Neil Freeman

[Neil Freeman]

Saturday October 1st

A combination of circumstances including dodgy weather, work and then a bout of Man-Flu (very bad as is always the case with this illness ) has meant that I have not been able to get out for the past couple of weeks.

The past few days at work has had me looking out at the rising temperatures and blue skies and wondering if there was anything still about.

This afternoon, with the weather still looking good, I finally managed to get a couple of hours spare and jumped on my sons mountain bike and trundled over to Sheldon Country Park to see if I could find any butterflies still about.

At first it did not look good with most of the meadow areas having been cut back. There were still some untouched areas around the hedges and trees however and one such spot that is in a sheltered dip behind a slight bank produced single examples of Small Copper, Small Heath and Common Blue.

Small Copper

Small Copper

Common Blue

The Small Copper was defending his territory in one corner of the dip most aggressively and would not let the Common Blue anywhere near. I finally managed a couple of shots of the CB when it settled briefly on the other side of the dip.
Both the Small Copper and Common Blue were looking a bit tired. The Small Heath however looked fairly fresh but despite my best efforts at being sneaky I could not get close enough to get a photo.

I also had a brief glimpse of a either a Red Admiral or Peacock as it flew rapidly past and disappeared towards Birmingham airport.

An enjoyable hour or so that showed that the season is still not quite over around here.

Bye for now.

Neil.

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Neil,

Glad to see you've been out at last!

work and then a bout of Man-Flu (very bad as is always the case with this illness)

You must have been seriously ill ... I know I would have been!

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 30th October

Nearly the whole month of October has passed by without me seeing any more butterflies, the last ones were back on the 1st at one of my local spots. Even my resident Speckled woods in the garden have called it a day.
I don't believe for a minute that there are none around, its just that a combination of bad weather, working when the sun has been out and family comittments at the weekends has meant that I have not been able to get out and about.

Having said that, and reading sightings from other members, it is obvious that the best locations at this time of year are further south than where I am here in the West Midlands.

Gloomy and wet yesterday and cloudy this morning, the sun finally popped out for half an hour or so around 3 o'clock this afternoon. I was looking out of the window into the back garden when a movement caught my eye. Circling around in a sunny, sheltered corner of the garden was a Red Admiral.

Grabbing my camera, I went out and for 20 mins or so clicked away happily as it kept taking off, having a fly around the garden and settling again in the same area and basking in the sun.

Red Admiral in late October sun

Red Admiral against clear blue sky

A very pleasant surprise and made my day

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 11th March 2012

I has been a beautiful Spring day here in the West Midlands.

I had my first butterfly sighting of the year when I disturbed a Red Admiral in my back garden earlier this afternoon. I went and grabbed my camera and waited around for a little while in case he returned but it was not to be.

Looking up at the clear blue skies I decided to pop round to Elmdon Park nature reserve to see if anything else was about. The nature reserve area is seperated from the actual park by a wooded area with footpaths cutting through and last year I saw numerous Peacocks and Commas here in late March and early April.

Elmdon Park Nature Reserve - path through trees.

I was not long before I saw my first Comma this year and managed to take my first butterfly photo of the year.

Comma - Elmdon Park Nature Reserve.

The paths lead out into a couple of meadow areas seperated with hedgrows. There were some clumps of primroses under the shrubs along here. Along these stretches I saw a couple of Peacocks and another Comma.

Elmdon Park Nature Reserve.

Elmdon Park Nature Reserve - Primroses in the hedgerows.

Elmdon Park Nature Reserve.

Peacock - Elmdon Park Nature Reserve

Comma - Elmdon Park Nature Reserve

Going around the area in a circle I headed back through the trees and saw the first Comma again and another Peacock. Both butterflies were patrolling at opposite ends of a small clearing and would often overlap each others 'airspace' which led to them tumbling and spiralling around each other for a few minutes until they broke off and went their sepearate ways until the next time.

Heading back through the trees

Comma - First individual again

Peacock - The Commas adversary

A very enjoyable couple of hours with a total of 3 Peacocks and 2 Commas seen which has started me off nicely for this season.

Bye For Now,

Neil F.

[Willrow]

Great start to the year Neil, hope the rest of the year is equally productive, you've probably got used to your Panasonic by now so I look forward to seeing lots of great shots on your diary as the new season progresses.
Have fun!

Bill

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Bill,

Many thanks for the comments, heres looking forward to the season

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 25th March

A weekend of good weather saw me spending a few hours yesterday out in the garden, mowing lawns and generally pottering about and seeing what is showing signs of growth. Given the almost constant sun I was surprised to not see a single butterfly in the garden during the past two days.

This afternoon I decided to circle round to a couple of local spots to see what was about.

