July 24th > Onward

[jellyang]

I am back home recovering from my operation so can only view what butterflies I have in the garden , which is as far as I can go with my post op shuffle!
Just typical that the sun came out as soon as I was immobilised!

Anway the last couple of days has seen lots of fresh peacocks,small tort,meadow brown and today a beautiful fresh crisp red admiral.
Lots & lots of large whites who have now covered my hubbys cabbages with some neat rows of eggs! As a compromise I think we should donate 2 cabbages to the butterflies but am not sure he will agree!

Wavelea Holkham on the 13th?
I did speak to a bearded gentleman who I think had a scottish accent?? He was admiring the speckled wood, was that you?

Please keep posting your pics for me I have serious withdrawals from walking & taking photographs.

Angie

[Shirley Roulston]

Welcome back, hope you will recover quickly. It's too hot to go outside to-day anyway, even the breeze is hot. Regards Shirley

[Dave McCormick]

Welcome, hope you get better soon. Warm here, 1 painted lady, 4-5 large whites, 1 red admiral, 4+ small whites in my garden today, feeding on buddliah. It just flowered and first red admiral I saw on it for months was there

[Annie]

one Small Tort and several Large White on the hanging baskets today, and one Holly Blue flying overhead

Get well soon, Angie!

[eccles]

Get well soon Angie.
I've been chasing dark green fritillaries at Blackmoor in Somerset yesterday and today, and boy did they make me work hard! They must have been overjoyed with this warm weather as they hardly stopped, an occasional, and very brief, nectar stop at a nearby field scabious or thistle and off they'd go again. I haven't checked the pics yet but I hope at least one or two are in focus.
Pictured are females gatekeeper and meadow brown. Nothing special, except that letting the back garden, a mere 35 feet long, grow wild appears to be paying off as I found them there. The meadow brown laid eggs too.

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[Denise]

Hi Angie,

Get well soon. I know what it's like to be stuck at home when the good weather and butterflies are around I wish you a speedy recovery.

Hi eccles, glad that your garden has started to pay dividends too.
This week I've had in my garden, Large, Small and Green-veined White, Several Comma, Speckled Woods, loads of Gatekeepers, male until yesterday and then a couple of shy females appeared.



Also a few Holly blue. 1 fly-by Red Admiral but still no Small Torts or Peacocks
I did however get very excited at this Marbled White that visited today



Poor battered individual, but it made my day as it was the first photograph-able one ever in my garden.

I nearly forgot to mention yesterdays hi-light. 2 Small Skippers, both female spent an hour in my company.





Cheers
Denise

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Yesterday (24th July) I visited Botany Bay on the Sussex/Surrey border, to look at the second brood Wood Whites. I saw about 10 in all, but as usual they wandered over long distances, seldom stopping to smile for the camera. Their flight may be weak (sometimes it looks as if they're going to drop out of the air through lack of effort!) but they must cover many miles in a day. Luckily I managed to find a couple of males 'mud puddling'. Once they get preoccupied like this, photography becomes a little easier!

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Neil

[wavelea1]

Jellyang

Sorry to hear of your plight and I wish you a speedy recovery - yours is definately worse than being frustrated by the weather........

No I'm not Scottish and hair is not my most plentiful feature.

We too spoke to a couple hunting White-letter Hairstreaks on that day - obviously we missed each other though.

All the very best in this hot weather.

Wavelea1

[Gruditch]

Tons of stuff, mostly bonking, at Durlston Country Park, see blog for details.
Gruditch

[jellyang]

Peacocks, peacocks & more Peacocks in my garden today.
I spent a while watching a very aggresive Red Admiral who had decided the Butterfly Bush was all for him, he chased off anything that came near including me. After a few dive bombs at me he decide to sit on my shoulder & sunbathe so that meant I could not take a picture!!

One lonesome Hollyblue feeding on my roses was a welcome sight.

Has anyone else been into hospital for an operation & whilst recovering have discovered that they lost the ability to focus a Camera?
Must have a word with that surgeon!

Angie

[Rogerdodge]

Taken with Canon 30D and new Dust Pump (Thanks Denise)

Gary
It wasn't all bonking!
Incidentally, as I recall I, had just the one tub of ice-cream, whilst you consumed, er, let me just count them up.....THREE.
Cheers
Roger

[Gruditch]

My pic was with a dust pump too by the way. And your right Roger, you did only have one tub of Cappuccino ice cream, OH and one tub of mint Choc chip.

