July 2011

[NickB]

Not seen too many Peacock this year; the most last week when there were 3 feeding on the same teasels as a DGF on the Fleam Dyke, and the odd one elsewhere, like today...
Nice to see them...
N

[Dave McCormick]

Doing big butterfly count in garden this morning. Saw x2 Red Admiral, x2 Large White and x3 GV white. I also looked up as I heard a lot of bird noises, and saw loads of swallows in a frenzy. They were churping loudy and flying around quite fast. Then I found why, a buzzard came past and was circling around the swallows, it did this for a couple of minutes then flew away. the swallows then calmed down.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Nick,

Nice to see a peacock photo, they are as scare as hens teeth this year here, never seen such a bad year. Don't remember seeing any this year at al, which is unusual as I usually at least see a few.

I saw a few back in the Spring, I remember seeing half a dozen one afternoon at one spot.
I have started seeing the second brood around here since last weekend, 4 or 5 last Sunday at one spot and another half dozen when I spent a couple of hours wandering around another local spot this afternoon, all looking nice and fresh.

Peacock

Cheers,

Neil.

[David M]

Took another trip to Forest Farm Reserve near Cardiff this morning, but yet again the White Letter Hairstreaks that were so conspicuous here last year were absent. I met up with Michael Field and his wife Karen completely by chance, and we spent a fair while in the area that was so productive in 2010 but to no avail.

They can't have simply disappeared. They were observed in several parts of the site last year so it's not as if they were relying on a single breeding site. Perhaps we need the return of Hairstreak-smeller pursuivant Jon Evans who first alerted us to their presence 12 months ago.

Plenty of other butterflies on the wing however, and I think I can confidently state that this is the best spot for Holly Blues that I know of. I saw 14 today and several of them landed on brambles to take nectar and a couple even opened their wings! (sadly, both were males).

Five more Purple Hairstreaks were sighted near the mature oak in the third field, but only one raggedy specimen was low enough to aim the zoom at:



This male Holly Blue was absolutely pristine, and judging by its sedate behaviour, may well have not long emerged from the chrysalis:



Half upperside shot of this gleaming specimen:



Peacock numbers seem to be building. Saw half a dozen today, including 4 in a 5m sq area:

[David M]

After leaving Forest Farm, I called in to my local patch at Glais, near Swansea, to see if there were any Graylings about. I found the grand total of..........ONE!



Looking north towards the Brecon Beacons



Solitary Grayling.

[Wurzel]

Visited Godshill, New Forest for about an hour over lunch. Meadow Brown (6), Small Copper (3 and 1 caeruleopunctata), Gatekepper (6), Small Heath (3), Green Veined White (2) and my first ever Grayling which was quickly joined by 3 or 4 other individuals (more detail eventually on personal diary)

My back garden had a Holly Blue, Meadow Brown, a male Gatekeeper, Red Admiral and 2 Large White.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

First chance to look around locally for a while. Saw a few Peacocks, Speckled Woods, and Gatekeepers - including the female below, which lacked additional spots on either forewing or hindwing. I also encountered a Holly Blue sucking up minerals from the path. It was almost impossible to budge from its favoured spot next to a bird dropping, but when it did move, it kindly flew up a foot or so and basked uncharacteristically. Somewhat worn unfortunately.

Further on, my 14-year-old son had been watching a Red Admiral and his better eyesight had spotted a freshly laid egg. To the naked eye, it had a distinct bluish tinge, but the close up photo loses the tint completely.

During the afternoon, we popped into Dawney's Hill (Pirbright, near Woking) - having recommended the place to Lee Hurrell, I thought I ought to see it myself! Immediately inside the gate, butterflies appeared from all directions: Common Blues, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers, a solitary worn Ringlet, Large and Small Skippers, one tired male Silver-studded Blue... and lots of Graylings. I have never seen so many in a relatively small area. Some of them seemed very large, too, not far short of Red Admiral size at a guess. Certainly there were in excess of 20 within 50 metres of the gate. And what is with Graylings and shorts? They just kept landing on my son's (I had told him they would...).

Dave

PS.
Does anyone know what the little red things on stalks are in the penultimate Grayling photo?

