millerd

[ernie f]

Dave

Good you could make it down to my neck of the woods. Noar Hill can be wonderful at this time of year. I have been looking for a Clouded Yellow here but been unsuccessful this year so far, but you got lucky.

You even got the Dingy too. I once in a previous year saw a second brood Duke here but no luck so far this year.

[kevling]

Quite a day at Noar Hill for you Dave with the 2nd brood Dingy Skipper and Clouded Yellow. Nice photos of the Small Blue. I've just been treated to a 2nd brood on my local patch too. Nice to see.

Kind Regards
Kev

[Wurzel]

Cracking Cloudies and Small Blues Dave But the Helice Still not seen one myself Just need a few more Brostreaks now

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Ernie - yes, Noar Hill is really good at the moment, so much so that I shall be down there again very soon, hopefully to see those Hairstreaks you encountered. Second brood Dukes - now there's a thought...

Thanks, Kev - it was a really good mix of the less run-of-the-mill stuff. A Brown Hairstreak would have been good, but I'll see if I can rectify that shortly...

Cheers, Wurzel! Summer's really here when the Cloudies appear - though to find the helice female was a bonus with a cherry on top. Eleven years since the last one.

After all that, the weather on 24th and 25th July took a nose-dive. There was only one hour of sunshine between the two days locally, and though 24th was pretty warm, 25th wasn't even that. My excursions were pretty limited, and most of what I came across were roosting butterflies.

One standout moment was actually on 25th. It was damp and gloomy, and I'd almost given up on seeing anything at all, when something large and brilliant orange erupted from the vegetation in front of me. It only got as far as a nearby sallow, and quite low down at that - a bright new Jersey Tiger moth.

These spectacular insects appear hereabouts most summers now, and seem to be on the increase.

Dave

[millerd]

Sunday 26th July. The sun reappeared this morning, though not totally convincingly and it was slow to warm up. However, I set off down to Bookham again in search of Brown Hairstreaks. The Gatekeepers were out in force along the hedgeline where I've always found hairstreaks in the past and they are very distracting, though their unsettled jittery flight patterns are not the same as those of the target species. In the end, as there were some nice fresh ones around, I took a few shots of them.

There were one or two Purple Hairstreaks around as well, also a distraction higher up as they happily share the master ash tree in this area with their Brown cousins. Eventually I was taking a closer look at yet another male Gatekeeper, when I noticed that close to it on the bracken was something else which from a distance looked like a bit of dead leaf. However, examined from a bit nearer it turned out to be a male Brown Hairstreak. It wasn't very close, and at a lousy angle to achieve any kind of decent shots, but I would have inevitably disturbed it by scrabbling in nearer. I managed to attract the attention of a fellow enthusiast with far more sophisticated photographic equipment, and he apparently succeeded in getting some acceptable shots before the butterfly flew. It had begun to open its wings as the sun came out a bit more, but it turned out this was just a brief precursor to its flight up into the trees.

Never mind - the season has to start somewhere.

As I made my way back to the car, a Comma also made me stop and look twice for a moment...

...and there was a female Silver-washed Fritillary to remind me that summer wasn't on the decline just yet.

Dave

[ernie f]

Love that Jersey Tiger Moth. Not a species I have yet encountered.
And good to see you are getting started on the Brostreaks round your way and low down enough to be on a fern too. I always think its great when you get a pic of a butterfly from above when it is from a species you usually spend most of your time craning your neck upwards to see!

[millerd]

Those Jersey Tigers are amazing beasts, Ernie, especially when one explodes out of the greenery right in front of you. More Brown Hairstreaks in a post or two's time, also without any neck strain at all!

First of all, two more relatively cool and not very sunny days - Monday/Tuesday 27th/28th July. I stayed local and saw little beyond what I would normally see. the 28th was a bit sunnier, and the counts of Common Blues (40) and Brown Argus (21) rose accordingly. There were still plenty of new ones amongst them.

This contrasted with the Small Coppers, who really had seen better days.

Gatekeepers are probably past their peak now, but there were still fresh females around - much underrated and overlooked considering they can look like this:

Holly Blues are a bit of a disappointment in the current brood, and I only saw a handful on both days.

