Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Lovely Calendar Wurzel, I'm so glad March is here and the lighter nights to come Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie I'm hoping that this cooler, wetter and very windy weather counts as 'in like a Lion' so that before long we'll be back in the butterflies proper

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Wales 31st July

Today we didn’t even bother with the forecast and just took coats with us to Aberystwyth. We parked in Morrison’s (other supermarkets are an option) and started down the town path that runs alongside the river. As to be expected as we were in an area that looked great for butterflies the cloud covered the sun and there were a few drops of rain. Despite this I saw a Specklie bomb off over the Brambles that lined the path. Further along the path split into two and we would take the right hand fork into the town centre and urbanity and as junction was insight the cloud cleared and the sun started beating down. However I still managed to get a sneaky butterfly shot as in the previous drear a Holly Blue landed and opened up vainly (at the time) trying to warm itself up. I caught it just as it was deciding if it was warm enough, got my shots and then when it felt the sun on its wings it was off.

We carried on into Aber and during our walk about I noted a couple of Whites and a Silver Y which seemed determined to get into Costa Coffee? And then we made the return journey laden with kilos of Organic Muesli. On the way a few Whites fluttered a long in front of us for most of the way. A Specklie put in a brief appearance and then when were almost back I saw a massive Buddleia which I’d not seen on the way into town; I must have been staring intently into the bushes and so looking the other way. There was some movement and the cream tangerine colour suggested that at least one of the butterflies was a Painted Lady. I told the rest of the family that I’d catch them up and left the path fumbling for my camera as I did so. As I approached I could see that I was right there was a Painted Lady but it was very flighty. There was another which stayed up high along with a couple of Red Admirals and a Peacock. At one time all three took off and chased each other about before deciding to gang up on a hapless Large White. I then had to leg it back and catch up with everyone else.

Once back home I grabbed the camera and went to check out the Lane reasoning that if the weather app actually did prove (by some major miracle) correct then I might not get many more chances. I stopped first of all at the Buddleia in the Neighbours garden. This smaller bush was even better than the one on the walk back. At first glance I counted 2 Painted Ladies, 2 Peacocks, 4 Red Admirals and a Large White. A few moments later a Small and Green-veined White had also been added. What was strange was how autumnal this made me feel. There was a strong breeze, the sun wasn’t boiling hot and kept going in behind the clouds and I was observing some of the ‘last species’ of the season. It felt more like October than the last day of July.

I then worked my way back down the road and round the corner onto Rhu Goch. Once here I carried on scanning the hedge in front of me. I was really disappointed to find only 2 Hedge Browns and even more so because they were ‘typical’. On the plus side I also found a cracking blue female Common Blue. She kept settling a few paces away from me and then allowed me to get in closer and get some shots before she fluttered a few paces away again etc. I also noticed some earth spilling down the bank. At first I thought this was a tiny bit of subsidence as the bank had recently been shaped. But there were similar ‘spills’ along the length of the bank and as I got closer it happened again and this time I could see that the dirt was being pushed up and out from underneath. It was strange to think that I was within 15 cm of a Mole. Back at the Buddleia there was now only one a piece of the Peacock and Painted Lady and only 2 Red Admirals but the number of Large Whites had doubled.

Upon my return I grabbed a coffee and went and sat in the summer house with everyone else. Eventually they all drifted indoors and I was left on my own with the collapsed curtain and my camera. I put said curtain to good use, wrapping it over my head and round my arms as I sat on a chair facing out of the door and directly opposite the bird feeders. I’d made my own little Hide and it paid off as the birds carried on feeding oblivious to my presence. If the weather does get as bad as forecast then I’ll have to give this another go.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

1st August

We’ve given up checking the weather app this week and so we found ourselves, picnic lunch packed, heading off to Llanerchaeron. Upon our arrival the cloud was covering the sun and so we headed off into the woods to walk along the river a way and wait for the house and gardens to open. I didn’t see any moths or butterflies while we wandered but when a group of young Mallard fly down river they were accompanied by a much smaller, darker looking bird which to my mind was a Dipper. I walked down onto the exposed river bed and scanned downstream but couldn’t relocate it at this time but on the return journey there it was sitting atop a rock on the other side of the river. It was too far away for my lens and there was nowhere near enough light to get any decent images so I stored them away in my memory rather than my memory card.

