millerd

[Wurzel]

I agree with you Dave - he came across as a bit of a...well I’m sure you know what I’m thinking

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

Ah well, Wurzel, it takes all sorts...

Monday 6th July. With a sunny morning forecast, I ventured further afield again, heading down to Bookham. Definitely a good idea, as summer woodland butterflies were in full swing. Sheltered sunlit patches of flowering bramble (with a few tall thistles) were the places to be, and I found several of these. Silver-washed Fritillaries, White Admiras and Commas rather monopolised the action, with a sprinkling of other species, Purple Hairstreaks being notable among them. I saw a number of these butterflies low down and nectaring on the brambles and was able to point them out to a couple who had never seen one before (and had better views than me in the end!).

Others in the supporting cast...

Commas were everywhere, and frequently tangled with the SWF the males of which take an interest in anything orange (just in case).

To be fair, this third one was unusually large and near enough matched the smaller SWF males in size. That's a substantial post it's sitting on.

I saw my first White Admirals here on 2nd June, so most of those seen were showing signs of wear now and I suspect many were female (I did see a few flying around honeysuckle in the shade, which also points at this). However, what they lacked in condition they made up for in approachability.

Both aspects applied to the unusual "Black Admiral" that dropped by at one point. A great pity not to have encountered this one when it was new.

alongside a "normal" one

the worse for wear, sadly

Silver-washed Fritillaries emerged a while after the White Admirals this year, and many of those seen looked pretty fresh (especially the females). However, to avoid overloading this post, I shall continue with the SWF in a new one.

Dave

[millerd]

6th July - Bookham (continued): Silver-washed Fritillaries

A number of the elegant balletic SWF courtship flights were seen, at least one of which resulted in a pairing. However, the majority of butterflies seen were males...

...with just one or two females generally sneaking around in the shade and being certainly less demonstrative.

I found the pairing in the usual way of having my attention grabbed by a bit of a kerfuffle in the foliage. A second male had located the pair and was doing his best to get in on the act.

He was a bit of a scruffy character compared to the incumbent, and eventually gave up, leaving the happy couple alone. It turned out that the female was considerably bigger than the male. As far as I could see, he wasn't particularly small, so she clearly was a whopper. Both were very fresh too.

Overall, it was a great morning, with a lot of splendid butterflies. Multiple species views were quite frequent, but these three were unusually close together. I was concentrating on the White Admiral, and first the Red Admiral and then the Comma slipped into the near background of the shot. Unfortunately, the latter two remained a bit out-of-focus.

Dave

[trevor]

Excellent Silver Washed sequence Dave, and that last shot is something else!.
There were many SWF flying this morning and every one had chunks out of the wings.

They don't stay fresh for long.

Keep well,
Trevor.

[Katrina]

Great treble shot!

[millerd]

Cheers, Trevor - the SWF were the stars at Bookham on the 6th without a doubt. I still can't get over how large that female in the pairing actually was -she'd have matched a male Emperor for certain!

Thank you, Katrina (and Trevor again) - lots of luck getting that "treble" of course, and they didn't stay for more than a few seconds. Most felicitous lineups are gone before you can get a lens on them, but the second two arrived when I had already set myself up to take a shot of the White Admiral. Not likely to happen again!

Back home for the afternoon of 6th July and still time to clock up 15 species locally, a number of which were ones I'd not seen at Bookham. Common Blues, Brown Argus and Small Coppers for example...

Puddling Holly Blues and a nice fresh Speckled Wood were also worth a mention.

Dave

[millerd]

Tuesday 7th July. A glorious-looking morning first thing, so I headed for Denbies Hillside to see if the Chalkhil Blues had finally emerged here.

As is customary, the path down the western side of Steers Field produced a few Small Coppers, as well as Marbled Whites, Ringlets, Skippers and one or two Gatekeepers.

