Horsenden Hill Today

[Martin]

I had a very enjoyable day, in the company of some very nice and knowledgable people. White Letter Hairstreak was the target species, and we hit the bull allmost as soon as we left the visitor centre...a WLH and a Purple Hairstreak on the same Elm sapling, only 18" apart! We saw many more over the course of the morning, mainly PH I would say. The surprise of the day was only the second record of a Ringlet at HH for several years

The list of species for the day is:-

Comma
Essex Skipper
Gatekeeper
Green-veined White
Holly Blue
Large Skipper
Large White
Marbled White
Meadow Brown
Painted Lady
Purple Hairstreak
Ringlet
Small Copper
Small Skipper
White Letter Hairstreak
(plus more moths than you can shake a stick at)

I appologise now for my photos...I had a real "off-day"

1) Comma


2) Comma


3) Essex Skipper


4) Small Copper


5) Green-veined White


6) Purple Hairstreak


7) Purple Hairstreak


8 ) Ringlet


9) Ringlet


10) Purple Hairstreak


11) Purple Hairstreak


12) Painted Lady


13) Gatekeeper


14) Essex Skipper


15) Meadow Brown


Mike Massie and I saw what we thought were 3 Meadow Browns , but it seems that 2 Meadow Browns were beating up a Ringlet!



Martin.

[Padfield]

It was great, taking a walk in an English wood with the aid of your pictures, Martin.

Just out of interest, do you deliberately aim at a golden rectangle or are you just a natural artist? Picture 9 is particularly close in its dimensions to the golden ratio, phi. To 4 sig. fig. phi is 1.618 and that picture was 1.620...

Guy

[Martin]

Guy,
Never heard of a Golden Rectangle I just crop each shot it to where it looks OK.

Martin.

PS - Guy...have you seen anything like the behavior in the last image?

[Padfield]

Then I guess you're a natural and I've just been teaching maths too long. Phi is an object of supreme beauty to us mathematicians, and can be found in artistic creations from the Parthenon to Beethoven's 5th.

It seems both those meadow browns are males, and though it's impossible to be certain, the ringlet could well be female. My suggestion would be that the males are amorous - it is not uncommon for males to woo females of closely related species, but rarer (it does sometimes happen) for the female to let herself be mated. I was once even sent a photograph of a male gatekeeper mating with a female painted lady.

That would be my interpretation.

Guy

[Dave McCormick]

Those images are not that bad. Some are pritty good. (Seems that 2 Meadow Browns were beating up a Ringlet!) Nature never seems to go to plan!

[Mick Massie]

Hello Martin, the windy conditions made it very difficult for photographing Leps today so you did really well, especially the Ringlet which was the star of the show. None of my Leps turned out anywhere near as good as yours. I did go down to the flower meadow and did spot this little baby sitting on a Corncockle.




I have just joined ukbutterflies so haven't posted on here before, so hope I've done it right. Hope to see you again sometime, check out the LNHS website for our list of field trips. We are going to Rainham and Whippendell Woods next weekend so should get some great photo opps.
Cheers, Mick

[FlyByWire]

Nice pics! Wish I had the zoom that you do. I never saw the PH's closeup.

After the walk ended I thought I'd take a quick peek at where we first saw the WLH and PH on the tree before going. On a nearby sunlit bramble patch I found two nectaring, and got close. Best pic:

http://piccies.flybywire.org.uk/Butterf ... treak7.jpg

I am half way through updating my website with 33 pics including the above. I forgot the ID's of most of the moths so will need to re-id them. Oops...

Pics will appear at http://piccies.flybywire.org.uk/Butterf ... index.html when I am done.

-Mike

[Matsukaze]

I seem to remember someone last summer posting a picture of a Meadow Brown and Ringlet mating.

[Martin]

Went back to Horsenden this morning to try to get a decent WLH shot but didn't even see one, just a solitary Purple high up.
All the usual suspects were about, but I managed to get a couple of shots of the lone Marbled White so I went away happy (and VERY wet!)



















Martin.

[Dave McCormick]

That small copper with wings closed looks awsome. Nice shots. Hoping wet weather dies off soon so I can get out again.

[FlyByWire]

Yeah nice pics again.

I went for a short walk across the meadows yesterday too. Most of the walk was in rain, but didn't stop 100's of Meadow Browns keep on the wing. Once the sun came out so did the Marbled and a few others. Unfortunately so did a huge swarm of those horse flies. That was horrible. Spent the rest of the walk fighting a losing battle with them and retreating.

-Mike

[Dave McCormick]

I noticed a place I went to in the wet and there was meadow browns and ringlets on the wing. Seems that wettish weather does not stop them, but I even saw a couple of Small Tortoiseshell.

Seems that (as far as I know) since meadow browns hide away in long grass and since its wet, they have to fly around and look for sutiable places to hide.

I know the horefly business is bad, got me plent of times, and living on a farm with sheep and cow ahem... "fertilizer" everywhere, the horse and cleg flies on those don't help me when I am looking for butterflies. I hate them, especially when they latch onto my clothes and beard and refuse to move.