June 2010 Sightings

[Perseus]

Hello,

22 June 2010
Two new impressive first of the years on a sunny midday with at least one Marbled White Butterfly fluttering energetically over the Spotted Orchid and Ox-eye Daisy meadow of the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting, north Shoreham, and a Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo, settled on vegetation at the top of Slonk Hill Farm Road on the south-west side of the bridge over the A27.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2010.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2010.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: June 2010
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/June2010.html
Sussex Downs Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111843132181316

[Gibster]

Nice one Gibster! Good luck in the hunt - glad you managed BH in Brampton....

Hi Nick,

it was thanks to your directions that we even found the correct blackthorn thicket in the first place! The well-worn path to the first clearing produced just 2 Black Hairstreaks, including the absolutely pristine individual. Pushing through the sedges to the next clearing led us to an area with trampled grasses surrounded by blackthorn with sallow, birch, an aspen and ash trees all around. This was by far the most productive spot - we saw 6 individuals at the same time occasionally down to 6ft range (although they were frustratingly just beyond camera range 95% of the time, 15ft upwards for instance!) Plus a few Hornets along the rides, which I always enjoy seeing.

Amazing female Silver-studded Blue pic, btw. I'm keeping my eyes peeled for another like it!!!

[Susie]

At Denbies hillside this morning there were 8 or so male marbled whites about, all male and zooming around in the sunshine despite it being quite early. Plenty of skippers, meadow brown, a handful of tatty blues, a grizzled skipper, a ringlet and a painted lady.

At the allotment this afternoon there was a small tortoiseshell.

[millerd]

Across the Mole Valley from Denbies, up on Box Hill, there were also half a dozen Marbled Whites, plus Meadow Browns, a few scruffy Small Heaths, lots of Large Skippers, a couple each of Ringlets and Speckled Woods, a single male Brimstone, and several Common Blues. I was disappointed not to see any Dark Green Fritillaries on Burford Spur, as they were out around now the last two years. Maybe they are waiting for the knapweed to come out...

On the way back to Heathrow, Fairmile Heath/Common produced good numbers of Silver-studded Blues, not only across the road from the car park, but on the brambles in the car park itself. I spoke to the chap from Elmbridge Council who manages the site - he told me the figures from his transect indicated around 200 individuals present. This is apparently at least on a par with recent years. He also ventured the opinion that this colony had much larger than usual individuals, and I have to admit they seemed nearly on a par with Common Blues, rather than with a typical Brown Argus (with which I mentally benchmark them). All very subjective without a convenient member of the other species floating by to provide comparisons of course.

Dave

[Dave McCormick]

Been looking all over the usual patches for meadow brown and ringlets, still none which is very odd. In 2007 my first sighting was on 3rd June for Meadow Brown and 26th June for ringlet, last year it was 23rd for Meadow Brown and 28th for Ringlet and this year none, although they are being reported elsewhere in Ireland.

[Ian Pratt]

Despite the almost perfect weather on the Isle of Wight there seems to be a dearth of butterflies. Is this just the late June trough before the July and August species are on the wing or is it something more sinister?

[NickB]

Well, I've been hoping it is just ME!
But, there seem to be fewer of all butterflies around, if transect counts and personal observations are typical. Virtually no Whites around now, very few Meadow Brown (much later than last year too) and I have yet to see a Ringlet....
Is this the consequence of a very harsh winter?????

N

[Jack Harrison]

Small Whites in reasonable numbers over rape fields (and presumably attempting to lay) here in S.Cambs.

jack

[Perseus]

Hello,

21 June 2010
From a distance McIntyre's Field (north of Lancing Manor and the eastern
part of Lancing Ring Nature Reserve) was covered in the yellow of Bird's
Foot Trefoil, and close-up hundreds of of small moths and butterflies could
be disturbed in the long grass meadow. The numbers were exceptional and
included frequent Common Blue Butterflies of both genders, frequent Burnet
Companion Moths, numerous Common Carpet Moths, and at least a dozen species
that had to remain unidentified because of lack of time and knowledge. The
much larger Meadow Brown Butterflies were also frequently seen.



Quiz: can you identify this small moth?

A male Broad-bodied Chaser (dragonfly), Libellula depressa, rose from a dry
mud patch next to Lancing Ring dewpond and flew into the scrub where it hid.
Two each of Large Tortoiseshell Butterflies and Large Skippers were seen in
the path to the meadows by the Cemetery on the southern part of the Nature
Reserve.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2010.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2010.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: June 2010
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/June2010.html
Sussex Downs Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111843132181316

[Perseus]

Hello,

22 June 2010
Two new impressive first of the years on a sunny midday with at least one
Marbled White Butterfly fluttering energetically over the Spotted Orchid and
Ox-eye Daisy meadow of the southern bank of the Slonk Hill Cutting, north
Shoreham, and a Beautiful Demoiselle, Calopteryx virgo, settled on
vegetation at the top of Slonk Hill Farm Road on the south-west side of the
bridge over the A27.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2010.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2010.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: June 2010
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/June2010.html
Sussex Downs Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111843132181316

[millerd]

Well, I've been hoping it is just ME!
But, there seem to be fewer of all butterflies around, if transect counts and personal observations are typical. Virtually no Whites around now, very few Meadow Brown (much later than last year too) and I have yet to see a Ringlet....
Is this the consequence of a very harsh winter?????

