August 2023

[aeshna5]

Had a walk around the northern part of Chobham Common yesterday. Graylings doing well with at least 65 seen.

Gatekeeper second most common with 37 counted.

Otherwise :

Large White
Green-veined White 2
Brimstone 2 female
Meadow Brown 7
Speckled Wood 2
Small Copper
Silver-studded Blue 1 faded female
Holly Blue 2
Peacock 3
Large Skipper 6
Essex Skipper
Small/Essex Skipper 2

I was surprised to find Large Skippers as they have been over for a while locally. All in damper areas with plenty of nectar with Water Mint, Common Fleabane, etc. Equally surprised to see no Small Heaths.

One small pool yielded a male Southern Hawker, a pair of Keeled Skimmers, Common Darter, a pair of Small Red Damselflies & a Willow Emerald. Elsewhere 2 Brown Hawkers, 2 Migrant Hawkers, 2 male Ruddy Darters & quite a few more Common Darters.

Quiet for birds but red Kite, Buzzard, 4 Stonechat & 2 Dartford Warblers. Common Lizard across the path

The site looking its best this time of year with masses of Bell Heather, Ling & Dwarf Gorse in flower.

[Ian Pratt]

Perfect day for photographing chalk hill blues at Arreton Down Isle of Wight this morning. Overcast with mild drizzle. Many chalk hill blues about, hundreds possibly over a thousand on the whole hillside. I attach some photos.

[bugboy]

Had a walk around the northern part of Chobham Common yesterday. Graylings doing well with at least 65 seen.

Gatekeeper second most common with 37 counted.

Otherwise :

Large White
Green-veined White 2
Brimstone 2 female
Meadow Brown 7
Speckled Wood 2
Small Copper
Silver-studded Blue 1 faded female
Holly Blue 2
Peacock 3
Large Skipper 6
Essex Skipper
Small/Essex Skipper 2

I was surprised to find Large Skippers as they have been over for a while locally. All in damper areas with plenty of nectar with Water Mint, Common Fleabane, etc. Equally surprised to see no Small Heaths.

One small pool yielded a male Southern Hawker, a pair of Keeled Skimmers, Common Darter, a pair of Small Red Damselflies & a Willow Emerald. Elsewhere 2 Brown Hawkers, 2 Migrant Hawkers, 2 male Ruddy Darters & quite a few more Common Darters.

Quiet for birds but red Kite, Buzzard, 4 Stonechat & 2 Dartford Warblers. Common Lizard across the path

The site looking its best this time of year with masses of Bell Heather, Ling & Dwarf Gorse in flower.

I've often commented in my PD about how late Large Skippers can be found at Chobham, I nearly always find them when looking for Grayling there, who are also late compared to many other places both further north and further south in the country. Silver -studded Blue seem to fly around the same time as other sites though. It seems a peculiarity to Chobham.

[millerd]

...how late Large Skippers can be found at Chobham...

Something I've noted as well. I've also found the Gatekeepers to be fresher than at home, and the Silver-studs seem to persist longer at Chobham than at Fairmile Common for example.

The lack of Small Heaths aeshna5 mentions appears to be a feature of pretty well everywhere I've been recently. Up at Aston Rowant this morning, I found just the one (they would normally be everywhere), and on my local patch I've hardly seen one since mid-June. This one seen there yesterday looked a bit washed-out too...

**************************************************************************************
A few Adonis Blues are out at Aston Rowant now, joining the Chalkhills, Common Blues, and myriads of Brown Argus. I find the comparison between this Chiltern site and Denbies on the North Downs fascinating: Both have the same set of species, but the numbers are markedly different. There are always more Chalkhills at Denbies, always more Common and Brown Argus at Aston. First brood Adonis seem to do better than the second at Denbies, but at Aston Rowant it can often be the second that predominates. Both sites have Silver-spotted Skippers, but there are more at Aston Rowant - at least in every year I've made the comparison. Some of today's butterflies from the latter site:

I tried to track down a few female Chalkhills, as this location often throws up interesting variations including butterflies with quite a few blue scales. This is the best of these I could find today.

Dave

[bugboy]

Had a walk around the northern part of Chobham Common yesterday. Graylings doing well with at least 65 seen.

Gatekeeper second most common with 37 counted.

Otherwise :

Large White
Green-veined White 2
Brimstone 2 female
Meadow Brown 7
Speckled Wood 2
Small Copper
Silver-studded Blue 1 faded female
Holly Blue 2
Peacock 3
Large Skipper 6
Essex Skipper
Small/Essex Skipper 2

I was surprised to find Large Skippers as they have been over for a while locally. All in damper areas with plenty of nectar with Water Mint, Common Fleabane, etc. Equally surprised to see no Small Heaths.

One small pool yielded a male Southern Hawker, a pair of Keeled Skimmers, Common Darter, a pair of Small Red Damselflies & a Willow Emerald. Elsewhere 2 Brown Hawkers, 2 Migrant Hawkers, 2 male Ruddy Darters & quite a few more Common Darters.

Quiet for birds but red Kite, Buzzard, 4 Stonechat & 2 Dartford Warblers. Common Lizard across the path

The site looking its best this time of year with masses of Bell Heather, Ling & Dwarf Gorse in flower.

I've often commented in my PD about how late Large Skippers can be found at Chobham, I nearly always find them when looking for Grayling there, who are also late compared to many other places both further north and further south in the country. Silver -studded Blue seem to fly around the same time as other sites though. It seems a peculiarity to Chobham.

