Bugboys mission

[David M]

Superb sequence, BB. Fear not regarding your 'tardiness'; at least you're not posting things that disappeared several weeks ago thus causing a brief heart murmur!

Your Tortoiseshells seem to be doing rather well this spring (wish I could say the same for mine). Great to capture an Orange Tip & a Peacock in the same image too.....not a particularly common 'combo'.

[millerd]

I also use Photoscape, Buggy, and have done the multiple image thing a few times. Very useful.

Glad you found the Denbies Hairstreaks: nice shots. I must get back down there soon for the Dingies. Won't be too long before the Adonis appear.

Cheers,

Dave

[Andrew555]

Epic post BB! I like your Speckled Woods and egg shots best.

Cheers

[trevor]

You certainly make the most of your days off, Paul. Some great adventures in your reports.
I imagine you'll soon be heading for Sussex as we approach the silly season!.

All the best,
Trevor.

[ernie f]

Bugboy - I realised I hadn't visited your PD for awhile. I had to go back 5 or six pages! OMG!!!

I have just seen your Spanish visit. A fine line up of Spanish butterflies culminating (in my humble opinion) in your sequence of Festoons. Open wing, roosting, close up, mating and even a larva. But apart from the butterflies, spectacular shots of Griffin Vultures and that Moorish Gecko was a bonus. And that Blue Orchid. I don't know what species it is but it shines out. Simply a wonder.

Back home, Specklies in flight were good too.

You mention Cow Wheat (no pics). I have never seen this plant and to my recollection the book pics are interesting. Are they common round your way?

[bugboy]

No worries, I look forward to seeing what you can do with it Wurzel
I'm trying to keep up with things David but I fear I may slip into 'Wurzel territory' as the season continues, Xmas Purple Emperors maybe It's only the one spot where Small Tortoiseshells seem to flourish near me sadly
Thanks Dave, I heard word that the first Adonis are indeed out now down Sussex way, so they must be only days away at Denbies too... if Spring ever returns that is !
Thanks Andrew
Thanks Trevor, and yes Sussex is calling (indeed has already called, see below).
Well I hope you had a brew and a few biscuits for dunking before settling down to my Spanish 'novella' Ernie

May 2019 part 1

1st May
Just a quick stop off at Tottenham Marshes on the way home from the cinema. A little bit late in the day and a tad too cloudy and cool for there to be much activity but a couple of Peacock and Comma were just getting ready for bed and made sure it wasn’t a completely wasted stop off.

4th May
The weekend was a bit iffy, a rather chilly northerly wind was going to put a tight lid on the temperature but there was at least some sun predicted, along with light showers, downpours and thunder storms. It turned out to be a pretty accurate prediction for a change. To avoid the worst of the wind a figured a woodland site would be best and seeing all the Pearl-bordered Fritillaries gracing various diaries, Abbots Wood seemed an obvious choice.

As is traditional for me, I got lost, taking a wrong turn somewhere but I managed to work out where I was and found the small clearing that provided the most amount of shelter from the wind. I hadn’t seen a single butterfly until I reached it, but almost immediately upon arriving an orange butterfly flew up from under my feet. There were three or four on the wing and the cool conditions kept them nice and approachable.

10 minutes of chasing was enough to start the day so I went off to see if anything was awake elsewhere. At the large clearing I found just a single butterfly, not a Fritillary but it was in keeping with the days colour scheme.

At the third clearing I found just a Speckled yellow moth posing for me.

The return was a little more fruitful. A male Minotaur Dung Beetle successfully distracted me from the butterflies for a while.

A couple of Fritillaries, somewhat friskier than earlier, were searching out females along the sheltered edge of the large clearing. Whilst watching these I could myself being observed from up above, lets play ‘guess the butterfly’, shouldn’t be too hard to work out what this sneaky fellow was . Quite a few bejewled Longhorn Moths were also doing their best to hide from the wind.

Back at the first clearing several more Fritillaries were now doing their thing in the sun but my eye was drawn to something smaller, I’ve never seen a Dingy Skipper here before.

It was however sunny spells rather than wall to wall blue skies so there was ample opportunity to hunt for napping Fritillaries.

