Bugboys mission

[Wurzel]

Crickey you're getting as bad with the Meadow Browns as I am with the Gatekeepers That 6-belted Clearwing certainly gives the butterflies a run for their money as the star of the day

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

That's quite a tally of abs, Paul. The Meadow Brown upperside looks more like a pale version of Sooty Ringlet!

[bugboy]

There's lots out there Wurzel, the more I look, the more I see. Gatekeepers by comparison this year have been very samey, barely even an excessa, although I do have a rather striking ab waiting in the wings when I get round to that particular day
Thanks David, I had to look up Sooty Ringlet but I see what you mean

July 2020
Saturday 18th was a two-site day. The morning was spent at Denbies to enjoy the Chalkhill Blues. It started off quite overcast but Chalkhill Blues started appearing not long after arriving, mostly nestled down in the turf. Getting my eye in I soon noticed I was walking through a mass emergence, freshly emerged could be seen all over the place, many taking their maiden flights upon closer inspection and I found one still with an attendant ant.

Females were few and far between but even so I managed to find three pairings

Little else was around, a few Meadow Brown and singletons of Common Blue and Brown Argus.

All the while I was being serenaded by Yellowhammers which were dotted here and there having a singing competition with each other.

The day was predicted to be a hot one so before it got too hot my chauffeur and I moved on the the afternoon destination, Chiddingfold. The target showed up quite quickly, a single individual taking salts before we’d crossed the bridge over the little stream.

In the now cloudless skies the only other realistic chance of getting some shots was to find some indulging in the courtship they’re so famous for. Although numbers were rather modest, it wasn’t too difficult to find a few amorous males being given the cold shoulder.

Unlike Denbies there was plenty of other stuff to point the camera at too

White-legged Damselfly

[millerd]

Good to see the second brood Wood Whites in full swing, Buggy! Great open wing shots too, with those courtship rituals being the perfect opportunity to get them. If they are actually courtship, as I've still to see a pairing following directly on from one. Those females are almost completely white with just a hint of a grey smudge, if that.

Cheers,

Dave

[Pauline]

Hi Paul

I would agree with everything Dave says - made me realise that although I have seen many paired Wood Whites I have never actually seen it occur. Has anyone? I have however seen 2 males engage in that sort of activity - still so much to learn!

[Wurzel]

Great to see the Wood Whites Bugboy - a species I missed out on this year The second brood certainly look cleaner and whiter (Daz bright some washing detergent execs might say ) than the first brood

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Good work with the Wood Whites, Paul. Don't think I've ever seen them accompanying Yellowhammers in a post on here before. Seems like you had an excellent day.

[bugboy]

Thanks Dave, I think it's courtship in the minds of the males, not so sure about the poor females (I like to imagine the males saying "Go on, go on, go on, go on, go on...." alla Mrs Doyle from Father Ted )
Thanks Pauline, I know there's been loads of studies on this Wood White behaviour, does make you wonder how and why it evolved whatever the reason though.
Thanks Wurzel, yes very white. Looks like there'll be plenty next year
Thanks David, yup it was a very good day out. I reckon you'd be able to see Wood White down in the south west with Yellowhammers singing away in the background

July 2020
Wednesday 22nd. I went back to Hadleigh Country Park to see if any more Walls had turned up/emerged. It was significantly warmer and sunnier than my previous visit here which meant most things were rather active and open winged shots were at a premium. Whites were once again very numerous, Smalls in particular, Skipper numbers were much declined and Gatekeepers numbered in the hundreds if not the thousands.

a messy situation!

Walls turned out to be rather elusive, just a single male found on the path where I found the previous two and a fleeting glance of a second one up on the castle ruins.

Hadleigh Castle ruins

Amongst all the activity I found a few freshly emerged Brown Argus, one of whom was an ab. snelleni, channelling its inner Artaxerxes.

Little else was prepared to settle but I managed a Holly Blue peering down on me.

I paid a visit to two Tree Island where not much out of the ordinary was around but I did come across a Painted Lady paying an inordinate amount of attention to some well-trodden Mallow at the edge of the path, her vestigule front legs being put to good use.

