millerd

[trevor]

You were too far East, Dave. Portland was the place to be!.
See facebook ' Butterflies UK '.

[bugboy]

Never mind Dave, it was a nice day for a wander in the countryside even without a certain special encounter, although I couldn't help but feel we were being watched from the trees we spent a large portion of the afternoon staring at

[Goldie M]

I love those shots you took last year of the open winged Wood Whites and your Peacock Butterfly is fantastic, really bright colours Goldie

[Wurzel]

Bad luck with the LT search Dave I wonder how often the population remains in the same place as a few years back Neil Hulme was finding them on the Isle of Wight - they're quite big and so could disperse a fair old way Mind you you've certainly got the time to spend to keep looking

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Well done for giving North Stoke a go, Dave. It's easy to stick with the herd when you know a site is likely to be productive. Far more praiseworthy is a trip to somewhere out of the limelight but with history for LTs.

Keep persisting. It usually pays off.

[millerd]

I'm afraid Portland was just a bit too far for a daytrip, Trevor, though it looks as if it would have been great day.

They could have been there, Buggy, but maybe we just weren't looking the right way at the right time. A pleasant day of amazing weather nevertheless.

Yes, David and Wurzel, always worth looking in likely places. There could easily be a very low level population of LT in suitable woodland across southern England, and we'd probably never know - except when the odd one gets itself spotted somewhere. What would be good is if the current good numbers appearing over in the Netherlands breed successfully and have lots of offspring in the summer just at the same time as warm easterlies start to blow. A major influx then might not be noticed until this time next year, though, as they hibernate so early.

Thank you, Goldie - now that the weather has returned to normal I will continue my 2018 review. Now where was I? Ah yes, July, and all that hot weather.

JULY 2018 continued...

On 18th, I had agreed with Bugboy to meet at Bookham again, and then head down to Chiddingfold for a good look at the second brood Wood Whites.

At Bookham, the Purple Hairstreaks were still down from the treetops, and still in good numbers - several were noted right down on the grass, probably sipping the early morning dew. They had started to become worn now, however.

Bugboy was looking for their eggs, and turned up a nice pairing quite low down in the car park.

So, on to Chiddingfold. For once, it wasn't wall-to-wall sunshine, but it remained very warm, and there were plenty of Wood Whites around - so many that we decided to perform a semi-scientific count on a linear walk from the Oaken Wood entrance back to Botany Bay. We reached 122, and reckoned that there were many more as when the sun was in, numbers in view dropped quite a bit. There was quite a bit else to see, with one highpoint being the appearance of a very large female Purple Emperor which appeared on the walk down to Oaken Wood. Bugboy managed a distant shot as it briefly landed, but my camera wasn't up to the task. However, it was Bugboy's eagle eyes which again produced the best sighting - a brand new Wood White drying its wings immediately above its discarded pupal casing.

Shortly afterwards he followed this with a mating pair...

... and I spotted a female laying and managed a shot of an egg.

I even took a few ordinary views of the species!

Other interest: a pair of Ringlets...

...and some nice SWF (no valesina today, though).

Quite a day - again!

19th July saw me up at Aston Rowant again, in search of Silver-spotted Skippers. The target species was out in good numbers, but characteristically whizzing madly about in the sunshine.

There was plenty else to see - though not the 23 species of the week before - with fresh Chalkhill males now being joined by females, and several mating couples seen.

20th July was a day to stay local, and dominated again by the reliable trio of Common and Holly Blues, and Brown Argus.

The following day, I took in the Denbies/Box Hill combination again - nothing too unusual, though both sites had new Small Coppers. These again looked darker than usual, probably in response to the heat.

I did see a surprisingly fresh female DGF at Denbies, though most on both hillsides were quite tatty now...

...and a Common Blue with a very small hindwing on one side.

On 22nd, I had another look at some different habitat down at the sandy heath of Dawneys Hill. Graylings were the main attraction, the Silver-studded Blues having disappeared now. Once again Small Coppers put in an appearance, plus one or two Common Blues. The Graylings may have been the main attraction for me, but it appeared that as usual the reverse was true too.

A brief look at my local patch later in the day showed that Small Coppers were appearing here too...

...plus a nice new sandy-coloured Small Heath.