[Michaeljf]

Hi all,
As David mentioned I was too at Forest farm (Coryton, Whitchurch) just outside Cardiff around lunchtime. First off Karen and I visited Hailey Fields, which is slightly further into Cardiff along the river Taff. This is a lovely bit of city park where there are supposed to be Purple Hairstreaks (tip off by Willrow) but unfortunately all we saw were a lot of joggers and cyclists. When then moved onto the aforementioned Forest Farm reserve. After meeting with David M by chance, my wife and I spent another hour in the further two fields - we saw plenty of Holly Blues (but none stopped) and I think David did very well to find his newly hatched individual (it's not just luck though - David puts in a lot of hard graft! ). We eventually saw one Purple Hairstreak in the second field but no chance of it coming down: Karen may have seen one White-Letter Hairstreak but it was too far above us for a positive ID. Unfortunately the wind picked up quite a bit later afternoon which didn't help.

It was lovely though to see so many fresh Nymphalids as David mentioned. It's easy to overlook common species in our need to see the more difficult and less-common ones..

At my home base (St Mellons, Cardiff) I have spent the last couple of weeks staring up at the Oak Trees walking into work. Eventually on Friday I saw my first local Purple Hairstreak (around 5-ish in the afternoon). Although this was a slightly 'worse-for-wear' female I was so pleased to see that this species is still going on my local patch. First thing this morning I was in a similiar spot and saw another 4 individuals - too high to photograph, but again good to see. After returning from Forest Farm this afternoon (and after cutting the Lawn!) I wandered out again and found another small colony with another 4 or 5 adults. Again the wind stopped them from being more 'photographer-friendly' but at least it shows there are quite a few undiscovered colonies at my local patch.

Michael

p.s. The forecast is good for tomorrow so I'm hoping it will feel like a proper Summer day!


Small Tortoiseshell at Forest Farm. Cut legs from wandering through brambles to get the shot not shown..


Another fresh Red Admiral at Forest Farm to go with the Commas, Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells.


My first 'slightly tatty' local Purple Hairstreak.


She may be old but she's still a Lady to me

[Dave McCormick]

I was out at 6pm and walking along a large meadow area near woodland and happened to see 18 small tortoiseshell in a small area (one was in spider web and was dead), BUT they were a nightmare to photo. First two were on thistle head, they flew off when I got near, next 3 were on path nearby, same with several others, also darted of when I got anywhere near. Another was on a rock, it closed its wings and thought I would get an underside photo, it opened as soon as I was ready to shoot and couldn't get it.

I did mange these three shots though after 15 minutes of !@#!! here is one, the only good one, what looks like a fresh female.

[felix123]

On summer holidays now Woo!! 6 weeks of butterfly hunting!! To start of a great day at Stonebarrow Hill With a grand total of 16 species of butterfly!! This included: Lots of silver-washed Fritillary including a mating pair, numerous small, green-veined and large whites, 1 beautiful male Brimstone, 7 Peacocks all fresh looking, 3 commas, numerous red admirals, 3 Small tortoiseshell, 2 marbled whites, tonnes of Gatekeepers and meadow browns, numerous speckled wood, 1 small copper, 1 common blue, 5 holly blue! Great walk and highly recommended!

Felix

[Dave McCormick]

Tuesday I am going to look for Dark Green Fritillaries at country park in town not far away, saw 19 last year in an hour so hoping I might. Silver-washed was found in nearby woodland (the largest mature deciduous woodland in Northern Ireland) but have yet to see any. Have a few hours so maybe have a chance. Get there around 11am and see if I can get the fritillaries before they warm up too much.

Doing butterfly transact tomorrow so still hoping to find a peacock butterfly. Once they were so common, I didn't care about seeing one, but you do miss them when they are not around.

[MikeOxon]

Let's hope the dearth of Peacocks is a temporary glitch. Small Tortoiseshells had a bad patch a few years go but seem to have recovered to some extent although, generally, it seems that we have to be content with less of most things.

It appears that Lulworh Skippers are in trouble too, judging by the recent trip to Portland drawing a blank. I only saw one there, earlier in the month (plus two 'possibles' - more probably Smalls, of which there were lots), and had thought I was, perhaps, a little too early. I remember when they used to be the commonest butterfly around, across the military ranges near Tyneham.

