Neil Freeman

[Neil Freeman]

Sorry Pauline. Having just caught up with the latest reports in you diary I see what you mean. Totally unintentional I assure you

Cheers Wurzel. Yes, there are some 'interesting' combinations of species around this year.

Thanks Bugboy. She was certainly a lovely insect.

Wednesday23rd June part 2.

We left Harbury around 11.00am and ten minutes later arrived at Bishops Hill. By now it was showing 20 degrees on the car display and we figured that the butterflies would be warmed up and active but as Jane is not bothered about taking photos and likes to see them flying about, that would suit her.

We entered the first part of the reserve and immediately spotted a couple of Meadow Browns and then a Small Skipper, my first of these this year.

Small Skipper - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

With Marbled Whites being Jane’s favourite butterfly, she was on the lookout for these and as I was taking a shot of the Small Skipper she called out one behind me. As we watched, we spotted another one and there turned out to be at least three different individuals in this small first area.

Marbled White - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

There were also a couple of Burnet Companion Moths here and I managed to get my first reasonable shot of one of these this year.

Burnet Companion - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

We then carried on along the path towards the ‘Blue Pool’ across the far side of the site by where a new housing development is being built and saw a general scattering of Meadow Browns and a few Common Blues and Small Tortoiseshells.

Small Tortoiseshell - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

There were quite a few Orchids to be seen along the way, mostly Common Spotted I believe but would be happy to be corrected on this if I am wrong.

Common Spotted Orchid - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

We also had a high speed flypast by a Dark Green Fritillary, a recent colonist at this site with me seeing my first one here last year.

There is a long bank covered with brambles along the path as it approaches the Blue Pool and on these we spotted three Red Admirals, a couple more Small Tortoiseshells and some more Meadow Browns. Unfortunately, these were all out of reach for any decent photos although I did get some ropy record shots with the butterflies mostly hidden behind the brambles.

A couple of Dark Green Fritillaries were also flying around this spot but by now they were in hyperactive mode and weren’t stopping for anything.

I also saw my first 2021 Ringlet along here with about a dozen or so along the path and around the blue pool. I say my first, as I may have seen one at Harbury but that was only a fleeting glimpse and may well have been a Meadow Brown so I didn’t count it.

Ringlet - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

We then retraced our steps and whilst Jane sat on a bench for a rest, I had a quick look up the hill where I saw around a dozen Marbled Whites and Meadow Browns plus a few more Common Blues.

Marbled White - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

Marbled White - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

Along with hordes of Common Blue Damselflies we also spotted a few White-legged Damselflies, a local species in Warwickshire but one that this site is known for.

White-legged Damselfly - Bishops Hill 23.06.2021

By now it was about 12.30 and although some fluffy summer clouds had built up, all they were doing was making it feel more humid so having had a good morning, we decided to make a move for home.

Since then it has been really dull and cloudy here with the only time it has brightened up being later on Saturday afternoon. As I write this on Monday (28th) morning it has been raining since the early hours and shows no sign of stopping for a while yet. It is also cool for the time of year, I don't ever remember wearing having to wear a jumper so often in June, not even in the infamous washout year of 2012.
I hope some other parts of the country are having it a bit better.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[millerd]

Seeing the Small Skipper on the kidney vetch... how were the Small Blues at Bishops Hill this year? It's been a while since I've visited.

Lovely DGFs from Harbury, especially the female - they are much trickier to get decent shots of.

Cheers,

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Dave. I went to Bishops Hill at the beginning of the month and found Small blues in good numbers with at least 40-50 seen, probably more (report at viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5424&start=3600). Like most things, they were running late by a good couple of weeks.
I also noticed that the Kidney Vetch was in much better condition this year with all the rain helping it to recover after last years dry spell which left much of it in a desiccated condition.

Cheers,

Neil.

[David M]

It's a great time of year, isn't it Neil? Suddenly, all these fresh new species arrive along with the return of the springtime vanessids.

My neighbour has the same tastes as your wife. Nothing she loves more than watching Marbled Whites flying merrily about.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks David. We just need a bit more decent weather to go with those fresh new species, up until today (Friday) it has been lousy here.

Garden Moths – June.

I suppose it couldn’t last, after returning from Dorset the other week, the weather here crashed into a run of really dull and cloudy days which felt quite cool for June with temperatures struggling to get higher than low double figures. Ironically, after dull and gloomy days, the nights would often clear before clouding up again in the morning to put the mockers on the next day again. This combination of conditions has meant that the total numbers of moths I have recorded through June have been down on where I should be by this time of year. The number of species has also been down at 66 macros and 31 micros for a total of 97. This compares with 172 (110 + 62) last year, 103 (69+34) in 2019 and 131 (82+49) in 2018, making it the worst year out of the last three, although 2019 was not much better.