First call was Shadowbrook Meadows, about 10 mins from my house.

Shadowbrook Meadows - Solihull.

I spent about an hour here and saw 2 peacocks plus my first Small Tortoiseshell of the year. These were very flighty and the only photo that I managed was a record shot of the ST.

Small Tortoiseshell - Shadowbrook Meadows.

I then called in to Elmdon Park Nature Reserve where I had seen a few Peacocks and Commas a couple of weeks back. Sure enough, in about an hour or so here I saw half a dozen of each.

Comma - Elmdon Park Nature Reserve.

One thing that struck me at Elmdon was how dry the ground was considering we are still in March. The ground looked to me to look like what I would expect far later in the season. The Peacock photo below shows what I mean.

Peacock - Elmdon Park Nature Reserve.

I have still not seen a Brimstone this year, its all Peacocks and Commas for me. The Alder Buckthorn that I planted in my back garden last autumn is starting to burst into life so maybe that will tempt a wandering female, fingers crossed.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

I know what you mean about butterflies in the garden - I've had a few but nowhere near as many as last year - or is it just too early still? I'll swap you a Peacock for a Brimstone?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Wurzel,

It may be bit early still around here despite the weather.....glorious days but I am still scraping ice off my windscreen at 06.30am when I go to work.

Looking back at my notes for last year it seemed that the first week of April was when things really got going and I started to see Speckled Woods, Holly Blues, and Orange Tips in my Garden. Looking at the forecast for the week ahead I reckon that there is a good chance I may just beat that by a few days this year

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Friday 30th March

I have been at work all week during the best of the weather and today being Friday, when I finish earlier, it has clouded over and gone cooler. Even so, despite a rather dull and gloomy morning the sun did start to break through after lunch and by mid afternoon it was quite pleasant if not as warm as the past few days.

As posted last year in this diary, I had a large Sycamore tree cut down at the end of my back garden and this has opened up an area that I intend to 'develop' as a wild area with a focus on plants to encourage butterflies.

View down back garden

I planted half a dozen Alder Buckthorn 'whips' along the edge and end of the garden last November which are starting to show fresh growth. Apart from these and a Buddleia 'Pink Delight' that I planteed last week, I am just waiting to see what comes up before I decide what to keep, remove, or plant.
So far there are patches of Nettles, Garlic Mustard, and Forget-me-knots springing up as well Dandelions dotted about and loads of unidentified 'stuff'.

Back Garden - Wild area springing to life.

During the past couple of days there has been a Comma staking out a territory in this area and I finally managed to get a photo of him this afternoon.

Comma - Back Garden.

I was also pleased to see my first Speckled Wood of the year in the garden, a few days earlier than last year.

Speckled Wood - Back Garden

And then my first Small White that settled near the top of a six foot Lilac bush. I grabbed a chair out of the garage to stand on to get the photo below.

Small White - Back Garden

Closely followed by my first Holly Blue that flew in, did a circuit, and then departed.

There were also numerous bees and hoverflies, numbers of which have been increasing all week. I have no idea of the correct ID of any of these.

There were loads of the one in the photo below,

Hoverfly - Back Garden.

A few of the one below, these kept hovering about head height in front of me so I managed to get this shot. I swear that he is smiling at me

Smiling Hoverfly - Back Garden

And some of the ones below, again I do not know what they are.

??? - Back Garden

??? - Back Garden

The weather is looking a bit 'iffy' over the weekend so fingers crossed.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

Looking good there Neil and your prediction looks to have true, a couple of days and we'll be in April and most of the spring species seem to be about The next couple of weeks look like being back to normal so here's hoping the butterflies don't mind
The Bees are something I been getting into recently, Chris C recommended BWARS last year and it's proved great for iding them. The little chappy could be some form of mining bee

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Neil,

Good to see your wild patch coming to life.

My first instinct on the last two were that they were bees rather than hoverflies, but I'm no expert I'm afraid.

Best wishes,

Lee

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Wurzel, Lee, thanks for the comments. I am afraid that if it is not a butterfly or one of a small number of moths then my knowledge of other insects is very limited.

I was thinking that the last two were maybe bees because they didn't hover like hoverflies mind you, that doesn't stop them from being something else entirely

Sunday 1st April

Yesterday was dull and quite cold, in fact we had a bit of rain in the morning, not much but enough to wet the ground.

A little bit of cloud around this morning but by lunchtime it was clear blue skies, fairly pleasant but with a bit of a cool breeze.

I saw two Small Whites pass through the garden this afternoon and a single Holly Blue, all three were constantly mobile and didn't stay around long.

There is still just the one Speckled Wood in residence and he was also spending most of his time on the wing patrolling up and down the side of the garden. I did manage to get the one photo of him during one of his brief moments of rest.