By noon I decided to move on and try for another seasons debut, getting slightly distracted by a small colony of Small Heath, a HUGE Small Copper (the pictures don’t do her justice she was at least as big as a Large Blue), and a passing Red Admiral.

Next stop was the South Downs Way in between Eastbourne and Beachy Head and an attempt to find a Wall or two. The path I normally focus on here, Wall Brown Alley, is pretty sheltered even on the windiest day.
I’d managed to avoid the rain all morning but now the showers were appearing much more frequently and there were several anvil shaped Cumulonimbus clouds loitering ominously around on the horizon too. Despite all this and the general nip to the air, a few butterflies were still brave enough to come out to play. First off, a Green Hairstreak threw some shapes as it tried in earnest to gather enough of the suns rays to remain active and then halfway along the path, target acquired . As befitted the days less than ideal conditions, there were only two or three of these sun worshippers active but like the Fritillaries, at least they were easier than usual to approach.

The day ended with a fluky shot of a Stonechat just taking off.

5th May
The following day didn’t look to be much better, still cold with less of a breeze but also less sun predicted. There was however enough sun to tempt me out to visit Hutchinson’s bank, a warm south facing site so possibly the best chance of finding anything without spending lots of money on train fares. In the end I managed seven butterflies of five species and photos of two species. It was nearly an hour before the first butterflies showed themselves, a couple of active Small Heath enjoying a prolonged sunny spell on the main scrape and a little while later a couple of Dingy Skippers joined them.

I was following the second one when the sunny spell ended and the Skipper seemed to know there was not much chance of the sun returning. He flitted around until he found a suitable resting spot where he settled down.

I did another circuit of the site, seeing nothing much else until I returned to the main scrape again to stumble across a freshly emerged Grizzled Skipper, wings still a bit soft. Occasional slithers of sunlight encouraged it to flex its wings but it never got very far. And it soon settled down when the clouds thickened again.

At this stage temptation got the better of me, it wasn’t far from where the Dingy was still snoozing so I coaxed it onto my finger and posed them together.

MrSp0ck joined me at this stage and we chatted whilst waiting for a patch of blue sky to wake them up properly. It was worth the wait

After they both fluttered off it was time for me to make a move, a glimpse of a male Orange-tip and a fresh Speckled wood encounter completing the days tally. A day of quality over quantity .

[Katrina]

Great Green Hairstreak photo and nice Pearls too!

[Chris Jackson]

A great series of photos Buggy, you're certainly getting out.
Chris

[trevor]

I'm pleased that you had a fruitful visit to Abbots Wood.
By coincidence I photographed the very same Small Copper as you!.
The small nick in it's left hindwing is the giveaway.

All the best,
Trevor.

[essexbuzzard]

Like the head first pictures of roosting Dingy and Grizzled Skippers . I’ve taken similar pictures of Silver Spotted Skippers in late summer, but haven’t thought of this before. Something a little different.

[millerd]

Some good skipper photos there, Buggy - however contrived it might have been, the Dingy and Grizzly together is a great combination.

Cheers,

Dave

[Wurzel]

A lovely collection of images Bugboy - Pearls and Greenstreaks, Dingies and Grizzlies - mind you I really like those Walls - something I've yet to see this year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

I’m breathless after reading that, BB! It’s a real smorgasbord of what’s currently flying. You’ve done a great job given the inconsistencies of the weather this last week or so.

[Neil Freeman]

A superb selection of species and photos there Bugboy but I am mightily impressed by that photo of the Speckled Yellow on the Bluebell. A very localised species around the midlands, they can be common in the Wyre Forest but very tricky to approach and photograph.

Cheers,

Neil.

[bugboy]

Thanks for all the comments guys. I've struggled to keep up with everyone's diaries this year (even my own as you can see), but I have seen enough to see there's plenty happening out there

May 2019

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to sit down and do some write ups. I booked a couple of weeks off at the beginning of the year in the hope, as most of us do, that the weather will behave. Well it did this time, and of the twelve days I managed to pack in nine day trips out and about with nine season debutantes… I now have a lot of catching up to do !

