May 2020

[Chris L]

Otep ,I don,t know where you are in the UK ,but I can guarantee that someone on these forums will happily answer your questions, ie; where to go and how to look for butterflies in your area ,I mean straightaway, Jack is up in Scotland and I'm at the other end of UK, and theres people dotted around at every point in between , for instance if I can't identify something ,I know if I stick a picture on someone is their to help. that maybe plants insects ,birds or anything really ,if you,re not sure …….ask ,this is an excellent friendly and very informative website. I've learnt so much !
Regards Allan.W.

Thanks Allan. South Derbyshire is where I reside (on the borders of Staffordshire and Leicestershire and not far from Warwickshire too actually).

It is indeed an extremely friendly and informative website and I too am learning so much from it.

[Chris L]

Thank you for your informative snakes post Zigzag. I was really interested in your mat story. It made me think about doing likewise. However, my cats like sitting on anything that I put on the lawn so that might not work.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Thanks David. Yes - I've just seen there's a FAQ - I should have looked at that re. editing posts. Mind you, what I don't know about editing posts, and IT in general you could fit in very small writing along the sides of a moderate aircraft carrier fleet !

I went out with the intention of going a bit further today but ended up staying in the fields behind our local (yet again). Unfortunately there was a nasty accident on the main road and police were stopping anyone going past the pub.

So I just walked round the fields a few more times than usual to get my exercise. No snakes spotted today, but a nightingale has been singing there for weeks now along with whitethroat and blackcap. I just love listening to that background music. The resident kestrel was doing his stuff too.

Paid off as I saw 2 Large Skippers and a single Dingy Skipper. Have previously walked to the foothills of Wolstonbury Hill to see the latter....didn't realise I was in with a sniff 5 minutes from my house.

Apart from one Holly, I didn't spot any blues today. Didn't see any skippers yesterday though.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Thank you for your informative snakes post Zigzag. I was really interested in your mat story. It made me think about doing likewise. However, my cats like sitting on anything that I put on the lawn so that might not work.

No problem Otep. We have 2 cats too. In fact (unfortunately) the ginger likes nabbing a slow worm - he looks like he's got a Zapata moustache when he's got a big one. Luckily a few escape via tail jettisoning and we rescue any others we can. We put the mats down mainly to give the slow worms extra cover - the cats do occasionally sit on the mats but they haven't yet learnt to lift them up We didn't know we had snakes too until we got the mats.

[millerd]

Seen at Denbies Hillside today: possibly an aberrant Small Heath. Admittedly it is quite a worn individual, but in flight it was strikingly pale, almost white. A pity not to come across when fresh, or to get a better view of those elusive uppersides, though the backlit shot gives a bit more of an impression.

Dave

[Padfield]

A very interesting butterfly, Dave. There seem to be several pallid aberrations of small heath so I'm not sure which that is, but it does look aberrant.

Things seem to be generally later in Suffolk than down south. All the orange tip caterpillars on our garden garlic mustard are still first or second instar - and there are plenty of eggs waiting to hatch. This one graduated to 2nd instar this morning. You can see the old skin that he has crawled out of, still with its adornment of droplet spikes, behind him, and his old head in front of him. His new skin is soft and pale.



Guy

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Dave. That's a very rare Small Heath ab. alba; congratulations. Spookily, I saw the same yesterday, at Chantry Hill (Storrington); the first I've seen in 50 years of butterflying. Its ghostly appearance in flight stood out from 30 metres away! More images when I finally get around to relaunching my diary.
BWs, Neil

[Matsukaze]

This time last year I saw five snakes in one day - admittedly this was in southern Spain but it is more than I have seen in a lifetime here.

[Medard]

I forgot to include the  Slow worm [Anguis fragilis] Shapwick NNR, they go about there business unseen by the majority of the human race.

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

[Matsukaze]

Slow-worms are resident in my garden - typically I only come across them in the first few warm sunny days of spring when they drape themselves across the winter-flowering heather, absorbing the sun's rays. The last couple of years they have migrated into our greenhouse, and I saw my first of the year a couple of days ago when I removed a bag of compost that it was resting underneath. I am delighted to have them as, before moving here, it must have been 30 years since I last saw any.

[Medard]

Can someone ID this burnet moth ? please.
Cotley Hill, Wiltshire.

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com

[bugboy]

Can someone ID this burnet moth ? please.
Cotley Hill, Wiltshire.
SEP_5091.jpg

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com

Hi, it's an ab. of one of the 5-spot Burnet moths, probably Zygaena trifolii based on time of year. This one with the merged spots is known as form/ab minoides

[Jack Harrison]

I haven’t seen slowworms in my N.Scottish garden but one of the cats thinks he has.

I have one of those flexi-expanding hoses. After use and turned off, the hose retracts with a lot of wriggling. Fluffy (an old boy at nearly 17) goes crazy. He is hilarious when chasing a laser light on the floor and up furniture and fitments.

Cats age into human terms. Not the old times seven. Cats grow up quickly and two years cat equates to 24 years human. Thereafter four to one. So Fluffy at almost 17 is 24 + 15*4 = 84, a little older than me Fluffy isn’t as arthritic nor as deaf as I am – but a lot more stupid (I think )

Jack

[Bertl]

Good to see the pearl bordered fritillary making an appearance today out on Deeside

[essexbuzzard]

A long but absolutely brilliant day down in Sussex on Sunday. Much more to come on my PD dreckly ( as we say in Cornwall!) but here is a taster...

[Roger Gibbons]

A trip this morning to the edge of the Chilterns for Dukes and Grizzled Skippers. It is a location that I used to go to every year in May but have not for the past fifteen years.

The Dukes were a little past their best and the conditions were very windy, but I did manage to get a shot of this female Duke.

[Medard]

A trip to Cotley Hill, Wiltshire.
As I walked up the track over head were a pair of Ravens calling loudly,

Raven (Corvus corax)

Raven (Corvus corax)

Dingy Skipper, were very combative.

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)

Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)

Grizzled Skipper, disappointingly only one seen.

Grizzled Skipper (Pyrgus malvae)

Small Blue, the target species for the trip, very active but I did finally to
get one in the frame.

Small (Little) Blue (Cupido minimus)

Small (Little) Blue (Cupido minimus)

Small (Little) Blue (Cupido minimus)

Brown Argus, plentiful including a pair in cop being harassed by another male.

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)

Brown Argus (Aricia agestis)

Common Blue, not as many as I had expected to see.

Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus)

Marsh Fritillary,  probable four males.

Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia)

Marsh Fritillary (Euphydryas aurinia)

Small Heath.

Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus)

Five-spot Burnet  ab minoides

Five-spot Burnet ab minoides

Mother Shipton moth.

Mother shipton

also seen
Orange-tip
Small white
Green veined white
green Hairstreak.

[David M]

Good to see you had a productive day, Jim. Love the image of the pair of Brown Argus with the interloper.

[millerd]

You had a good day on the Hill, Jim. Interesting, as I was there yesterday (18th), from around 0810 until lunchtime, joined later by, but keeping a distance throughout from, both Wurzel and Philzoid - who were also savouring the joys of the location.

I do like your trio of Brown Argus - sometimes a gatecrasher ends up spoiling a perfectly posed shot, but in this case it's just improved it no end!

Cheers,

Dave

[Medard]

A coincident then, I presume you were the three gentlemen that I spoke to around 12 noon and just leaving.