Susie

[Jack Harrison]

I am more likely to win a photo competition than snow in the south this coming weekend. It WON'T snow in the south (except perhaps on the very highest hills).

Jack

[Gibster]

Doh! Just noticed your latest change of avatar

That's good news, Jack. I'll never listen to Sky News again, huh! Foreign rubbish...

[Jack Harrison]

Sky News

Sky News has been streets ahead of the other channels in its coverage of the Libyan crisis IMHO.

Jack

[Susie]

Sky's coverage of the situation in Japan was thorough at the weekend too.

Today I went to visit a friend at the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice in Farnham. He's an excellent photographer and has taken some beautiful fungi and landscape shots in particular. He has a blog which is about his personal fight at the moment and his courage and determination are an inspiration. http://youwinagain-cybershot.blogspot.com/

Driving back I saw five male brimstones in a short section of road in Farnham in lovely warm sunshine.

I was disappointed to find it cold and overcast when I got home so there were no butterflies on the wing here but had the (un)pleasant surprise of finding another load of clothes moth cases as they were living in an old teddy bear. These are a real nuisance and I thought I had got rid of them all. Looks like poor old Big Ted is going back in the freezer!

[Susie]

Today the sun shone, albeit intermittently, and by jingo it was good when it did! I saw six male brimstones on my travels, including one having a dog fight with a comma.

I travelled around a bit today and did an awful lot to walking too, my favourite kind of day. I met a lovely lady at Ebernoe nature reserve who gave me a map and suggested some things I look out for. It was my first time at Ebernoe and I certainly wasn't disappointed by this beautiful woodland and will be going back at frequent intervals through the coming year. I found a few brown hairstreak eggs as well as seeing a male brimstone flying. Chiff chaff and skylarks were singing their hearts out.

Last week I saw my first wild daffodils, and since then I've found that they are everywhere in the hedgerows and woods. I have never seen anything as impressive as this sight though; thousands of native daffodils! The lady at the reserve told me that some years they count 7000 wild native daffodils in the woods there. The area in the photograph is a carpet of bluebells later in the season.

The lesser celendines, primrose, blackthorn, sallow, daffodils and the first wood anenomes at starting to bring the woods and hedgerows to life here. It wont be long before the ladies smock blooms and the orange tips are about.

After Ebernoe I did a quick walk along one side of Burton Mill Pond and then dashed home to my local reserve, Warnham.

At Warnham I saw the male Brimstone and the Comma as well as three slow worms and a herald moth flying over.


www.facebook.com/v/10150163370511972[/video]A jolly good day

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Susie,
Lovely shot of the Ebernoe daffs. The slow worm footage would probably benefit from being speeded up. Nice job though - I might try a bit of video myself this year.
Neil

[Susie]

But then it would be a fast worm; surely that'd be in breach of trade descriptions?

[Gibster]

Hiya Susie,

I know you're a keen gardener 'n all, but...regards your native daffodils...

I just had look through my copy of Stace (the botanist's bible) and this is what he says;

"An extremely popular garden genus with numerous interspecific hybrids and thousands of cultivars, many with uncertain parentage. Many occur naturalised in fields, waysides, woods, rough ground, banks etc and are very difficult to classify.(...) others occur and are then best assigned to the recognised Divisions of the International Daffodil Checklist.

This is where it gets really good....

Division 1 - Flower 1, with corona at least as long as tepals
Division 2 - Flower 1, with corona > 1/3 as long as but shorter than tepals
Division 3 - Flower 1, with corona < 1/3 as long as tepals
Division 4 - Flore pleno variants of garden origin of any affinity
Division 5 - Derivatives of N.triandrus, with characteristics of that species evident
Division 6 - Derivatives of N.cyclamineus, with characteristics of that species evident
Division 7 - Derivatives of N.jonquilla, with characteristics of that species evident
Division 8 - Derivatives of N.tazetta, with characteristics of that species evident
Division 9 - Derivatives of N.poeticus, with characteristics of that species evident

There are several named subspecies and naturalised species out there, although the 'proper' Wild Daffodil is often abundant where it occurs, as your beautiful photo shows.

So, hope that sorts out your daffs!

Cheers,

Gibster.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Susie,
A gentle canter would be a sensible compromise. Seriously... your recent videos of Red Admiral etc have made me think more about filming - a whole new world to obsess about.
Neil

[Susie]

Thanks for clearing that up, Gibster .... I think!

The great thing about filming is that you can get an image when it is too far away to get a macro shot. I just wish I'd had this camera last year when shooting the bilateral gyandromorph as I could have got some great behaviour footage as it both tasted the leaves for suitability for egg laying and chased the other males around territorily. The coming year holds so much promise!

[Pete Eeles]

Hi Susie,
A gentle canter would be a sensible compromise. Seriously... your recent videos of Red Admiral etc have made me think more about filming - a whole new world to obsess about.
Neil

I agree - the vids are quite something. I've been getting guidance from the ever-so-helpful Gruditch on how best to dispose of my ready cash. Video is a requirement

Cheers,

- Pete

[Susie]

A misty start burned away to a lovely day for me to go exploring again. Today I in my endeavour to visit new local places I went to St Leonard's Forest where, legend has it, there be dragons This area reminds me a lot of the New Forest. It's greensand and acidic so there is some heather here and I have heard silver studded blues - something to check out later in the year. It's a mixed wood of conifer (Foresty Commision's fault) and broadleaf with lots of huge beech and oak. I didn't find any dragons today but I did find a monster mound of wood ants - the biggest I've ever seen. I reckon the nest is about three and a half foot tall by eight across. http://www.facebook.com/v/10150168769356972[/video]

I also found butterflies! Hoorah! A comma was sitting on the path sunbathing and breakfasting on a dog poo. Soon after there was another comma. One of them, dear god I hope it was the latter, decided to land on my head. There were also four male brimstones and a peacock flying around in the hot sunshine. It was splendid and this is definitely another place I'm going back to.

