April 2020

[MikeOxon]

It was a beautiful sunny and warm afternoon in my Abingdon garden, which I spent lying back in a reclining chair, watching Holly Blue butterflies flitting around the tree canopy overhead. It was a pleasant way of enduring ‘self isolation’.

There were at least two individuals, which occasionally met and then had a brief spell of spiralling around each other, before parting again and going their separate ways.

Garden, Abingdon - 7th April 2020
Olympus E-M1-ii with 100-400mm lens - 1/1600s @ f/8 ISO 640

I noticed that one individual kept returning to one particular group of leaves as a favourite resting place, so I concentrated on trying to take photographs of this area. Frequently, the butterfliy settled on the upper sides of leaves, with just the antennae showing from below. Then, suddenly, it would sally forth for another bout of patrolling the surrounding area.

I decided to try using the ‘pro-capture’ mode of my Olympus camera, to capture the moments around take-off. In this mode, the camera keeps cycling shots in a buffer (up to 14 images) all the time that the shutter release is half-depressed and then, when the release is fully depressed, the buffer contents are ‘frozen’ and the camera keeps recording images. By using the electronic shutter, it is possible to take photos at a rate of 60 frames per second. I used my Leica 100-400mm lens, set to 200mm focal length, with camera settings of 1/1250s @ f/8, ISO 640.

My method was to keep my finger on the release, while a butterfly was sitting on a leaf, then fully pressing down, the moment I saw it take off. This gave me a sequence of up to 39 images, with many of them covering the time before my reaction.

After taking a sequence in this way, I opened the first photo in Photoshop Elements as the ‘reference’ image. I then opened the next image as a new layer and carefully aligned the two images. I then selected the new butterfly image and deleted the rest of the layer. By repeating this for each successive image, I was able to superimpose a sequence of photos on one image, as shown below.

Garden, Abingdon - 7th April 2020
Olympus E-M1-ii with 100-400mm lens - multiple images

The butterfly was initially on top of a leaf, with just the antennae showing. What surprised me was that by the very first shot that showed any movement, it had already moved a considerable diatance and then continued to follow a corkscrew flight pattern, as it disappeared out of frame, to the right. Remember the time-interval between successive shots was only 0.017 sec

I repeated the procedure with another take-off, this time from a face-on position on top of a leaf. The results are shown below:

Garden, Abingdon - 7th April 2020
Olympus E-M1-ii with 100-400mm lens - multiple images

Once again, the images show a remarkable initial ‘leap’ from the leaf, followed by the twisting corkscrew motion of the initial flight.

Looking at the individual images closely, the detail of the movements is quite extra-ordinary and presumably represents a defence mechanism, to evade potential predators.

Mike

[Stevieb]

Decided to leave the confines of my garden and walk the 25 minutes to the local bridleway. Glad I did as lots more action there than my garden!!
6th 10 Peacock. 7 Small Tortoiseshell
7th 6 Brimstone incl 1 female, 5 Orange-tip, 4 Small Tortoiseshell, 8 Peacock, 1 Comma

Peacock 6th April

Peacock 7th April

Male Orange-tip 7th April

Female Brimstone 7th April

Small Tortoiseshell

.

[aeshna5]

On our daily walk in the west London 'burbs we had a very productive afternoon with 8 species (highest tally this year) including multiple Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Small Whites, male Brimstones, male Orange Tips, a single Comma & two new for the year- a single Speckled Wood & 2 Holly Blues (one in the garden).

[Stevieb]

My first Green-veined White of the year.

Green-veined White 8th April

Small White 8th April

[David M]

My first Green-veined White of the year.

Beautiful, Stevie. I'm still waiting for my first, so nice to see others spotting them.

[Padfield]

Interesting holly blue shots, Mike - and cleverly done.

I wonder if the first 'leap' can be explained by simple physics. The first downstroke of the wings will compress the air more, and thus generate a higher pressure (and therefore force on the wings) because the airmass beneath the wings can only move sideways, not down. Away from the leaf, the airmass can also move down.

Guy

[David M]

Few butterflies on the wing on Fairwood Common this afternoon in spite of the sunshine. Species seen were Brimstone, Speckled Wood, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell and my first Red Admiral of the year, which was flying round the lake in Gelli-Hir wood.

[Jack Harrison]

The final dozen Orange Tip pupae out of the fridge and now in shed being allowed to warm up for emergence end April/early May (normal time here).

Not a single loss over the winter.

