millerd

[millerd]

27th July was another sunny and warm day, and I took advantage of the lack of early morning traffic on a Saturday to go down to Bookham again.

Initially, all I found were the old guard, the fading White Admirals and SWF.

However, making my way to last year's main Brown Hairstreak hotspot, I found Colin from BC Sussex intent on a similar quest.

Before long, we spotted something come down to the large areas of wild parsnip that have sprung up here (and everywhere else it seems). A Hairstreak, yes, but not the one we sought. It was a rather worn Purple Hairstreak.

A bit further on, we deviated off the track a little to take in another likely spot with some creeping thistle and there in front of us was the right Hairstreak.

The butterfly moved a couple of times, not far, first onto a sprig of hawthorn scrub...

...and then back to a thistle flower.

A glimpse of it in flight when it left confirmed that it was a male.

The excitement was over - we didn't find any more hairstreaks. However, there were one or two other nice sightings. From three species that have been a bit thin on the ground this year there were a couple of Common Blues...

...a Small Copper...

...and a Large Skipper.

Another much fresher skipper (a female) posed...

...but it took a check of the antennae to make it Small not Essex.

Finally a new Brimstone nectared against the light, bringing out its colour nicely.

In the end, a successful start to the Brown Hairstreak season.

Dave

[David M]

Great to see those Brown Hairstreaks, Dave. Gives me something to look forward to in a week's time or so.

[millerd]

Cheers, David - good luck with your Hairstreak hunting! They've been somewhat hard work this year compared to last, but better than 2022.

Sunday 28th July was the start of a few days of very sunny and often hot weather - uncomfortably so in fact. I went down to Denbies, but things were already too warm to manage any good shots of the Chalkhills except for a few undersides.

Still, concentrating on undersides did throw up an example of one with quite pronounced "silver spots" in the hindwing margins.

There was not much else flying - a few Marbled Whites wafted about...

...and I found a female DGF tucked down in the grass, probably egg-laying.

Dave

[millerd]

With more hot and sunny weather in prospect, I set off early on Monday 29th July for the relatively cool elevations of the Chilterns, and Aston Rowant in particular. I was also hoping that Silver-spotted Skippers might have appeared.

Chalkhill Blues were widespread across the main slope, and were also flying round the corner on the more north-facing slope of Beacon Hill. However, they were nowhere near as numerous as in previous years, and I didn't see any Brown Argus, Common Blue, Small Copper or Small Heath - all four can be numerous here, especially the Brown Argus.

Chalkhills were still emerging. I found one still inflating its crumpled wings...

...and another that needed some assistance to extricate itself from the long grass.

Other species that appeared today: Marbled White (still in double figures)

Meadow Brown (a bit shy of the usual numbers), Small Skipper, Gatekeeper, Brimstone, Peacock and a single female DGF.

This left the day's target species. Silver-spotted Skippers had had a relatively poor year here in 2023, and in common with most of southern England and no doubt beyond, the warm and wet weather of spring 2024 had produced swathes of very long grass. This had all but covered the bare earth rabbit scrapes and sheep paths on which the species likes to bask and on the edges of which the foodplant grows. Nevertheless, over the course of a couple of hours this morning I managed to count three, but only one settled on a scabious flower to nectar (and for long enough for me to approach it).

By the time I left it was getting quite warm, even up there, but as I drove home the thermometer rose another five degrees...

Dave

[Wurzel]

Sterling work with the Bookham Brostreak Dave They can be a bit flighty early in the season - I reckon they're just itching to get up high to survey for the ladies I've seen a few Silver studded Chalkhills recently as well - it would be interesting to see if it was the same gene as that from Silver-studs proper responsible

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel!

I've noticed from watching Holly Blues slurping down on the brambles that the leaves are covered in honeydew at the moment, and it is therefore possible that the male Brown Hairstreaks are behaving more typically this year and actually staying in the trees as there is no need for them to descend into our world to nectar.

Tuesday 30th July was forecast to be a hot one, and the Met Office were spot on: it reached 32 degrees and the sun shone for 13 hours locally. I did a local walk in the relative cool of the morning, and the first butterfly I spotted was a Speckled Wood behaving in animated fashion on the ground and in the shade. It turned out to be a male which had found a female - which was playing dead as they do when rebuffing a suitor.

The male soon gave up.

Further on, I decided to investigate a separate meadow which had not been cut by the Heathrow mowers. I'd been recently told by the folk that look after the whole area on behalf of LHR from a conservation perspective that it was not "out-of-bounds", so it was definitely worth a look. What spurred me into action on the day was finding a Brown Argus just outside the gate to the field and seeing Common Blues just on the other side. I hopped (OK, clambered laboriously... over the gate and found a very overgrown meadow, but along its northern edge was a thick bramble hedge, and below that the grass was shorter and lots of trefoil and other flowers had been able to force their way through. I wandered the length of this hedge, disturbing both Brown Argus and Common Blues all the way along.

I couldn't help noticing that the spot was precisely in line with Heathrow's northern runway, and with the easterly breeze planes were coming into land immediately above me - no more than 50 metres up. The butterflies seemed unaffected by this distraction, though there were some unusual wind effects from time to time. In fact, I spotted a mating pair of Common Blues, which posed nicely for some time.

A bit of context...

A few more (unattached) Common Blues...

...and one of the Brown Argus.

The latter species were very active in the sunshine, chasing each other and disturbing the Blues as well.