11th May
The good spell of weather hadn’t quite kicked in at this stage but there was a suggestion of some sun further east so it was off to explore Two Tree Island for a few hours. The weather app continued to say sun was going to welcome me right up to the point where the train pulled into the station when it decided to have a rethink and came to the conclusion that it was going to be mostly cloud and rain! Well I was here now so, hoping the rain held off for a bit, I set off concentrating on the birds of which there was enough to keep me occupied.

The sun did very occasionally peak out, not for much longer than a minute or two, but it did seem to be enough to awaken the single butterfly I saw, a Peacock who fluttered off before I could get a clear view.

I managed to get an hour and half exploring in before a particularly large dark cloud loomed over the horizon, signalling my departure or risking a drenching.


Arriving back home though, I found the weather had improved drastically from the mornings forecast so it was off out to see what I could find on Walthamstow Marshes. Numbers wise not a great deal was about but with the intermittent sunny spells most of them spent some time sitting about posing for me. A total of three Orange-tip, one male of which was close to becoming just three quarters of the butterfly he started off as, not that you’d have known anything was wrong in flight. The damage certainly didn’t hinder him patrolling and harassing any passing White.

Of the other Whites this GVW sat well for me

And so did this Holly Blue, a species I’ve really struggled to find, let alone photograph this season.

Nearby a Comma was watching me

And over on the Alder Buckthorn that was littered with eggs on my last visit I found just a single Brimstone caterpillar and lots of very black eggs. I’m not sure if they had failed or this is what they look like just before hatching, but I’m inclined to favour the former.

Not a too bad a start to my 12 days off but things were set to improve.

[Wurzel]

Great first report Bugboy I see you're starting to live in the past too I was quite surprised that the 3/4 OT was still flying as well as you described as t looks like its wing is peeling off but then butterflies are nothing is not surprising I hope someone else can help out with the black egg conundrum

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Good to know your patient planning paid off, BB. Looking forward to seeing what you got up to. Meantime, that last reportage got things off to a promising start, and I just love the blue tit on the umbellifer - delightful!

[Goldie M]

Hi! Bugboy, I was wondering where you'd got to Looking forward to seeing your next post Goldie

[bugboy]

Yes Wurzel, it did seem to cope remarkably well but I think it was helped by where the tear was, on the hindwing. I think it's the forwing that does the greater share of the work and due to the overlap, it helped to support the hindwing on the down stroke too.
Thanks David, yes I do like that Blue Tit too, here's another shot

Hi Goldie, yes still here, well I've actually been out and about but I will try and catch up with my reports


12th May

The following day had a much improved weather forecast so it was time to get my first dose of Duke action of the year. A nice early start meant I could have a nice slow meandering stroll across the Chilton’s Ridgway walk from Aldbury Nowers Nature Reserve to the Duke colonies at my ‘local’ hotspot of Ivinghoe Beacon. It was quite cool but the sun was out and so were a few early risers.

As the air warmed so activity increased along the Ridgeway, with the Skippers being joined by Small Heath and the occasional Green Hairstreak, all becoming increasingly difficult to pin down for a quick shot. I finally arrived at the Beacon at around 11 to find the males setting up their territories and going about the general thuggery to any passing innocents that is their way. They’re always a willing posers though and I ended up spending a couple of hours wandering the gully’s behind the Beacon.

It wasn’t just the Dukes that were catching my eye either, all the other regular spring species were putting on an excellent show for me including my first Brown Argus of the year and a very well-behaved pair of Dingies, clearly concentrating on other matters to worry about me.

A slow wander back, taking in some other hotspots on the other side of the car park, gave me plenty more to point my camera at and I bumped into a couple of familiar faces, Rosalyn and PhiliB who had made camp at one of them. In this spot I also got my first glimpse of the year of a Common Blue, to frisky in the afternoon sun to get nothing better than a distant record shot but others here were worthy of my attention.

A fantastic day filled with oodles of fresh butterflies and some good company who saved my legs from the walk back to the station

[Goldie M]

Great shots of the Dingy Skippers Bugboy , it takes me all my time to just take a shot of them they never seem to keep still Goldie