Jack

[Allan.W.]

Yet another Large Tortoiseshell reported from coastal Norfolk , First Small Copper reported from Dungeness (from the observatory wardens permitted exercise walk ) and ten (+) male O-Tips locally for me + 2nd Red Kite over (in two days ) and first Swallow ,records from my Kentish garden. Allan.W.

[Allan.W.]

Footnote to the above post …………………………...Yet another Large Tort ; reported from Selsey Bill !

[David M]

Great to hear about all these Large Tortoiseshell sightings.

At some point, someone is going to find larvae and we will be able to consider this to be a breeding UK species again.

[MikeOxon]

... I wonder if the first 'leap' can be explained by simple physics. The first downstroke of the wings will compress the air more, and thus generate a higher pressure (and therefore force on the wings) because the airmass beneath the wings can only move sideways, not down. Away from the leaf, the airmass can also move down.

I believe that this is known as 'ground effect' and, for example, helps birds to skim above the surface of water. I think also that our 'common sense' can be deceived by the behaviour or very small, lightweight insects, which have so little momentum compared with our own experience. I suspect that an initial push from the legs makes another important contribution.

When I look at a complete set of photos, it is notable that there is no apparent preparation for the 'leap' - the insect shows no movement at all until the shot that shows it fully launched into flight!

Mike

[The Doc]

Not been on for a while (had a crocked back!). But back butterflying again

I've spent the last 2 sunny days on my exercise walk on my local patch, Newchurch Common and the adjacent Mosslands, near Northwich in Cheshire. Over the two days I have recorded several firsts for me this year.

Yesterday (7/4/20) I had my first Holly Blue, a male. Today (8/4/20) I ventured onto the Mosslands and added Green Hairstreak (8 individuals) to my list as well as a Green-veined White and a male Orange-Tip. Also on the wing over the 2 days were Brimstones, Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks.

[Vince Massimo]

I am very lucky to have a lovely quiet site, just a few minutes walk from home where I exercise on most days.

Broadfield stream, Crawley

Rathlin Road Pond, Crawley

Today I found my first female Orange-tip of the season. She was going from flower to flower, but not laying eggs, just nectaring. I hoped that she was still un-mated, so followed her to see what would happen when she encountered one of the three males that were patrolling the site. After a few minutes a male landed beside her and mated immediately.

Orange-tip pair - Crawley, Sussex 9-April-2020

The only other shot I got in the hot weather was of a Peacock

Peacock - Crawley, Sussex 9-April-2020

The species list for today was:

Large White
Small White
Green-veined White
Orange-tip
Brimstone
Speckled Wood
Peacock
Comma
Holly Blue

Vince

[David M]

...Today (8/4/20) I ventured onto the Mosslands and added Green Hairstreak (8 individuals) to my list ...

Wow! Green Hairstreaks on 8th April - that's almost obscene! I reckon I might go and see if any of my local spots have seen them emerge.

[David M]

Today I found my first female Orange-tip of the season. She was going from flower to flower, but not laying eggs, just nectaring. I hoped that she was still un-mated, so followed her to see what would happen when she encountered one of the three males that were patrolling the site. After a few minutes a male landed beside her and mated immediately.

Nice work, Vince. I too was employing that strategy in Dan-y-Graig cemetery yesterday. Unfortunately, the only interest the sole female Orange Tip received was from a couple of male Small Whites.

[MikeOxon]

Let's not forget that it's tough being a larva! - especially at this time of year when the birds are looking for food for their young.

gaqrden, Abingdon - 5th April 2020
Olympus E-M1-ii with 40-150mm lens - 1/100s @ f/5.6 ISO 640

The Holly Blues remain active in my garden and the occasional Orange Tip hurries through, without stopping.

Mike

[Stevieb]

Bit of action in the garden this lunchtime with 3 Holly Blues, all male, 2 Orange-tip, again both males, a Small White and a fly through Peacock.

[Jack Harrison]

Cunning Plan 10th April

At 1530 hours, I took a can of beer out of the fridge and went outside in the 17C sunshine. Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t need that beer - it was purely as a “prop” (I trust none of you had got a wrong impression).

Three-quarters of can later, I finally achieved the real purpose for going outside. A Small Tortoiseshell on Bowles Mauve wallflower. This was my first of the year (butterfly, not beer).

Jack

[David M]

Like it, Jack....though I'm dismayed at my bowles mauve not being in flower when yours is so much further north!