Out onto the main hillside, there were more Marbled Whites, plus Meadow Browns and about half a dozen female Dark Green Fritillaries. These latter butterfles were scooting around energetically before diving into the turf to seek out violet plants, close to which they would lay their eggs. They were impossible to photograph as they were constantly on the move or buried in the shade of vegetation. After traversing the slopes a couple of times, encountering a couple of Common Blues and wondering where all the Small Heaths had vanished to, I finally came across a fresh male Chalkhill Blue.

I only found the one, though Essex Buzzard (who was also here today but whom I somehow managed to miss!) found one or two more.

I moved back up to Steers Field, heading east along the bottom and then gradually back up to the top where there is a kind of division between sections of the hillside. There was a good variety of all the species seen so far (other than Chalkhills), and I was trying to keep track of the Small Coppers that were whizzing around. I spotted something about the right size, but apparently the wrong colour, and was about to dismiss it as an unusually active Gatekeeper when it settled not that far away. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I went to investigate. Now that I could see the butterfly, I still couldn't immediately identify what it was - but then the penny dropped. It was a Small Copper, but not one like any other I have ever seen (though I have subsequently been reminded of images of the species from the Mediterranean that are similar). As ever when you have something wildly different in front of you, you expect the butterfly to disappear without trace before anything more than a blurred record has been snatched. Amazingly, this little Copper was happy to sit on its perch for some time and show off its extraordinary colouring, reminiscent of glowing embers.

As you might imagine, that rather made my day and is unsurprisingly a highlight of the year so far.

Dave

[Wurzel]

I was reading through and was pretty envious of the Black Admiral but then I reached the end of my catch-up and best had been saved until the end - that Small Copper I mean can it even be called a Copper as it has so little of the colour? Awesome and I can easily see why that's the highlight of your year

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Nice triple combo with the Admirals and Comma earlier, Dave, but that Small Copper is absolutely astounding. As I scrolled down the page I thought at first it was a female Brown Hairstreak.

What a find!

[Pauline]

It certainly is a stunning butterfly Dave. I should also add that your lovely images show it off to best advantage. I never did go back for a second attempt but thanks for the opportunity to locate.

[Goldie M]

Fantastic find Dave, really unusual Copper Goldie

[millerd]

Thank you everyone - that Small Copper was indeed a splendid little butterfly, one I shall long remember.

Heading back from Denbies on 7th July, I thought I'd pop into Bookham again especially as road works near Leatherhead meant a bit of a diversion anyway. I concentrated less on the SWF today, though I did find another mating pair, and a reasonable female.

Alongside the Large Skippers everywhere, all the smaller skippers here were just that - Small Skippers.

There were nicely marked Commas...

...and fresh Peacocks looking quite at home in a woodland setting for a change.

Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt that there were fewer White Admirals around than 24 hours earlier.

Nevertheless, there were plenty of butterflies overall, providing further opportunities for multiple species combos - though not so closely associated as the three the day before.

In the end, it was one of the smaller species that proved most interesting: more Purple Hairstreaks were relinquishing the tops of the oak trees and heading for the brambles and the bracken. Unfortunately they tended to stay around head height today, so though profile shots were not too difficult...

...getting above them when they opened their wings proved a lot trickier.

Dave

[millerd]

On Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th July, no sunshine at all was recorded at Heathrow and the temperature just scraped 20 degrees. Nevertheless, there were a few butterflies around on my local patch, though my walks were more limited than usual. A selection from both days:

Most were new butterflies - I couldn't help feeling that a few decent sunny days might trigger an explosion in numbers of the new broods just underway.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Cracking reports Dave The White Admirals seem to have been a bit 'blink and you'll miss them', 'here one day gone the next' this year round my way Good to see the Purps still coming down - were those whispered out of the trees? I gave Shipton a look-see today - no Brostreaks yet - maybe by next weekend?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

...I couldn't help feeling that a few decent sunny days might trigger an explosion in numbers of the new broods just underway.

Me too, and it will happen next week if the forecast is to be believed.

