millerd

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - good to catch up with you and everyone else yesterday at the Social! November sightings on their way...

In fact, I had to wait until 4th of the month before recording any sightings. A local outing then was successful though, with two Red Admirals and a Holly Blue seen. One of the Red Admirals was a reasonably fresh example, down on the nettles behaving in a way that suggested to me that she was another female with eggs to lay.

I also spotted another occupied larval tent, with the remains of an earlier, now abandoned, one nearby.

Dave

[millerd]

Another gap until the next butterflies - it wasn't until 9th November that I saw any more. 15 degrees and 6 hours of sunshine locally was the key! I also realised a little belatedly that I now had seen butterflies in 22 consecutive calendar months, starting in February 2021 - quite astonishing and no doubt down to the warming climate at least in part.

Three species appeared on the 9th: A Comma, a Red Admiral and a Holly Blue.

The Comma was basking just above the nettle patch where there were more Red Admiral caterpillars, including one which had not secured its tent very well yet - maybe it had just turned over a new leaf.

On 11th November, I looked a little more closely at this nettle patch (as there didn't seem to be any adult butterflies around). It's not a huge area but is very sheltered and catches pretty well all the sunshine that the darkest months of the year offer, facing due south as it does.

The nettles continue in a thin strip along the bottom of the hedge round the corner at the top right of the picture, and I have found eggs along here but no larval tents as yet. However, there was quite a bit of larval activity on the main nettle patch today.

Tearing myself away from the munching caterpillars, I wandered out onto the large meadow/grassland areas that are full of butterflies in midsummer but have been very quiet lately despite still being covered in flowers. Having seen no butterflies anywhere today, I was quite surprised to find a male Small White.

This beat my previous latest sighting of the species here by over a week (2nd Nov 2021).

Looking back from 27th November (when I'm typing this) it looks as if the Holly Blue on the 9th and this Small White would be my last sightings of these species for 2022.

Dave

[millerd]

12th and 13th November provided perhaps the biggest surprises of the month. I saw the same three species on both days, one of which was the Red Admiral - not a surprise.

However, I saw a female Brimstone in flight on both days, though in different spots - much less usual for the time of year, though my attempts at capturing one of these moments was a bit feeble!

The most surprising sighting was of two Common Blues on 12th. I spotted the first, and had just achieved an initial record shot when a second male appeared and the two took off into the distance.

I failed to reconnect that day, but despite cooler weather on 13th, I went to the same spot and found the same one again - though not the other. This time I was able to get several views of this extremely unseasonal butterfly.

There were plenty of nectar sources - the knapweed was particularly good (and is still in full flower today (28th). This was by some days my latest Common Blue (4th November 2020 held the previous record).

Dave

[millerd]

Things were now starting to cool off (as you'd expect in mid-November), with daily highs of 13 instead of 15 or 16, but in sunshine there would always be the possibility of something flying. On 16th November, my next local walk, I managed to see a couple of Red Admirals - and then annoyingly disturbed a basking Comma I hadn't spotted, sending it up into the trees. The Red Admirals were not much more accessible, this being the only half-decent shot I achieved today.

I contented myself with successful searching for more larval tents.

This turned out to be the pattern for the remainder of the month, with only Red Admirals (in various stages of development) on the menu.

Dave

[Wurzel]

It was good catching up with as well Dave Great set of posts but for me the stand out shot is the Red Admiral from the 9th Nov - that is a brilliant pose, like it's rearing up to catch the full rays of the sun OR get every last drop of nectar

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

As November progresses it's amazing how exciting a lone Red Admiral sighting can be!
or in my case a Peacock. A November Common Blue is very welcome, I've found the odd
one in the past at Southwick.

Take care,
Trevor.

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - it was an unusual pose from that Admiral, but if it had been in standard horizontal pose I would not have managed a shot at all!

Thanks, Trevor - yes, I remember seeing that Common Blues (like all kinds of other species ) do often persist into November down on the sunny Sussex coast.

18th November was fairly sunny again, and not too chilly. I managed three adult Red Admirals today locally, one of which was looking very ragged.

However, one of the others was clearly a female on a mission, and was in pretty good nick.

I watched her fussing around this nettle patch for some time, and after she had disappeared, managed to find a couple of eggs - one of which I think had been laid while she was posing for the photo above.

While discovering the eggs, I started to spot the telltale signs of caterpillar activity too.

As mentioned, the pattern for the remainder of the month had definitely now been established.

Dave

[millerd]

A similar day on 20th November tempted me out again, and I found three Red Admirals flying today. One was nearly transparent, and another looked like one I'd seen on at least one previous day.

The caterpillar search today was particularly rewarding, as several were easily found - including a couple of quite large individuals.

