Bugboys mission

[David M]

Ah! Orange Tip on a bluebell - few things are finer than that.

Lovely Brimstone mosaic in your earlier post, Paul, and well done finding the ova. Were you tempted to rear a couple?

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, I might ruin your poetic wistfulness when I say that lemony tinge on Mrs OT has always reminded me of yellow snow……. Looks like it’s a bank holiday Monday downpour for the both of us!
Thanks Neil, glad you’ve enjoyed reading them.
Thanks Dave, what’s not to love about them eh .
Thanks Otep. Brimstones are very much restricted in distribution by the presence (or absence) of the two species of Buckthorns. Distribution maps of the two Buckthorns and Brimstones are a rather similar.
Thanks David, there might well be baby Brimstones in my front room in the coming weeks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

April 2021

The 27th saw my first venture into deepest Surrey for the year (there was a slight border dalliance at Hutchinson’s bank on Tuesday), a wander on Denbies Hillside to catch up with some Skippers and Hairstreaks.

To get there I walk along the North Downs Way from Westhumble (about an hour at a leisurely pace) and would normally have stopped to snap a few Whites, Speckled Wood, Holly Blues etc at this time of year, but not today, I saw not a single butterfly. The first butterfly I found ended up being one of the targets, at the foot of Steers field before going through the gate I found a stunt Grizzled Skipper. Well he was either a stunt Grizzlie or a stupid Grizzlie, settling as it did on a spider web. It flew off safely after the pics were taken.

On the other side of the gate I found a Dingy Skipper, the first of many.

A couple of minutes later I wandered over to the usual Green Hairstreak lekking shrubs by the steps and I had all three target species in the bag in my first 10 minutes on the site .

I stayed here for the first hours or so, with all three species showing, plus the arrival of Millerd sporting an impressive lockdown barnet!

After chatting and chasing some Hairstreaks we wandered off to separate areas of the slope, Skippers were the main attraction but the occasional Brimstone would also flutter by. The nippy wind was actually very light and with little in the way of cloud cover the April sun soon warmed the air to the point where Dingies were closing up when settled, so much so I found one closed up completely like a proper butterfly, something you don’t see very often.

An unexpected third season debut species popped up about halfway along, a freshly minted Small Heath (Dave later found a few of his mates).

I caught up with Dave at the other end of the slope where he’d found another Green Hairstreak lekking spot. They were less cooperative with regard of getting pictures but it’s still fun to watch the males spiralling up into the air in a blur of tiny wings, presumably screaming the butterfly equivalent of obscenities at each other. I did manage a lucky upperside shot at the moment of take-off. The normal sombre brown upperside catching the sun to give an almost golden shimmer.

We didn’t realise it there was a Buckthorn in amongst the shrubs until a passing female Brimstone pointed it out to us.

Shortly after this a small bright orange thing flashed in front of us and newby number four for the day was in the bag. Only a brief encounter though.

Dave and I parted ways again as I went on along the path at the bottom of the slope westwards to explore White Downs further along. I’ve wandered along here a few times in the past but never found much, perhaps I’ve not been there at the right times of year. Anyway today I came across a smattering of Skippers of both species, in the heat becoming increasingly difficult to approach, Brimstones and a few Peacock.

I also noted several medium sized Elms in full seed (amongst lots of tall dead skeletons) so perhaps a trip here in mid-June is on the cards this year.

A few birds caught my attention here too, I always hear Yellowhammer singing away along the hedgerows with their “a little bit of bread and no cheese” theme tune. As an aside what cloth eared fool came up with that onomatopoeic version of its call? It’s just a string of identical notes with a final flourish, you could just as easily put “I got run over by a bus and it hurts” to it.... I digress, there were also some Marsh Tits flitting around.

I finished the day with some more Hairstreaks who were still knocking seven bells out of each other in-between soaking up the sun.

