August Sighting 2010

[Neil Freeman]

After a nice sunny morning here in the midlands I made a late decision to take a drive to Grafton Wood this afternoon on the off chance that the weather would hold and I would strike lucky with a Brown Hairstreak.
Its about an hours drive from me and by the time I got there, mid afternoon, it had clouded over but was still warm. I parked by the church and made my way across the fields to the wood spotting a number of Common Blue, Brown Argus and a couple of Small Copper as well as the usual Meadow Browns. I spent couple of hours wandering around the west and south sides of the wood on the assumption that this would be the warmest side but didn't see anything other than more Common Blues and Brown Argus both in good numbers and a fair few Small Coppers around the south end of the wood.
By about 4.00 in the afternoon it was getting a fair bit duller with a look of rain about the clouds so I decided to make my way back to the car park. About half way back there is a field with a good patch of wild flowers near a hedgerow. This is where I finally spotted a Brown Hairstreak sitting on a thistle flower feeding away happily. Unfortunatley before I could take a picture she took off and disappeared over the nearby hedgerow. Still, I was happy, this being my first BH.
I also saw a couple of Small Tortoisehells in the same patch which actually doubled the number of these that I have seen so far this year.

[Michaeljf]

I'm about to buy one of those Lumix thingummies so I think in future I will take one or two overview shots to embellish the collection.

If you get chance, give it a go next weekend (Bank Holiday). If anything, there may be even more females egg laying as west Wales is probably a little behind the southern English colonies.

I've also volunteered to clear scrub next year as there is tremendous potential for this glade to be tripled in size.

You were probably right not to risk the weather; I was getting quite despondent by 1130am myself. That said, skies largely cleared by 1pm and butterfly numbers skyrocketed.

David - good luck getting a Lumix. I realise now that I should always take a quick 'landscape shot' with one! I think they're great for adding to a description of a trip, plus I don't have to bother with a lot of twiddling changing lenses, filters, RAWfile conversion etc

I did think that the Wales colony might be a 'bit behind the English colonies', and hence, good for photos! Trouble is, everytime I've looked at the forecast for that direction it's been dull. At least on any day I could go (i.e. mostly the weekend!). We have family visiting next Saturday so next Sunday or Monday may be a possibility (weather permitting). N.B. I think the BBC got the forecast wrong today again, and it turned out much brighter than expected...

Well done for volunteering to help improve the reserve.

Michael

[Michaeljf]

I think your beautiful moth may be the Yellow Shell Camptogramma bilineata. Cheers
Lee

Lee,

Thanks again - much appreciated.

Michael

[David M]

Yeah, being on the west coast it's almost impossible to accurately predict the weather.

That said though, it was 19C at best this afternoon and the sun was never completely unobscured for longer than 20 minutes. There was thin, high cloud throughout the day, so I guess as long as you avoid the heavily overcast days you'll score.

I sometimes look for live webcams when I'm planning trips. There are usually quite a few for coastal regions and it gives you an opportunity to see what the current conditions are like before you travel.

[Jonathan Evans]

Great day today. Probably the 2nd best of the year

Well done David, now if we can just find some Black Hairstreaks in South Wales, we're laughing

[David M]

Great day today. Probably the 2nd best of the year

Well done David, now if we can just find some Black Hairstreaks in South Wales, we're laughing

I wouldn't put anything past you where Hairstreaks are concerned!

[Jonathan Evans]

Haha

[NickB]

Nice BH's chaps.....
Went to Burwell Cutting today...
A female CB minding her own business...

..when she is pursued by an ageing lothario...

..she flirts...

..he gets more excited....

...chooses his moment....

..and blows it.....

..that's life!
N

[David M]

Think both sexes are approaching pensionable age!

[NickB]

Think both sexes are approaching pensionable age!

Careful.....

[felix123]

I was happy to see the common blue females laying eggs on the Bird's-foot trefoil(in the graveyard)but I only saw 1 male and about 13 females, so do the males disappear before the females?

Quite a few weeks ago they mowed all the tall grass down in the graveyard giving host to lots of butterfly species so I was worried when I saw this but only recently on countryfile they showed near late summer (july-august) they cut all the grass and flowers down in a flower rich meadow and collected the seed to sell and left some for next year to flower and seed(the meadow was made especially for wildlife). So my question is do you think this has what they have done to the tall grass in the graveyard and will the eggs, caterpillars and some pupa be ok?

Thanks for any help,

Felix

[Zonda]

Hya Felix, the Common Blues have been laying their eggs on the Birds-foot Trefoil in my wildlife garden too. As yet, i have not cut these plants down. Conservation is a vast subject, and species specific conservation can be a bit of a trade off. I think that it is maybe best to create a variety of habitats within an area, and tend to these. Some sites catering for the rarer species may not be suitable for all species. I think maybe the Common Blues will survive that cut, if enough pupation at ground level has occurred. Not all churchyard cutters are thinking of wildlife, but Common Blues,,,, they are a very durable species.

