June 2023

[David M]

In good years, Bertl, Small Blues can be very common indeed. Let's hope 2023 is one of those years in your part of the country.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Saw my first Grizzled Skipper and Meadow Brown of the year today.

The former landed close to my feet whilst I was eating my sandwich, the latter was along a sunny hedgerow on the walk home.

[millerd]

I found my first 2023 Meadow Brown today too, out on my local patch. Just the one: let's see if this year they can top their one-day maximum here previously of around 150 or so...

Dave

[Pauline]

That's a great shot Zigzag and love the title!

[millerd]

The sunshine was very late arriving today in my part of the world, but I did manage to find a great example of a fresh male Common Blue ab. flavescens, where the underside lunules are pale yellow instead of orange-red.

There is no way of telling from the upperside: this is the same butterfly, showing how new it is.

As with many so-called aberrations, the colour of the underside lunules varies from this very pale extreme to a deep vermilion - with every intermediate shade. Natural variation (rather than aberration) I'd venture! It's quite a common variety on my local patch.

Dave

[bugboy]

Spent the afternoon on Denbies Hillside, when the sun appeared early afternoon the many Adonis also came out to play, the best showing from them for several years, but almost all sadly very past their sell by date! In contrast it looks like the Grizzled Skippers are still emerging in this one is anything to go by

what are the chances of seeing Grizzled Skippers and Chalk hill Blues on the same day....

I also saw my first Meadow Brown and Large Skipper there, amongst many tired looking Dingies and lots of Small Heath, some aged, some very fresh.

[zigzag_wanderer]

That's a great shot Zigzag and love the title!

Thanks very much Pauline. I'm slightly ashamed to admit I had originally toyed with using "Damsel In Distress" but that didn't seem quite respectful enough of its already fatal plight (I could actually hear the munching). Luckily on closer inspection of the snap, a slightly more appropriate title came to mind !

Black-tailed Skimmers seem to be the most common dragonfly flying around me at lunchtimes.The good news (not necessarily for this individual) is that we have extremely healthy numbers of Common Blue, Azure and Blue-tailed damselflies.

I do like the "hearts" on the blue form of the Azure female.

[Chris L]

Now you see it, now you don't. That was a bit gruesome and sad. A little white butterfly (small or green veined) was fluttering against the outside glass of my conservatory. I admired it for 3 seconds. A sparrow slammed in to the glass, collected the butterfly up in its beak and ate it.

Live, gruesome butterfly news from my desk whilst I work.

[SarahM]

Hi Otep,

It's great to have you back on UKB

Your butterfly was asking you to open the door!

I have had Robins in my garden that take butterflies. When the Buddleias are in flower they hide in one bush then dive into another. Sometimes the butterflies escape but sadly some get eaten. Sometimes the wings are discarded and just the body eaten. If I see Robins in the garden I go out and try to get them to move on to another garden.

I also saw a Spotted Flycatcher take a Meadow Brown to feed to nestlings. Never nice to witness.

Sarah

[Bertl]

Lots of common blue and a couple of small copper butterfly at Fallin bing near Stirling.

[Jack Harrison]

Sarah M: I also saw a Spotted Flycatcher take a Meadow Brown to feed to nestlings. Never nice to witness.

I had a Cornish Pasty for my supper. It didn't contain any Cornish people but I think it had what were once live animals (beef). I could have done with more meat and less filler.

Many animals east other animals. It's the way the world has evolved. Just imagine that nothing ate voles or mice - we'd be overrun by little rodents.

Jack

[zigzag_wanderer]

Eating my sandwich this lunchtime when a strong-flying, large butterfly flew along the hedge in front of me. It kept stopping at intervals to rest and then taking off again after a few seconds.

At first I thought it was one of my Speckled Woods who do a similar tour along that hedge, but this thing piqued my interest because it was larger and added some glides into its flight pattern. I then thought possibly White Admiral, although I've never seen one here.

It kept flying above the hedge, but thankfully coming back down on my side, landing for 4 or 5 secs and then flying along or up again. It was with me for 90 seconds max before it eventually decided to go into the field on the other side of the hedge. My side is a fairly narrow strip between the side of House #5 and the hedge, whereas the neighbouring field is much larger and houses our reservoir pond. I don't have ready access to that field, so couldn't follow it.

As soon as I saw it up close I realised it must be an escapee from Middleton Common Farm butterfly house not too far away ! It is the first time I've ever seen an escapee butterfly myself (though I have previously posted a snap a pal took in their garden in 2021).

Apologies for the very poor snaps, I only managed two quick point'n'clicks at it.