[Maximus]

Lovely Green Hairstreaks hopefully we'll se one soon, once lockdown here is lifted and we can travel more than 10km

[millerd]

That day was a bit of an exception as far as April was concerned - with light winds and warm sunshine, and an air temperature above 15 degrees! The butterflies took full advantage and there are some great shots of them there. The area further on you explored with the elms sounds well worth a visit in a month or so... With Denbies it's easy to stick to the trusted areas where good results are (nearly always) guaranteed, so a bit of fresh ground to cover will be interesting.

Cheers,

Dave

[Katrina]

Lovely GHs , the upper side capture is a gem.

[Wurzel]

That sounds like a cracking day Bugboy - three target species and a Brucie bonus A lovely collection of shots - but I love the Greenstreak just peering over the leaf - I can imagine it chuckling to itself that you can't see it...little knowing that there it is in perfect shadow

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

ps I don't mind the yellow snow description as it reminds me the same titled Frank Zappa track

[David M]

Great sequence, Paul. I'm so glad you got decent returns, both target species and a few others.

It's been hard work for all of us lately, meaning extra effort and persistence has had to be employed. Your Green Hairstreaks have to be the highlight but I can't help feeling a little envious of your continued encounters with Brimstones. These have now practically disappeared round my way.

PS - good luck with the rearing

[bugboy]

Thanks Max, Hopefully things improve for you soon although with Swallowtails and QoS in your back garden there’s still a few Mr greens coming your way!
Indeed it was Dave, almost felt like spring! I reckon Binoculars might be helpful looking for any WLH in a month or so’s time, worth a punt though.
Thanks Katrina, managed another fluky GH upperside yesterday (coming to this PD soon)
They’re very good at that Wurzel, peering over a leaf at you. The other thing to avoid a picture they’re good at is the constant pirouetting some of them do when trying to find the perfect angle to the sun .
Thanks David. My local Brimstones do tend to hang around for a while. It’s not unusual to find hibernated adults in June round here.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2021

1st, new month, same old rubbish weather! Not bad enough to keep me away from Bookham any longer though. The place really comes alive in the summer but at this time of year it is quite good for Orange-tips with abundant Cuckooflower in the open scrub and Garlic Mustard in the wooded lanes. The lane which leads up to Effingham Junction station is particularly good for Garlic Mustard and from a casual inspection it would seem Mrs Orange-tip and her friends have been busy, I quickly found double figures of eggs before I stopped counting.

A couple as you can see were laid on the leaves, presumably by accident. Both were laid on the ribs of the leaves which, since the female is essentially laying blind, probably feel like a flower stem to her abdomen as she’s feeling her way around.

These chilly nights and cool mornings do make for late starts as far as activity is concerned, so to keep myself occupied I had a go at looking for some baby iris. I did actually find a good few caterpillars…. Just not the right ones though.

White Admiral larvae was similarly elusive and I only found the one hatched Brown Hairstreak egg, whose occupant was nowhere to be seen even with the aid of my glasses. It's probably still just a tiny lime green speck.

The first adult butterflies to be seen were Speckled Wood, followed by some Orange-tips. The first male had quite a dusky wing tip, possibly ab. striata.

Females were also present but oddly no other Pierid was seen. There’s normally a plentiful supply of Small and GVW here.

In the wood more speckled Wood were to be found, although not nearly as many as I would have expected to find at this time of year. A couple of butterflies were also doing their best Purple Emperor impression, a Peacock licking one of the paths and my first 2021 Red Admiral, who was too flighty to sit still and only settled long enough for a picture when it could safely look down upon me.

The final butterfly was another male Orange-tip who was tiny. If it wasn’t for the orange I would have sworn I was looking at a Wood White in flight!

[Wurzel]

Lovely set of shots again Bugboy Glad it's not just me seeing lower numbers of butterflies, the weather really does seem to be holding some species back Hopefully this is the 'worse' before it gets better - fingers crossed

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Katrina]

Orange-tip on lichen is something a bit different - good spot.
Also great OT egg shots - I found it quite hard to get them in focus but you seem to have it sorted!

[David M]

Some Orange Tips do look really minuscule, Paul. I probably see three or four like that every year - always males.

Agree about the weather. It's starting to get ridiculous now.