I took a rest from the heat and sunshine on 23rd, and only went out for a short while locally on 24th. Many Brown Argus and Common Blues had been notable for being small this summer, but this particular Brown Argus was minuscule. My forefinger is in the same plane as the butterfly.

The last week of July and the beginning of August were not so hectic, but I'll leave that for another post.

Dave

[trevor]

With your description and images from Chiddingfold, I was able to re-live a day out there.
A magical forest with so much to offer. All that is required is some fine weather.

Some great shots, Dave.
Trevor.

[Benjamin]

Great reporting of the warm spell Dave - i imagine we nearly crossed paths alongside the Arun somewhere, but were probably so busy stalking empty trees and vacant patches of bare ground, that we prob wouldn't have noticed each other anyway!

You've posted some great shots already, and it's always a pleasure to keep up with your diary - good luck with the season ahead....

cheers -

[millerd]

Cheers, Trevor - you're quite right about Chiddingfold. It's a terrific bit of woodland, and all it needs to round it off would be the return of the Spring fritillaries that used to live here not so long ago.

Hi Ben! I wondered if we'd see anyone familiar out there also intent on tracking down those elusive big orange butterflies. It seems you weren't far away... Thank you for the words of encouragement - luck seems to play a big part in it all, so fingers crossed all round for a good season! Hope to bump into you again before too long.

Saturday 2nd March and a spell of warm sunshine early afternoon. It was getting a bit windy though, and I considered myself lucky to see a Comma tussling with the breeze.

Dave

[Wurzel]

A cracking Wood White sequence Dave, only missing the middle stages of the life-cycle I seem to recall the unusually fresh DGF from your post in year as it were - still a bit of a surprise even now, she must have been one of the latest emergers and I'd forgotten about the later brood miniscule blues/brown argus - the heatwave certainly helped to add even more variety

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Fabulous commentary and pictures of the Wood Whites, Dave. The Small Copper is interesting too, being very dark (much like the ones I see in the south of France).

The real treasure for me though is that mint fresh Holly Blue. The brilliant white underside is most striking.

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel and David - the Wood Whites made that day a real high point of the summer.

There'll be more Holly Blues, David, count on it...

So, cracking on now, into high summer 2018.

JULY/Early AUGUST

The last few days of July were spent up in Yorkshire again, with butterflies mostly limited to the selection available on the first couple of days in my sister's garden, as the weather changed markedly in the middle of the visit.

However, there was time on 28th for a trip to a new site for me (as recommended by CallumMac), Kiplingcotes - an old chalk quarry on the edge of the wolds. It was windy and not particularly sunny, but in one sheltered corner I found a variety of butterflies, including an unexpected one - Wall Browns. I saw both a male and a female, and just about managed a photo of the latter.

Travelling home on 30th, the route took me past the village of Bishop's Itchington in Warwickshire, so I took the opportunity to pop into Bishop's Hill, a site renowned in the spring for its Small Blue colony. I had no idea whether they produce a second brood here, but it was worth a look. As it turned out, there were no Small Blues, but instead there were good numbers of Common Blues, including a variety of different females across the whole spectrum of shades from brown to blue.

One of the males was none too shabby eiher, being a particularly deep shade of bright blue.

On 31st, I caught up with my local patch. Perhaps most significant was that two of the ivy-festooned ash trees had fallen over, despite there not being any wind to blow them down. One had fallen on a parked car, the other went in the opposite direction onto grass: I imagine their roots had been weakened by the lack of rain. Worryingly, these trees are where substantial numbers of my local Holly Blue population base themselves, and as subsequently adjacent trees have been (rightly) removed as being potentially dangerous, there could well be a knock-on effect on local numbers. However, not so yet: dozens of Holly Blues were flying today, as were many Common Blues.

As noted before, some of the latter were very small.

A short repeat visit the following day produced more of the same, and was notable for being the last day I saw a Gatekeeper here in 2018, a very early date I would say. I managed a nice Holly Blue close-up...

...plus a rare shot this year of a Meadow Brown opening up.

Later in the day I went down to Denbies, finding amongst other things, good numbers of Adonis and Chalkhill Blues, plus the first Silver-spotted Skippers of the year here.

As usual, a piece of dog poo had attracted a group of Chalkhills - a fascinating juxtaposition of the attractive and the downright disgusting...