After this we made our way in the house and gardens. There were a couple of Green-veined Whites waiting for us at the entrance but after that it got a bit quiet. There was an interesting looking micro moth but not much else. Even the one half of the walled garden was exceedingly quiet with only a single Green-veined White. But as I stepped through the gate from one half to the other things seemed to improve dramatically. I noticed it as I was fussing the cats in the greenhouses, the temperature noticeably increased and I almost needed to put my sunglasses on. As I stepped out with one of the two cats following me a female Large White landed right next to me and as I looked down the path there were suddenly whites all over the place. The small Lavender boxes were bathed in whites of all three species. I did a quick count and reached 27 but there possibly a few more fluttering round the back. Also present were 4 Common Blues, one was definitely a female and I’m guessing that another was as well by the more brown background colour to the underwings.

I got called away for lunch and so made my way back but between munchings I notched up another couple of Green-veined Whites and a Specklie. The girls also brought me a moth that I’d not seen before. They thought that it was dead but after a few photos of it in K’s hand it started to quiver and it became apparent that it was playing dead. There were more moths in the courtyard of the main house but that was it from Llanerchaeron for another year.

Once we got back I went for a quick stroll down the Lane. The Buddleia had only 3 Red Admirals and a single Peacock on it today, there was an approachable Large White near the post box but Rhu Goch could only rustle up a GVW, 2 Hedgies and a brown female Blue. The wind had picked up and the sun was hiding behind the clouds for longer and longer intervals. A quick walk up the Lane and there was only a single male Hedgie as well and as I took my first shot of it my camera ceased functioning. The memory card was full. I took this as the sign to cut my losses and head back to the house, trying to ignore the Painted Lady on the way!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Hi Wurzel
It's a long time since I've seen a dipper and they can be pretty elusive when you do see them

Your micro is an Acleris species possibly laterana. The larger moth is a Clouded Magpie Abraxas sylvata a moth I've never seen before !

Phil

[Neil Freeman]

Nice find with the Clouded Magpie Wurzel one I have yet to see.

I rather like that female Large White shot as well

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Philzoid Yep Dippers don't hang around and the contrasting white and chocolate brown is surprisingly cryptic Cheers for the IDs and sorry to have bagged a tick that you don;t have
Cheers Neil I was chuffed with that LW - she just popped up while I was fussing one of the cats in the greenhouse, I think I'll have to add "fuss a cat" into my "Methodology of butterfly finding"; the Way of the Wurzel
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

That female Common Blue a bit further back is rather splendid, Wurzel - there were some lovely blue examples around last year.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Cheers Dave There was a great range this year and I was able to see from Brown Argus right the way across the range to ones like the one you refer to It was a good Blue year for me

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, I love that Common Blue on the Purple Flowers, it almost looks like the Flowers are reflecting their colour onto the Butterfly, lovely combination, Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie Thistles and the like always seem to set the butterflies off nicely Hopefully Spring will start in earnest soon as I've only got another 12 or so posts left in the reserves Speaking of which...

End of the holiday 2nd August 2018

After the reasonable weather yesterday today it was back the Welsh best; thick black cloud with drizzle now and again. Despite this we took the girls for a run down to the park. After they’d sampled all the different play equipment we took a stroll along the river making our way to the seafront. The river was running really low, the lowest I’ve seen it with barely a trickle running over the various concrete weirs. A couple of GVWs flew by but along the other bank and I thought that would be it as we broke through from the trees in the sprawling urbanity of Aberaeron. But I was surprised to see, in the distance, a Painted Lady on a thin Buddleia. There can only have been four branches on this the spindliest of butterfly bushes. But it held not one but 2 Painted Ladies and a Peacock as well! This was the only whiff of purple amid the slate grey for as far as I could see so I guess that I shouldn’t have been surprised to have found a butterfly here but three on such meagre rations was something of a shock.

