Neil Freeman

[Neil Freeman]

Wednesday 19th June.

A much better day here and once the early cloud had thinned out a pleasant day of mixed sun and large puffy clouds. Sods law meant that I had to wait in during the morning for some plasterers to come and give me quote for some work in the house but with some time free in the afternoon I had another wander down to my local spot by Wagon Lane.
Still not much flying there although Meadow Brown numbers are slowly improving with at least 10 seen, all fresh looking males.

Meadow Brown - Wagon Lane 19.06.2024

Meadow Brown - Wagon Lane 19.06.2024

With the slow moving clouds occasionally covering the sun I tried to get another open wing shot like the other day but was only partially successful with some shadows cast by the very long and lush grass.

Meadow Brown - Wagon Lane 19.06.2024

My first Large Skippers of the year finally showed up with three seen in widely separated parts of the site.

Large Skipper - Wagon Lane 19.06.2024

The only other butterfly seen was a white speeding along a hedgerow, probably a GV or Small but too far away to be sure.

During one spell where a cloud slowly moved away from the sun I noticed a partial halo like effect which lasted for a couple of minutes.

Things are looking up for the next few days so I will try to get out to some of my other spots around Solihull.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Wednesday 19th June - Clearwings

Just a quick update on the latest Clearwing Moths that have come to pheromone lures in my garden.

On Wednesday morning I put the TPI lure out in my garden at around 10.00am and 30 minutes later found it had attracted a couple of Current Clearwings.
I potted these to photograph later and then took the lure in and changed it for the MYO lure which I left out whilst I went down to Wagon Lane for an hour. On my return around 3.00pm I found three Red-belted Clearwings in the trap and again potted these for photos later.

I then took this lure in and put out the VES lure for the last couple of hours in the afternoon. Upon checking this just before bringing it in at 6.00pm I found a single Yellow-legged Clearwing in the trap. This made it a three Clearwing species day and brought my tally of these fascinating little moths up to four so far this year after the Red-tipped Clearwings that came to the FOR lure a couple of weeks back.

Currant Clearwing - Coverdale 19.06.2024

Red-belted Clearwing - Coverdale 19.06.2024

Yellow-legged Clearwing - Coverdale 19.06.2024

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Cheers for the Meadow Brown tips - I'll give it a go, of course now that I've planned to we'll get either a blanket of cloud or wall to wall sunshine Cracking Clearwings and that is one very spotty Meadow Brown

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. I noticed in warmer weather yesterday (20th) that the trick wasn't as reliable as they went from closed up to take off almost immediatly. Still managed to catch a couple though as some thicker clouds moved in.

Thursday 20th June.

After a cloudy start it began to brighten up and with a promising looking morning I decided to pop over to the other side of Solihull and pay my first visit of the year to Blythe Valley Park. I would normally have been there earlier in the year than this but with a combination of poor weather and various 'stuff to do' I had not had a chance until now.

By the time I arrived at around 09.45am it was mostly blue skies and warm sun with just some high level cloud. I had not yet seen a Ringlet this year and with this site normally producing large numbers I was not surprised to see my first of the year within minutes of arriving. I soon saw others and in the nearly two hours I spent wandering around the paths here I saw a minimum of 30+. To start with they were very active, constantly bobbing along just above the grass or occasionally settling with their wings closed but later in the morning some more cloud bubbled up which slowed them down a bit.

Ringlet - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Ringlet - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Ringlet - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Similar numbers of Meadow Browns were seen with these behaving the same as the Ringlets and slowing down a bit as the cloud increased.

Meadow Brown - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Other butterflies were still thin on the ground with just four Speckled Wood, a couple of Large Skippers and a single well worn male Common Blue seen.

Large Skipper - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Speckled Wood - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Last year I came here on 22nd June and saw Small Skippers and Marbled Whites but given the weather we have had so far this year it was still too early here this time...maybe next week.

Day flying moths included around a dozen or so Latticed Heath and a few faded Burnet Companion Moths.

