millerd

[David M]

Some more excellent content in your recent posts, Dave. Very much a 'Festival of the Fresh' with practically all the butterflies looking to have recently emerged.

[millerd]

Thanks, both - plenty of variety as ever, and there are some new butterflies appearing.

I've slipped even further behind now - you'll be catching me up anytime now, Wurzel!

Back to 24th June, and Later The Same Day...

I popped down to Box Hill for the latter part of the afternoon, to indulge in another annual favourite - the period when new Dark Green Fritillaries and Marbled Whites abound together on Burford Spur and with luck pose nicely as the sun goes down.

As expected, the Marbled Whites were out in their hundreds, and in amongst them ten to a dozen DGF were zooming aound. Mixed in with these were half a dozen Painted Ladies (just to confuse things), plus Meadow Browns, Small Heath, Large Skippers, a few new Ringlets, elderly Common Blues, and a couple of Red Admirals. As the afternoon wore on, there was rather more cloud, and the butterflies began to settle down.
Marbled Whites:

DGF:

Dave

[millerd]

Tuesday 25th June: Out again on my local patch, I concentrated on counting the butterflies rather than anything else. Interestingly, there was virtually no sunshine today (only an hour all day according to the Met Office record for Heathrow), but it was up to 24 degrees, making it very muggy.

The butterflies were flying in good numbers as if it were an ordinary sunny day, and over 90 minutes in the middle of the day I counted more than 150 of 14 different species. After the inevitable predominance of Meadow Browns (66 seen), the influx of Painted Ladies provided the next highest total - 29 is a conservative total. This proved to be the peak of this little invasion as they moved on through the following days.

Compared to some, this one was in pretty good condition and still quite bright in colour.

Also noteworthy was another fresh Marbled White, showing that the one I'd seen here before was not just a one-off...

...and there was a new-looking male Brown Argus, probably an early second brood individual.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Cracking stuff Dave - your local patch is certainly producing the goods
"I've slipped even further behind now - you'll be catching me up anytime now, Wurzel! " I'll slow down Dave Mind you I'm still a month behind you

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

It certainly does, Wurzel, and I discovered recently that Green Hairstreaks were spotted on it in late April, adding another species to the possible list. I've never seen one here, but I now know where they are and have seen a photo to prove it!

Wednesday 26th June - I met up with Bugboy down at Bookham, hoping to see the first Purple Emperors - they had been reported from here a few days earlier. We were eventually successful in this, but the sightings were limited to some skirmishes and perching at tree-top height.

However, the woods had good numbers of new White Admirals and Silver-washed Fritillaries, some of which came just about close enough for a shot or two.

We spotted a couple of dark "Black" Admirals, one of which looked almost completely dark and the other just a bit subdued. I managed a rather distant shot of the second one.

There were also a number of Painted Ladies, as you might expect at the moment...

...and some new Red Admirals.

One of these took a particular liking to Bugboy, and when we were trying to pin down the second dark White Admiral, it became a bit of a nuisance by repeatedly settling on one or other of us.

However, it did at one point take an appropriate interest in the various badges on Bugboy's rucksack.

Dave

[bugboy]

I'm sure without that Red Admiral distracting us we'd have got some much better shots of that White ab.!

[millerd]

Definitely, Buggy - I'm sure at one point the ab was sitting right behind us nectaring conveniently on a bramble while we were suffering the attentions of that Red Admiral!

Having now seen the first Emperors of the summer, on Thursday 27th June I set off for Chiddingfold to see if they might be appearing down there too. The answer was in the negative - not even a fly-by - but the wonderfully fresh Silver-washed Fritillaries and White Admirals put on a good show in the meantime.

One SWF in particular had adopted a territory in a cleared area of the woods with dense bracken and foxgloves predominating, and posed frequently.

As I've now been seeing them everywhere, the powerful take-off from a hidden standing start of Painted Ladies had become much less of a "what was that?" moment - it was still quite tricky to actually get close to one.