[Greenie]

Hi ZZ_W ,

Your mystery butterfly seems to have a dark background and white stripes .

Together with your description of flight , my guess would be a day flying Jersey Tiger moth .

Cheers Greenie

[Jack Harrison]

Dingy Skipper and Small Blue Ardersier near Inverness 9th June

Nat Grid NH771565 what3words outermost.regal.deferring

They were very difficult to find as I was only able to detect when they flew - which wasn't very often.  These photos are as I saw the butterflies - with great difficulty.  I have plenty of close-ups in the past, but today's pictures had a different purpose.

The habitat (my car), patch of Kidney Vetch, and two tests: "spot the butterfly". Click to enlarge image.

I will reveal in a later post.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

When you have give up looking for Dingy Skipper and Small Blue in my photos....

Jack

[Allan.W.]

As Greenie suggested Zig-Zag ..............Jersey Tiger for me too. Lovely shot of the Kidney Vetch Jack !
Allan.W.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Hi ZZ_W ,

Your mystery butterfly seems to have a dark background and white stripes .

Together with your description of flight , my guess would be a day flying Jersey Tiger moth .

Cheers Greenie

Hi Greenie,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I don't think it was a Jersey Tiger Moth, but I'm certainly not going to swear blind it wasn't !

Despite the less-than-ideal quality of the two quick snaps I took, I did actually get to watch it at fairly close quarters, albeit only for a minute and a half.

In flight (and it was in flight for most of that time), the predominant colours were black, white and an overall slight mauve-ness. There was absolutely no sign of red or orange in flight (or at rest).

At rest it had two positions. Upright with its wings closed together (e.g. like a Small Heath always does) or with its wings wide open. In the latter case, the interesting thing was it seemed to hold them wider than 180 degrees, though not as far as the classic Dingy-Skipper-around-a-seed-head. It wasn't ever at rest in a Jersey Tiger "rounded triangle" wings-together pose....and if it'd been in a more open-winged JT pose, I should have expected to see some red or orange ?

The initial snaps were very poor, so these mucked about with versions are even worse (!), but are included just to try and give examples (but will probably just muddy the waters).

In the first one, it is in the Small Heath like position, sitting on a leaf that's pointing down to the bottom left so you are seeing the underside, which was more monochrome than the upper. The underside forewing seems to have 5 or 6 white spots, the hindwing appears slightly browner than the forewing. The resolution is absolute pants though.

In the second photo it was lying flat. We're mainly only seeing its left side, with its head to the left and slightly down. It's holding its wings forward, a bit like a butterfly-stroke swimmer (ironically enough).You can just about make out the top of the right side and see the start of the horizontal striping symmetry. The top corners of the forewings have stripes going obliquely to that.

I have no suggestion as to what the species is, just that I don't think it was a JT !

Anyway, I think we can all agree on the third snap, Monday lunchtime's Grizzled Skipper returned this afternoon and stayed long enough for a photo this time. My breeze-block alfresco dining area is in the background.

Thanks again though. I really appreciate any suggestions/thoughts on such posts. And as a bit of crawling, I have to say it's an honour to receive a post from Greenie In The Wild !

[bugboy]

Hi ZZ_W ,

Your mystery butterfly seems to have a dark background and white stripes .

Together with your description of flight , my guess would be a day flying Jersey Tiger moth .

Cheers Greenie

Hi Greenie,

Thanks a lot for the suggestion. I don't think it was a Jersey Tiger Moth, but I'm certainly not going to swear blind it wasn't

I must admit my first instinct when I saw your post was Jersey Tiger but we can safely rule that out with those extra details. I can't open that first image to get a better look at the underside but you could try looking through Guy Padfields guide to tropical butterflies here:
https://www.guypadfield.com/butterflyhouse.html

[Padfield]

For Zigzag’s escapee, my first thought was Myscelia sp. M. orsis has the right wing shape and pattern. Myscelia sp. are common in butterfly houses and though I’ve never seen orsis I don’t see why it shouldn’t be bred. Sadly, my copies of d’Abrera are still in storage in the UK…

Guy

EDIT: I interpreted the first photo as showing the right-wing uppersides, the left wings being held flat towards the viewer.

[bugboy]

Had a gorganus Swallowtail fly past me along the Kent coast this afternoon between St. Margaret's Bay and Kingsdown. Although I've seen britannicus many times now I'm still counting it as a lifer having never seen a wild continental one before. Sadly no photo opportunity, it was getting battered in the stiff breeze it was flying into and was gone long before my camera would have been able to find it!

Annoyingly I've just seen a perfectly posed one on Facebook taken at St. Margaret's this morning!