After this we carried on down the seafront for a rootle at the low tide mark and the strandline. I didn’t see anymore butterflies but we did find some nice seaglass K was fascinated by the Bladderwrack (Fucus vesiculosus) likening it to bubble wrap whilst Little L was amazed by some Oarweed (Laminaria digitata) with its giant fingers.

3rd August
The drive home didn’t produce any butterflies but we went from comfortably wearing jeans and socks and shoes in the cool and damp drear to blazing sun and temperatures reaching the high 20’s. It was a slight shock to the system but also explains why I didn’t see anything flying along the hedges on the return home.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Lovely Painted Ladies Wurzel, can't wait to see them, hope I do when I'm in Kent Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie They do seem to hang around more in the South, hopefully it'll be a good year for them or even better an invasion year, fingers crossed

End of Year Tally 2018

The new season has kind of started, it was all going so well and the British weather reverted to type and as I type this (3rd March) outside it’s cool, wet and very windy…Still this means that I might have a little time to get the Tally Posts up and running prior to the season getting back up and running…

This time last year I wrote that 2017 was “a funny old year” well if that was the case then 2018 was bloody hilarious! We had the mildest of winters in 2017-18 which almost felt like the way that I remembered Autumns in my youth. Then when things just seemed to actually be starting we suddenly got Winter – with snow and ice and plunging temperatures. This seemed to hold everything back and when Spring belatedly arrived most species were emerging late and seemed to be playing catch-up. As the weather went full bore towards Summer the temperatures sky rocketed and reached record levels but not only was it hot it was also really, really dry and in my area at least there was no June gap in 2018. After this things seemed to revert almost back to normal although there were some partial 2nd broods and miniscule blues and certain species took full advantage of the climatic conditions. I remember reading that after the record breaking year of 1976 the butterflies decreased noticeably in 77 and whether 2019 will see a similar decrease only time will tell, fingers crossed that it doesn’t…

The Skippers

1 Small Skipper, 22-06-2018 Duke Site

SO to business…First on the list but not the first seen was Small Skipper which I saw for the first time at my Duke Site and 5 days later. I didn’t read too much into this at the time because it was only a matter of days and things were still catching up from a very late start to the season. However looking back now it wasn’t the later start that stood out but the apparent decline. I still saw them at all usual sites but in far fewer numbers. I was most struck by this when thinking back over my visits to Larkhill. True I made fewer visits there this year but on those visits the fields of ‘hundreds of Smessex’ just weren’t there. They seemed to be in their 30-40’s rather than 100’s. Last year at Larkhill they were almost in plague proportions but this year there was a famine of them. Possibly the high numbers I saw last year coloured my judgement and they’d just returned to a more usual balance after a very good year. Fingers crossed this is the case.

2 Essex Skipper, 28-06-2018 Work

It seems that the Essex Skipper isn’t just extraordinarily alike to the Small in looks but also in their future outlook it seems. For like their slightly more ginger kin this species was also slightly later (7 days) and also notably reduced population wise. That being said I did have some more positive news for this species. I found a small colony (or more likely rediscovered…or even more likely actually noticed them) at work in the small patch of waste ground that was once the jumping pits. It’s always nice to find a species somewhere new especially when it means additional butterfly interest during a lunchtime break.