I must have caught this one on its way to construct a new tent.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great to see your November Red Admirals Dave I didn't see a single butterfly in November That first one looks like it's been hit by a deluge and the scales all washed off

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Dave, I've not seen a Butterfly since October even when the weather was milder and I've got great clumps of Ivy covering the roof of a shed in the Garden which I'll need to cut back, in doing so I hope I don't get rid of any thing, although having said that, I've not seen one Butterfly on it. Goldie

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel - November hasn't been as good as I'd hoped (and nowhere near what was seen down in Sussex!), but Red Admirals have hung on nearly till the end.

Hi, Goldie - by now your ivy has no doubt stopped flowering, but depending how thick it is there is always the chance of a hibernating Brimstone, so keep an eye open just in case. Any Holly Blue caterpillars that may have been munching it earlier in the year should have dropped to the ground and pupated, so you shouldn't have to worry about them.

On 22nd November I spotted another Red Admiral, but in flight this time and definitely not stopping. Whether any are still migrating south I wouldn't like to guess. Once again, I contented myself with looking for their offspring in the nettle "nursery".

As can be seen from my intrusive thumb, the various caterpillars varied quite a bit in size. The first two shots are of the same individual, which has just shed its skin and is displaying the fresh pale spines and head of its new iteration.

Though one of these caterpillars is pretty large, I have yet to find one that has gone that bit further and pupated. When I've kept them in captivity (unlike most related species) they don't tend to leave their home nettle stalk and have just folded over another leaf as a tent and pupated within it. (They are one of the few species I found didn't need caging.) However, in the wild, they may behave differently.

Dave

[trevor]

Congrats Dave for your winning Brimstones in flight shot!. Very worthy!

[Goldie M]

Many thanks Dave for the info , I'll look out for a Brimstone before cutting, that's good info about the Holly Blue I was really bothered about them Goldie

[Katrina]

Congratulations - fantastic shot!

[millerd]

Thank you, Trevor and Katrina - I was quite pleased with the shot at the time and was a bit taken aback (in a good way!) by all the favourable noises people made about it. And I am honoured to receive the baton from you Katrina after your great winner last year!

I hope your pruning encourages lots of ivy flowers next year, Goldie, followed by lots of Holly Blues and other butterflies. A good percentage of my late season photos are taken of butterflies on ivy!

23rd November was another warmish (for the time of year) and sunny day. I managed to get a shot of the only butterfly I saw today, another Red Admiral.

I also found two caterpillar tents quite close to one another, both definitely occupied. These little things certainly move around when they are looking for new leaves to use as shelter and to feed on.

The other interesting sighting was a late-flying damselfly, one I don't remember seeing here before. It was very docile and surprisingly approachable.

I have now managed to identify it as a male Willow Emerald, and logged it on iRecord. Having checked the recond recently, the sighting has been confirmed and noted as "out of normal range" and "out of normal flight period". However, I have been told independently that the species does fly into November, and is rapidly spreading, so I suspect the app is a little behind the times...

Dave

[Wurzel]

Nice tent shots Dave That Willow Emerald is an lovely looking Damsel but the livery in the final shot looks almost like a military paint job Congrats on the Comp win

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

...I have now managed to identify it as a male Willow Emerald, and logged it on iRecord...

That's quite some sighting given the date, Dave. You wouldn't think such a delicate creature could survive in the UK in late November.

Amazing eyes on it too. Like some droid from a sci-fi series.

[millerd]

Nice tent shots Dave That Willow Emerald is an lovely looking Damsel but the livery in the final shot looks almost like a military paint job Congrats on the Comp win
Wurzel

Cheers, Wurzel - and thank you on all counts! Yes, that damselfly would fit right in on Salisbury Plain...

That's quite some sighting given the date, Dave. You wouldn't think such a delicate creature could survive in the UK in late November.

Amazing eyes on it too. Like some droid from a sci-fi series.

I was surprised to see it, David, though I'd seen a few commoner species earlier in the month. It is a bit alien-looking as you say - dragon- and damsel-flies close up do sometimes look very mechanical and more like intricate artifacts than part of the natural world!

25th November. More long spells of sunshine and mild temperatures gave me what is almost 100% certainly my last butterfly sighting of 2022. The female Red Admiral seen egg-laying on 18th was back in the same place, probably on the same mission (though this time I failed to find any eggs). There was, however, plenty of further evidence of her efforts, or others like her.

She looked hardly more worn than a week earlier, and I hoped to encounter her again (perhaps in early December), but unfortunately this was not to be.

Still, a good butterfly with which to end the season.

Dave

[trevor]

I think we can almost rely on the Red Admiral to provide us with a late, last sighting, Dave.
Or even the odd one in December, but perhaps not at the moment!

It's minus quite a few here this morning!

Trevor.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Dave , trust me to miss out on saying congrats to you , I've just realised I missed out on a lot of things with having things done here, all the best Goldie