Gruditch

[Rogerdodge]

you did only have one tub of Cappuccino ice cream, OH and one tub of mint Choc chip.

Oh - yeah - I forgot about the mint choc chip
Don't tell Rose - it's not on my diet sheet!
Cheers
Roger

[Perseus]

Hello,

27 July 2008
On warm (21.5 °C) sunny day, an unprecedented 21 species of butterfly were seen (three more than the previous largest day tally in the last eight years of 18). Nineteen were seen in two hours in the morning on Mill Hill (Shoreham) and its approaches. There were very frequent Large Whites (50+), Gatekeepers (75+), Meadow Browns (50+) and Chalkhill Blues (70), frequent Common Blues (18), occasional Small Skippers (6) and Speckled Woods (8), with just a few of most of the others like Brown Argus (2), Wall Brown (3), Holly Blue (4), Red Admiral (3), Small Heath (3), Brimstone (3), Small White (3), Comma (2), Peacock (2), and just the one confirmed each of Green-veined White, Small Blue and a Ringlet.
In the afternoon I visited Anchor Bottom (Upper Beeding, a few miles north of Shoreham) and added one Marbled White and a faded Small Tortoiseshell.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: July 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/July2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/

View and upload your Sussex Wildlife Images to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sussexwildlife/


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[Annie]

I was driving round Somerset for most of yesterday - had two Gatekeepers in West Huntspill, A Red Admiral in Glastonbury, a Great Diving Beetle in flight near Street and another Red Admiral on Weston Super Mare sea front, while stuck in traffic - hope the poor little bugger didn't hang around, he might be a bit smoke-blackened after this morning's events there!

Saturday was mainly spent in my mother's garden, which was open to the public (a good excuse to spend the afternoon sat in the sunshine eating cake and drinking tea ) - several Gatekeepers, a couple of Meadow Browns, several Large and Small Whites (one laying on nasturtiums) and a peacock was spotted later in the day (though not by me)

[eccles]

At Hazelbury Common today were:

Meadow Brown
Gatekeeper
Marbled white getting a bit tired now, mainly females.
Small skipper
Large white
Small white
GV white
Peacock
Common blue

and finally, the chalkhills have emerged. I saw around ten fresh males, but no females. The males resolutely kept their wings closed during brief resting periods, but then around 1pm a bit of cloud came over and I caught one nice condition individual with his wings open (below).

I had been told that there were SW fritillary at Golden Valley reserve at Wick so I spent an hour there. I suspect the sightings were of hutchinsoni commas as there were one or two of those there, but no SWF. Speckled wood and male brimstone completed the day's dozen butterflies.

I'm glad I didn't leave it too late, it's raining now.

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[Perseus]

Hello,

28 July 2008
Even more spectacularly, the number of butterfly species seen on 27 July
2008 has to be increased by one to 22 species, as a second brood male Adonis
Blue was identified on the lower slopes of Mill Hill (Shoreham) and one was
seen there yesterday as well. My visit was to look for the main emergence of
Chalkhill Blues and make a count on the 1.2 acre transect of the lower
slopes, which came to 68 males. The main emergence is expected in the next
few days.

Mill Hill 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2008.html
Shoreham Bank 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/VetchTrail2008.htm

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes (including Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex)
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html

[Denise]

And finally! I got a Red Admiral in my garden. I know that I sound like a kids lister, but I was really missing those guys.
At lunchtime I thought I had finally got a Small Tort, went rushing out with my camera (food still in mouth) to get this very pleasant surprise....



My first Painted Lady of the year.
Also today, male and female Brimstone, loads of whites and Gatekeeper and up to three Comma (very dark) Holly Blue, Ringlet, Meadow Brown and one Small Skipper.
Now where are all the S.T's gone?

Denise

[James M]

Still hardly any butterfies seen around here. A few Large Whites and Small Whites though and a large, fast flying, brown butterfly that I could not identify that looked like a Frit, but they are not normally seen around here so it was most likely a Comma.

[Shirley Roulston]

Having a change from the Kodak, I have waited for ages for this close up lens on my PanasonicDMC-FZ18. I didn't find it very easy, if you try and focus up to its limit of 3feet the photo is totally blurred. I'm going to ask Panasonic if they produce an instuction leaflet for the beginner. Anyway, I saw this lovely Peacock to-day in the garden and got this photo.

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