On the 2nd August, following reports of sightings, I went down to Bookham again to see if there really were any Brown Hairstreaks around. A simple answer: there were not, or none that I could spot anyway. However, there were the usual Small Coppers, new Brimstones, aging SWF, Small Heaths, Comon Blues and Brown Argus.

Time to break again, before another new sighting for the year on 3rd August.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Another great report Dave You've spurred me on to actually start on my 2018 Tally Should be up on UKB some time in 2020 A lovely collection of shots especially as you say the contrasting 'Beauty and the Beast' moment My favourite shot however has to be the Silver Spot - cracking

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - I need to get on with this before the weather changes, the sun comes out and 2019 get properly underway.

INTO AUGUST...

Reading more Brown Hairstreak reports, I thought I'd give Noar Hill a try on 3rd August. I'm not sure why I bother, as in all the years I've come here, I've only ever seen one butterfly. Nothing changed today, despite suitable weather, but it was not a wasted trip as the site looked resplendent if a little dry and other species were flying. In fact within the first ten minutes I'd found my first Clouded Yellow of the year, along with a fellow immigrant - a Painted Lady.

A Red Admiral may have been in this category as well, and there were SWF, Brimstones and Common Blues.

Staying local on 4th, I had what turned out to be my only Cloudie sighting of the year here - but no photo. Holly Blues reached their peak numbers today, and well over a hundred individual butterflies were seen of 12 species, but nothing else remarkable.

5th August was going to be another very hot day, but I set out early for Aston Rowant with Silver-spotted Skippers the target again.

The brilliant sun kept most of the other species with their wings firmly shut, but the variety included several Adonis Blues.

There was a fair bit of egg-laying activity amongst the skippers, and examining a patch of grass newly-vacated by such a female revealed no less than six eggs scattered in the one small area. Goodness knows how many there were across the whole hillside.

The 6th was just too hot to be worth going out anywhere comfortably, and not good for photography in any case - far too sunny. The 7th was not much better, but my itchy feet took me out locally again. Again there were high numbers of Holly Blues, and also Common Blues. The former species was to be found in the shade for the most part, nectaring on the abundant fleabane clumps. One patch had attracted quite a few, with eight individuals in this one view (at least two others had been disturbed by my movement in taking the photo).

As is traditional in one particular spot by the lake, I attracted a Red Admiral.

Good to see as they have been few and far between this year so far.

Over the next few days, I managed three separate trips down to Bookham in search of Brown Hairstreaks (8th, 11th and 13th). The days in between, amazingly, were wet. On 8th, some likely BH candidates were seen high up, but at ground level, the Small Coppers, Brown Argus, Common Blues and Speckled Woods provided the interest.

On 12th, I met up with Bugboy, and we had better luck, seeing at least two Brown Hairstreaks low down.

The fermenting blackberries were proving quite a draw all round, and had also attracted a rather worn Purple Hairstreak as well.

There was another fresh Speckled Wood...

...and a notably blue female Common Blue (though most were much more brown).

The third visit on 13th produced another nice female Brown Hairstreak, posing appropriately next to a sloe berry.

I also found a male Common Blue with noticeable dark spots on the hindwing margins.

Between 14th and 18th, I was up in Yorkshire again. On 15th, I popped up the road from my base in Wilberfoss to Calley Heath. This lowland sandy heath site has colonies of Small Coppers and Brown Argus, and both were seen in reasonable numbers, with the former showing interest in the tiny sorrel plants recently reappearing after the dry weather.

The Brown Argus are just that, despite the northerly latitude: this is a second brood, something that doesn't appear in the NBA.

There was also a Peacock which appeared to be investigating the many rabbit holes on the site, perhaps with a view to hibernation.

On 17th, I had another look at Kiplingcotes, where I had seen the surprise Walls a few weeks earlier. None today, but there were some nice fresh Common Blues and Small Heaths. I am now very keen to visit this site in spring, as it has even more to offer then.

Back in my sister's garden, the buddleia attracted a variety of common species as always, including at least one Painted Lady. I don't think I have ever not seen one here in the summer.

There were also some fresh Commas of the darker hibernating variety.

The rest of August is still to come, with a couple of unusual sightings, plus three further months full of butterflies - what a long season it was to be.

