go into a full Turkey Trot stance. She did this on the ground, on a twig and on a heather bush, sometimes at a standstill but sometimes while walking along with the male in tow.

There was one sequence where she shuddered, then put her forewings up and hindwings down, then brought up her hindwings up to meet her forewings and then dropped her forewings to hide them behind her hindwings. At this point the male flew off, but the female then flitted away about a metre and did another Turkey Trot without any male being there. She probably was not absolutely sure he had gone so gave it one last burst - just to be on the safe side.

Turkey Trot sequence 1

Turkey Trot sequence 2

There was also a lot of male sparring going on. In the heather on the path uphill from the lek, there were two sets of two males sparring in flight at the same time while another was perched on a heather frond near them - the referee?

One perched on an old gorse stump, an ideal look-out.

Another perched just above me so I could get a pic against the blue of the sky.

Non-butterfly Snapshot of the day

Another bird. This time it is a Jay. I saw this one today not far from the Small Copper lek in fact.

[Wurzel]

The Turkey Trot seems like a much nicer way to ward off unwanted advances Ernie Silver-studs flap their wings incessantly and almost aggressively and Whites raise their abdomens like a middle finger so this by comparison is much more genteel and ladylike Looking forward to more of these interesting sequences

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

It certainly is fascinating to watch, Wurzel. I like the idea of a genteel butterfly brush-off.

[ernie f]

Sleaford - 5th Sep 2018 pm

Back to Sleaford Heath. I was here a few days ago. Its a small heathland remnant - you can walk across it in any direction in just about 5 minutes.

A field with a lone tree lies between the Broxhead Heath and Sleaford Heath and is really the only thing that separates them.

The Lone Tree at Sleaford

Last time I was here I counted 16 Small Coppers and because the place is so small it doesn’t take long to do a full recount and again I got 16 (likely all the same ones so I cannot increase my annual count). It appears that this heath is at max capacity for them now. However this time I noticed there were Brown Argus here too, some were quite fresh, and I counted 8 of those. Also a Small White and a Red Ad.

Some Brown Argus pics from today at Sleaford. It was late in the day so the sun was low. Great for the backlit pics.

Today for the first time I have seen a Small Copper do a wing-roll. I was knocked out about seeing it. As I recently posted I have seen hundreds of the little devil’s and none have ever done a wing-roll for me. This one did two prefect rolls and then stopped. That was it. Nothing else. It certainly could not be mistaken for a Turkey Trot and the fact it was two perfect ones meant it was not merely adjusting its balance on its perch. Unfortunately I was not able to get any pics because of how fleeting it was but I don’t care. I’ve seen it and that's all that matters to me after all this time.

But it seems this was just for openers because I then saw not one but two Brown Argus wing-rolling with wings open. The last time I saw a Brown Argus do this it was with its wings open too (I posted a couple of shots of it recently). Either its a coincidence or Brown Argus really do prefer to do it that way.

There was another female Small Copper doing a Turkey Trot in the face of a male while they were both on the top of a heather bush. Then she crawled down the heather stem and hid close to the ground inside the bush. He sat on the top of the bush a bit bemused as to where she had gone.

Non-butterfly Snapshots of the Day

There is a roadside verge between the Sleaford and Broxhead Heaths where the huge Parasol Mushroom grows most years.

Fresh

Ageing

[Andrew555]

Interesting Copper observations Ernie.

[ernie f]

Thanks, Andrew.

I one way its good because I love Small Coppers but in another its sad because it means the butterfly season is nearing its end.

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 6th Sep 2018

Broxhead Heath from the footpath connecting to Sleaford Heath

Yesterday afternoon I think I established for myself that Sleaford was at peak 3rd brood Small Copper time so today I wanted to test Broxhead. Now normally you see Small Coppers on the path near the lay-by when Broxhead is at peak but there still weren’t any there. As I went round the reserve I noticed that some areas had fewer individuals than I saw recently whilst others had more. Since all of the Small Coppers I did see were fresh (no tatty ones at all) I presumed that what has happened is that the males have moved around from the place where they emerged and each has found a niche for itself after many battles with their neighbours. As if to confirm this, I found that some had moved down to the bottom of the lek where there were none before and there were fewer at the top of the lek and on the path above. Of course there were still sparring battles between neighbouring males but they were now standing their ground more. I managed to get some pics of one pair doing battle. Here are the best of the batch.