3 Lulworth Skipper, 24-06-2018 Lulworth Cove

When I visited their stronghold at Lulworth Cove they were already there which was earlier than I’d seen them last year. They were already in full swing and doing really well from the looks of things; crawling all over the cliff faces and venturing down to the shoreline to take slats from the recently exposed pebbles. One even decided to pay us a visit upon our arrival as we ate lunch taking up residence in our sunshade! Although I only saw than at this one site on one visit I was able to get the full gamut of shots – male, female, fresh, worn, taking salts, nectaring, a male and female in one shot and the crème de la crème, a mating pair. With favourable reports from Durlston it seems that this species protracted flight season is paying dividends as it can cope with periods of extreme weather be it cold, wet or hot and dry. Long may it continue.

4 Silver Spotted Skipper, 22-07-2018 Broughton Down

This year I was able to make two visits to Broughton Down the first of which came 2 days earlier than in 2017 yet there they were. It seemed that things had caught up and were marching ever onwards after the late start. The Silver Spots were in reasonable numbers on my first visit and were showing nicely so much so that I could see that some had already been out for a while; slightly frayed around the edges and starting to look greyer. On my second visit they were all over the place including over on the small triangle field right at the top of the site – somewhere I’ve not seen them before. Speaking of which I didn’t relocate any at Shipton this year but then I think the one form 2017 was just a (unsuccessful) scout. Despite this I felt slightly chuffed that they were having such good year.

5 Large Skipper, 02-06-2018 Bentley Wood

Despite seeing my first slightly further East it was still a few days later this year. Species were still playing catch-up even into June. I had a few notable moments with this species this year. The first came with finding my first of the year at Bentley Wood in between Small Pearls and Marshies in the Eastern Clearing. The second was when I found my first air in cop whilst checking out the ‘Meadows’ at work and the third was finding my second pairing at Slop Bog in between my first pair of Silver Stud pairs.
On the downside however I don’t recalls seeing them in the large numbers that I’m used to. Usually during their main flight they’re crawling all over the place at Larkhilll and Bentley Wood but I didn’t see that wasn’t the case this year. Was this one of the drawbacks of the old spring and then subsequent heatwave?

6 Dingy Skipper, 07-05-2018 Laverstock Down

A fortnight later this year which I can’t decide whether this was due to the late start or whether it was due to them reverting back to a more normal time frame? I also saw my first Dingy before a Grizzlie this year, but only by 5 minutes. They seemed to have a positive year and I can’t recall seeing as many as I saw during 2018? They were certainly out numbering the Grizzlies at Laverstock where I saw my first as well as at my Duke Site and they also cropped up at Larkhill and Bentley Wood too. My notions of them having a good year were backed up further by seeing several second brood individuals with one at Laverstock and then 2 on another occasion as well as finding one at Shipton while seeing Brostreaks.

7 Grizzled Skipper, 07-05-2018 Laverstock Down

Like their distant Dingy cousins the Grizzlies also had a bit of a lie-in this year, turning up a fortnight later than in 2017 and for the third year on the trot on the same day as my first Dingy. However the similarity ended there as they didn’t seem to fair as well as in previous years; I didn’t find them at Larkhill although they were at Bentley Wood in the Eastern Clearing and they were outnumbered by DIngies at almost all of the sites where I found them apart from Martin Down where they seemed to be doing quite well and were holding their own number wise compared to the Dingy – possibly due to the more suitable habitat? I also saw a Grizzlie in early August. But only because it was a malvoides and not malvae!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, love the Skipper's, I hope I see a grizzled one this year Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie If you can get to the right place then you could easily get them, they are a joy to behold, little fuzzy bombshells and if you can get in close they have a wizened old man look about them

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

The Whites

8 Clouded Yellow, 26-07-2018 Laverstock Down

The Clouded Yellow made a welcome reappearance on my on my yearly tally in 2018. I was planned to make a trip to Southbourne in order to make sure that I saw one this year but I needn’t have worried as Laverstock Down produced the goods yet again on one of those most memorable of days; with early morning Chalkhills and Small Coppers, Brostreaks, second brood Dingy, Wall, Painted Lady all featuring amongst the cast of which the Cloudy was possibly the star.

