September 2021

[David M]

...We were finding Coppers on nearly every clump of Ragwort we looked at ,with sometimes as many as eight ,on a single flower head ,in all ,our route took us in a very large circle ,taking in two thirds of the moat and the power station fence ,and our final total was an incredible 411..

That's off the scale, Allan!! I don't think even the much-missed Hoggers ever reported numbers like that!

I'm wondering whether Dungeness could actually be the Small Copper capital of the world?

[Matsukaze]

Tuesday 7 September - plenty of Adonis Blues in the chalk quarry at White Sheet Hill, west Wiltshire. Constant winds kept the butterflies hidden with their wings shut much of the time and disinclined to fly far. Also Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Large and Small Whites and a single Small Tortoiseshell. Perhaps surprisingly, no Wall Browns.

[David M]

A warm sunny morning at last so I made a visit to one of my favorite corners of Somerset, Muchelney is a small hamlet where time has stood still, the NT property, the Priest's House is a late medieval hall-house, Muchelney Abbey is close by, they were both closed but luckily the resident caretaker of the very attractive Priest's House came along and obligingly allowed me to taket pictures of the house and its neat little garden...

That looks positively idyllic, Jim. I noticed too that you slipped a Clifden Nonpareil into your album. What a beauty!

[Allan.W.]

Yes David, Dungeness is absolutely ,hands down the best Copper site ,that i know ,and must admit our count was pretty exceptional ! I think as you,ve said even dear old Hoggers never managed quite those numbers ,but i know that he did have several 150 + counts ,
I miss him , we used to have some good chats there on the shingle ,funnily enough my missus recently done jury service and she said that Hoggers was
on the defence team ,don,t think he recognised her, but then courtroom protocol probably wouldn,t have allowed mixing anyway. Just remembered
,if you include the obs; wardens count from a different area to ours ,we,re talking about over 500 Coppers

Regards Allan.W.

[zigzag_wanderer]

No snap as my camera wasn't readily to hand, but there was a Brown Hairstreak on the chrysanthemums on the next bed to me at work today.

Those Garden Mums do get a lot of insect visitors.

[Medard]

Open garden day.
My first Small Copper to visit the garden, this species is quite uncommon here but to have two in one day ,amazing.
The number of Bumbles have now diminished only one today and fewer hoverflies.
https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

[Allan.W.]

A few shots from the last few days ,the Comma ,was a nice fresh individual ,that i found on my "lockdown " route which i hadn,t walked for a few weeks ,the only one i saw while i was out ..........but a real beauty !

I t was very warm on this particular day with very little butterfly activity ,but i did manage to find a very small group of Peacock larvae.

At another local site ,my closest Grizzled Skipper site, the late summer butterflying is very poor ,this season it is absolutely covered ,almost waist height with Common Fleabane ,and you would think that there would be a few butterflies about ,but it seems almost dead ,an hour on site yesterday
gave me single Common Blue ,single Brown Argus and a handful of Small Whites ,it is now very difficult to Access ,and i fear for the Grizzled Skippers here next season .......................which is a shame ! On a slightly happier note i have seen 3 Sickle Bearing Bush Crickets on site this season ,but once again ,i wonder how they,ll fare next season.

The four Red Admiral larvae that i,ve been rearing ,have all pupated now ,and built their final tents as best that they could on the very sparse foliage of their potted nettle. A dark one and a pale one.
Regards Allan.W.

[millerd]

After some overnight rain (the first proper shower for a while surprisingly), I was surprised to find today (10th) that the damp patch of path on my local patch that had hosted several puddling fresh male Holly Blues back in July had attracted another of the same. It was clearly very fresh, but whether this is an early third brood or a late emerging second brooder it's hard to say. It was bright rather than sunny, but around 22-23 degrees so too warm for the butterfly to need to bask wings open between puddling sessions. It was very amenable to being photographed however.

Cheers,

Dave

[Charles Nicol]

today i went back to Pegsdon Hills in the Bedfordshire Chilterns.

in the sheltered valleys there were a few Chalkhill Blues still on the wing, although not in pristine condition.
also a few Small Heaths.

[Allan.W.]

