July 2009 Sightings

[Ian Pratt]

My office window looks out on the Solent towards Portsmouth - quite a spectacular view- but best of all is a buddleia in the office garden with about 8 fresh painted ladies on today and on a nearby laurel a holly blue!
Across the road from my home are fields with set aside and loads of thistles - covered with painted ladies, and also some wall browns, gatekeepers, meadow browns, small tortoiseshells, peacocks and large whites.
In my recent travels to Scotland ringlets were the most common butterflies follwed by green-veined whites. Loads of grayling at Arnside Knott on the way back and one HBF seen. Great DGFs at Loch an Eilein and common blues.Northern brown argus near Grantown on Spey.Weather not good enough for large heath, scotch argus, or chequered skipper(too late).

[eccles]

Where will you be heading for those, Roger?

Mike
I am heading for Ebernoe Common, Oaken Wood, Botany Bay and probably Pulborough for Brown Hairstreak (thanks Neil!).
What are your plans?

Not sure yet, Roger. With evening commitments on Saturday, Botany Bay may be just a bit too far to be able to spend decent time there and get back in good time. I'd like to hunt out wood white but the south coast might be a shorter journey.

[NickB]

Chalkhill Blue as JackHarr has been saying abundant on the Devils Dyke near Newmarket; this report from Cambs&Esseex Website shows HOW well they are doing!

"Thursday 23rd July
Devil's Dyke (Grid ref:TL612619) I counted 1,165 Chalkhill Blues ...."

(I'm doing a tour of Cambs 3 sites this weekend weather permitting )
N

[eccles]

Further, it looks like a trip to the south coast on the first weekend of the school holidays is probably not a good idea, so Botany Bay is back on the agenda for Xmilehigh and myself, probably getting there around 10:30am tomorrow. Hope to see you, Roger, and anyone else.

Where will you be heading for those, Roger?

Mike
I am heading for Ebernoe Common, Oaken Wood, Botany Bay and probably Pulborough for Brown Hairstreak (thanks Neil!).
What are your plans?

Not sure yet, Roger. With evening commitments on Saturday, Botany Bay may be just a bit too far to be able to spend decent time there and get back in good time. I'd like to hunt out wood white but the south coast might be a shorter journey.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Following postings on here and to the BC Sussex website by Mark Senior, I visited the Ouse Estuary Nature Reserve at Newhaven this afternoon. Having seen Mark's reports about the gradual build-up of Clouded Yellow numbers since earlier in July (BC web postings), I wanted to get some further evidence to support his suspicions of 'local emergence', rather than recent immigration. I saw 15-20 CYs here in a couple of hours. They are certainly behaving in a 'colonial' manner and show no signs of going anywhere. Some of the males are now pretty weather-worn, but the more recently observed females are much fresher. I watched a couple laying eggs. The real 'clincher' was finding a very recently emerged ('wet') female, still far from steady on her wings. These butterflies must be the progeny of earlier arrivals.
I dropped in on the way back from a BC walk at Butchershole Bottom, Friston Forest. I calculated there were in excess of 5000 Chalkhill Blues on the wing - b***** great swarms of them, the likes of which I don't remember seeing for a very long time. Five or six butterflies were crammed on single flower-heads and huge clouds of them erupted as I walked through the grass. A truly amazing sight!
Neil

[Jack Harrison]

Interesting catch overnight in my Skinner moth trap. I took it on the egg box out into the early morning sun at 0645 and had just one quick chance to photograph before it was away.

Jack

[Ian Pratt]

Just returned from taking my dog for a walk at Branstone Sandown Isle of Wight and a most wonderful experience of butterflies everywhere.
Large Whites well over 100
Painted ladies ditto
Small copper 1
Marbled white 1
Gatekeeper 10+
Meadow brown ditto
Small tortoiseshell 5
Essex skipper 1
Small skipper 1
Common blue 5
Small whites 3 but probably more amongst the large whites
Wall brown 3
(Brown argus 1- yesterday)
Just like we normally get when we go to France in the summer.

[Dave McCormick]

Interesting catch overnight in my Skinner moth trap. I took it on the egg box out into the early morning sun at 0645 and had just one quick chance to photograph before it was away.

Jack

You thought that was strange? I thought I had a mouse in the MV trap used last night, but instead it was a thrush! Must have followed the moths in and got stuck. It flew off when I moved egg boxes. Did not eat much in there, found about 20 different species in it.

One red admiral in my garden today on buddlieh, very worn so far along with 2 GV whites.