Just returning from an afternoon on the common where I found similar numbers of Grayling and Gatekeeper. I was mainly focused on the Grayling so didn't see as large a range of species but did find 1 Large Skipper, 2 Small Skipper, 1 Essex, 1 Small Copper, 4 Holly Blue (plus another 3 waiting for my train home) and 1 faded Small Heath suggesting they might be between broods here.

[aeshna5]

Interesting observations Bugboy about the late Large Skippers at Chobham. I visit every year for the Graylings (& an earlier trip for Silver-studded Blues) but don't recall the Large Skippers so late ,but possibly didn't visit the main area I found them.

Yesterday I stayed locally to a site for Brown Hairstreak, near Ruislip Gardens where I did find 5 fresh Small Heaths.

A slow start for the main quarry but eventually found 7 Brown Hairstreaks. One male was nectaring on Hoary Ragwort but another 4 individuals (both sexes) were imbibing juices from over-ripe blackberries.

A few Brown Argus & Common Blue about as well as more generalist species such as all 3 common whites, Holly Blue, Speckled Wood (most numerous species), Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper & Red Admiral.

Lots of male Gypsy Moths wildly flying about, 2 Jersey Tigers, Yellow Shell & 3 Shaded Broad-bar also seen.

Quiet for dragonflies with one each of Southern & Migrant Hawker & Common Darter.

[David M]

Thursday 10th, CwmIvy, Gower:

Meadow Brown 80-120
Common Blue 50-75
Speckled Wood 15-20
Small Heath 16
Brimstone 14
Peacock 12
Green Veined White 10
Small White 5-10
Hedge Brown 5
Holly Blue 5
Red Admiral 3
Large White 3
Grayling 1
Brown Argus 1

[Trev Sawyer]

Noticed a female Gatekeeper probing around the grass under a bush in the garden yesterday and after it had flown, I managed to find an egg

Also, I noticed a Hummingbird Hawkmoth lay a single egg on some Ladies Bedstraw last week...
It had hatched and eaten the eggshell when I went out to check this morning. I've named it Chesney as it is definitely "the one and only"

[Testudo Man]

Last couple of weekends spent at Queensdown Warren, Kent.
Chasing Silver Spotted Skippers (although i had my 1st SSS sighting at the end of July).
As usual, this time of the year im nursing loads of Ant stings/bites for my efforts! but its a small price to pay!
Typically spending 6 to 8 hours out in the field, either on the Saturday or Sunday of each weekend.
This Saturday, SSS numbers finally started to grow (over 6+ seen) including a female, but no chance of sorting through any images yet! so these images are from last week. No images are cropped, cheers Paul.

Other species making up the numbers - Brown Argus, Common Blue, Chalk hill Blue.

[millerd]

A Grayling from Chobham Common yesterday (12th). Lots around, but it was very windy and they were letting themselves catch the wind at every opportunity (except for this one! )

Dave

[Katrina]

Great photo Dave with the butterfly and habitat in view together!

Trev Sawyer I love your Chesney naming!

[David M]

Several Red Admirals and just my 5th UK Painted Lady of the year on my neighbour's buddleia on Thursday 10th:

[David M]

Monday 14th - a wet morning gave way to sunny intervals in the afternoon. Red Admiral, Comma & Small White were all seen on the buddleias close to my house:

[Bertl]

Had some lunch at logie steading near Forres today and took a wee visit to the gardens as the sun appeared.

Seen around 6 red admirals, 12 peacock, 10 small white, 2 tortoiseshell and 2 comma butterfly.

Could not get any photos of tortoiseshell or comma........stayed high on buddleia.

Bert.

[David M]

...Could not get any photos of tortoiseshell or comma....

Not a problem when you can get images like that of Peacock. Excellent stuff, Bertl.

[David M]

Tuesday 15th, Port Eynon, Gower:

Meadow Brown 40-60
Common Blue 30-40
Small White 20-30
Hedge Brown 8
Large White 6
Red Admiral 2
Brown Argus 2
Wall Brown 2
Speckled Wood 1
Brimstone 1

There were three hummingbird hawk moths as well.

[Lawts]

Looks like it's another Long-tailed Blue year at Lancing. C.10 in recent days at Lancing Ring per Birdguides. Also a female at Felpham, West Sussex yesterday.

[David M]

Wednesday 16th, West Williamston, Pembrokeshire:

Common Blue 40-60
Hedge Brown 20-30
Small White 6-10
Speckled Wood 5
Small Copper 5
Red Admiral 2
Holly Blue 2
Large White 2
Brown Hairstreak 1

[Jack Harrison]

Scotch Argus must be the second most difficult British Butterfly to photograph, the clear 'winner' being the Wall Brown (due to its liveliness).

Scotch Argus is indeed quite lively when the sun is out, but its habit of settling deep in the grass makes photography very challenging.  Vegetation gets in the way and of course it is not easy to get the camera to grab the focus on the butterfly and not on some annoying blade of grass.

Plenty out today and I saw in several localities.  This male and female were quite near to my home.

This habitat in the Upper Findhorn valley had many flying - but being less-than-agile on my feet at my age, I couldn't chase them.

Jack

[David M]

Scotch Argus must be the second most difficult British Butterfly to photograph, the clear 'winner' being the Wall Brown (due to its liveliness).

Try Large Heath, Jack!!

Nice you've got plenty nearby. Quicker for me to fly to Andalusia than to drive to my nearest site for aethiops.