Made a return visit this afternoon to a surprisingly quiet Dungeness ,and walked an almost identical route to the one we done last week ,
counting the Small Coppers as we went ,it was slightly cooler (20 c) than last weekend (26c) with a slight breeze ,once again we were counting Small Coppers almost immediately ,and was on 25 after about 30 steps .More showing wear this time ,but with still a few fresh individuals on show.
I rather wished we,d made an effort to count the Small Heaths as well ,and i reckon that we saw probably 200 +. As we progressed across the trapping area ,the breeze dropped and the Coppers became more abundant ,the group picture has around 18 on a Ragwort plant .I reckon at least every other Ragwort plant held at least one Copper.
There were also fairly high numbers of Small Whites to be seen ,but no Clouded Yellows (for us anyway !) which were showing earlier in the week
A handful each of Common Blue and Brown Argus (1 fresh individual of each ) plus 1 each Comma and Meadow Brown.
When we finally got back to the car ,our final tally of Small Coppers was ..............469 .
Amongst the hoards was 1 nice abberant individual ,very close (but not quite !) to AB;Obsoleta .
Regards Allan.W.

Click once or twice !

[zigzag_wanderer]

Although not very sunny this afternoon, a walk round the neighbouring fields yielded sightings of circa 10 Small White, 5 Small Copper, 3 Speckled Wood, 3 Brown Argus, 3 Common Blue (all males), 2 Brown Hairstreak, 2 Red Admiral, 2 Comma, 2 Small Heath.

The Small Whites were the only ones flying even when it was overcast. Dunno what it's been like round your way but the best of the weather often seems to be from about 4:30 pm here.

First time in ages that I didn't see any grass moths, although it seems craneflies have now taken over their mantle as most abundant species in the grass. The cranefly explosion definitely triggers a back to school/autumn is nearly upon us feel to me.

The spiders were certainly enjoying the cranefly boom. In the 4th image below, the cranefly managed to break free just as the spider crossed its web to reach it. The only trouble was it lost a few legs in the process as you can see. I've only just noticed that the cranefly is at the bottom of the pic. Not being one of those sadistic kids who pulled the legs off them at school, I'm not sure if it can survive the loss of what looks like four legs.

The first pic (looking toward Jack and Jill windmills) was taken on Monday morning at around 7:15 am walking to work. We're definitely very close to the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (or "Halloween" as Tesco has it).

[Allan.W.]

Hello Zig-zag ,
looking at your shots from a few posts back ,i see that you visit Wolstonbury hill regularly ,do you know if Round headed Rampion and clustered Bellflower grow there ? i believe its also an excellent orchid site (Burnt orchid ??) ,and one i,ve been meaning to visit for some time ,some interesting shots from your workplace .......................wish I had Brown Hairstreak at my place of work ! mind you i did have a fly-over White Stork over the works yard a couple of months back .....................interesting spider shot by the way.
Regards Allan.W.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Hello Zig-zag ,
looking at your shots from a few posts back ,i see that you visit Wolstonbury hill regularly ,do you know if Round headed Rampion and clustered Bellflower grow there ? i believe its also an excellent orchid site (Burnt orchid ??) ,and one i,ve been meaning to visit for some time ,some interesting shots from your workplace .......................wish I had Brown Hairstreak at my place of work ! mind you i did have a fly-over White Stork over the works yard a couple of months back .....................interesting spider shot by the way.
Regards Allan.W.

Hi Allan,

Cheers for that.

Yes, living in Hassocks, just south of Burgess Hill, I can walk to Wolstonbury Hill in about 30 mins. Bit longer to get to the top though !

I love the place. The ancient earthworks at the top let you know people have been living there for millennia and you definitely get that feel of somewhere with a very long human history. They found a Bronze Age axe-head near there relatively recently, although even that was quite mysterious - there is talk of a metal detectorist illegally finding it on the hill (NT property) and then re-burying it.

https://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts ... /id/502185

My knowledge of the plants on there (or anywhere) is pitiful I'm afraid. It's ironic that I'm currently working at a plant nursery - I keep calling the primroses marigolds for some reason. However, I definitely can confirm Round-headed Rampion grows there in good numbers. They call it The Pride Of Sussex round here and the Chalkhills for one love it.

There are lots of beautiful delicate-looking harebells there at the moment in amongst a myriad of other small flowers but I couldn't tell you if Clustered Bellflower grows there I'm afraid. Similarly, I know that Wolstonbury is a good site for orchids and I have taken photos of some but I'm not sure if Burnt Orchid grows there. Sorry - not much use !

There's a sunny, sheltered slope on the eastern side of the hill where I go to look for Green Hairstreak which often has people taking photos of the flora, including the orchids. I've struck up chats with a few.

There may well be someone on here who knows the Wolsty flora better than me. Peter Lovett who sometimes posts pics on the Sussex BC does a lot of Wolstonbury walks on his blog....in fact his latest walk is on Wolsty, and he does know his plants.

https://sussexrambler.blogspot.com/

Let me know if you do ever plan a visit and fancy a joint walk on there. I'd definitely be up for that.