Nevertheless, a few nice moths have turned up…

Peppered Moth - Coverdale 21.06.2021

Poplar Hawk Moth - Coverdale 27.06.2021

Beautiful Hook-tip - Coverdale 27.06.2021

A nice colour form of Marbled/Tawny/Rufous Mijnor agg. - Coverdale 27.06.2021

Clearwing Update.

Despite the poor conditions, I continued to put my lures out in the garden on days with the occasional brighter spell and had four Current Clearwings to the TIP lure on Wednesday 23rd June. This is one of the smaller species and is fairly widespread and often found where red and black current bushes are grown, such as on allotments or in older gardens.

Current Clearwing - Coverdale 23.06.2021

With the weather deteriorating even further this week, that was the last time I bothered until today (Friday 2nd July) when we finally had some decent sun this afternoon which warmed things up nicely so I decided to put the VES lure out to try for Orange-tailed and Yellow-legged Clearwings.
I put the trap out just before 1.00pm and then went for a walk down to my local spot by Wagon Lane Park. On my return just over an hour later I found seven Orange-tailed Clearwings in the trap plus another one circling around it. I took some photos and after releasing them I took the trap in so they could get about their business of looking for genuine females without getting distracted.

Orange-tailed Clearwings in the trap - Coverdale 02.07.2021

We wanna be together...

Orange-tailed Clearwing - Coverdale 02.07.2021

No Yellow-legged Clearwings today but looking at last year’s records I didn’t see the first one of those until 12th July and this year is running a good couple of weeks later than 2020 so plenty of time yet.

I also had the LUN lure out for Lunar Hornet Moth but again I think it is still a little early here for them this year.

Tomorrow (Saturday) is looking dodgy with thunderstorms and heavy rain forecast here so lets hope that things buck up a bit next week.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Friday 2nd July.

As I mentioned in my last report on the garden moths, the weather this past week has been atrocious here with dull and gloomy overcast every day and some quite cool temperatures. Although the cloud has eventually cleared a bit on some days, this has been too late to be of any use.
Yesterday (Friday July 2nd ) things finally improved and it gradually brightened up through the morning after another cloudy start. We popped around to my Moms and I took the opportunity to have a wander down to her local park to see what was about.
It didn’t take long to start seeing the expected Meadow Browns and Ringlets and these were joined by a few fresh male Large Skippers (no females here yet) and a couple of faded Speckled Woods.

Large Skipper - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

Ringlet - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

Speckled Wood female - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

Meadow Brown - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

Meadow Brown - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

A pity I didn't get a better shot of the nice female below but she was off over the trees before I had chance.

Meadow Brown female - Langley Hall 02.07.2021

Back home in the afternoon I had a walk down to my local spot by Wagon Lane Park and saw a similar selection to what I had seen earlier in the morning by my Moms but with the addition of some nice fresh Small Tortoiseshells with about 15 seen.

Small Tortoiseshell - Wagon Lane 02.07.2021

Small Tortoiseshells - Wagon Lane 02.07.2021

Small Tortoiseshell - Wagon Lane 02.07.2021

Unfortunately, as I was leaving here, a tractor turned up and started mowing the grassy meadow areas, something which happens here around this time every year. I took the opportunity to have a word with the driver and confirmed that the land is owned by Solihull council, something that I was not sure of with it being on the border of South Birmingham. When I got back home I emailed Solihull Council with my ‘suggestions’ on how this bit of land could be better managed. I am not sure if this will do any good as some of my previous emails regarding verge cutting etc have been ignored, but at least I can say I tried.

We had quite a bit of rain here in the early hours and as I write this on Saturday morning it is drizzling and we have a yellow warning for thunderstorms.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Cracking set of reports Neil - those Clearwings look brilliant - and they featured on Countryfile this evening You'd think in these times of climate crisis, leaving the grass unmown would be encouraged as would leaving the verges?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel.
Hopefully things are changing but I fear that it is only slowly and there are still too many of the 'tidy brigade' out there. Still, if we all do our bit then the message may eventually get through.

Monday 5th July.

We had guests over the weekend, our youngest son Danny and his partner Charlotte, came up from Bristol and stayed with us, so I didn’t get out to do any butterflying, not that the weather was that good anyway with a lot of rain on Saturday and some showers yesterday with some heavier stuff coming down later in the afternoon and overnight.