N

This matches what I've seen in various places: very few Meadow Browns, no Whites to speak of and no Ringlets. I suspect the very dry weather (down here in the South at any rate) may be a contributory factor - the countryside hereabouts is turning brown. Ringlets in particular suffer in very dry years I believe. I've also seen that the patches of garlic mustard near me have dried up prematurely, with withered green leaves and undeveloped dry seed pods. This may explain the absence of a second flush of GVW, and doesn't bode very well for next year's Orange Tips either. A similar effect may hit other species which feed up during the late spring/summer, if their foodplants become too dried up - Duke of Burgundy springs to mind.

Dave

[Wildmoreway]

Two Marbled Whites and several Meadow Browns on Wall Hill at Torquay this afternoon.

LS

[SteveA]

Went searching for White Admirals are Belfairs Woods Nature Reserve this afternoon as the weather was very good early on however by the time I arrived at 4.20pm it was overcast and muggy thus not a sniff of any admirals. However there was an impressive count of Heath Fritillaries with a total of 333 from three core areas.

175 were along the main ride that run parallel to the bridle track in the reserve side, access from Poors Lane.
51 were in a clearing on the right along the next parallel running track; at the end of the main path above it bears right by the bench and there is a path on ther right after about 20yards and the small clearing was up here about 20 yards on the right.
107 were in Dodds Grove.

The overcast but muggy conditions meant that they were easy to get close to for photography with several comminial roosts holding 30 or more.

The only other butterflies seen were 10+ Large Skippers and a single Speckled Wood; no whites, Meadow Browns or Ringlets when there should usually be plenty

[Gibster]

Two each of Large Tortoiseshell Butterflies and Large Skippers were seen in
the path to the meadows by the Cemetery on the southern part of the Nature
Reserve.

Hi Perseus,

Are your tortoiseshells definitely of the Large persuasion, and any pics???

Cheers

Gibster.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Gibster,
Alas, I think that'll be a 'typo'! If I thought Andy really meant Large rather than Small, I'd be taking my sleeping bag over tonight
Neil

[Gibster]

Well I was trying to be subtle....

[Perseus]

Two each of Large Tortoiseshell Butterflies and Large Skippers were seen in
the path to the meadows by the Cemetery on the southern part of the Nature
Reserve.

Hi Perseus,

Are your tortoiseshells definitely of the Large persuasion, and any pics???

Cheers

Gibster.

Its a typos. Sorry

Andy Horton

[Gruditch]

Damn, Lisa get the stuff back out of the car.

Gruditch

[Vince Massimo]

I made the 280 mile round trip to Collard Hill today in the hope of improving my Large Blue images. Thanks to Sarah Meredith's excellent blog page, I knew what to expect, so got there early. Just as well, because my first sighting was on the slope on the western part of the site at 8.45am and by 9am I had got my only open-wing shots of the day. Things were going so well on that part of the site that I did not even venture onto the big eastern slope. Cloud cover then slowed things down, but only slightly. Luckily I was following a female when it eventually decided to settle for 20 minutes. When the sun came out I found a freshly emerged female which had unfortunately failed to complete its hatching cycle and could not inflate its wings. Afterwards I was rewarded with a mating pair and egglaying.

Male Large Blue (Note that the forewing markings are not symmetrical)

There are still good numbers to be seen, with sometimes three in sight at a time, but very difficult to follow in flight and seldom settling, even when the cloud came across. When they did eventually go down they immediatly folded their wings and effectively disappeared.

I understand that Zonda was also there, but our paths did not cross, which is a shame.

Cheers,
Vince

[Vince Massimo]

I was in Southwater Woods, Sussex and at Botany Bay/Oaken Wood on the Surrey/Sussex border hoping for a first sighting of a Purple Emperor today, but alas no luck. However the consolation at Botany Bay was the unexpected sighting of Wood White. Six were seen (3M+3F), these being late first-brood individuals, rather than early second brooders. Numbers of Silver Washed Fritillary and White Admiral are building only slowly on both sites.

Female Wood White

Male Silver Washed Fritillary

Sussex Branch are having a field trip this weekend to Botany Bay. Hope it goes well for all concerned.

Cheers,
Vince