[bugboy]

This 'worse' does seem to be dragging on a bit now Wurzel, another "unsettled" week awaits us to use weather person code for "meh, you might get some sun, some rain, bit of snow..."
I definitely wouldn't have seen it had I not seen it settle first Katrina. A trick I use for photographing eggs is to use manual focus and to just move the camera slowly towards the subject with my finger glued to the shutter button. after 2 or 3 attempts the law of averages kicks in and you get one or two shots in focus
It doesn't look like we've seen the last of this ridiculous weather yet David, a bit warmer next week but plenty of rain (although we do need the rain after such a dry April)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2021

On the 2nd I decided to have another go at finding the Green Hairstreaks that are discreetly loitering on Wanstead Park. Things didn’t look particularly promising to start with, sunny spells were very much at a premium and this seemingly never-ending run of cold nights and cool mornings meant nothing was seen for quite a while. Foolishly I’d failed to factor in it being a Sunday and when I got to the spot Benjamin had pointed me to, I found a family enjoying a picnic exactly where I would otherwise be wandering around pointing my camera at anything that moved. “No honestly, I’m taking pictures of that little green butterfly over there on that green leaf”… I thought better of that plan and moved on hoping for a dark cloud and a sharp shower to scare them off!

I’d been wandering around for close to two hours now and yet to see anything, the cloud cover was thickening and some darker skies on the horizon did suggest my earlier wish may be realised. I’d actually wandered onto what looked like some waste ground, made up mostly of Nettle and scrub and just as I was thinking it looked like perfect Small Tortoiseshell habitat my first butterfly weakly fluttered up from my feet. If I’d been here a month ago, I think I would have counted 20 or 30 of them here, somewhere to explore another time for sure.

Context shot, the tangle of white stems are last years nettle growth.

Five minutes later I’d doubled my days count with a freshly emerged Speckled Wood.

Well there had been some light rain and off in the distance there seemed to be a large break in the cloud. I returned to the Green Hairstreak spot just as the sun reappeared to find the place pleasantly deserted, deserted expect for some butterflies. Flitting around the very bramble thicket that Ben probably used to watch them on was a Green Hairstreak. A second made a very brief appearance but was sternly chased off and not seen again. He was very active and made for a difficult target to pin down, not least because he rarely settled at the edge of the bramble thicket. I did manage another fluky upperside shot though .

Trying their best to distract my attention were three or four freshly minted Small Coppers bickering over this secluded sun trap. Initially just males but a passing female was immediately sniffed out by one of them. He used all his best moves but whilst I was watching he failed to seal the union. I did get the impression he was being sent through his paces rather than being given the brush off. The last I saw of them was vanishing round some brambles shortly after picking up a second male.

A few Whites were also seen, the only one to stop was a male Green-veined, still quite a rarity this year for me.

During the long periods of cloud cover I did manage some notable avian targets. A Green Woodpecker allowed closer than normal approach and on the way home a pair of Grey Wagtail pretty much ignored me as they foraged along the edge of one of the lakes.

Thanks for the directions Ben, I found them in the end

[Wurzel]

"another "unsettled" week awaits us to use weather person code for "meh, you might get some sun, some rain, bit of snow..." Tell me about it I just watched the weather and it could be a couple of weeks of this unsettled weather That is a cracking upperside Greenstreak shot you can even see the sex brand Brill!

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Good to see you refusing to be beaten by this awful weather, Paul.

A May Small Tortoiseshell is a decent find, and you did well to capture the upperside of the Green Hairstreak in flight.

[Benjamin]

Ah - glad you found them Paul! The River Roding to the east of the park is worth wandering up and down too.

