millerd wrote: ↑Sun Jun 30, 2024 6:21 pm
Highlights included sightings (after the gap between broods) of all three common White butterflies, including new male and female GVW...
Oh wow, Dave, stunning Green-veined White with such dark markings
Site visit Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024
I popped out for a while, when the sun suddenly appeared, and visited my favorite local meadow to see what was happening while I was away. And there was the first Marbled White of the year - so the 5 last year have managed once again to sustain the population. Always a joy to find out they have succeeded again. To put it in to perspective, this is a truly isolated colony with no Marbled Whites seen in the rest of Chelmsford within a 5 mile radius [so far, anyway].
![2024.06.30 Marbled White Meadgate Fields.jpg (2.13 MiB) Viewed 185 times Marbled White<br />Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024](./files/thumb_22825_cd9344e763a6c5e396c3513985201961)
- Marbled White
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024
And another highlight of this little meadow which looks more like a wasteland than a lovely chalk grassland:
![2024.06.30 Meadgate Fields Open .jpg (3.33 MiB) Viewed 185 times The meadow at Meadgate Fields Open Space<br />end of June 2024](./files/thumb_22825_ef30c844428a4c5947cef60f5e065387)
- The meadow at Meadgate Fields Open Space
end of June 2024
are the skippers - the cuties - which thrive in the long grass which is still sparse enough to support butterflies rather than the rank, nutrient rich grasslands we see in most places around here.
29 Essex Skippers today, which is a great number for the start of the season:
![2024.06.30 Essex Skipper Meadgat.jpg (943.1 KiB) Viewed 185 times Essex Skipper male x 2<br />Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024](./files/thumb_22825_c7858357299a0ce1844f9b25b2e22945)
- Essex Skipper male x 2
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024
But the highlight today was the other one. All the skippers I checked were Essex. Then I spotted a beautiful young female actively searching a sheath of grass and assumed an Essex until I was clicking away and realised, well what are the odds [7 out of 100], a Small Skipper ovipositing:
![2024.06.30 Small Skipper Meadgate Fields.jpg (1.13 MiB) Viewed 185 times Small Skipper female ovipositing within a sheath of fine grass<br />Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024](./files/thumb_22825_70a64db7cd027e72550add81eb0bdbf9)
- Small Skipper female ovipositing within a sheath of fine grass
Meadgate Fields Open Space 30/06/2024
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
happy days!