Nice Purple Hairstreaks again, Dave. Doubt I'll see any so close round my way. Like the WLHs, they seem to prefer remaining in the higher canopy by me.

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - the White Admirals started at Bookham at the very beginning of June and seem to have been going strong ever since (there were still a few scruffy ones pottering around on Monday 13th July). An early season, but six weeks and counting - though I suspect they will be gone soon, sadly. I'm afraid I don't speak very good Hairstreak, so they would only come so far and no further. Hopefully you'll have some luck with the Brown dialect of the language down at Shipton - keep me posted!

Numbers have started to rise, David, as you'll see in forthcoming reports - there were lots of Common Blues yesterday for example.

Despite the sunless weather, I also popped down to Staines Moor again on 8th July to have another look at the Small Coppers. It doesn't take a lot of heat from the sun making its way through the clouds to mobilise this species, and I ended up seeing around a dozen. I also came across a mating pair of Ringlets - another species unafraid of a few drops of rain. It always strikes me as ironic that this shade-loving butterfly that is unbothered by cloud and a bit of drizzle times its emergence at the height of the English summer - surely no coincidence...

The Coppers are less happy with such weather, but the lack of proper sunshine meant they were mostly basking with wings open to catch what warmth there was.

Quite a variable selection...

Dave

[millerd]

Friday 10th July. Sunshine again first thing, so I made another trip down to Bookham. The Purple Hairstreaks were not accommodating today for some reason, though this Holly Blue down on the bracken had me hoping for a second or two.

More female SWF were around, and were quite amenable in the early sun, basking and nectaring.

The females seem quite variable in colour, but the males are generally all the same shade of orange.

There were still plenty of Large Skippers (though these have long disappeared from my local patch)...

...and Commas of course.

White Admirals were around, but really not very many now.

A walk over to the Banks Common area to look for early Brown Hairstreaks produced nothing more than a lot of Ringlets, several Gatekeepers and a Marbled White.

Another ten days or so will hopefully see the appearance of those hairstreaks.

Dave

[millerd]

After Bookham on 10th July, I carried on down to Denbies again. On the usual route down the western edge of Steers Field, there was the customary Small Copper...

...and to the right along the fringe of the woodland a couple of Silver-washed Fritillaries and a Comma could be seen.

At the end of this path just before the gate, the first few Chalkhill Blues were to be found, and out on to the main slopes more of the species were now flying, including a female.

No confusion with Adonis females at this point in the season of course! The first male I concentrated on turned out to have a slightly aberrant underside, with a couple of the black spots running into each other.

Several female Dark Green Fritillaries were busy across the slopes, seeking out suitable spots to lay. The sun had become a bit hit and miss now, and they stopped periodically to bask and warm up.

a violet plant is visible at top left

I returned to the car park for a coffee from the van, and wandered across the road to the long line of large oak trees. Sure enough, I could see Purple Hairstreak activity, and one or two came down to the brambles between the path here and the road, but none were in a photographable position. For the second time today, my hopes were dashed by a potential target turning out to be a Holly Blue.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Brill Coppers Dave and the "!" 'definitely differently marked' Chalkhill - oddly enough Goldie has posted one with a similar looking marking
No joy with Brostreaks on Friday, I'll try and get over mid-week

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - it was an unusual marking... I shall await further news on the hairstreak front.

The last visit for the day on 10th July was over the way from Denbies at Box Hill. I saw a lot of Marbled Whites, which were quite a bit fresher than those at Denbies (where they were out several days earlier after all - interesting that adjacent sites should have significantly different emergences). These included a mating pair.

The fresher ones were generally females - it is interesting to pick out subtle differences in the various small spots on this species.

There were still a few DGF here as well, but I couldn't get any of the females to pose in the way they had at Denbies, and had to be content with a rather worn male.

I found just the one (rather sluggish) Chalkhill Blue - this species lags behind here as well.

Dave