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150168996581972[/video]


This afternoon I did a quick walk around my local patch of High Wood. I was hoping to see Orange Tips because this is perfect habitat but no joy there. However two more peacocks and a small tortoiseshell made a lovely end to the walk.

Edit: The tadpoles hatched out this weekend.

[Susie]

Today I went to The Mens ... not cos the ladies loos were closed either.

It's a vast area of woodland with lots of beech and oak near Petworth.

After that I went to Kingley Vale. I love this place and it has a slightly Tolkien-esque feel to it I find with dark murk woods of ancient yew and barrow graves on top of the hill.

A lot of violets are now in bloom and the brimstones were taking advantage of this. It had warmed up by the afternoon and there was a comma, a peacock, and five brimstones (one female and four males) flying.

The female brimstone, shown below, looked really grubby but not damaged in any way. She must have had a tough winter.

Loads of bird calls were going on, many I didn't recognise but some I did; chiff chaff, willow warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, gold crest, buzzard and barn owl. I got a look at the barn owl too.

[Susie]

Orange Tip in Broadbridge Heath!!!!

[David M]

Orange Tip in Broadbridge Heath!!!!

Great spot! I have read that a Holly Blue has been sighted too.

In spite of the freezing December, butterfly emergence times appear not to have been retarded.

[Mark Lyman]

Hi - I too saw an Orange Tip this lunchtime - Hursley near Winchester.

ATB, Mark.

[Jack Harrison]

In spite of the freezing December, butterfly emergence times appear not to have been retarded.

I don't think exceptionally cold weather in December and January has any effect on subsequent emergence date. Whether it is very cold or just plain ordinary cold, no development of larvae, pupae will occur. I reckon that February is crucial. A warmer-than-average February (as we have just had) followed by a warm March (except the first week or so) might allow development. Conversely, a cold or even an average February might still be too cold for things to happen.

So my contention is that exceptional cold in the depth of winter has no bearing.* But late winter and early spring can make a huge difference one way or the other.

* I am not talking here about species that don't like damp winters - eg Camberwell Beauty

Jack

[Susie]

It's lovely to read about your sightings too.

I really hope this is a good year for butterflies. It does seem that a cold winter doesn't hold back butterfly emergence in the spring and can be positively beneficial.

This morning I headed off early as it was a beautiful morning and unlike the last couple of days warmed up quickly. I drove to the next village and walked along the bridle path by Warnham Manor and Benland Wood and back through the fields by Tilletts Lane. There wasn't much in the way of insects flying initially but the birds were singing their hearts out, including chiffchaff and yellowhammer. Primroses, wild daffodils, violets, lesser celendine, speedwell, dandelion, wood anenome, sorrel and cuckoo flower edged the path and lanes intermittently. It won't be long before it's a riot of colour. Walking back to the car I saw a comma and male brimstone.

When I arrived home I had an hour before I had to get ready for work and as it was such a lovely day and so warm I dashed straight out again and went for a walk around a local area we call the "goose pond" as there is a flock of greylag or pink footed geese here (not sure which?) as I really wanted to see orange tip and this area of flood plain is really good for them. I was disappointed though as half an hour into my walk I hadn't seen a single butterfly and it will probably be next Monday at the earliest before I get a chance to go out looking again. I turned back and started for home when I saw a male brimstone by the river Arun and down the lane something else was flying away from me. I did a double take, took in the size, shape and jizz and took off in lumbering pursuit after it, wellies thundering on the tarmac. There was no mistaking the flashes of orange on the wing tips as I closed in. It settled for a second before disappearing over a hedge. Drat! A comma and a peacock flew into sight before also disappearing in the garden over the hedge. After waiting around for a while and sending off some excited texts I made for home. A quick recky along the drainage ditch on the way home by the by-pass turned up more brimstone, loads of cuckoo flower, another peacock and a pair of courting small tortoiseshells which spiralled up into the sky. The drainage ditch is edged with a hedge of what I thought was blackthorn but now know is actually damson or bullace. The hedge is now in full flower, faces south, and it and the ditch is a mecca for butterflies as it is south facing and protected from the wind. It's great getting to know the area I live in and the best spots to look for butterflies which aren't always the most obvious or the most attractive.

[Susie]

I found two decent sized stands of mature blackthorn in Cranleigh today in an effort to establish areas worth searching in the summer. I couldn't see any eggs on them, but I didn't really expect to see any. Also two small tortoiseshells seen.

[Jack Harrison]

...decent sized stands of mature blackthorn in Cranleigh...

This season is early. Sure, it will be cooler over the next couple of days but it should then warm up again.

Black Hairstreak has an incredibly short flight season - just two (maybe three) weeks. So timing your search in the Cranleigh area will be difficult. You might even have to to consider the very beginning of June. Black Hairstreak emergence seems to more-or-less coincide with that of the much commoner Meadow Brown so there is a useful clue as to when to start the search.

Of course, the old literature suggests that Black Hairstreak is a July butterfly - but that's not the case nowadays.

Jack