Dave

[trevor]

Indeed it was a long season last year, Dave.
Since the last November 2018 sightings, there have only been two months
with no Butterflies for me, Dec 2018 and Jan 2019.
We have already had a good February spell with plenty of sightings, and once
this turbulent weather has finished with us, hopefully, normal service will resume,
and we can look forward to another long season this year.

Can't wait!.
Trevor.

[Neil Freeman]

Another cracking selection of summer butterflies Dave. They brighten things up appreciably after a rather grey and gloomy week.

Cheers,

Neil.

[millerd]

Cheers, Trevor - I can go one better (just!), as I saw my last butterfly of 2018 on 2nd December and the first of 2019 in late February. A shade under 12 weeks gap. Quite bearable, really.

Thank you, Neil - more to come now, and I might just squeeze 2018's review in before 2019 begins in earnest...

LATE AUGUST

Only one day of the rest of August (26th) was wet enough to preclude seeing a butterfly, another indication of how good a summer it was. Back home on 19th, the priority was my local patch which I had not looked at for nearly a fortnight. The usual triumvirate of Brown Argus, Common and Holly Blues were still in the ascendant, but there were no stand-out new examples of any of these, though a few brown female Common Blues made an interesting change.

Notable was a sudden increase in Red Admiral numbers with nine seen - the highest so far this year.

On 20th, I started with another trip to Bookham to look for further Brown Hairstreaks. It was warm and bright rather than sunny, and on arrival at an area of water mint that often attracts Nymphalids at this time of year, I came across a butterfly I could not immediately identify. From a distance it looked silvery white, though too small for any Pierid species and not really white enough. Not a Hairstreak and not dark enough for a Common Blue - a bit too big as well. Suddenly I worked it out: completely out of context I had come across a male Chalkhill Blue, some five miles due north of the chalk at Denbies Hillside. Most intriguing!

After all that excitement, I saw no Brown Hairstreaks, though there were some nice Brown Argus, Common Blues, Small Coppers, Small Whites and Speckled Woods.

Seeing the relatively fresh Chalkhill inspired me to carry on down to Denbies. Though there were still a few nice Chalkhill males, it was the Adonis that stole the show here, with a few chocolatey females joining the sky-blue males.

There were also a handful of Silver-spotted Skippers. More of these were seen the following day on another trip up to Aston Rowant...

...as well as more Adonis and good numbers of Brown Argus, including this mating pair.

22nd August was one of those days when annoyingly the weather forecast failed to deliver, continuing to promise sunshine on an hourly basis but not following through at all. Bugboy and I had decided to go down to Steyning on another Brown Hairstreak hunt, and though topping and tailing the day with patient scrutiny of the rifle range area, we came away with photos of eggs and nothing more from the site. However, with Mill Hill only a short drive away, we popped over there for a while in between. Adonis Blues appeared magically every time the sun's strength came through the cloud cover that bit more, and there were some beautiful examples.

We also found an unusual Meadow Brown, lacking in pigment in a random pattern across all wings.

Along the Downs a little way is Anchor Bottom, where in the first brood the population of Adonis had been quite something by all accounts. We had a look here, and though not in vast numbers, there were still some nice examples of Adonis to be seen.

A pale wraith of a butterfly that I initially thought was a Painted Lady turned out to be a very faded female Wall.

To be continued...

Dave

[Wurzel]

More great posts Dave - I've been struggling to keep up to date as work is getting pretty hectic - something I reckon that you'll have forgotten all about now It was a tricky year for Brostreaks - open wing shots were definitely at a premium. Normally they stick to a standard pattern of behaviours and so you can plan ahead but this year they took the rule book, ripped it up and made it into a nice little hat! Interesting that you had that errant Chalkhill Blue I wonder if the heat had them seeking out pastures new/less dehydrated? Looking forward to the next installment - the jet stream is moving so you might need to take a break from looking back and enjoy looking forwards this week

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - yes, work is now a fading memory, but you'd be surprised what takes over to limit the time spent out there in the sunshine. However, the combination of more free time and excellent weather made 2018 the best year yet probably from a butterfly perspective.

For some reason, I forgot to post a shot of the Steyning Brown Hairstreak eggs - nearly made up for the lack of adults, but I did rectify that deficiency a couple of days later.

Dave

[millerd]

I have had some issues viewing these posts on my laptop, probably because of the number of images on an overall page, so I shall start a new one for the next installment of this 2018 retrospective.

Dave