Latticed Heath - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

Both Beautiful and Banded Demoiselles are found here and I have photographed both in the past. The females of these two can be difficult to tell apart but I think the one below is a female Banded Demoiselle (could be wrong though).

Banded Demoiselle female - Blythe Valley 20.06.2024

I left shortly after 11.30 with the temperature up around 20 degrees. It is looking good for next week so fingers crossed that a few more decent days will bring some more butterflies out around here.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Friday 21st June.

We popped around to my Mom's this morning and it was actually the first time this year that it was warm enough to go around without wearing a jacket. It was also the first time this year that I bothered to have a wander down to the local park just down the road from her house, that just shows what the weather here has been like much of the time so far this year.

My circular route around the areas that are allowed to grow wild and through a small wood produced a few butterflies but still not the numbers I would expect to see here. These consisted of the usual 'common' species namely Ringlet (5) Meadow Brown (4) Speckled Wood (1) and Large Skipper (2).

Speckled Wood - Langley Hall 21.06.2024

Large Skipper - Langley Hall 21.06.2024

Large Skipper - Langley Hall 21.06.2024

Whilst we had been out I had left the LUN pheromone lure out in our garden and on our return found my first Lunar Hornet Moth of the year in the trap. This is my earliest ever here by a couple of days with the previous earliest being last year on June 23rd with all previous records starting in the first week of July.

Lunar Hornet Moth - Coverdale 21.06.2024

I then took that lure in and put out the VES lure as this attracts Orange-tailed Clearwing as well as Yellow-legged. Orange-tailed is the sixth and last of the 'regular' species that I usually get here each year and so was chuffed to find one in the trap just after midday. As is my usual practice, I potted this one to keep in the shade in order to quieten him down for photos later.
About an hour later I had a second Orange-tailed and then a bit later two Yellow-legged arrived to provide the icing on the cake.

Orange-tailed Clearwing - Coverdale 21.06.2024

Yellow-legged Clearwing - Coverdale 21.06.2024

I had also put my normal garden moth trap out the previous night with a pretty poor tally for the time of year of 45 moths of 21 species. As a comparison, last year I had 172 of 57 on June 19th and 218 of 54 on June 24th and in 2022 I had 177 of 49 on June 17th and 151 of 38 on June 22nd. This shows that the moths here are not doing any better than the butterflies.

My best moth last night was my second Poplar Hawk-moth of the year with everything else being the usual suspects for here.

Poplar Hawk-moth - Coverdale 21.06.2024

At least it looks like the next week or so is going to be better albeit with some rain coming in overnight and a cloudy looking Sunday forecast, that is if the forecasters get it right...a big if!.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Saturday 22nd June.

Another decent day with lots of cloud but enough sun to make it feel nice and warm with the temperature up around 20 degrees by midday. With a couple of hours free in the afternoon I decided to head round to my local site at Castle Hills for a look. This was the first time of going there this year and in fact in the past couple of years I have not been there as much as I used to due to works going on at the nearby Jaguar Land Rover plant which included disruption to the nearby road layout. This has now settled down but I have still lost one of my parking spots and now have to use an alternative footpath into the site.

Anyway, I picked up one of the footpaths but noticed how overgrown it now was with large patches of brambles intruding into the first meadow area. All I saw here was a few Ringlets and Meadow Browns so I carried on into the next meadow areas which had fewer brambles although the grass was the longest I have ever seen it here, no doubt due to all the rain we have had here followed by some warmer weather.

Ringlets were more numerous in this part of the site which consists of three meadows separated by large hedgerows with gaps through. In the couple of hours I spent wandering around here I reckon I ended up seeing something like 50+ Ringlets.

Ringlet - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

One of the Ringlets looked a little odd in flight and when it settled I noticed it had a paler than usual forewing.

Ringlet - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

From what I could see the other side looked normal but I couldn't get a clear view of it. I kept my eye on this individual as it fluttered about until it settled on a bramble leaf and opened up.

