July 2009 Sightings

[Pete Eeles]

Yeah - it's quite a spectacle that a "still" can't capture. The antennae, proboscis, wing flaps - all working in unison. Amazing courtship ritual! You have to see it to believe it!

Cheers,

- Pete

[xmilehigh]

Hey,

Thanks for the location information Pete, All in all a great day out. As you say that courtship ritual is quite something.

Here's one of the WW's on the Horse Poo Eccle's mentioned . Heavily cropped to reduce the amount visible

[eccles]

Thanks Pete though I have to admit it was sheer dumb luck as I was concentrating more on getting the wingtips in line for a sharp photo. They gave a little hop and a skip after this shot, brushing my arm as they did so, and ended up too close for another photo. They continued the courtship and I just sat and watched them. after a few more minutes she eventually said no-sir and he gave up and flew away.

Also interesting was after around 5pm the clouds were rolling in and the butterflies were settling down to roost. One cheeky male flitted around a female that was already in shutdown mode, realised that she wouldn't respond and settled next to her, presumably to have another try in the morning! This was all too much for her and she chose another roosting spot.

[Mikhail]

Took the bus out to Bere Regis on Saturday. Found the by-pass cutting had been shaved from top to bottom, so nothing there. But butterflies numerous on local buddleias and especially on burdocks. The commonest were Painted Lady, Peacock and Large White. It was good to see several fresh Small Torts which I haven't seen at home since the first week in June. One undersized female PL ovipositing on Stinging Nettle. All this in stark contrast to Bournemouth, where butterflies are mysteriously scarce. A long walk along the cliffs in sunshine on Friday yielded not a single butterfly. Both Painted Lady and Peacock have been particularly thin on the ground. Was also pleased to find several Roesel's bush-crickets around Bere, these now being the most westerly so far in Dorset.

Misha

[IAC]

Hi all,
Up here in South East Scotland the weather is ...as is traditional now....breaking down to look more like Autumn. I have over the past few days just seen the first of the Peacocks and Painted Lady. Comma are doing well up here despite the weather they seem to be attempting another brood...this does seem a little ambitious. Meadow Brown and Ringlet have taken a hit in numbers after a promising start due to 5 inches of non stop rain last weekend.
Small Copper and Small Skipper have had a grand season, the latter I hope become a little more widespread next year. Speckled Wood and Wall Brown are now well established....but not doing so well inland. Highlight of this month was seeing my first Large Heath...not an easy butterfly to track down in a peat bog with a northerly gale.
I have been on the lookout for White Letter Hairstreak......very laborious....no results so far...Hairstreaks in general are very difficult.....I failed to find any Greens earlier in the year,while everybody else saw squillions....never mind.

Cheers IAC

[Dave McCormick]

Went out a long walk around where I live and saw 6 Small Tortoiseshells on buddleah in my garden, one Large white (crumpled wings) and a few small whites.

Then in a field about 15min walk away, two painted lady caterpillars, one small and one fully grown (which I took the fully grown one home to raise) and 3 fresh Painted Ladies and quite a lot of small whites and a really tiny looper caterpillar (about pin head sized) I don't know what of though. Few from today (wind was strong and very sunny, so hard to get photos) Walked about 3 miles through thistles, forest and fields of barley.

Two Tortoiseshells:


Tortoiseshell and crumpled Large White:


Painted Lady Cat, fully grown:


Small White Pair:


Udea lutealis:


Ringlet (saw several, mostly battered or worn ones):


Image of where I was:

[NickB]

Chalkhills doing well down here; visited Barnack Hills and Holes and Devils Dyke/Burwell Railway Cutting this weekend. 15 species at Barnack with hundreds of Chalkhills, 13 at Burwell Cutting with similar numbers of Chalkhills there.
Not all made it to do this...

...some ended-up like this...

[SteveA]

Found a new site near Southend, Essex today that yeiled bucket loads of butterflies, Fossett Farm. Unfortunately this is the site that will be under a new football stadium in the next year or so. I attempted to make counts but with so many of the butterflies nipping around all over the place some of the numbers are probably less than what was actually there. Of the 15 species noted there were 36 Painted Ladies (most pristine), 21 Peacock, a Clouded Yellow, 7 Brown Argus (the best count I've had at a single south Essex site to date), 13 Common Blue, singles of Red Amdmirals and Small Tortoiseshell whilst Gatekeepers numbered in the hundreds.

A site to make the most of now before its gone.

[Pete Eeles]

In a similar vein to Steve, the excuse-for-a-government that we currently have is threatening to build on the greenbelt land that is right next to where I live, so I've been surveying this land whenever I get a chance, to hopefully provide some ammunition when it comes to "pushing back". Nothing spectacular so far - but plenty of Small and Essex Skippers. Today I found a Small Skipper ovipositing - such an amazing and ridiculous sight as the female "shimmied" up and down grass stems looking for a suitably-tight sheath for her eggs! I would have taken some shots of the ova, but I could tell that would have probably reduced their chances of survival as I teased the sheath apart, so let them be.