[bugboy]

Thanks Wurzel, if I was trying for a Green Hairstreak upperside I wouldn’t have managed in a month of Sundays!
Nope David, I’m carrying on regardless (see below)! That’s not my last May Small Tort either .
Thanks Ben, now I’ve found the spot I’m likely to be a regular visitor (although I’ll try and remember to use weekdays and not weekends). I did actually wander along the River Roding for a bit, that patch of ‘waste ground’ I mentioned was right next to it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2021

The 3rd look set to be a dreadful day weatherwise, even by recent standards, however here in the southeast the rain looked like it would hold off until late afternoon, so just cloud and winds bordering on gale force to deal with then . No point spending money to go anywhere with such wonderful weather but there was enough breaks in the cloud to tempt me out locally for a couple of hours. A Speckled Wood turned up quite quickly and was blown away even faster and then I had to wait another hour. There was another Green Woodpecker to pass the time. This one had his nose in an ant’s nest so I was able to sneak up quite close. Looked like he got up in a rush though and didn't get dressed properly

Although I didn’t see any today, signs of Orange-tips were plentiful. As with previous years, Rape is the LHP of choice on Walthamstow Marshes. I say ‘choice’ but there isn’t much choice. There’s little Cuckooflower or Garlic Mustard here.

I found nine eggs on this one patch alone.

Brimstone’s by contrast it would seem are pretty scarce here this spring. I was finding eggs and larvae by the dozen last year on the only buckthorn I’ve ever managed to locate here. Seven eggs is all I could find today, five on one leaf. A Peacock was loitering close by in the undergrowth.

I did have a little purple patch of activity but only because I took to loitering around a very sheltered sun trap, although unsurprisingly numbers were still disappointingly low for the beginning of May, I actually found more butterfly eggs than adults. I went home to batten down various hatches for the return of winter.

End of day total: 2 Peacock, 1 Large White, 1 Small Copper, 1 Speckled Wood, 7 Brimstone eggs, 13 Orange-tip eggs.

[Chris L]

Fantastic photos Bugboy, particularly the woodpecker and the Peacock.

[bugboy]

Thanks Otep

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

May 2021

The 4th, the day after winter returned for an unwelcome guest appearance. Again I didn’t go far, Epping Forest in the hope the tree cover would offer some degree of shelter from the still strong and blustery wind. To be honest I wasn’t actually expecting to find much, the real reason was to find some orange-tip eggs on Garlic Mustard. Sitting on my window shelf were some OT eggs on Rape I’d collected the day before, I just wanted to confirm that they can go full term on that and now I wanted a control to sit with them on a favoured LHP. I knew where a large patch grows year after year so headed that way, but eggs were surprisingly thin on the ground, managing only two. However, swaying in the breeze atop one of the flower heads I found the likely mum of said eggs. Right on queue a break in the cloud awakened her. I had a few shots in the can when she gained the attention of another admirer. Annoyingly I managed to overexpose these shots of the males unwanted attention so I’ve had to rather viciously tweek them to get something usable, although still far from perfect.

"HELLO"!

After a minute or two of persistent harrying it all became too much for him and he settled down next to her to refuel.

"So, ermmm... come here often?"

Increasing sunny spells, interspersed with occasional sharp showers, gave me an excuse to hang around here for a couple of hours in the company of this female and two males (plus two or three male GVW). An old gnarled Crab Apple tree came in very useful during the showers. It’s very easy to get carried away when you have such amenable Orange-tips at your disposal, so much so I nearly missed my second Covid jab appointment that afternoon!

As well as taking hundreds of pictures it was fun to watch them go about their business. I’ve noticed it before but it seemed increasingly obvious that Orange-tips can sense an approaching cloud a while before it obscures the sun. The female’s behaviour in particular changes from looking for food and egg laying sites to searching out roosting spots. This particular female regularly flew up into trees to sit out the cloudy spells, perhaps so she could avoid the attention of marauding males whilst re-charging her batteries upon the return of the sun.

Another thing I noticed is that when she found a possible laying spot she would repeatedly fly to and from it, returning whenever she hit the shade. Was she somehow working out how much sun that particular Garlic Mustard was getting, figuring out how close it was to getting shaded out? Maybe I had too much time to think about it .

[millerd]

Some great shots of Orange Tip behaviour, Buggy. Whatever else you might say about this spring, it's certainly provided lots of opportunity to observe Orange Tips! (On some days there has been almost nothing else to look at...)

Cheers,

Dave

[Wurzel]

As Dave said great OT behaviour shots Bugboy That one with both the male and the female is a corker and nicely shows the size difference between the two

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

ps what's 5G like?