With today (Monday) looking to be better with some cloud and sunny spells forecast before the next low pressure system dumps a load more rain on us tonight, we decided to take the 40 minute or so run down to Oversley Wood. At least it should only take around 40 minutes, but with some heavy traffic and roadworks on the way it took us a good hour today and we pulled into the car park at 10.20am to find it already quite full. To be honest, I had half expected it to be fairly busy as this is a popular spot for dog walkers, joggers, cyclist and such like, plus a Purple Emperor had been photographed on the ground here on Saturday. This was part of the reason for us coming here too this morning, although I was also keen to catch up with my first 2021 Silver-washed Fritillaries and maybe White Admirals here too.

Anyway, we set off around the main track which does a full circle of the wood and soon started to see other butterflyers who all mentioned that apparently a Purple Emperor had been seen just past the ‘triangle’ which is one of the regular spots here.
We turned off at the triangle and carried on around the circuit, seeing hordes of Meadow Browns and Ringlets, lots of Silver-washed Fritillaries, a few Marbled Whites and Large Skippers, a couple of White Admirals and Red Admirals and singles of Small Tortoiseshell and Comma.

Red Admiral - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Marbled White female - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Marbled White female - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Marbled White male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

The SWFs were all fresh looking males...

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Silver-washed Fritillary male - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Just two White Admirals were seen and only one came close enough for a photo and even then it stayed half hidden in the depths of the brambles.

White Admiral - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

White Admiral - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

The Comma looked like a normal summer version as opposed to a Hutchinson and I remember that last year I also saw a couple of normal ones before I saw any hutchinsonis.

Comma - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

We had almost gone full circle and was just approaching the triangle again when a chap coming the other way told us that a Purple Emperor had just been showing well a bit further ahead. Apparently Dave Williams from West Midlands BC had put some concoction down on the track which had attracted the PE to come down. We carried on but unfortunately, by the time we arrived, Dave had moved on and although a couple of people were still there, they told us the PE had gone up into the trees a little while before and hadn’t been since…our first case this year of “you should have been here…”

By now we had been at Oversley for a good couple of hours and with some thicker clouds building up we had just decided to make a move back towards the car when a lady called us around the corner to where the main track heads back towards the car park, to tell us that a Purple Emperor was down on the ground. We made our way over and was chuffed to see it still there, right next to a dollop of fresh dog turd. Over the next twenty minutes or so it stayed there as a few other people arrived allowing everyone to get lots of photos. To start with he was holding his wings at a slight angle and although I could get both right hand purple and left hand purple, I couldn’t quite get the coveted all four wings purple.

Purple Emperor - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Once everyone had got their photos I asked if anyone minded if I tried to move the dog turd out of the way with a stick and they all said to go for it. I gently reached in with the stick and slowly moved the turd out of the way so that we could all get some more photos without its unsavoury presence in the frame. The PE didn't even seem to notice, or if he did he wasn't bothered.

With some variation in the cloud cover, he began to flick his wings open and shut and eventually opened up with his wings flat which enabled me to shuffle around and get the right angle to see all wings purple.

Purple Emperor - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Purple Emperor - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

Purple Emperor - Oversley Wood 05.07.2021

I have since seen photos on social media of the one seen earlier on the other side of the triangle which confirm that it was the same one that we saw, so just the one individual was seen there today.

With plenty of shots in the bag we then left and carried on to the car park to make a move back home.

A cracking morning topped off with the icing on the cake of that Purple Emperor at the end.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Pauline]

Fabulous shots Neil I was just admiring your SWF when the PE came into view - and what a view!!!! In this strange season you must be cock-a-hoop to get such coveted shots. I am not usually quite as envious but each and every image I have managed this season has been hard to come by. I reckon you can put your feet up for the rest of the season now!

[Pauline]

Just had to have another look at them Neil and I reckon they're some of the best shots I've seen and much better than anything I have managed - the butterfly is also immaculate. Well done - you should be feeling very smug right now!

[Benjamin]

What a fantastic experience Neil, and beautifully photographed!

I searched for caterpillars at Oversley Wood last winter, but found nothing - obviously they were there somewhere.

Hope you get lucky again when you return - you’ll surely return…….

