Trevor

[Neil Freeman]

A cracking selection of species recently Trevor with those fresh Adonis Blue particularly standing out

...We are all possibly guilty of passing by the Whites, as they are common, very skittish,
and rarely bask with wings wide open...

Very true. I must have seen hundreds of Small Whites recently and yet have only taken a small handful of photos of them.

Also good to see you have been seeing good numbers of Small Tortoiseshells

Cheers,

Neil

[trevor]

Thanks Wurzel & Neil,

Female Blues and blue females.

I went over to Tilshead, Wilts this morning, and was delighted to find three
female Adonis Blues, all fresh, and all with blue markings in varying degrees.
To top the morning off were three blue, female Common Blues.
Males of both of the above were generally worn.
I also found a very fresh Brown Argus.

Trevor.

[millerd]

Very nice to see both female Common and Adonis Blues, Trevor. The Common variety quite possibly eclipse the Adonis in terms of colourfulness, and it's good to see the females taking centre stage instead of the males. Some lovely shots of them.

Cheers,

Dave

[bugboy]

Doing well with the blues recently Trevor, some great shots illustrating the variations in the fairer sex

[trevor]

Cheers Dave and Paul.

My hunt for the ' fairer sex ' yesterday was deliberate, as it had been all males for me
up until then, and Tilshead is an excellent site for both Common and Adonis.
Amazingly we are told that Wilts is behind the South East in terms of emergence times,
but yesterday all males found were worn, and yet I was finding fresh Adonis in Sussex
only last week.

Take care both,
Trevor.

[trevor]

The first one to open up for me on Sunday morning.

[Wurzel]

Brilliant set of images from Tilshead Trevor - gutted that I couldn't make it over there I had a look in at The Devenish and the males were still in good nick there but those at Martin Down were pretty worn - yet they've only been out for a week there

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Some lovely blue females there, Trevor.

I'm used to seeing Common Blue females with a good suffusion but it seems the Adonis females are at it too!

[trevor]

Thanks Wurzel & David.

A little late with this posting. I've been to the Isle of Wight, and stayed up to watch the tennis ( ).

On Friday afternoon I popped over to Herstmonceux Castle, hoping to find some Small Coppers.
The sun refused to shine during my stay, but I eventually saw three on a clump of Rudbeckia.
The other noteworthy find was a very fresh Red Admiral on Sedum.

Trevor.

[Katrina]

That first photo of the Small Copper is gorgeous .

[trevor]

Many thanks Katrina. I had a lot of trouble with my camera trying
to focus on the flowers behind the subject. Had some success though.

Keep well,
Trevor.

PS. Saw a single fresh(ish) Cloudie at Southwick this morning.

[trevor]

So far this year I had not seen a single Clouded Yellow.
In an attempt to put this right I drove over to Southwick this morning.
Within a couple of minutes of arrival, the third butterfly I saw was male Clouded Yellow,
flying very purposefully and obviously searching for females. Unfortunately in the bright,
warm sunshine Clouded Yellows hardly ever pause for long but I did manage a shot or two
when it briefly nectared on Red Clover.
I then walked as far as the fuel tanks, but no more Cloudies were found. On my return to
the area of the original sighting the sun went behind a large cloud, and luckily I was able
watch the Cloudie go to ground, just like an Orange Tip.
I am pretty sure only one Clouded Yellow was present today, and this reasonably fresh solo
specimen made the journey to Southwick worthwhile.

Trevor.

[millerd]

Lovely shots of the Cloudy, Trevor!

In the second one, the leaf in the bottom right hand corner is intriguing as it closely resembles the butterfly. You can see how the curiously marked underside of a Cloudy makes for such effective camouflage.

Cheers,

Dave

[David M]

Success! Well done with the Cloudie, Trevor. It certainly did make the trip worthwhile.

Those Small Copper shots on the ornamental aster are impressive too. Lovely, warm yellow colours contrasting with both the upper and undersides of the butterfly.

[Wurzel]

Love the Coppers Trevor and the Cloudies are ace! Not seen one this year despite trudging many times round Martin Down - hopefully Southbourne will have a few still I've always wanted to go on the Hovercraft so for that

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Lovely Small Coppers on the rudbeckias Trevor, that first shot is a cracker

I've not managed to see a Clouded Yellow this year and with no more trips planned, it looks like I won't get another chance until next year now.

Cheers,

Neil.

[trevor]

Many thanks all, Hoping for more Small Coppers before the seasons out.

This morning I drove up to High and Over. It was a pleasure to meet and have
a long chat with Bob Ede. Before seeing Bob I had already found my first Wall Brown,
defending a large patch of Column Bindweed and readily landing on the large white flowers.
Despite a promising start I only found one more Wall in the meadow near the gate by the steps.
Of four very fresh Commas found, one was very obliging for the camera, as was a male Speckled Wood
which sat on a very photogenic fern frond.

Not bad for the mid day of September.
Trevor.

[Benjamin]

Not bad indeed - some lovely autumn colours there Trevor.

[trevor]

Thanks Ben. More Autumn colour today.

One of Katrina's images from yesterday inspired a return visit to Hersmonceux Castle today.
I noticed that she had photographed a very nicely marked ' blue badge ' Small Copper.
Whether it was the same one or not I don't know, but after a short while I found one on Verbena.
The blue markings on the hind wings were some of the boldest I've ever seen. I also found a couple
of other Small Coppers with very feint blue spots which would hardy qualify as ' blue badges '.
The number of Small Coppers has grown somewhat since my last recent visit.

It was also good to see several Small Tortoiseshells, fresh Commas, many Red Admirals,
and a few Peacocks. Many fresh' Whites' made up the majority of sightings today.

A great day,
Trevor.

[Wurzel]

Crikey Trevor your Small Copper looks like it's a Police Commissioner rather than a regular plod what with those massive badges I think it was Dave that mentioned some don't count it as a ab.caeruleopunctata unless it's got all four blue spots - I don't think they'd argue about this one

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel