Thanks Buzzard. I had them down as
Zelkova serrata (Japanese elm) if they were
Zelkova, but it seems to be agreed they are
Ulmus pumila now. I had always thought they were
Ulmus until suddenly told otherwise ...
Yes David, graylings are fantastic butterflies. We are lucky that they are a very common butterfly in East Suffolk.
On my afternoon dog-walk to the hairstreak meadow I spotted what I took to be a purple hairstreak zoom out of one oak and into another. Sadly, it flew straight into a spider's web and by the time I had roughly focused my zoom on it the spider had already begun wrapping it up. Photography was not easy because as well as Minnie, who was happily trotting around free, I had my sister's rather wild dog attached to my waist. On top of that, the butterfly was suspended in the air surrounded by leaves the camera wanted to focus on, and moving and vibrating. So the pictures do not really confirm the ID. I think it's clear this is a female hairstreak, but no purple is visible and there is just a tantalising suggestion of an orange upperside anal spot in the first picture. Nevertheless, if only because she was flying from oak to oak I think she is probably purple:
And literally seconds later:
Painted ladies are everywhere at the moment. At least some are very small, suggesting they were affected by the heatwave. This is one of the small ones, though you can't tell it from the picture:
Today they were all over the Buddleias along the streets of Woodbridge. Here are a couple with a red admiral - which is also around in great numbers:
(still with wild dog attached!)
The bigger picture looked like this:
Common blues have had a brilliant summer locally and are abounding now. A great many, however, are very small, suggesting they too were affected by the heatwave. This is one of the small ones, on ragwort:
Finally, gatekeepers are having a tremendous party. I'm sure I've never seen so many, though to be fair we don't get them in my part of Switzerland and I'm not usually in the UK at this time of year.
Guy