But what I think I have found is that Broxhead may too be at peak like its neighbour Sleaford and that for some reason the ones by the lay-by are absent (and may never materialise this year).

The Brown Argus were fresh and fine at Broxhead today.

Yet another one was doing a wing-roll with its wings open.

I was beginning to think all butterflies of this species only did it with their wings open when the one I was currently observing re-arranged itself and started to wing roll with its wings closed.

Then one did a wing-roll with its wings open but decided it only wanted to roll one of its hind-wings, leaving the other fixed. I have no idea why or how it was able to do this and it kept it up for some while. Maybe the other hind-wing was pressing up against the heather bloom and this restricted its movement.

I will place the complete sequences on the wing-roll topic under “general”.

I did a quick visit to Kingsley Heath on my return home expecting that as in 2016, the numbers of Small Copper would be steadily on the increase there because peak seemed to be a week later than at Broxhead. However I could only confidently add a singleton to my count for this site bringing the total at this location to a mere 6 - a far cry from the 70 at Broxhead only a few hundred metres away! I don’t know why for sure. There is plenty of Sheep’s Sorrel although it is in pockets and there is plenty of Heather even though its starting to go over. One difference I noticed at Kingsley that I did not see at Broxhead though is that there was a sand wasp of some kind which seemed to be getting to plague proportions here. There were many clouds of them dotted over the sandier parts of the heath just where you might expect to see the Coppers. Maybe they are predatory on larvae and this perhaps may have drastically reduced the Small Copper population this year at Kingsley?

Non-butterfly Snapshot of the day

Broxhead is a good place to watch Nightjar and Woodcock at dusk in summer-time. I have done so in previous years but never even tried to get a picture. However last year I came across a Woodcock dead by the side of the road that bisects the reserve.

One day I must try and get a picture of a living one.

[Wurzel]

Lovely fresh Brown Argus Ernie and the Small Copper in flight shots are wicked Woodcock are a right pain to see unless you can find them Roding.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[ernie f]

Thanks Wurzel. I was lucky the sparring coppers had a protracted fight right above the more or less blank canvas of the sandy path so they could be seen well.

I have seen Woodcock roding at Frensham Common in Surrey. It was exciting because they flew only a few feet right above my head doing that funny sound they make. I never tried to get their picture though. The only way to get it really is if you see them do it against a cloudless evening sky before it gets too dark. It also means carrying a tripod around to mount the camera on which with my back is probably a non-starter!

[ernie f]

Broxhead - 7th Sep 2018

Just as I thought Broxhead might be at its max for Small Coppers – I find it isn’t really. Today I covered one part of the reserve and found 55 Small Coppers of which three I can be claim to be ones I have definitely not yet counted this year yet. Yesterday I was hinting that the area near the lay-by may not get them this year and it seems no sooner had the words left my mouth (figuratively) than one emerges at that location. I saw it today.

55 is my daily record and the extra three today added to the 70 I have already seen here = 73 and this is a reserve record for me.

There was definitely at least four females amongst them all as three were Turkey Trotting and one was creeping amongst the Sorrel looking for egg-laying sites.

No pics today because in order to do the count I was on a reasonably fast walk so as to reduce the effect of double-counting.

Non-butterfly Snapshot of the day

Walking about the reserve fast and brushing against heather, gorse and ferns disturbs the Grasshoppers. There were loads of Mottled Grasshopper which likes the heathland around here.

[Goldie M]

Hi! ernie, love your Copper shots, in fact all your Turkey Trotting shots are interesting
I thought of you the other day when I saw the Red Admiral in my garden, I watched him rolling his/her wings, lots of Bee's and flies were round him so he was doing this constantly and it made me wonder about the Wing Rolling and if this was another reason for it, warding off other insects
I've seen other Butterflies just fly off when disturbed but the Admiral doesn't move, only rolls it's wings.What do think Goldie

[ernie f]

Thanks, Goldie. I am into Turkey-trotting at the moment. It's almost "up-there" with my obsession with Wing-rolling.

Interesting observation you made with your Red Admiral. I have not seen this and of course its not in the same family as the other Wing-rollers. I shall add your comment about warding off insects to my brainstorm list on the topic under "general".

I still don't really know why they do it for sure. I constantly waver between one idea and another.