As happens almost every time I'm down here, I managed to disturb a series of hidden Purple Hairstreaks from the side of the track, watching their leisurely silvery flutter of wings up into the trees. On the fifth occasion, when the butterfly settled a couple of feet directly above me but completely unphotographable, I was beginning to get a trifle fed up with it all.

There were about a dozen species flying overall, including increasing numbers of Ringlets, and plenty of Large Skippers.

One of the slight surprises was finding that there were still half a dozen or so first brood Wood Whites on the wing - in fact they were the only white butterflies I saw during the visit. Despite their worn condition in terms of scale freshness, it was interesting to see that none showed any wing damage at all. Presumably this is a result of their gentle flight mode and careful avoidance of brambles, in complete contrast to the White Admirals which can shred their wings on their maiden flight by the look of some of them.

With the forecast very favourable, I decided to return again on Friday.

Dave

[ernie f]

I liked the clean shots of the Frits but looking back on this page my favourite pic was the red admiral's new camouflage technique by "hiding" amongst bugboy's badges!

[millerd]

Cheers, Ernie - that male SWF was absolutely spotless and was such a good poser as well! However, the Red Admiral probably outdid it in terms of posing...

I do like these long summer evenings - after Chiddingfold there was plenty of time left on 27th June for another wander round my local patch late in the day. What a difference a couple of days make too - Painted Lady numbers had dropped since Tuesday to only eight. A couple of them were unusually dark compared to many of the pale ones that were thronging 48 hours earlier.

Red Admirals were prominent too, with seven seen...

...and there was a noticeable rise in Small Skipper numbers (no Essex yet, though)

There was also a new female Large Skipper, joining the scattering of males already out.

Most striking though was that there had been explosion of brilliant new hutchinsoni summer Commas. I counted no fewer than 13, popping up regularly along the circuit.

I say it every year, but having good numbers of this glorious butterfly around - performing aerobatics, chasing anything that moves, and sitting photogenically on the brambles - makes up for the lack of any fritillary species on my local patch.

Dave

[trevor]

You are right about the Commas, Dave. Always a delight to see.
Superb images of that male SWF, and the 'dark' White admiral.
I might try Chiddingfold for one last time tomorrow/Weds.

Great to see you there recently.
Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of reports Dave You're right about the H.Commas although they can be annoying when you're looking for SWFs as they can leave you second guessing until you get your eye in There isn't a lot of time difference between the first and second brood Wood Whites, the 2nd brood starting emerging this week

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Trevor - that one last Purple hurrah at Chiddingfold on Tuesday was exactly that I think. Yesterday was a bit of a contrast (hardly any people for a start!).

Thanks, Wurzel. At least on my local patch the whizzing orange maniacs have to be Commas, with no Fritillaries to confuse the issue. Yes, there was a scant fortnight between the last first brood Wood Whites and the start of the second. One or other brood tends to just overlap with the Emperors at Chiddingfold, but this year it's been both...

Another visit to Chiddingfold on Friday 29th June also drew a blank Emperor-wise, but the SWF and White Admirals were getting into their stride and the first few Ringlets were starting to appear. It was also another sociable day with several familiar faces present. As I ended up down there most days over about a week, and then again after a few days break, I have lost track a bit of who I saw and when!

I took surprisingly few pictures today (it must have been all the chattting!), but one fresh - and more importantly, whole - White Admiral obliged.

At lunchtime, the consensus was that no Emperors were going to grace us with their presence, so with the afternoon still to play with I decided to have a look at a couple of Silver-studded Blue sites before heading homeward.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of WA images Dave I really like the three quarter shots - you get the brilliant contrast between the stark black and white topside and the luscious reddy underside - for my money the best underside out of the Aristocrats that we get in the UK

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

I agree Wurzel, I missed out on side shots with my WA , it never closed it's wings and they are the best to catch, so yours Dave are great to see ,lovely shots. Goldie

[millerd]

I agree 100% with that assessment of the White Admiral, Wurzel. This was a lovely fresh individual and I was lucky to get close enough for these shots.