I went ahead with the trip to Southbourne anyway as the girls wanted to see a particular film which was only showing in Bournemouth. I was glad that I did as I was able to catch up with a Cloudy looking resplendent despite the unseasonably cool weather. I’d definitely visit this site again, though possibly slightly earlier in the season when it’s a tad warmer. It will be good to have a back-up site for this species in reserve should there be a dearth in subsequent years. As for how they fared this year as always it is difficult to determine – I don’t recall there being mentions of masses and it definitely wasn’t a ‘Yellow’ year. The most interesting thing for me was that people were still seeing them into October at different sites along the South coast – possibly more small populations clinging on a making it through the winter in their little microhabitats?

9 Brimstone, 05-04-2018 Salisbury

The Beast was responsible for one of latest ever sightings of this species; almost a whole month later. As usual it was on the first ‘brilliant’ day of the season – sun shining and barely a cloud in the sky. Despite the late start they did very well in the early part of the season and I noticed more females this year than last. Unlike last year they didn’t seem to keep going quite as strong and they seemed to peter out as the season progressed. Saying that there were still a few about and I saw my last one on my last ‘proper’ visit out in mid-October but I’m used to seeing many more fluttering around the floral beds of the various National Trust gardens that we visit in early Autumn. Hopefully they just got on with things and the next brood were laid and forming earlier which would explain their absence?

10 Large White, 26-04-2018 Work

A whole 24 days later this year though they were pretty early in 2017 so this may be more of a usual emergence time. Perhaps without the Beast they would have again emerged early? As like last year they seemed to do better in the subsequent broods and weren’t as low in number as I’ve seen in previous years but I’m still waiting for that seismic shift back to them ‘common’ and this year they were hardly that. Perhaps the very hot/dry period through May/June knocked them back a bit?

11 Small White, 19-04-2018 Vera Jones

I’ve been really struggling with working out what happened with this species during 2018. For a start they were 25 days later. Next they seemed to be absent from the hedgerows on the way home and despite a pick-up in their numbers later in the season they were never easy to find and were hardly ‘common’. Saying that I recall a fantastic afternoon in May when I arrived early to pick my wife up from a Yoga session. I took a quick stroll in the locale and looked out across the surrounding meadow and counted over 70 whites in one scan across the field. 70 in one field and there could have been more feeding down in the cover or obstructed from view by the dykes and rivulets. So with that in mind I really can’t make my mind up how they fared…

12 Green-veined White, 14-04-2018 Mottisfont

Only eight days later this year than last and like last year they seemed to be more numerous in the later broods but even so they were still well down to what I recall. Was this because they were adversely affected by the Beast and didn’t really make a comeback? Hopefully this year they will bounce back….One thing I did notice that I’d not before and will have to keep an eye out for this year was that those that I did see in the spring brood had a lovely yellow appearance whereas those in later broods appeared more contrasting black and white. This is the opposite of what I saw last year – is this a factor related to ambient temperatures during metamorphosis I wonder?

13 Orange-tip, 19-04-2018 Vera Jones

My first Orange-tip came 18 days later this year as a lot of these species were held back by the Beast from the East. However this did seem to do the butterflies a favour in that once they did arrive they were in great numbers - in fact I don’t think I can recall seeing as many OTs as I did in 2018. It helped off course that I’ve finally found my guaranteed OT site and also found their favourite hang-out spot at said site but I saw OT at pretty much every site I visited. They were bombing along at Stourhead, Work, Coombe Bissett, may Duke site, Noar Hill, Bentley Wood etc. The list goes on and while they were in the main part of their flight I saw OTs on pretty much every trip out including a monster of an OT at my Marshie site which size wise could have been an escaped Great Orange-tip! They also lasted well this year as I found a male in really good nick at the end of May. They were a joy to behold.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Middle Street 23-02-2019

