Susie

[NickMorgan]

Fantastic pictures and video, Susie.

[Vince Massimo]

Susie, your first encounter with Small Blue was a winner. I have been trying to get photos like that for years

Thanks again for the Denbies PM.

Vince

[Susie]

Thanks nick and vince.

I like taking short videos, it gives an idea of what the butterfly is really like.

I was so lucky with the small blues, it was love at first sight! They are right feisty little critters.

[Jack Harrison]

Susie. Your signature line:

KS. Enjoy yourself. It's later than you think.

Explanation please (well the KS bit).

Jack

[Susie]

I'm actually an alien and part of an advance party gathering information on earth. That is a secret message to the mother ship. Unfortunately now my secret is out we will have to attack and you will all die. Unlucky

As for the other bit it's a song on radio two's drive time and an apt mantra for life. I think it is particularly pertinent when it comes to butterflies because if you don't make time for them when they're flying then you've missed them for another year and who knows what will happen next year?

[Pete Eeles]

Susie, your first encounter with Small Blue was a winner. I have been trying to get photos like that for years

Thanks again for the Denbies PM.

Vince

I agree - superb photos! Keep up the good work Sooz!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Susie]

Thanks

[Susie]

Today I met up with UK Butterflies member, Pauline, and had a lovely day. She very kindly showed me around Botany Bay.

We saw a purple hairstreak high up in the trees, plenty of speckled woods, common blue, dingy and grizzled skippers, a brimstone (could have been more but I only remember one) and a green veined white and the star of the show was there in good numbers still - wood white.

I thought when we saw this dingy skipper that she had far more pale markings than was normal but looking at the books I now don't think that is the case.

We saw a keeled skimmer and Pauline saw other dragonflies too.

And finally the butterflies

Then this afternoon after the kids were home from school I went for a walk over my local patch. I have neglected this a bit lately (so much to do, so many places to go!) and was greeted by a immature male scarce chaser straight away

The grass was thick with damselflies, including white legged, and demoiselles

there weren't many butterflies about apart from common blue.

and these were starting to roost.

The best bit was watching some deer which were on the edge of the woods running and leaping through the field long grass just a little way in front of me. I plonked myself down for a while in the meadow and just watched the rabbits and buttercups. It's heaven here.

[NickB]

..... if you don't make time for them when they're flying then you've missed them for another year and who knows what will happen next year?

Yep - enjoy life whilst you can
Lovely set of pictures again, Susie
...keep 'em coming, helps make up for the lack of butterflies in Cambridgeshire....
N

[Susie]

Another day at the office, another lunchtime spent searching for the Holy Grail

Still no sign.

I did see large skipper, small heath, speckled wood, several small whites and a male orange tip. I am quite amazed that fresh looking male orange tips are still on the wing.

Also heard today, my first crickets chirruping in the grass which is a sound I associate with mid to late summer.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Susie.
Some great pics. I think the dragon under the female grizzly is a female Black-tailed Skimmer.

Nice Scarce Chaser. Males and females are all orange when they emerge then the males gain pruinescence and become blue.

[Susie]

Cheers, Paul.

I went on the Sussex BC walk in Heyshott on Saturday, details in Kipper's diary. Here are a few photos.

Our esteemed leader pointing out a duke of burgundy

[Susie]

I went to see the Glanville Fritillaries today. I got stuck in traffic on the way there which doubled my journey time and when I arrived it was very windy. This changed to extremely windy and then on to blowing a gale during the course of time I was there, which probably explains why no one else was stupid enough to look for these pretty little butterflies as they cowered in the undergrowth. When they did venture out the wind caught them and they whipped away out of view in a flash.

My good deed of the day was saving a heavily egg laden female who was looking for ovipositing sites from a big black crab spider.

I am pleased to see the butterflies, and they were a life tick for me, but I came away feeling very grumpy and rather cheated.

Hey ho, there is always next year I guess.

[Paul Wetton]

Hi Susie

Some excellent pics of the Glanvilles despite the inclement weather conditions. I love the shot with the daisies in the background. I tried some shots like this when I visited on Saturday but my DSLR appears not to show as much depth of field and hence a more blurred background. I guess this is due to the size of the sensor.
I put my pics on my diary if you're interested.

We got stuck in traffic in reading on Saturday for a couple of hours which frustrated me enormousely. We visited Goring (The Thames) for Club-tailed Dragonfly, Hartslock Nature Reserve for orchids and then Wrecclesham. We tried a detour to Homefield Wood between Henley and Marlow for Millitary Orchids but failed to find it and hit the traffic in Reading. A great day out though.

[Susie]

I'm a country girl now, I'm not used to traffic jams and I find them intensely annoying now.

The Lumix really came into its own today, I couldn't get a single decent shot with the Canon. And I'm absolutely interested in other peoples' photographs!!

This poor little butterfly was brave enough to venture out to feed. I bet it ended up feeling sea sick.

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150259826341972[/video]

[Paul Wetton]

You did very well to get any photos at all in that wind. Well done.

[NickB]

Good stuff, Susie. Like the daisies...
I'm going to have to get my video going I can see...haven't really done much with it, I have to confess.

[Susie]

Changing the subject, the emperor moth caterpillars are doing well. The biggest one of the five moulted again today and now has many more orange markings.

[Susie]

Emperor moth caterpillar which has just moulted again. It is now in it's third instar I think.

Two of the others which haven't yet moulted yet and vary in size.

My wild garden. It's scruffy but full of critters!

There are brimstone cats on the alder buckthorn, orange tips on the cuckoo flower, green veined white on the garlic mustard, brown hairstreak on the blackthorn and probably much more.

[ChrisC]

i do pity the neat and tidy and yet empty gardens. i don't think i could cope. looks great susie.

Chris