The species that did stand out a bit was the Small Heath. The current brood is only just underway, and 12 were seen on 28th. They are quite variable as these two new examples show.

Dave

[kevling]

Dave, Nice photos of the Small Heaths and interesting how different their markings are. I sometimes struggle to photograph this species close up as they don't like being approached (unless I am very heavy footed) So to get two of them, hats off to you.

Kind Regards
Kev

[millerd]

Thank you, Kev! Like all things, there is a knack to getting close to Small Heaths. Your best chance is when it's a bit cloudy and you disturb one from the ground. It will quickly find somewhere else to sit and with a bit of luck will be accessible. You have to work out where your shadow might be, as even if you can't see one the butterfly will sense the subtle change in light level. Get down to its level early and creep in low down. I was particularly lucky with the second one above, as it chose to perch higher up and you have less opportunity to disturb the foliage when they do that.

Tuesday 28th turned into a very sunny afternoon, so later on I decided to head up to Aston Rowant again, hopefully for some more Silver-spotted Skippers. There were quite a few flying, but it was a while before I managed to find one that didn't immediately take to the air again.

Meanwhile, the air was full of Chalkhill Blues - lots of showy males, but good numbers of the much drabber females. Both sexes vary quite a bit, and are always worth a closer look. Males:

A couple of females:

A pairing:

Amongst other species seen were fresh Common Blues...

...several Brimstones feeding up for hibernation...

...a particularly vibrant Small Copper...

...and a Meadow Brown that stood out from the crowd and in flight resembled an oversized Gatekeeper.

Dave

[millerd]

Wednesday 29th July.Sunny and warm and the lure of Brown Hairstreaks took me down to Bookham again. Not totally unexpectedly, I bumped into Bugboy - for the first time in this rather curious year. Good to see you, Paul. As usual, the many Gatekeepers proved a bit of a distraction...

...and there were one or two other butterflies to look at while seaching for the main target species.

However, we tracked the Brown Hairstreaks down to a particular ash tree, where three or four could be seen flying around high up. It wasn't helped by the presence of at least one Purple Hairstreak from the nearby oak trees. Eventually, Bugboy spotted a female settled open-winged up in the tree. To the naked eye, it was a brilliant orange dot, but to the zoom of the camera it was... a bigger rather blurred orange dot! However, the images show enough detail to reveal that this particular butterfly had already been in the wars and lost the tails from one wing.

We then wandered in different directions, but not long later Bugboy summoned me back by phone - he had found a male Brown Hairstreak nectaring on a patch of thistle.

The sun went in for a bit, and the butterfly suddenly moved - but only onto a nearby bramble leaf.

It looked as if it might open its wings, but instead this turned out to be the precursor of flying back into the trees. I suspect I might have disturbed it before Bugboy managed any decent shots of it on the leaf (he was changing lenses), but I'm pleased to say he found another one later on after we had parted company.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great to see all of those Brostreaks Dave It looks like they might have a great season despite some concern when they were first emerging They seem to frequent the same spots as well, I went back to the nettle bed at Shipton today and found a couple there again for the third time

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

I think you might be right, Wurzel. I went to Bookham again yesterday and saw six low down, all males too I think.

But funny you should mention Shipton B., as it's now time for the report from our visit there on Thursday 30th July. Sunny and very warm with light winds, and an easy journey down the A303.

I met up with Wurzel and Philzoid around 1000 and under Wurzel's expert guidance we set about looking at likely areas for Brown Hairstreaks. The site covers a large area and has a great deal of blackthorn, but we ended up in a likely spot for nectaring, with a bed of thistle not far from the blackthorn hedge and trees behind. Sure enough, sitting on one of the thistles was a male Brown Hairstreak.

It soon became apparent that there were actually two of them on this patch.

the hunter stalks his prey...

Though the sunshine kept them mostly with their wings closed, there were some brief flashes of the uppersides and from one angle a curious iridescence appeared.

Moving on, we discovered fairly close by which tree they were using as a "master" tree - an acer of some sort rather than an ash, probably because many of the ashes here are suffering from die-back as is true across the UK. Several were flying around this including a likely female. Over the next couple of hours, we came across quite a few more, estimating a total close to the dozen mark. All the rest were males, nectaring or finding sustenance from the blackberries which in this early year were already starting to go squishy and ferment.