Ringlet - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

I believe this is classed as a pathological aberration and is caused by abrupt temperature changes whilst in the pupa. I have seen this kind of thing in Meadow Browns a few times but I don't recall seeing it before in a Ringlet.

Speaking of Meadow Browns there were only half as many as the Ringlets with no more than 20-25 seen with from what I could tell all of them being males still.

Having seen that Marbled Whites were now being reported from elsewhere around Warwickshire, I was also on the lookout for these and was pleased to see a few here. It was quite breezy in the open areas where these were flying and they would often get whisked away and be across the other side of the meadow in seconds. This kind of thing makes counting a bit tricky as it is impossible to tell if one you see later is not one you have already seen, but I reckon there were at least half a dozen and maybe up to 9 or 10, all fresh males. Despite these having moved in here a few years ago now, I still get a thrill when I see the first ones here each year. When I was a nipper they were strictly butterflies of holidays down south.

Marbled White - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

Marbled White - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

Marbled White - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

A dozen or so Large Skippers were buzzing about including the first couple of females I have seen this year.

Large Skipper - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

Large Skipper - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

Large Skipper female - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

A couple of faded Small Heath, a worn female Common Blue and a single Speckled Wood made up the rest of the butterflies seen here.

Day flying moths seen included a couple of dozen Latticed Heath and a few Burnet Companions.

Latticed Heath - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

The Burnet Companions were mostly old and faded now but did include a couple in decent condition still.

Burnet Companion - Castle Hills 22.06.2024

A few Burnet Moths were buzzing about but they didn't stay still long enough to tell whether they were Narrow-bordered Five-spots or the first of the Six-spots, both species being common around here.

A decent afternoon but still worryingly low numbers of butterflies, there should be hundreds of Ringlets and Meadow Browns here now. Lets hope they are just running late.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

" there should be hundreds of Ringlets and Meadow Browns here now."I'm finding the same thing as you Neil - I was at Garston this morning and it should have been wall to wall Browns - but I saw only I Small Heath, 2 Ringlets and about 12 Meadow Browns Still your Marbled Whites cheered me up as I've yet to see them this season.I think your pale winged Ringlet would be considered 'pathological'? I really need to find out what that means but I have a feeling that it's used in the same way as a Doctor saying 'it's a virus... '

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. 'Pathological' can relate to being different in either physical or mental conditions. I believe you are right in that it is often used as a 'catch all' for anything that cannot be put into a nice neat box.


Over the past few nights some more Early Thorns have emerged with these ones all being female for a total of 10 of each sex so far. I wasn't going to take any more photos of these but they are so photogenic that I couldn'e resist.

Early Thorn - Coverdale 20.06.2024

Early Thorn - Coverdale 20.06.2024

I have also had two more Lime Hawk-moths emerge, both during the afternoons. A female on Saturday (22nd) and then a male on Sunday (23rd)

Lime Hawk-moth female - Coverdale 22.06.2024

Lime Hawk-moth male - Coverdale 23.06.2024

I've got a couple of days of being busy now but it looks like I will be free all day on Wednesday and maybe Thursday too so with the weather looking set to stay good all week I should be able to get out somewhere.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Goldie M]

Every things late here Neil, I've only seen one moth so far this year , a Silver Y, hopefully like you say things may get a move on with this weatherGoldie

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Goldie. Yes some species are running late and emerging in relatively low numbers. It seems that the more common and widespread species are suffering most with some rarer ones doing quite well. That is very much a generalisation and it will be interesting to see how the rest of the year pans out.

Wednesday 26th June.

