The Last Post - 30th Sep 2018
Today is my last planned diary entry of my first year on UK butterflies. Its been great to read about the things that other people have seen and I have learnt a lot from you all.
I thought I’d take this opportunity to recap the best moments that I remember from other people’s posts. I have not looked them up again so I cannot refer to them by whom, where and when they were posted so I’ll merely list them - they are not in any priority order but I have only selected those that I remember which were specific to butterflies and moths in the UK.
• The image of a mating pair of Purple Emperors on the ground.
• The 4-wing Purple Emperor pic from underneath.
• The image of a White Letter Hairstreak from above showing how the tails splay out to mimic antennae.
• The image of a Brown Hairstreak ditto with not only its tails splayed but also bulges on the hindwings imitating a head when seen from above.
• The image and the text on how the image was obtained of a mating pair of Peacock butterflies.
• The announcement of the Black Hairstreak population at Ditchling Common in Sussex.
• My realisation for the first time of the true size and potential for European significance of the Small Copper community at Dungeness.
• The incredible numbers of Purple Emperor counted at Knepp Woods.
• The site near Steyning in Sussex where there were so many Adonis Blues that someone posted they could see many mating all at the same time.
• The ab White Admiral that was completely black.
• Animated GIFs of butterflies such as Green Hairstreak and Small Blue wing-rolling and thanks to Bugboy for animating my own efforts.
• A group of whites “mud puddling” in Britain.
• The knowledge of the unusual courtship behaviours of the Grayling.
• The knowledge that there is a limestone-based Grayling community at Portland.
• The picture of two male Grayling mating with the same female at the same time (OK it wasn’t posted originally in this year but it was referred to me this year).
• The charming photo of a Small Tortoiseshell using a set of dandelion blooms as a “Stairway to Heaven”.
• The close-up of the Orange Tip which showed how the wing-pattern was made-up.
• The Common Blue with one hindwing miniaturised.
• The pair of Lulworth Skippers in-cop.
• Large Blue egglaying.
• Adonis Blue male wing-rolling while in-cop.
• The series of Gifs of the Humingbird Hawkmoth in-flight and feeding.
• The picture of three Grizzled Skippers on the same plant but separated, each to its own flowerbud.
• An almost black female Adonis with a speckling of blue scales.
• The mating Small Heath “Odd Couple”. One mini ab and the other with an odd varient of spotting on its wing.
• Pic of Purple Emperor with purple hindwings but black forewings.
• The knowledge that late-flying Small Coppers seem to be able to get sustainance from ripe blackberries or the dew from the surface of unripe ones when there are no flowers around to nectar from.
• The picture of a pair of Wall butterflies in-cop.
• Bugboys mission completed.
I know there were many, many others which I liked at the time but I cannot now remember their specifics. Age is getting the better of me I am afraid.
Non-butterfly snapshot of the day
I was exploring a part of the Alice Holt woodland which was wild and secretive when I came across a marvellously rare thing. I have seen books and TV shows about this creature but I never thought I would be lucky enough to see one for real, let alone get a photograph of it.
I only caught a glimpse as it went by.
I do not think it saw me as it seemed to be in deep conversation with a small mouse.
Best Wishes to you all.
I won’t be going away completely. I shall be dipping in to read your PDs and to add replies from time to time and I may even add to my PD if something really good comes up. But this is the last of my (almost) daily PD posts.
Hopefully you'll be able to make it to the winter Social 
