june 2011

[Neil Freeman]

Grizzled Skippers were also still around last Sunday at Ryton Meadows near Coventry.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

... found numerous SPBFs in various meadows around the forest....

Neil.

That SPBF is interesting - some of the black spots run together on the forewing. Quite a striking individual.

Dave

Cheers Dave,

I am not that familiar with SPBFs to have noticed at the time. I am still sifting through loads of photos taken today and now you mention it this individual does stand out.

Neil.

[Bill S]

The best day in a long while for photography but currently in a bit of a lull between the spring and summer species in my local spots. Optimistically I went looking for Dark Green Frits but found none yet and the knapweed seems a bit suppressed around here. But I did find one and took the opportunity to photography it. What a stunning flower, my wife reckons it deserves a better name and I agree.

Bill

[Michaeljf]

Hi Bill,
you're right - nice photograph, and unlike the Thistles, at least these flowers don't tear your legs apart if you walk by them!

Just a quick note otherwise - the first High Brown and Dark Green Fritillaries have been seen on the wing at Castle Down (South Wales) site. Not sure if there are any earlier spottings - no doubt there will be more on the wing within the next couple of days.

Michael

[Jack Harrison]

South Cambridgeshire Friday 3rd June 1105 hrs

Amazing sighting while I doing a crossword. A quite unmistakeable Clouded Yellow through the garden flying southeast to northwest. I'm off for a local walk shortly to see if there are any more but have to stay in at the moment waiting for the mail.

Jack

[A_T]

Fenns and Whixall Moss - cloudless and warm day. Butterflies quite thin on the ground - still quite a few Brimstones though battling on. Saw my first Large Heaths of the year - a good 2 weeks earlier than usual. I've read that the ones with the more vivid underwing spots settle much less than the plainer ones - I can confirm that they are certainly much less tolerant and obliging when it comes to posing for photographs!

[Zonda]

On the Dorset Heaths, and flying at the moment are the Silver-studded Blues. Of course they like to gorge on nectar from the heather, and upside-down is probably the best way.

[Rogerdodge]

Heddon Valley was amazing today with Dark Green and High Brown in really good numbers, also male Orange Tip, Large Skipper, Small Copper, Small Pearl, Large White, GV White, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Common Blue and Green Hairstreak.
Then off to Haddon, and there had been a mass emergence in the last day or so. HFs were everywhere. even up at the top by the lay-by. I must have seen well over 200 individuals, spread all along the woodland edge east of the track. Amazing.

[Padfield]

Roger, as you know, heath fritillaries are common where I live. But I've never seen anything like that! It's a remarkable shot. The density of some species in their UK strongholds is quite striking, when the same species within their continental 'comfort zones' often occur far more diffusely.

Guy

[Pete Eeles]

Not sure why, but the Green Hairstreak in the shot really enhances the spectacle! The "where's Wally" of butterflies

Cheers,

- Pete

[Rogerdodge]

Guy/Pete
Actually, just out of shot, are more flowers with HFs on them.
This bush had 14 HFs and 2 Green Hairstreaks on it at one time.
I just sat next to it for ages - just watching in wonder.

[David M]

Heddon Valley was amazing today with Dark Green and High Brown in really good numbers, also male Orange Tip, Large Skipper, Small Copper, Small Pearl, Large White, GV White, Peacock, Speckled Wood, Common Blue and Green Hairstreak.
Then off to Haddon, and there had been a mass emergence in the last day or so. HFs were everywhere. even up at the top by the lay-by. I must have seen well over 200 individuals, spread all along the woodland edge east of the track. Amazing.

That's an amazing shot, Roger. They obviously like bramble!

I spent a dull afternoon in comparison wandering round my local patch immediately after work.

It's not often the thermometer hits 25C in Swansea but it read 25.5 when I left work at 3.30pm so I headed up to Glais to see what was on the wing. Unfortunately not much. A handful of Speckled Woods and Small Heaths and the odd Common Blue, GV White and singleton Large Whites and Tortoiseshell.

For those of us who don't have any rarities that seem to fill the gap during the early June 'lull', not much is going on.

[NickB]

Fabulous picture, Roger! Nice to watch and wonder.
I spent quite a bit of wondering today; wondering if those pesky Black Hairstreaks would ever come down! (They did...)

A female at last, I think...

But during my time there also saw a mint Orange-tip, a Large White, a Red Admiral, 2 Comma (one stonking new specimen), 2 Holly Blue, a couple of Large Skippers, Brown Argus and my first Meadow Brown of the year. ( I got just as much satisfaction from seeing my first Meadow Brown as I did from seeing the Hairstreaks )
Also spotted another female Broad-bodied Chaser, a Chinese Water deer, a Green and Greater Spotted Woodpecker, a Buzzard, and numerous LBJs including Chiff-chaff, Blackcap, various warblers and tits.......
A grand day out....

[selbypaul]

A great days butterfly watching today in the gorgeous sunshine, seeing two new species for me.

Firstly I drove down to Hockley Woods in Essex to see the Heath Fritillary. The car park was overflowing at 10.30am, I wondered whether it was all butterfly watchers. In the end, I think I was the only one, everyone else seemed to be dog walking or just enjoying the sunshine. The main hotspot for the butterflies seemed to be on the wider cleared sections of the blue signposted "Boundary Trail". Saw around 20-30 in one spot, plus around 10 in another. Even in these smallish numbers they were nearly swarming. Can't imagine what East Blean Woods must have looked like in 2009. Only other butterflies about was a couple of Speckled Wood, and I suspect, my first Gatekeeper of the year.

