Padfield

[NickB]

Great to see so many butterflies, Guy. I love the Sooty Copper shots. Aurelian looks happy
Like you I do hope that the first broods and Spring butterflies fare better than it would appear; I was worried about the lack of water in East Anglia....
Now, shivering in maximum temperatures of 10C, I have yet to cast away my thermals.......
The forecast looks marginally warmer next week; here's hoping....
N

[Padfield]

I wish you warmer times soon, Nick! Let us hope that any reduction in reproductive opportunity for the current broods is compensated by increased availability and quality of foodplant for this and subsequent broods. I suspect a serious summer drought is far more damaging to most species than a deluge in April/May.

It seems to me there is a difference between a drought and a water shortage. A drought is a climatic phenomenon while a water shortage is also a function of the increasing demands of increasing numbers of humans and their (in)efficiency in managing their resources. There have certainly been periods of drought recently but I don't think these can be held entirely to blame for the water shortage now and for the foreseeable future in East Anglia...

Discuss (but not in my diary! ).

Aurelian looks happy

He looks a bit of a fat cat!

Guy

[NickB]

He looks a bit of a fat cat!
Guy

I'm generally against the idea of "Fat Cats"...
.....but in Aurelian's case, I make an exception.....

[David M]

And look out - they're coming ...

I spotted this single painted lady in the distance:

....along with warmer weather hopefully, Guy.

[NickB]

....along with warmer weather hopefully, Guy.

[Padfield]

IB and IGCSE maths are both over (last IGCSE this morning) so I might soon be able to play catchup and find some of the butterflies that have been emerging over the last couple of weeks. And they have been emerging. At lunchtime today I popped home and took a stroll to my nearest chequered skipper site (500m along the track where I live ) and was not surprised to find a male defending his territory. Limited photo opportunities, as I was in my Monday No. 1s and my bosses tend to frown upon grass stains on the knees, but here is the pugnacious little creature:



The first 2012-bred small tortoiseshells are now on the wing:



There were also pearl-bordered fritillaries, violet fritillaries, orange tips, small heaths, plenty of sooty coppers and my first large wall of the year in the meadow.


(female orange tip)

After school I checked on Aurelian. I couldn't visit at the weekend because I was in bed with laryngitis. Sadly for me, he has vacated his leaf island and is nowhere to be seen. The leaves are well eaten and I suspect that after he changed his skin he guzzled for a bit then wandered off to find a better place. His leaf island showed evidence of plenty of other creatures - web spinners and leaf rollers - with whom he might have preferred not to share; or, he might have found the aspect wrong, now the sun is rising higher and the days are hot. He could, of course, have been eaten by something, but there is no reason to believe this. Iris cats wander over the tree at night and I suspect he has simply found a better place.

I won't give up on him! As they get bigger they become easier to spot and if he's still alive he must be on the same tree.

Guy

[Padfield]

I should have looked further back in time and myth when I named Aurelian. After spending that bitter winter far from home (about 2.5m), surviving all that nature could throw at him, and after wandering all over his sallow tree he has finally returned to his Ithaca - the very same, tiny leaf island where he was born.







I know he wasn't there last week, when I reported he had gone missing, as I searched there thoroughly. There weren't even any nibbled leaves.

I estimate he is now about 16mm long.

I spent most of the day in bed, trying to shake off the remnants of last week's laryngitis and bronchitis, but when the skies cleared at about 4.00pm I felt I had to go out. Little was on the wing but there were several chequered skippers in a different part of the wood and violet fritillaries, pearl-bordered fritillaries, painted ladies, small tortoiseshells, commas, common blues, sooty coppers and various whites on the wing in various places during my short walk.



Guy

[Padfield]

I forgot to mention I was being watched while I was in the woods:





Guy

[Wurzel]

Is that a Weasley wecognisable Weasel or the Stoatally different Stoat? I can never remember which is which ?
Black tip to the tail is Stoat isn't it?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Looks a bit dark for a stoat. Is it a pine marten, Guy?

[Padfield]

He's a stoat. We do have pine martens and beech martens here. Both are much bigger than stoats but of course you can't tell this from the pictures.

Guy

[Padfield]

A sultry, mostly overcast day, but I was at last able to get out and look for butterflies!

There was talk recently about flight temperatures and the generation of body heat. I had the opportunity today to get some video of a chequered skipper preparing for flight in overcast conditions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1RbYCEE ... e=youtu.be[/video]

This kind of behaviour is more associated with moths - but then again, the skippers are quite mothlike in several respects.

Nickerl's fritillaries (Melitaea aurelia) were as numerous as I have ever seen them. Here is a female, in context and close up:





This species is similar to the heath fritillary but instantly identifiable in the field by its darker appearance and weak flight - with no gliding at all.

Duke of Burgundies and little blues were out - it would be horrible to get through May without seeing these!


(female Duke)


(male Duke)


(little blue)

Osiris blues were also on the wing:



But by far the commonest blue was green underside, which seemed to be everywhere:



Other blues flying were Adonis, common, Chapman's and Provençal short-tailed:



Glanville and spotted fritillaries are flying here but no heath, apparently. The other fritillary to be seen today was, unsurprisingly, Queen of Spain.