Speckled Wood - Coverdale 01.04.2012

Back to work tomorrow for the week and then I have a week off

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

What is it with the butterflies at the moment? They're not playing fair - never staying still long enough for a crafty approach - or just as you're settling to focus in they're gone! Still it's early days...and by the time you're on your week off the weather might have turned back nice again...fingers crossed.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Wednesday 11th April.

Half way through my week off work and I think I have seen more rain than at any time yet this year .
The Easter weekend was horrendous weatherwise but as my daughter came to stay for a couple of days with our little grandson the time was occupied anyway

Today was the best day for a while with occasional brief bursts of sun but still with some heavy showers.
I went out for a bit this afternoon around Sheldon Country Park but unfortunatly this coincided with one of the showery periods and with this and the cool breeze that was blowing I was not surprised to draw a blank.

Back home later in the afternoon the sun popped out for a little bit again so I went out into the still wet back garden to have a look.

First thing that I noticed were some cowslips that I planted last year in a rough part of the lawn towards one side. I remember getting these from Brandon Marsh Nature Centre last year when they had a sale of native plants.
http://www.warwickshire-wildlife-trust. ... -sssi.aspx

Cowslips in the lawn

Once the Speckled Woods start to appear in my garden I can usually rely on seeing at least one at almost any time from April onwards and sure enough, having seen one before the weather turned, there was another one there today. Comparing with a photo of the previous one,it was definitely a different individual.
I am not sure how long adult Speckled Wood butterflies normally live for at the best of times let alone during the kind of weather we have had around here during the past week or so. I am guessing the one that I saw ten days or so back may not have survived through the turn in the weather and if he did he would be a bit bedraggled by now.

Speckled Wood - Back Garden.

I also had a visit from a Holly Blue of the type that I have come to expect e.g. appear from next door, do a circuit or two then disappear over the other side without stopping.

There were quite a few bees around, including a number of what in my ignorance I would call 'bumble bees'.

I noticed the bee below which is a type I had not noticed before, probably because I have not looked before Now that I am actually looking at the bees and hoverflies etc, it has surprised me how many different types I have in the garden.

Bee ??? - Back Garden.

The forecast for the next few days looks more like typical 'April Showers' weather abeit going a bit colder again for the weekend. Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Bye for Now,

Neil F.

[Mark Colvin]

Hi Neil,

Your bee is the rather attractive Tawny Mining Bee (Andrena fulva).

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

[Wurzel]

Great shots there Neil, the Tawny Mining Bee is little gem! If the light catches it it can almost glow orange. Keep your eyes open for a slightly smaller grey and black bee - the Ashy Mining Bee, it's a beaut and my favourite. Here's hoping for some more clement weather

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks for the bee ID Mark, it is a rather attractive creature

Wurzel, I will keep a look out for the Ashy Mining Bee. If I see any likely looking candidates I will post a photo on here for an ID.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[Neil Freeman]

Thursday 12th April - In the garden again.

Some sun and heavy showers this morning, in fact a couple were really heavy with that straight down like stair-rods type of rain. We went out family visiting and got back mid afternoon just in time for the clouds to clear a bit. Looking at the sky there seemed to be a fair bit of blue coming over so I made a coffee and sat out in the back garden with my camera to hand just in case.

The sun lasted for just under half an hour before the clouds came over again and during that time the same Speckled Wood from yesterday was patrolling up and down the border and basking in a couple of favourite spots. I took the opportunity to get a bit more practice in and took a few more photos of him.

Speckled Wood - back garden

Speckled Wood - back garden

I also had a visit from another Holly Blue....or the same one again from the past few days. How likely is it that these are different individuals? I know that Holly Blues wander about but do they just keep going or do they follow a circuit around

Anyway, this one decided to stop for a rest and settled just long enough for me to stretch up and get a couple of photos before she carried on her way

Holly Blue - back garden

Holly Blue - back garden

Looking around the bottom of the garden I noticed a number of Seven-Spot Ladybirds,

Seven-Spot Ladybird

and this one,

Ladybird ???

There were also loads of bees of the 'bumblebee' type. I noticed there were at least three types of different size and tail colour. I am going to try a bit of seaching to try and identify them. None of them stayed still long enough for me to get a reasonable photo so theres one of my challenges for the next few days depending on if the weather is good enough for me to get out further afield

It then clouded over again and we had another shower, a bit lighter this time, so I went back inside. By the time the clouds cleared again the tempereture had dropped and everything had tucked up for the night.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

Cracking shots there Neil Bees are catching aren't they - they're also good training for photographing butterflies as they don't still still for very long, and can be much smaller. I'm using BWARS for my identifications and it's a really useful site, check it out.

Have a goodun

Wurzel