I watched one individual doing this which had perhaps overindulged, as it crawled unsteadily towards a new fruit and promptly fell off down into the depths of the undergrowth. There were more glimpses of the uppersides, which to be honest compared with the females are remarkable for being... well, unremarkable.

At one point I found two together, showing how they vary in size - the one in the background is markedly larger than the other.

Were there other butterflies? Well, on my way up from parking in the village I'd spotted a Wall, and Wurzel managed to conjure a Painted Lady for Philzoid in a sparse year for them so far. On a rare wet patch, there was a second brood Dingy Skipper puddling - you feel from foreign photos that there should have been a crowd of them, but it was all on its own.

not a big butterfly!

I eventually bid farewell to the others, who were going on to another site in search of more Walls amongst other things, and wandered down the track back to the village. Ahead of me I spotted a clump of ragwort sprouting from the verge in semi-shade, and there sitting on it was another Brown Hairstreak. Its deep orange colour (after becoming accustomed to the yellower orange of the males) immediately marked it out as a female - which was confirmed when it decided to fly up into nearby trees. A great way to finish the day out!

Dave

[Goldie M]

Glad some ones getting the Sunshine Dave, it's like Autumn here Love the Brown HS shots I always imaged them on the Black thorn Shows what I know Sounds like one was drunk Goldie

[bugboy]

It'll be a week or so before my pics of that day show up but I got plenty of decent shots of that first one before it buggered off . Good to finally bump into you this year!

[Wurzel]

That was a cracking day Dave - we really did well as so far that's the highest day total I've read about or seen this year Plus there were a fair few 'possibles' too We'll have to have a repeat performance when the females are out in numbers Have a cracking time oop North when you go - bring us back a Scotch Argus

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[millerd]

Thank you all. It was, as Wurzel says, a cracking day at Shipton B. I saw more than twice as many male Brown Hairstreaks as I'd seen in my entire life before, and most of them were low down and easily approachable.

Back from a few days in the north of England, so some catching up to do from a fortnight ago!

Firstly, I appear to have overlooked a local walk after the Bookham trip on Wednesday 29th July. For the most part, nothing particularly unusual.

a fresh individual, no doubt destined for hibernation

a dark female

distinctly brown underside

a lovely shade when backlit

a new summer specimen...

...and from underneath

both males and females love the pink bramble flowers...

...but the males frequently puddle as well

The exception was this fresh male Common Blue. It was particularly silvery-grey underneath with the very pale yellow lunules characteristic of ab. flavescens. I see these regularly on my local patch, though haven't noticed them much elsewhere. I think this could well be a rather overlooked ab, as many examples are no doubt ignored as being worn - and in any case Common Blue undersides are probably not generally scrutinised in detail on a regular basis.

Dave

[millerd]

Appropriately enough - typing this with temperatures currently into the mid-30s again round here - Friday 31st July was a very hot sunny day (the third hottest ever recorded in the UK, and the hotspot of course was just up the road at Heathrow). I had a brief walk out, but unsurprisingly, not a great deal was flying.

A Brown Argus had its distinguishing hindwing spot rather reduced (as Wurzel has commented on in the past).

A Holly Blue choosing shaded brambles to nectar on (others were on fleabane in deeper shade).

A fresh Speckled Wood nearly edge on to the sun.

Small Whites finding the energy to pair: both seem to be fresh and distinctly lemony in colour underneath.

Dave

[ernie f]

Dave - A fantastic set of Brostreak pics. Love the last of the set and the pair on the berries but my favorite is the one set against the clear blue of the sky.

[Goldie M]

A lovely series of shots Dave, the Brown HS look great I've yet to see them hope fully next year Goldie

[David M]

....The exception was this fresh male Common Blue. It was particularly silvery-grey underneath with the very pale yellow lunules characteristic of ab. flavescens. I see these regularly on my local patch, though haven't noticed them much elsewhere. I think this could well be a rather overlooked ab, as many examples are no doubt ignored as being worn - and in any case Common Blue undersides are probably not generally scrutinised in detail on a regular basis.

That's a really interesting icarus underside, Dave. The fact it was fresh surely marks it out as an ab. I presume the upperside was the 'normal' shade of blue?