And Painted Lady were in ridiculous numbers on the thistles in the "set aside" field I was in. There were thousands, and I was disappointed that I couldn't get more than a dozen in a single shot. But I know I will. The best is yet to come

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

Image of where I was:

That looks like oak, Dave. I remember you saying you'd never seen any hairstreaks. Have you checked these oaks for purple hairstreaks? They do appear on the maps for Northern Ireland, though they seem remarkably local. I would take a camping chair, a six-pack and a pair of binoculars for an early evening session one day...

Guy

EDIT I've just checked where County Down is (we English can be pretty ignorant) and it seems there are no purple hairstreak sites there. I think that would be a good mission for you - they must fly there somewhere.

[eccles]

A great afternoon at Hazelbury Common today yielded loads of butterflies with fresh chalkhill males in reasonable numbers. Seen were:
brown argus
common blue
chalkhill blue
small copper (one, very fresh)
meadow brown
gatekeeper (must have been hundreds of these)
peacock
small tort
painted lady (dozens, mostly fresh)
ringlet (tatty)
large white
small white
gv white
small skipper

[Jack Harrison]

Excellent camouflage when it settled on the path when the sun went in. As cryptic as a Grayling.

Jack

[Matsukaze]

Steve/Pete, do you have any elms on your threatened sites? If so it is worth confirming White-letter Hairstreak as it is on a list (UKBAP species). It won't stop the site being developed but would strengthen the case for compensatory habitat to be provided.

[Pete Eeles]

Good thinking Matsukaze!

There is elm - although only sucker growth of English Elm which only flowers in a few places. I've not found any White-letter in the vicinity after 3 years (now) of searching, unfortunately.

Cheers,

- Pete

[eccles]

Now there's a reason for an unofficial release if ever I heard one!

[NickB]

Now there's a reason for an unofficial release if ever I heard one!

But make sure it does fit! On a local (mis) guided bus proposed route someone let out some Heath Fritillaries - on a Grizzled Skipper site in a railway cutting! Not very clever - not least for the butterflies

However, the mis-guided bus scheme went thro' - with a "mitigation" area close-by - I think they did put a sign up saying "Grizzlies this way" but I'm not sure the translation into Grizzly was accurate since none have yet been seen there

[Dave McCormick]

Image of where I was:

That looks like oak, Dave. I remember you saying you'd never seen any hairstreaks. Have you checked these oaks for purple hairstreaks? They do appear on the maps for Northern Ireland, though they seem remarkably local. I would take a camping chair, a six-pack and a pair of binoculars for an early evening session one day...

Guy

EDIT I've just checked where County Down is (we English can be pretty ignorant) and it seems there are no purple hairstreak sites there. I think that would be a good mission for you - they must fly there somewhere.

Where I live there are lots of mature oak here. Now I have never seen any purple hairstreak here before, only reported in Co Fermanagh I think. I was told that there was one report many years ago of silver washed fritillary and one marsh fritillay was found in the late 1980s here, but I have never seen any here yet. However, I was the first to record Common blues and holly blues and even six spot burnet here, but I'll go out if its dry and search for Purple Hairstreak.

Also on lookout for reals wood white as I was told there is sutiable habitat here for them (only wood white in Northern Ireland) I have a phoograph I took here last year that may have been a wood white, but I damaged my external HD (get a I/O error when I access it and can't use it) and don't know how to fix it, has all my butterfly/moth and other photos on it and my website (I was just to back it up when this happened) so I can't show the image on gere until (if) I can get it fixed . Anyone here know what I could do?

I am going to make a record of the habitat in each area (1000 acre) of Mountstewart where I live and see what could be there and what is there or has been seen. I did find narrow-borderd bee hawk moths ere where there is no scabious here (I have never seen any yet after long searches) so I don't know what it would be doing here unless I missed something.

Also this was the first site in Co Down last year to find Commas (my dad found them and got phots) I did not see them at all which I am looking for nowand not finding any yet.

[eccles]

I have no doubt that purple hairstreak is under-reported simply because it is often so difficult to spot. They don't often nectar in the usual manner of most other butterflies, preferring to find sap from high in the trees. It is only when this source is limited during the flight season due to prolonged hot weather that they will come down to look for other nutrient sources. My local PH hotspot happens to be good because there is a large compacted spoil heap next to the master oak tree, with the added advantage of a mature ash next to it. The ash provides additional sap opportunities for the adults to feed from and the spoil heap affords a useful high spot from which to observe them. Elsewhere, I have only seen brief sightings in the treetops.
Therein lies the twin difficulties of not only seeing them, but also obtaining photographic evidence of their existence. Perhaps your best chance would be to look for similar layouts with mature oak and ash, and suitably high vantage points from which to check them out.

[Padfield]

Last week I found several females shimmying around lower oak bushes, laying eggs then resting on leaves between laying.



This was at about eye level.

Guy

[Matsukaze]

Now there's a reason for an unofficial release if ever I heard one!

I know you're joking, but to my mind releasing rare species on sites going through the planning process is way more dangerous than the release of non-native species - all it will take is one highly publicised case where someone gets caught doing this, and no butterfly records from threatened sites will ever get taken seriously again...