Mike

[sahikmet]

Hi, Comma in the garden this morning. Cheers Sezar

[Pete Eeles]

Let's hope the dearth of Peacocks is a temporary glitch.

Saw over a dozen at Greenham Common this lunchtime. I think they must just be emerging since I've seen singletons over the last few weeks.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Dave McCormick]

Back from butterfly transact at Inishargy, Co Down. 27C in open, 23C in shade, couldn't walk the whole area as the grasses were to thick. Saw 6 male common blues, lots of whites I couldn't get close enough to ID, 6 ringlets and 2 small tortoiseshells. Had to stop due to feeing a bit too hot.

[Willrow]

Rodborough Common, Stroud, Gloucestershire.

Had a smashing day yesterday at probably the nearest location to South Wales that has Chalkhill Blue and though I suppose Brean Down in Somerset could also be considered, there's not much in it as regards mileage (about 150 mile round journey for me to either location) but Rodborough has a thriving population whereas Brean seemed rather fragile last time I was there, which is several years ago, makes me wonder if their still extant. I digress, back to Rodborough, the weather was just right, early sunshine...yippee ...followed by intermittent cloud cover around mid-day, the latter conditions proved ideal, the insects went to ground and allowed time to check for any abberations among the 50+ or so seen, I was unable to find anything exceptional on this visit, but peak emergence is usually mid August at Rodborough Common...so I will return!

I discovered a solitary freshly emerged Small Copper which I believe is the variant caeruleo-punctata (please correct if I'm mistaken ) I hunted the area fairly thoroughly but it appeared to be the only one yet out and about...it could'nt believe it's luck with the weather either I suppose I've not found this variant in my own neck of the woods, it's things like this during trips that add to the whole experience. I'll be double checking every Small Copper colony I find in future!

Very surprised to find that not a single Marbled White was seen during my visit, I have seen them here in very good numbers and the National Trust info on Rodborough Common describes them here as abundant but from past experience with Marbled White I've seen them completely lost to a site (usually when the grasses and herbage get too long) but I'm still scratching my head on this occasion, it could just be that most of my visit was concentrated on a south facing bank that I know from my other visit's the Chalkhill Blue favour. Incidentally this location is also the closest to South Wales for Adonis Blue whose 2nd generation should be on the wing in a little while and this will undoubtably make any visit doubly worth while with Chalkhill Blue overlapping the second generation Adonis Blue flight season.

FAO Michaeljf Re: Hailey Park & Forest Farm, Cardiff. Both White-letter Hairstreak and Purple Hairstreak seen recently at these locations. Have not personally visited either location this year yet, but my source of info is highly reliable, so don't give up at either location...cos' their just hidin' from you and DavidM

BIll

[Neil Freeman]

Nice shots Bill,

I am thinking of heading down to Prestbury Hill tomorrow but seeing your post has got me considering going that extra bit further to Rodborough Common instead.
I am mainly going to be looking for Chalkhill Blues but thought that Prestbury might give me the chance of Grayling as well.

Decisions, decisions....think I'll see what time I set out and see where I end up

Cheers,

Neil.

[Hugh Middleton]

Talking of decisions.....
Today I had a rare Sunday afternoon free and offered to take my non birding non butterflying wife out.
The alternatives were a raptor lookout for Honey Buzzards or a trip butterflying. She chose the latter, possibly on the grounds that past experience would mean a long long wait for a brief sighting.

So had an hour at Barnack Hills and Hollows. Unfortunately the terrain was unsuitable for my wife who suffers badly from rhematoid arthritis but she kindly waited while I went onto the reserve.

Thanks to Eric for suggesting it and for directions.

Saw many Chalkhill Blues which were delightful and a first for me having been too early when we were in Norfolk at the end of June.
Also Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Brown Argus, Small Heath and a few Whites.

A nice meal on the way home completed a very pleasant afternoon and I am free for next Sundays BC open day for once

Hugh

[nick patel]

found a nice purple hairstreak colony close to home today in preston

[A_T]

Let's hope the dearth of Peacocks is a temporary glitch. Small Tortoiseshells had a bad patch a few years go but seem to have recovered to some extent although, generally, it seems that we have to be content with less of most things.

I've seen quite a few Peacocks in the last few days - also Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals and Commas.