[Vince Massimo]

Hi all,

I just got back from Colley Hill, Reigate, Surrey which is at junction 8 of the M25 and my closest site for Silver Spotted Skipper. I saw approximately 7 individuals but it is still very early in the season. On a good day there can be around 50 in a little area I have found. Also seen were about 10 Chalkhill Blue, 1 Brown Argus and 15 Common Blue. There were lots of fresh Painted Lady and Peacock also. Numbers of all of these are expected to build as the weeks progress.

Cheers,

Vince.

[Denise]

I wasn't surprised to see 50+ Painted Lady in the garden today as numbers have been steadily rising all week. What I was surprised and pleased to see were 11 fresh Peacock and 4 Small Torts, along with lots of 'whites' Speckled Wood, Gatekeeper a few Comma, and a fresh male Brimstone.
The most numerous butterfly in the garden today, head and shoulders above the rest was Painted Lady. Now it's not every day that you can say that.

Denise

[Susie]

I rarely get large numbers of butterflies in the garden but today there was a presence in one form or another. Seen were 1 painted lady and 1 small tort (both here all day) 3 peacocks, 1 comma, and plenty of large and small whites. Not very impressive a total when compared to some people but still nice to see.

[Jack Harrison]

Local walk starting 100 metres from home in south Cambs produced uncountable Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, all three whites, Small skippers (couldn’t find any Essex which do occur nearby but seem to be much more localised) and of course scores of Painted Ladies, Peacocks. One very elderly Ringlet, one Large Skipper. The best species were seven Common Blues, two Brown Argus and one Holly Blue (photo).

Back in the garden, one moderately sized buddleia had at least 13 Peacocks but I’m sure I missed some.

2009 is continuing to be superb season for almost all species and certainly a close match for that great year 1976 if not even better.

Jack

[Matsukaze]

17 species at Mells Yard, Somerset (ST7151) today.

Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Meadow Brown, Green-veined White, Large White, Small White, Painted Lady, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Common Blue, Small Skipper, Brimstone, Small Copper, Silver-washed Fritillary, Speckled Wood.

"Possibles" for Essex Skipper and Brown Argus would have taken the total to 19 had they been confirmed.

[Trev Sawyer]

Just back from a week in Cumbria - best described as "wet and dry"... and windy ...
As expected, on Sunday, the Large Heaths at Meathop Moss were just about over - a couple of very pale individuals seen after a few hours of waiting for the cloud to break.
Arnside Knott on Monday provided High Brown Fritillaries (I think? - see photo) and a few newly-hatched Scotch Argus . My daughter also got a shot of one of the remaining Northern Brown Argus', but I did not see one myself - presumably they are just about over too?
Scotch Argus were also appearing at Smardale Gill on Thursday and again, we were lucky to get some shots between the heavy showers.
All in all a good trip and I think we did quite well considering the weather.







Trev (et al)

[Vince Massimo]

Trev,

Looks like you had a good trip despite the weather. I still need a decent photo of a Scotch Argus like that. You also have a good photo of a female High Brown Fritillary.

Cheers,

Vince

[Trev Sawyer]

Yeaaayyy!... Thanks for the ID Vince. I was pretty sure it was a High Brown, but needed to check with someone who knows. All three species were life ticks for me, so I am well-pleased . Thought I might be too late to find a High Brown in reasonable nick (or to get home with only shots of Dark Green Frits which will probably soon be outnumbering them there). All I can say is that we definitely picked the best days for each trip... the between days were very wet!

Trev

[eccles]

I went to Botany Bay with Jerry (Xmilehigh) today, and thanks to excellent directions from Pete we saw dozens of individuals, ovipositing females, pairs indulging in the courtship ritual, and four feeding from horse dung. This delightful little butterfly is a lifetime first for Jerry and myself. We also met up with Roger and Rose.

From today:

[Pete Eeles]

Trev,

Looks like you had a good trip despite the weather. I still need a decent photo of a Scotch Argus like that. You also have a good photo of a female High Brown Fritillary.

Cheers,

Vince

Totally agree. I really like the Scotch Argus shot! Well done on getting 3 new "ticks"

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pete Eeles]

I went to Botany Bay with Jerry (Xmilehigh) today, and thanks to excellent directions from Pete we saw dozens of individuals, ovipositing females, pairs indulging in the courtship ritual, and four feeding from horse dung. This delightful little butterfly is a lifetime first for Jerry and myself. We also met up with Roger and Rose.

From today:

That's one heck of a photo, Mike! Not sure if everyone will have noticed - but you can see the male's proboscis fully-extended as part of the Wood White courtship ritual! Nice one - glad the long trip worked out for you!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Denise]

On the subject of Wood White's. In Hungary, I watched a pair courting for a good half an hour. I was amazed at the front leg kicking thing.
Beautiful little butterfly.

Denise