Thank you, too, Goldie - I think the bright sunshine encouraged it to close its wings from time to time.

I now headed over to Thursley Common, conveniently just off the A3 and not far at all from Chiddingfold. The heathland here is quite extensive, but the area I usually visit is a walk of only five minutes or so from the road through Thursley village, with a patch favoured by Silver-studded Blues surrounding the weather station. I was quickly surrounded by small shining blue butterflies, though perhaps not in quite the numbers I have seen here before. However, all were fresh, so it was possibly slightly early in their season. Almost all were males, which tends to support this idea as well - later on, females predominate.
Males:

A female:

A mating pair:

And there was still time to take in another site on the way home...

Dave

[Wurzel]

Flippin heck Dave I only read your last post a little bit ago! I love seeing those Silver-studs , great in cop shot and vivacious female ; although they are a bit of a monoculture butterfly - when i saw mine at Slop bog I saw 2 butterflies of two species and almost 200 Silver-studs . I'm left wondering where you're heading next - Local Patch?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Not this time, Wurzel - some more Silver-studs to come...

My route home on 28th June, conveniently avoiding Thursday evening traffic on the M25, took me via Dawneys Hill near Pirbright. This time last year, there were a few male Graylings out as well as Silver-studded Blues, but not this year. The Blues were down in numbers too, and it was noticeable that where the site had been cleared in previous years to prevent overgrowth, it was gorse that was now regrowing rather than heather and it looks to be taking over. The Silver-studs are to be found wherever the heather flowers, so if its area diminishes, so do they.

Though later in the afternoon, it was becoming hot, and the butterflies I found were mostly keeping their wings shut. I tried some experimentation with shading them - which actually worked! They opened up in the shade, and would stay open briefly when exposed once again to the sunshine.

Oddly enough, considering their darker more heat-absorbent colour, the females opened up more readily. They were largely very fresh too.

I was also witness to some behaviour described earlier in the season by Pauline, where a female chases a male prior to mating. The chase was very brief, and the couple joined in very short order. He was nothing special either, being both worn and torn.

The only other species seen here today was the Meadow Brown but there were quite a few dragonflies whizzing about - this one chose to take a beather, however.

Dave

[Wurzel]

More lovely shots Dave including an oily female
" He was nothing special either, being both worn and torn." - this could be why she chose him, if he's a bit worn and tatty he's a survivor and so might possibly have those all important "good genes", or perhaps she had a penchant for Old Spice

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Could be, Wurzel - I've noticed that pristine females often seem to end up with males that look a bit worse for wear...

Saturday 29th June was, as predicted accurately for some days, a very hot day - it reached 34 degrees local to me at Heathrow. I had decided to be out early and was down in the relative cool of the woods at Bookham before eight o'clock. Large Skippers were already setting up shop on prominent bits of bracken, and Meadow Browns and Ringlets were darting in and out of the shade. The difference between the sex brands of these two male Large Skippers is quite striking: the first seems a bit unusual. The third is a female.

I was looking mainly for emerging Purple Hairstreaks, but once again failed dismally in this respect, seeing at best one or two above head height.

I did however find a particularly favoured bit of bramble, sheltered and in sunshine even this early on while most of the tracks were still in shade. White Admirals and Silver-washed Fritillaries had also found this, and along with a solitary Comma were fuelling up for the day.

After a while, Bugboy arrived, bearing gifts. He had found a Purple Hairstreak which appeared intact, but must have been damaged in some way as it kept walking around in circles.

We spent a while hopefully looking for Purple Emperors, but had no luck on this score, and by eleven the heat had increased quite a bit. Painted Ladies were appearing everywhere now, and substituting for the missing Emperors (which they mimic in a few aspects of behaviour) were Red Admirals.

At lunchtime we called it a day, and knowing 30+ degrees is not conducive to productive butterfly watching, I didn't venture out again today.

Dave

[Pauline]

Interesting find Dave. I've never seen a Skipper with sex brands like that. Perhaps someone here might be able to explain.