The Buddleja had less butterflies today and what there was was rather flighty and a little more worn than before. The bird spot of the day was a Greenshank, something I don’t see very often at all. It’s snoozing friend never moved so I’m not sure if it was a pair, but it looks darker and could have been a Redshank.

[bugboy]

July 2020
Saturday 25th was a grey, cloudy and rather damp day. It wasn’t particularly cold though so with nothing else planned I ventured out to see if I could add another species to the years tally, another species who’s first brood I was forced to miss. In-between the drizzly showers at Hutchinsons bank it was mostly endless mizzle but I still managed a few roosters.

Very occasionally the cloud cover thinned just enough to put up the odd Small Heath, this one seemed to have problems with its wings, it couldn’t help flashing me a bit of uppers .

I did a couple of circuits before I came across the target species, the cloud cover finally starting to thin enough to awaken a few Small Blue .

Despite the less than favourable conditions I managed to rack up ten species over the course of the afternoon, although admittedly some of them we singltons.

[Wurzel]

Lovely shots of the Small Blues Bugboy They've had a cracking season in 2020 - back in the first brood they were crawling all over Martin Down Very kind of you to offer up a bit of your sweat for them

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Interesting behaviour from the Small Heath, Paul. I've seen the odd one do this myself occasionally as well as Pearly Heaths on the continent. It's hard to know what causes certain individuals to do it but it's always nice to get a glimpse of the golden uppersides.

Love the 2nd brood Small Blues. I must check out my local sites for them when I emerge from quarantine.

[Pete Eeles]

Once again close up views were relatively easy to come by and even better, she had decided this path would be a perfect place for her babies. I watched her lay several eggs frustratingly obscured by grasses when she decided a single flimsy isolated blade would be a good spot and she suddenly found herself laying on her side, heroically clutching the grass as she deposited the egg.

I don't know how I missed this, Paul, but your photo of an ovipositing Wall female is the best I've seen, ever Nice job!

Cheers,

- Pete

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, Small Blues are as eager as HIM when it comes to less savory substances to lick
Thanks David, I don't think it was behaviour as such, I just think there was some form of injury that stopped it from holding its wings correctly. It had no problem flying though, even in light mizzle and drizzle.
Thanks Pete but it was very much the luck of being in the right place at the right time and grabbing a series of rushed grab shots and some coming out in focus

July 2020
Sunday 26th was significantly brighter and a day pencilled in for a trip down to Mill Hill, my first trip into Sussex since March. The primary target were Dingy Skippers, another springtime species I missed out on this year, but with second broods popping everywhere from the south coast to Yorkshire I felt I had a good chance of finding a few. (Also I had it on authority that some were about down there.) We parked in the top car park and upon opening the door I immediately decided the best place to go was the bottom sheltered corner on account of the strong wind that was blowing. The signs were good though as I walked down with many butterflies battling bravely against the wind, mostly Blues and Browns, and arriving at the secluded spot I was happy to see it was alive with butterflies, even happier to find the wind wasn’t making its presence felt down here. I perused the entirety of the bottom slope a couple of times but the target proved to be rather elusive, nevertheless a large number of photos were taken:
This beautiful creature is either a Red Twin-spot Carpet Xanthorhoe spadicearia or the red form of the Dark-barred Twin-spot Carpet Xanthorhoe ferrugata, I'm erring on the former.

This female Common Blue could easily have been seen in Northern Ireland judging by recent images in lacobnDG's PD.

This female played hard to get but I persevered when I saw she had reduced forewing ocelli, ab. antiparvipuncta I believe.

I think this male was gloating over his recent conquest

This female rather unhelpfully found a blade of grass to obscure herself behind

The only gatekeeper ab. excessa I've seen this year

It was nearly an hour and half after arriving and on the third circuit that I caught sight of something small and dark darting close to the ground and I was able to add the Dingy Skipper to my yearly tally .

A secondary target for the day was Clouded Yellows, my reliable source had also seen a few of these on his recent visit but today none were seen today so I suggested we drive down to Widewater lagoon. Here there was very little shelter from the wind but one Clouded Yellow was seen, very briefly before the wind caught it and it was swept off into the distance . The main focus of my attention here though was an extraordinarily tame Dunlin.