[NickB]

I was happy to see the common blue females laying eggs on the Bird's-foot trefoil(in the graveyard)but I only saw 1 male and about 13 females, so do the males disappear before the females?
Quite a few weeks ago they mowed all the tall grass down in the graveyard giving host to lots of butterfly species so I was worried when I saw this but only recently on countryfile they showed near late summer (july-august) they cut all the grass and flowers down in a flower rich meadow and collected the seed to sell and left some for next year to flower and seed(the meadow was made especially for wildlife). So my question is do you think this has what they have done to the tall grass in the graveyard and will the eggs, caterpillars and some pupa be ok?
Thanks for any help,
Felix

Hi Felix
Lots of good questions! Certainly the CB males appear first - and they can live for 4-5 weeks by my observations locally - and then females only appear once the males are established (the same in most species it seems)....so it would make sense that the males are less plentiful as the season progresses, leaving the females to get on with laying their eggs.
I know what you mean about cutting the grass; my son manages a nature reserve with ancient meadows which are always cut in June. This is to ensure the survival of the rare plant communities there; the fact is that without being regularly cut, the grasses would probably out-grow the flowers and other plants and ultimately swamp them completely....so the grass does need to be cut.....my son does leave a wide un-cut margin to the fields specifically for the butterflies and other mammals that are breeding at the time.
I think that many butterfly larvae escape the cut (in summer at least) since they often only feed at night and spend much of their time close-down to the ground - and there is only a limited time that they are vulnerable as larvae anyway. The fact that they are always in your graveyard means that they can cope with whatever management is being employed there...
For Blues in particular the suitability of the site for ants (which look-after their larvae) is probably just as important; ants tend to like areas with some shorter grasses so their ant-hills can get heated by the sun to the right temperature......so they benefit too from having the grass cut.....

N

[jenks]

Nice one, Dave. I`ll have to pay a visit to West Williamston next year. A little bit closer than Alners Gorse or Shipton Bellinger for me !.

I spent the weekend dog sitting for a neighbour who`d gone to a wedding so had only 2 hours free time Sunday afternoon to get out. And, at Peterstone Gout, feeding on Buddleia, my first Painted Lady of 2010 !. Good grief, I was falling over them everywhere last year !

And my reward for looking afrer two mad terriers ? A half dozen fresh farm eggs from Hereford (they are very nice, mind you ).

[JohnR]

Speckled Woods. From one position at the end of my garden I saw about 12 Speckled Woods in flight, three pairs were dancing in small circles and I saw two of these pairs settle to mate. It was in a brief period of sunshine after a night of heavy rain, I wonder if they thought it was the end of the world because it was the first decent rain that we have had in a couple of months.

[Crispin]

Thought you may be interested to see this Silver-spotted Skipper I found today.

I have seen at least two others with larger than normal white spots this summer. Also some very dark females.

Crispin

[Pete Eeles]

Thought you may be interested to see this Silver-spotted Skipper I found today.

Ooh - nice one! If you could also post this in the species-specific albums for posterity, I'd appreciate it!

gallery/album.php?album_id=725

Cheers,

- Pete

[Crispin]

Ooh - nice one! If you could also post this in the species-specific albums for posterity, I'd appreciate it!

gallery/album.php?album_id=725

Ok shall do soon.
For comparison here are some "normal" SSSk with smaller white/silver markings.

[Piers]

Hi Crispin,

Dark females are common in hot years. The trigger seems to be during the latter part of larval development.

Your specimen with the enlarged silver spots (ab. juncta) is a little more special however. This is a trait carried in the species genes (although not in all populations by any means) and may well crop up repeatedly on sites where the gene is present within the population.

Very nice

Felix.

[millerd]

I decided to take my brood of boys to Stonehenge today - with a stop at Shipton Bellinger on the way (it's only a handful of miles away). As we turned off the A303, down came the rain, but on reaching the end of the lane, the sun emerged. I elected to drive a little way up the lane, but after only 25 metres, a voice from the back yelled "butterfly!". Sure enough, there was a splendid Brown Hairstreak nectaring on a sprays of a yellow flower (which I'm ashamed to say I cannot name). It posed beautifully for quite a while, and would probably still be there now if there hadn't been another shower. Luckily, the family attention span was not exceeded and we carried on to Stonehenge.

In between further showers, a walk over the NT area called Stonehenge Down revealed a colony of Adonis Blues on the south slope of one of the tumuli. The wind prevented any decent photos, but there were at least six males and a female.

Dave