Newtimber Hill on the other side of the A23 from Wolsty on the way to Devil's Dyke is also very good for flowers and butterflies/moths. You also get a good view of the wind turbines, which always seem to rise up a bit on a hot day ! It's called the Rampion Wind Farm after the flower.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Here's a flower I see on Wolstonbury.

Probably a common chalkland plant - but very pretty, even as it ages (top photo mid July, bottom two late September last year).

Couldn't tell you what it is though

[Stevieb]

I invested in a new camera last week. ( Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-RX10 IV). Unfortunately with the weather being so drab I had to make do with practicing bird in flight (BIF) shots.

Today was the first time I have managed to take any butterfly shots thanks to a visiting Red Admiral to the garden buddleia. Melksham, Wiltshire.

Very pleased with the results so far.

12th September

12th September

and for those interested in how the BIF shots turned out

[Allan.W.]

Thanks a lot for that Zig-zag ,we generally have a few days break down your way most years so i reckon we,ll give Wolstonbury a go ! if we do i,ll let you know ,thanks again for the info ,and if you need any info on Kent sites ,drop me a PM .
Your plant looks like Small Scabious .............very attractive downland plants !
Regards Allan.W.

[millerd]

A morning on my local patch near Heathrow yesterday (11th) in more sun than I expected revealed that there had been a mass emergence of Commas, plus a lesser one of Red Admirals. On a two-hour circular stroll I counted no fewer than 24 Commas before coming to a full stop. This is the highest number seen in a day here for quite some time, and never at this time of year. In 2020 I only had 10 sightings altogether between 1st August and the end of the year (and two of those were in November). Very encouraging! A full report and some Comma group photos in my PD idc...

I visited Denbies hillside again this afternoon (12th) and was luckily blessed with an hour or so of warm sunshine. The hillside is now the domain of Meadow Browns and Small Heaths, the teeming throngs of Chalkhill Blues having now all but disappeared. There were still one or two fairly fresh male Adonis, and a handful of females of both species, but my eye was drawn to one of these females in particular.

My guess is that this is a Chalkhill Blue, as it resembles the "blue" Chalkhill females I've seen before, more particularly up at Aston Rowant. However, it is a pretty extreme example and even though it is a bit worn it cannot have been out for all that long, making it quite a late-emerging individual.

A full report will appear in my PD, no doubt as the nights properly start drawing in...

Cheers,

Dave

[Medard]

Odds and ends
With the summer butterfly season drawing to a close, new photo opportunities are becoming fewer but the occasional visitor to the garden creates a little interest.
https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com

[Allan.W.]

A Quick visit to Orlestone forest ,Kent over the weekend .Many Whites on show ,mainly Small and GV Whites ,with a couple
of Large ,which seem to have been in short supply this year ,in my neck of the woods .

There were also quite a few Red Admirals around ,a few Commas ,and i was pleased to see 2 mint Painted Ladies and 1 Peacock which was the minor
AB; Opthalmica (showing an extra small blue "eye" just below the main blue eye )

P1070934.JPG (78.07 KiB) Viewed 387 times

Finally i know that some on UK Butterfliers have been finding insects with neat round holes in their forewings ,heres another ,from Orlestone .

Regards Allan.W.

[Testudo Man]

With reports of Clouded Yellows at Cliffe Pools in Kent (including 2 helice and mating activity) i had to visit this location last Sunday. The last time i was at Cliffe Pools, must have been at least a decade ago, when huge numbers of Clouded Yellow were seen on site!!
Its a massive area, so hard to track the CY's at times, but i saw 4 of the beauties. A couple of fresh ones, a worn one(which never stopped/landed once!) an just the one fly-by of a beautiful helice. Others got photos of the helice...but i failed on the day.
I sighted 15 species, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Green veined White, Peacock, Red Admiral, Comma, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Small Copper, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, an a single Wall Brown.
6+ of Common Lizards seen, an i spent some time chasing the lovely Wheatears, which were feeding on the sea wall. Ive never managed to get any decent shots of Wheatear in the past, so was really pleased to put the effort in, an "stalk" these little beauties.

The butterfly of the day was the Large White, i must have seen at least 200+ of them!!!
The whole site is covered in Ox Tongue Thistle, an that was the main nectaring flower for the butterflies.

Not many pics were taken! but i did get some highlights. No images are cropped. Cheers Paul.

Painted Lady.

Clouded Yellows.

Wheatear.