I found a few more Common Blues along the midline of the path on my walk back. This also didn't get mown and has sprouted trefoil in many places along its length, and is an instant attraction to both sexes of the species when the sun shines.

Overall today before it became really too uncomfortable to keep walking, I counted 169 butterflies of 14 species - here are some of them...

Curiously, I didn't see any Holly Blues today, despite the availability of shaded bits of damp path...

Dave

[millerd]

July concluded with another hot and sunny day, so I went out early locally - at least that way I didn't have to queue in the heat on the M25 on the way back from somewhere and cool refreshments are never very far away...

After my discovery of a new source of Common Blues the day before, the species rather showed off today - even though in the heat there was very little opening of the wings.

I spotted females laying...

...and after the last effort, the butterfly flew off leaving the egg clearly visible.

Though it was very much the Common Blue show, there were other species around and these I'll leave to another post.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Lovely collection of Blues Dave, interesting to see so many as you can see the wide range of (subtle) variation It was a great day yesterday and I saw a lot more than I reckoned on despite the heat . I did try the southern part but started to feel a little lost so backtracked to the Northern side

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Love that image of the plane flying above the mating Blues, Dave.

No matter how familiar one is with a particular environment, there's always something that can make it feel unique.

[millerd]

Cheers, Wurzel! Having only found this little colony the day before, it seemed only right to devote some time to them - and they obliged. It was indeed a good day on the Chilterns yesterday - give it a fortnight or so and the report will be here...

I couldn't resist that shot, David! They were perfectly in line with the incoming aircraft, so I just waited for the next one (as they are coming in at one a minute at least, it wasn't a long wait... ). As you say, there are probably not many places where you could do this.

What else did I see back on 31st July? The newly-discovered Brown Argus were rather over-shadowed by their Common Blue neighbours, but I did find one a little way from the main event, nectaring on a tiny cranesbill which it had done well to find in the long grass.

Most of the other butterflies were familiar sights here recently...

...but there was one I had seen precious few of this year - a Small Copper. I spotted it hiding from the sun under a dock leaf.

Finally, something that is appearing every day at the moment.

.

Dave

[millerd]

Before leaving July behind, here is a quick overview of the weather for the month taken from the published Met Office stats for Heathrow.

The average daily maximum temperature was 23.5 degrees, compared to the long-term (1991-2020) average of 23.9, and 2023's figure of 22.9.

Sunshine hours were 178.2, compared to the long-term average of 217.8, and 2023's total of 150.0.

There was 83.6mm of rain, compared to the long-term average of 45.8mm and 2023's total of 61.4.

Overall therefore, it was a dull and wet month, but not particularly cool. 2023 was cooler and duller, though not as wet.

However, bare stats hide some of the month's quirks. From 1st to 17th, there was only one day when the temperature reached 24 degrees (11th). By contrast, from 18th to 31st only one day didn't reach or exceed 24 degrees (20 degrees on 25th). (Three days actually exceeded 30 degrees, with 32 being reached on 30th.) Almost all the rain fell during that first half of the month too, and since then to the date of writing this there has been very little rain here.

A strange old summer!

Dave

[Katrina]

Catching up on your diary - amazing shot with the butterfly and aeroplane - cant be too many of those shots around! Fantastic!

[Katrina]

Catching up on your diary - amazing shot with the butterfly and aeroplane - cant be too many of those shots around! Fantastic!

[millerd]

Thank you, Katrina - as the planes were not exactly easy to ignore, I decided to make use of one... Different, certainly.

Thursday 1st August continued hot, but it wasn't as sunny and there was even a threat of storms. In fact the day started with a bit of light rain as I drove down to Denbies for a morning with the Chalkhill Blues - and the possibility they might have been joined by a Silver-spot or two or even an Adonis. Despite cloud cover initially the Chalkhills were surprisingly active in the muggy conditions, and there seemed to be at least twice as many as I'd seen here only a few days earlier. There were good numbers of females too, and I found double figures of pairings as well as unattached individuals.

Some of the fresh males - there were many to choose from.

One male had an aberrant underside with very little hindwing spotting - they do vary a great deal, but this was one of the more extreme ones.

Other species seen included Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, a few fading Marbled Whites...

...a fleeting glimpse of a DGF and one or two Common Blues...

...and Brown Argus.

No Adonis or Silver-spotted Skippers yet, though.

Dave

[millerd]

A misty early start on Friday 2nd August down at Box Hill this time. I was hoping to find a few Silver-spotted Skippers before the sun had set them whizzing about, and out on Burford Spur and then later over to the east on Dukes I tracked a few down.

I'd say I saw half a dozen in each area, and curiously none at all on the hillside I traversed on the walk in between. However, along this walk I did see a faded Dark Green Fritillary, and a few Common Blues, Brown Argus and one or two Marbled White.

This Marbled White was much less worn than the others and would have been stunning when new, being whiter than most.

Compared to nearby Denbies, there were far fewer Chalkhill Blues, and they were all on the steep south-facing bits of the hill. Both males and females were flying, with fresh examples of each.

Dave

[millerd]

Regrettably, there will be only rather sporadic updates to my diary for a bit as an accident has befallen my laptop with many recently taken photos thereon. A few will have been posted in the August sightings thread, but I don't even have the full record of when I went where...

Dave

[Katrina]

Sorry to hear that Dave, I hope you manage to fix it.