For the skippers, safflower and Oberthür's were flying and red underwing skippers were locally common. This one is at its foodplant:



Peacocks are still flying in good numbers:



The first black-veined whites are on the wing, marking the beginning of the summer season.

The day was cut short by the weather, which began to turn nasty by about 2.00pm. I feared for my life as I cycled down the hill, with rain beginning to fall and gusts of wind blowing the bike all across the road, but I got down safely. It feels like a long time since I've really been out butterfly-watching...

Guy

[Reverdin]

Love the Nickerl's shot Guy, and the Blues. .... Iolas to come soon????

[MikeOxon]

This species is similar to the heath fritillary but instantly identifiable in the field by its darker appearance and weak flight - with no gliding at all.

It's good to be reminded that identification by field observation is far superior to trying to identify from photographs.

My expert birding friends are very reluctant to attempt ID from a photo, because they insist that the field observer has so much more information to draw upon. I guess it is made easy for butterfliers in UK as we have so few butterfly species and they are mostly easy to distinguish.

Mike

[NickMorgan]

Great pictures of a fantastic range of blues, Guy. I am very envious!!

[Padfield]

Thank you for the kind comments.

It's good to be reminded that identification by field observation is far superior to trying to identify from photographs. ... I guess it is made easy for butterfliers in UK as we have so few butterfly species and they are mostly easy to distinguish.

Indeed. Because markings are sufficient to identify almost all British species easily, and because digital cameras allow people to record the markings perfectly, there is an understandable tendency to overlook other aspects of field identification and fieldcraft. But I think there might be a lot more sightings of certain rare species if more people were tuned in to flight and behaviour differences. I've seen a long-tailed blue in Suffolk. It never settled and almost immediately disappeared over a copse, so I didn't send in the record, but I'm pretty well 100% sure of its identity because no native blues fly remotely like a long-tailed blue. Had there been any chance of chasing it to get proof I would have done so. If more people were comfortable with flight identification of large tortoiseshells more of these might get spotted too.

Similar things apply to commoner but noteworthy species, like brown argus and silver-studded blue. The experienced observer is alerted to the presence of these by their distinctive flight appearances. In a field of a thousand common blues a single brown argus (small, silvery) or silver-stud (all flap and no go) will stand out a mile.

Guy

[Padfield]

We've had thunderstorms and hail over the last couple of days but Aurelian survived them. He has grown to over an inch, tail tip to prongs, and is fat and shiny, ready for his last skin change. He is still mobile (and moved a little while I was photographing him) but from the appearance of his head I would say he will enter ecdysis in the next day or two. Once begun, the process takes another day or two. Then, in his final instar, he is likely to go wandering off and I may lose track of him for a while. In 2010 I found my first pupa on 21st June.









The last picture shows the classic leaf-nibbling pattern which makes iris cats relatively easy to spot at this time of year, despite their fantastic camouflage.

Elsewhere in the woods I found a small comma caterpillar on wych elm and this marbled fritillary caterpillar (on bramble):



Guy

Guy

[Padfield]

Very hot in the valley today and a continuous, strong wind blew, which compromised all my photographs. But it was a pleasure to see so many butterflies on the wing, with 42 species crossing my path. The season is generally slow, with several May species still absent (like Provençal fritillary and purple-shot copper) but it is very definitely livening up. And the first marbled whites announced that summer is imminent...

I should have got up earlier. By the time I reached my Iolas blue site the males were warm, well fed and in perpetual motion. They flew around the site checking out every bladder senna bush for females and never settling to nectar on any of them. Here is one of those females:



I took that record shot and then turned the camera to video, because she seemed to be testing bladders for laying. But that bush was not to her liking and she zoomed off, never to be seen again.

Plenty of other blues put in appearances during the day (11 species in total). This is a male Swiss Zephyr blue (Plebejus trappi) resting on the path:



This is a chequered blue:



And here is a green-underside blue (female):



Southern white admirals were out in force, defending their territories from all comers:



At two sites, male southern white admirals were in competition for the same perches as commas, leading to some heated exchanges of opinion. Here is a comma who won his bout:



Other hibernators are still flying too, including brimstones and Camberwell beauties, both looking well past their most beautiful.



Immigrant red admirals and painted ladies were both present. I watched a rather tatty female painted lady laying individual eggs, one by one, on scraps of thistle. The eggs are tiny and very hard to see against the rough surface of the thistle leaf:



I took hundreds of pictures today, despite the wind, so I'll close with a small selection.


(Green hairstreak)


(Red-underwing skipper)


(Safflower skipper)


(Queen of Spain)


(Glanville fritillary)


(Small copper)

Guy

[David M]

Stunning images as ever, Guy. I guess when you can notch up 40 odd species in a day it rather puts into perspective those of us who, during an unseasonal heatwave, can muster but a dozen.

[Wurzel]

I thought I'd had a good day with 12 different species from 2 sites and then I read your PD and it puts it into perspective. And it's not just quantity either but it's also quality

Have a goodun

Wurzel