With a free day today I weighed up various options of where to go and with temperatures forcast to be up in the mid to high teens I figured a woodland site woud be more comfortable than open grassland. For a number of reasons, not least some stormy and windy weather last June, I had missed White Admiral last year and was keen to catch up with them this year. They have had a number of poor years in Warwickshire although they seem to do better over the border in Worcestershire so that influenced my choice and so I settled on Grafton Wood, this being my closest Worcestershire site.
I left home just before 08.00am in order to miss the worst of the school traffic in Solihull and just over an hour later pulled in by the church at Grafton Flyford under clear blue skies with the display in my car already reading 20 degrees. I set off along the path through the farm and over the fields, seeing a few Ringlets and Meadow Browns along the way.

Entering the wood I saw more Ringlets and Meadow Browns but nothing else until I reached the crossroads of the rides in the middle of the wood and turned right along the main ride. Here I spotted a White Admiral fluttering about in a spot of dappled shade in a rideside scallop and I watched as it settled a few times, sometimes half in and half out of the shade but I managed to catch a few shots of it nicely posed.

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

I carried on, seeing a few more White Admirals and then spotted one fly across the ride in front of me and settle on a leaf about head height showing those lovely undersides. I did the usual thing of taking a couple of photos from a distance in case I spooked it and then slowly moved closer.

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

It must have felt comfortable there as apart from a bit of shuffling about to vary the angle to the sun it did not move and was still there when I moved away after filling my boots with photos.

White Admiral - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

A secondary target for this morning was Wood White and although they had been on the wing here for some time I had seen reports a couple of days back of some still flying. Shortly after seeing the first White Admiral, I spotted a Wood White fluttering along at the side of the track and followed it until it settled.

Wood White - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

During the morning I eventually found around a dozen Wood Whites scattered around the wood, some looking a bit tatty but some not too bad apart from some worn fringes on their wings.

Wood White - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

I also spotted some egg laying activity deep in the vegetation and a pair involved in attempted courtship including some 'antennae tapping' but they soon went their separate ways.

Wood Whites - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Wood Whites - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Wood Whites - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Wood White - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Wood White egg - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Both Ringlets and Meadow Browns were seen in fair numbers but still nowhere near what there should be, in fact Ringlets appear to be doing better than Meadow Browns with once again a ration of around 2:1 in favour of the Ringlets.

Ringlet - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Other species seen were half a dozen Large Skippers and singles of Red Admiral and Marbled White, and that was it.

Large Skipper - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

Marbled White - Grafton Wood 26.06.2024

I bumped into John Tilt, the reserve manager, and stopped for a chat. He was quite despondent about the numbers of butterflies so far this year with him telling me that his transects were showing nearly everything being down in numbers this year. There has been some excellent management carried out in Grafton Wood in recent years but unfortunatly you cannot manage the weather.

After about an hour here it had become very warm and nothing was settling so I did a slow circuit of the wood just enjoying the sight of the White Admirals, of which I reckon I eventually saw a good dozen or so, flitting and gliding along tracks and up into the trees.

I almost feel ungrateful for saying this after the poor weather we have had up until these past few days but by 11.30am it was feeling too warm for me so I decided to head back to my car and head for home.
Back home in the afternoon some clouds bubbled up but if anything they made it feel more muggy and sticky so I stopped home. At least that gave me the chance to write up this report so I could stay up to date.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[millerd]

Lovely fresh White Admirals, Neil, and good to see Wood Whites still going as well. They seem quite durable butterflies. It sounds like temperatures were a bit more bearable up there, compared to the 30 degrees here the last couple of days.

Cheers,

Dave

[Wurzel]

Lovely set of White Admiral and Wood Whites Neil I love the underside of the White Admiral - it's a stunning contrast to the pretty two-tone uppers I did notice that the Emperor wood you've visited in the past had been 'producing'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Dave. The Wood Whites up here seem to have been flying for a remarkably long time this year.
We didn't quite make 30 degrees up here, the highest I saw was 28 although I did see 29 reported from elsewhere in the midlands on Wednesday.

Cheers Wurzel. It has been some years since I have managed to take a decent White Admiral underside so I was particularly chuffed with those shots. Yes, there have been a few reports from Fermyn Woods and there have been reports from Oversley Wood and Tiddesley Wood in recent days.