I then drove north to Strumpshaw Fen, and to the famous "Doctors garden" (Thanks to Jack for the coordinates). There were 5 very active Swallowtails all fluttering up and dowm the long thin border, stopping to rest every now and again on the bright red flowers. Most seemed very fresh, and speaking to "the Doctor" it seems like there has been a second wave in recent days. Indeed he said this has been the best year for Swallowtails in many years.

All in all a fab day, one of my favourite butterflying days ever.

[EricY]

Hockley wood Essex produced good numbers of Heath frits on wednesday 1st. here are afew photos i/c mating pair. Eric

[Susie]

I'm at Elmhurst Farm, Billingshurst, West Sussex, at the moment and i've never seen so many large skippers as I did earlier. There are dozens and dozens. Also large numbers of small tort, meadow brown, small white and a brimstone.

[millerd]

A Surrey excursion today.

First to Box Hill to check for any early apearance of Marbled White and Dark Green Fritillary: no sign of either, just a sprinkling of Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown and Small Heath. One elderly male Brimstone added a bit of colour.

Next, across to Denbies, where the hillside is extraordinarily dry. A very similar butterfly picture, though the Small Heaths were more numerous, and there were still a good number of female Adonis Blues close to the ground laying eggs. No males seen, and all individuals looked entirely normal. At the end of the trudge back to the car park, in the area known as Steer's Field, a flash of orange resolved itself into a Dark Green Fritillary. This otherwise very new male sadly had a chunk missing from one wing. This is the first time I have seen a DGF at Denbies - I don't know if anyone else has?

Finally, the long way home via Botany Bay. There were still five or six Wood Whites about, as well as (you guessed it) Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and Large Skipper. Two of the Wood Whites indulged in their typical dance for a while before the male lost interest.

Dave

[Rogerdodge]

Collard Hill.
Arrived at 10:00, and was DELIGHTED to bump into two of my favourite UKBers - Paul (Kipling) and Sussek Kipper (Neil Hulme).
They had a couple of LBs staked out, but they both took flight as I unlocked the legs of my tripod.
I needn't have worried - there were LBs in profusion. It was not unusual to see a group of 3 or 4, and they were nearly all pretty fresh.
I ended up with a handful of photographs to be proud of, and Paul and his son Andrew are overnighting at my place with a promise that I will show thwn HBF and HF tomorrow - no pressure there then!
Anyway - a very nice Chinese take-away inside us, and a few glasses of wne, and off for an early night for an early start tomorrow (As If!! - I have avery nice single malt here.......)
p.s. My first Marbled White and Meadow Brown of the year - both really early - as is everything.
p.p.s. The missing antenae on one of the LBs is the result of Sussex Kipper rescuing it from a spiders web. What a hero!!!

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Roger,
Great to see you and the others today..... and what a day! Eventually got my topside shots at 4pm. Nice work with the camera. Your shots 1, 2 and 5 are fantastic. Good luck tomorrow.
Neil

[David M]

Having checked the weather forecast to the point of distraction, I decided to get up at 4am on Saturday and drive to Cumbria.

I'd spent some time researching the Irton Fell site at the westernmost edge of the Mountain Ringlet's range; a site where the annual emergence is somewhat ahead of the colonies to the east and north due to the more favorable climatic conditions.

I noticed that the Cumbrian Wildlife Group had organised a walk to search for these butterflies on Sunday 5th June, so given that they possess probably the best local knowledge, I decided to go there since Saturday's forecast was much better and that they must be on the wing if there's a walk organised the following day.

I arrived at the quarry car park near Santon Bridge at 9.45 in near perfect conditions. It was 19C and the skies were practically cloudless.

The climb from the car park to the fell is pretty challenging, but perfectly surmountable. The 15 minute hike left me a bit breathless but the good news was that the fell itself is fairly benign (unless you want to walk to the summit, which you don't need to do as the Mountain Ringlet colonies are much lower down on the north facing side).

Once I'd gone over the stile onto the fell, it was only 10 minutes before I saw my first Mountain Ringlet, and soon after there were more and more of them to the point where it became reminiscent of being in a low lying area of grassland surrounded by Meadow Browns.

They were found all along the craggy areas close to the stone wall that runs alongside the pathway, particularly preferring one large sheltered area where they were more numerous even than Small Heaths.

They were very active, though never flying high in the air, and getting photographs of them wasn't easy as they didn't alight for long and when they did, they were usually part obscured by the grass blades.

I arrived on the fell just after 10am and stayed till gone midday. The views were spectacular and the temperature just right. As time passed a little more cloud cover came in from the north east, so getting there early was the right thing to do. There were about two dozen other people who had come to see these butterflies, and when I returned to the car park there was a couple just about to go up: "Did you see any Mountain Ringlets?" the husband asked me. "Approaching one hundred", I replied, much to his astonishment.

I called in at Meathop Moss on the way back since it's just off the main road which leads to the M6, but there were no Large Heaths on the wing (a little early still, obviously).

The numbers up on Irton Fell were as follows:

1. Small Heath 150-200
2. Mountain Ringlet 75-100
3. Wall Brown 6
4. Small Tortoiseshell 1
5. Red Admiral 1
6. Green Hairstreak 1



Once the stiff climb onto the fell had been negotiated, this was the magnificent view that provided reward (Wast Water is just visible in the distance)



Mountain Ringlets were active over a wide area, but this sheltered 200m stretch was a definite 'hotspot'



As you can see, the terrain isn't too prohibitive - the hardest part is the 15 minute slog up the path from the car park



Thought I'd follow Guy Padfield's philosophy and try to incorporate a little 'background' material



Getting pictures without grass blades interfering isn't easy



With it being so sunny, underside shots were nigh impossible



Quite a few seemed to have lesions where the thorax meets the wing - not sure if this is parasitic or weather-induced