After a week in Wales with cloud and rain and cold it as nice to get back home an enjoy the Spring weather that I’d been reading about. Unfortunately after 8 years of constant use and/or abuse my lens was starting to show signs of its age and was having a bit of a Restorative at Nikon (complete refit of the Autofocus ) and so I would be using a ‘Nifty Fifty’ lens . Whilst any prime lens is better than the zoom lens the camera came with it was still a far cry from the 105. I wasn’t looking forward to having to get really close to the butterflies and didn’t think that they’d let me so as I parked up and watched several Brimstone fly along the boundary hedge I kept reminding myself that seeing butterflies out and about would be enough…

Once on site my wife sat among the reeds at the rivers’ edge and watched the movement I set off round the pond to check out the hollow seeing only a few Brimstone in the process. As I completed the circuit I was joined by my wife and we started out towards the other end of the reserve. There were no more butterflies on the way but as we almost completed the return journey Brimstones fluttered around the large ‘island’ of Bramble in one of the drainage hollows. Also here there was a Comma, at least that’s what I think it was.

On the homeward journey I pulled in at the corner of Middle and Upper Street as the little bank can be productive. So it proved today with a Comma down on the deck, a Red Admiral on the fence behind it and a pair of Brimstones bustling about. I ignored the Brimstones as they were patrolling and so wouldn’t stop and decided to try for the Comma first because it was between me and the Red Admiral and so it could have spooked it. It was a good call because while I was getting my shots the Red Admiral decided it was warmed sufficiently and took off so I could have missed out and not gotten any shots!

Chuffed to find three year firsts in one sitting we headed for home.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Work 25-02-2019

As the summer progressed nicely (I’m not joking as I type this it feels like that could have been it!) to our third sunny and warm day on the trot, the obligatory trip to Southampton done for at least another 8 weeks and the lovely people at Castle Cameras having issued me with a ‘fill-in’ lens it was inevitable that I would be stuck in work. And so indeed it was. Still I manged to make the most of it and come lunchtime I grabbed my camera and headed out to the ‘field’ and the surrounding pathways at the back of the school.

All was quiet as I worked along the Pits and the margins of the playing fields and it wasn’t until I had taken my first step onto the path at the back that I saw my first butterfly. It was a Small Tort which unkindly kept on going when it reached the fence and decided to land too far away from my lens. I waited for about 15 seconds and it took off landing just on the other side of the fence so a quick dip down and poke of the lens through the wires of the fence and I had my first Small Tort shot of 2019. It moved around a little bit and perched for a while on an old yarrow (?) stem. As I recoiled and straightened up a Brimstone made a pass by.

I set off along the path eyes peeled for any movement but I added only one more Small Tort along the first half of the path. I wasn’t too concerned as this bit of my route often only has the stragglers/travellers from the two main areas that the Small Torts seem to like. Indeed as I reached the small hummock with the break between the houses I spied a second Small Tort which was swiftly joined by three more all bustling and knocking into each other. Right at the far end was another lonesome Small Tort which brought the total to 7 and there was another Brimstone too. Not bad for this time of year.

My return route was much quicker as time had run away from me slightly and I needed to get back but I don’t think I added any new Small Torts to the days tally until right up by the Primary School when I was only seconds away from being back in the block.
Not a bad start 8 Small Torts and 2 Brimstones and it was great to see Small Torts again, I‘ve missed them more than most butterflies to be honest.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Andrew555]

Love the Painted Lady shots from Wales Wurzel, particularly the first.

Wonderful sights from your roundups, all to look foward to. Cracking Comma and Torts.

Cheers

[Wurzel]

Cheers Andrew I've actually started on the 2019 but somehow I'm still a month behind I keep going out at lunch each day and so I've got more and more to do Luckily it's one of those pleasant problems to have

Have a goodun

Wurzel