Friday 27th June.

Given that it was forecast to be a bit cooler today I had decided to go down to Harbury Spoilbank a few miles to the south-east of Warwick. I had seen that the first Dark Green Fritillary had been reported from there last week and was hoping that the few days of warm weather this week may have brought a few more out.
Well, today did indeed start off much cooler and I left home once again just before 08.00, this time under overcast skies. On the way down the M40 some small breaks in the cloud began to appear and I arrived at Harbury 45 minutes later with 17 degrees showing on my car display.

The first hour or so remained mostly cloudy with occasional brief sunny spells and I soon started seeing Marbled Whites, loads of them. I gave up counting once I had passed 100 and I had only covered half of the site. Many of them looked fresh out of the box and the cloudy start made sneaking up on them a bit easier, only a bit though as they were still very flighty and the numbers meant that I would often find one nicely posed only for another one to come along and disturb it.

Marbled White male - Harbury 27.06.2024

Marbled White male - Harbury 27.06.2024

Marbled White male - Harbury 27.06.2024

Marbled White male - Harbury 27.06.2024

Marbled White female - Harbury 27.06.2024

There were quite a few Ringlets (30-40) too with some of these still showing that nice white fringe that new examples have.

Ringlet - Harbury 27.06.2024

In what is now becoming a familiar theme, Meadow Browns were flying but only around half as many as Ringlets.

Just two Skippers were seen, my first Small Skipper of the year and a male Large Skipper.

Small Skipper - Harbury 27.06.2024

So what about Dark Green Fritillaries? For the first hour or so I saw none but around mid-morning the sun came out for longer periods and it warmed up considerably. I saw the first DGF just after 10.30am as it shot past me at speed. I soon saw a couple more but with the sun now out and a fair breeze picking up they were hard to get close to. I know that there were at least two because I saw a couple chase each around and in the end I reckon I saw no more than three or four at most, although it could just as easily have been the same two repeatedly speeding about on what is a quite small site. On just one occasion I saw one go down on some clover and I managed to get close enough to fire off a few quick shots before it was off again.

Dark Green Fritillary - Harbury 27.06.2024

Dark Green Fritillary - Harbury 27.06.2024

A number of Burnet Moths were also flying and I found pairs in cop of both Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet and Six-spot Burnet.

Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet - Harbury 27.06.2024

Sixe-spot Burnet - Harbury 27.06.2024

By around 11.30am it was getting much warmer and the wind was getting stronger making it even more hard work so having spent most of the morning here I decided to head back home.

I notice that this was a couple of days earlier than my visit here last year and as most stuff seems to be emerging a bit later around here due to some lousy weather this year, it may be worth a return visit in a week or so.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Goldie M]

Love the White Admiral shots Neil I've seen them but they wouldn't pose for shots Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Goldie. They only posed for me during that first hour from around 09.00 to 10.00 and after that they were not stopping for anything.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

What sorcery is this? A Marbled White sitting still long enough for photos! Needless to say the few that I've seen this year have been going hell for leather Cracking DGFs as well

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. The early cloud and cool breeze helped with those Marbled Whites but even so I got quite a few shots of blurry half butterflies leaving the edge of the frame

Tuesday 2nd July

After a couple of dreary days with dull cloud and intermittent light rain and drizzle, this morning was much the same. This afternoon a short brighter spell with a couple of short sunny breaks tempted me down to my local spot by Wagon Lane for a look. My usual circuit produced 31 butterflies of just 4 species, these being Ringlet (16), Meadow Brown (9), Large Skipper (4) and my first summer Commas (2) this year.

Large Skipper - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

Large Skipper - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

Large Skipper - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

Ringlet - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

Ringlet - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

Comma - Wagon Lane 02.07.2024

I was hoping to get out looking for Purple Emperor this week but the only half decent day looks like Thursday and even then the winds look to be picking up again...well see!.

Cheers,

Neil.