It was also feeding time for a young family of Herring Gulls (hope you’re not eating whilst browsing my diary at the moment...)

[MrSp0ck]

Lovely shots of the Small Blues Bugboy They've had a cracking season in 2020 - back in the first brood they were crawling all over Martin Down Very kind of you to offer up a bit of your sweat for them

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Small Blue numbers are down at Hutchinsons from last years massive number from 1500 on transect to about 200, the first brood hatched well before the foodplant was ready for egg laying, and large caterpillar numbers last year probably the major factors, as they are canabalistic. Will be interesting to compare massive sites from last year with normal sites and see if large site numbers last year has caused a drop this year and stable sites have increased or stayed the same this year. the 2019 species data is still not up on UKBMS normlly goes up in March, after the recorders conference. The 2nd Brood has been bigger than normal, but still we should get over 15 weeks constantly recorded with them.

[millerd]

That Common Blue female is a stunner, Buggy! I'm a great fan of blue females, and that one is definitely worth a or two. Shame the Cloudies didn't behave for you down in Sussex - hopefully there has been enough of an influx for a batch or two of home-grown ones to appear in a few weeks time.

You've done pretty well, playing catch-up with second brooders - one or two more to come perhaps?

Cheers,

Dave

[Wurzel]

That was a stonking female Common Blue Bugboy I think I got one of those Gatekeeper with only one eye abs the other day - that's a great one to have in the collection As Dave says hopefully the Cloudies will get together and ensure a few more to see later in the season - although with this rainy, muggy weather at the moment it almost feels like the season is drawing to a close early

Have a goodun an stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

...This female Common Blue could easily have been seen in Northern Ireland judging by recent images in lacobnDG's PD.

Agreed, Paul. I've seen some nice ones myself these last two or three years, but nothing like that one.

An absolute stunner.

[bugboy]

Thanks Dave, yes definitely been playing catch up this summer, still a few on my radar, all depends on the weather though, as always !
Thanks Wurzel, the weather is being pretty weird this year but I think we'll have to start getting used to it, climate change is here now last week it felt like tropical rain!
Thanks David, she was a real stunner

July 2020
Tuesday 28th. I had a half day at work and with the weather being a little sunnier than the previous visit, I dropped in to see the Small Blues at Hutchinson’s Bank again. Unsurprisingly with more sun around there was significantly more to point my camera at, starting at the top of the path that leads down to the site from the tram stop. Peacocks, Speckled Wood, Holly Blue, Whites, Red Admirals & Small Torts all showed up, some more briefly than others.

Love how the light hits this peacocks wings :)

On site the Small Blues were relatively easy to find, but in the sunnier conditions somewhat more difficult to pin down, not helped by a stiff breeze making them even harder to follow as they flitted around.

Laying

the result

As well as many a Small Blue, the wind caused me to miss a freshly minted Dingy Skipper and then whilst trying to relocate it, I disturbed a Cloudie who also was swept off into the distance. I was also keeping one eye out for Brown Hairstreak who had already been out for a couple of weeks here but none turned up

I had better luck with a female Meadow Brown who was busy depositing eggs all over the place

And a few other posers who had found more sheltered spots for the afternoon

According to the literature the below Meadow Brown is ab. infra-impuncta "the underside of the hindwings have NO black spots" which to my mind is a ridiculous qualification for an aberration. At least 50% if not more of meadow Browns I see lack hindwing spots, indeed the ones with spots seem to be in the minority in my experience.

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of Small Blue shots Bugboy Size apart I like to think that they got their name from the small amount of blue on the wings - obviously not though thought I think my reasoning is more poetic The naming of aberrants is an odd thing - especially in the is case - I recall reading a study into the number of spots on the underwings ranging from none to a few so to name a large proportion as an aberrant seems a little extreme - still we humans like to put things into boxes

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Looks to have been plenty going on during that outing, Paul. Well done for capturing the Small Blue ovum - not sure my camera would be able to pick something up that small.