Thanks
Pete. I’ve only come across one pair in cop but never saw how they got together. Like everyone who’s ever taken the time to watch the species though, I’ve watched the ‘courtship’ routine countless times which has never ended in anything. I do have a theory that it is designed to encourage a second mating. I would also venture that similarly elaborate courtship displays such as the Silver-washed Fritillary cartwheel have a similar function (I also see Meadow Browns use a very similar interaction). Essentially, I think they’re just a highly ritualised version of usual White harassment technique which again usually ends in rejection.
Thanks
Wurzel, it might be just the way the light was hitting them at the time but one of the females certainly had more markings!
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June 2024
Sunday 23rd. My last day of my two-week break and I took a punt on Norfolk. I’d written off Swallowtails this year since they appeared early and every time I looked at going the weather forecast was shocking. However I was still seeing reports coming out of Norfolk some six or seven weeks after the first ones were seen and they still looked reasonably fresh so perhaps there was an extended emergence happening. Anyway the weather actually looked decent so I went for it. I hadn’t even got my camera out my bag when a Norfolk Hawker plonked itself down in front of me, that’ll do for starters!
A wander over the hill and down past the Doctors Garden didn’t give me anything so I ventured onto the reserve itself and found myself some larvae.
A full circuit of the reserve still drew a blank but another consolation prize were the Marsh Harriers which popped up regularly. The best views were when one flew low over the reeds close to an opening on the path but far to fast to get a picture, so I had to wait until they gained a bit of height.
Truth be told there weren’t many butterflies around at all, a Ringlet and a Green-veined White were all I managed in the first few hours.
Odonata were much more numerous, here’s an ovipositing Hairy Hawker and some Azure Damselflies doing the same thing.
The targets namesake had also been breeding, this is a fledgling next to a sunbathing adult.
Having done two circuits and checked the usual hotspots several times I was starting to think my luck was out but what I planned to be one final look into a favoured clearing revealed a large deep yellow Butterfly soaring back and forth. I watched and waited to see if he was going to land which he duly did and allowed me to get within range for a few snaps.
After a minute or so he took to the air again, soared around me briefly and then buggered off. I stayed for another few hours but that was it. A year tick but a frustrating one. Better luck next year one hopes