[Michaeljf]

Hi Neil,
beautiful shots of the Purple Emperor but also of the Silver-Washed Fritillaries and the White Admirals. We've been going to Oversley Woods for a few years since the late (lovely) Bill Jones introduced us the site. Interesting that the Purple Emperors this year are almost back to the 'normal' emergence period. Last year Wales didn't emerge from lockdown until the middle of July ... and by the time we were able to visit Oversley the PE's had been and gone (apparently emerged about the middle of June due to the warm spring / early summer, as they had done in 2018). We went to Oversley last Saturday (26/06) but only a couple of Silver-Washed Fritillaries had emerged, and a few Ringlets (not even the Marbled Whites were out). As with the weather - and butterflies - everything is down to timing. I'm glad you had such a nice (profitable) time - it's a lovely reserve, not that big, but has plenty to love about it. The wild orchids were out in full force last weekend, but that was probably the best bit of our trip!
Michael

[trevor]

Your last image, in particular, of that fabulous Purple Emperor is superb,
the sort of image we all strive for.
At Chiddingfold today we all came to the conclusion that they have yet to emerge there.

Great images and report, Neil.
Stay safe and well,
Trevor.

[trevor]

Me again, Neil.
Having studied your last Purple Emperor image more closely,
it is, for me, the ultimate PE shot, never seen better!.

Great stuff!,
Trevor.

[bugboy]

He's not purple, he's PURPLE! . I just had 3 in the tree tops today and with the weather playing silly buggers and then being back to work next week, I think I may have to come back a drool over your pictures a few more times...

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Pauline. I was feeling happy enough with my shots when I saw them on the back of the camera but when I got home and put them on the PC and saw them properly on my 24 inch screen I was over the moon .

Thanks Benjamin. I have seen Purple emperors a few times at Oversley Wood over the years but usually high up, This was only the second time I have photographed one on the ground there. I have never seen a female there, I suspect they stick mostly to the interior of the wood and do their egg laying well away from the paths.

Thanks Michael, good to hear from you. I remember meeting you and Bill at Oversley some years back, I was saddened to hear of his passing, a true old school gentleman. I go to Oversley most years but don't always see the Purple Emperors there, last year we went in mid June and had a single sighting of a high up male.

Thanks Trevor. I am sure I have seen images just as good if not better taken by some of you guys that spend more time than me with the Purple Emperors each year.

Thanks Bugboy. You may have better luck later this week if the forecasts can be believed...mind you that is a big if.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Absolutely stunning images of His Nibbs Neil The first couple were brilliant and then the four wing purple - sublime So purple it practically leaps out of the screen and gives you a slap on the cheeks Tango style

(Continue to ) Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Michaeljf]

I have seen Purple emperors a few times at Oversley Wood over the years but usually high up, This was only the second time I have photographed one on the ground there. I have never seen a female there, I suspect they stick mostly to the interior of the wood and do their egg laying well away from the paths.

Hi Neil,
interestingly we've been lucky a few times with seeing the male Purple Emperors on the ground at Oversley Wood, but it has tended to be in those very dry years of good early spring/summer weather when the main path is dried out and the Emperors then have been on the ground around the mud tracks just parallel to the side of the main path. When we've seen them on the ground they have always been on the main path about 400 yards from the car park. It's also the spot we'll see Purple Hairstreaks sometimes on the ground taking up the minerals / salts. The best spot for the White Admirals is completely different though (round the bend shall we say!).

But the timing is everything and a week or so can make a difference with seeing the PE's easily. Like you we've not seen females there (on the ground at least) but have seen a few Emperors flying up in the tree line a bit further along the main path. We also had a really nice view of a Sparrowhawk hunting amongst the Silver Birches last year where there had been some more clearing of trees. Another joy of Oversley is how well it seems to be maintained, and the public seem to respect and protect the space there. Keep up the great posting and photography! - best wishes, Michael

[Michaeljf]

Neil,
Here's the picture I took of a Sparrowhawk at Oversley last year (July 12th)...

It's been a long time since I've posted pictures on here so interesting to 'have a go' again .
Michael

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. I must admit, I was really chuffed with those photos .

...When we've seen them on the ground they have always been on the main path about 400 yards from the car park...

That was roughly where this one was.

I know the tree line you mention a bit further on, I have seen Purple Emperors high up there a few times.

The best place to see them high up with regular battling males is the congregation area right in the centre of the wood. This is the highest point in the wood and can be reached via the narrow paths that go off the main track.

I have seen White Admirals almost everywhere around the circular route but the stretch on the far side seems to be the best, as you say, around the bend a bit .

Nice Sparrowhawk by the way. I don't recall ever having seen one there.

Cheers,

Neil.