Neil Freeman

[Neil Freeman]

Thank you for your comments Goldie

Tuesday 12th June

The stands of Garlic Mustard in my back garden have taken a bit of a battering in the weather lately.
Earlier this evening I put my wellies on and squelched over the soggy lawn and went to see if I could see any of the Orange Tip caterpillars that I found last week.

The stems of the plants that they were on are now all over the place making it difficult to tell if I was even looking at the same plant. Nevertheless I managed to find 2 caterpillars out of the original 4 which is more than I really expected

Looking around I found an attractive little spider sitting in its web over a depression in a dock leaf.

Small green spider?

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Debbie]

What a lovely little spider.

Debbie

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Debbie,

I thought it was rather cute

I have just seached for 'small green spider uk' in google images and think it is Araniella curcurbitina

cheers,

Neil.

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Neil,

I had it down as a Araniella Cucurbitina, i posted three photos of the same spider in my personal diary on page 8.

All the best,

Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the confirmation on the spider.

I have just looked at your photos, super images
I do remember seeing them but did not make the connection of it being the same species.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 17th June

Not a good weekend weatherwise here in the West Midlands.
Yesterdays grey day with heavy showers was followed today with clouds and light showers. Everthing is very wet and my lawn is the soggiest that I have ever seen it at this time of year.

A brief five minute spell of sun this morning lasted just long enough to bring a single Speckled Wood out before another shower sent us both back into cover.

Speckled Wood - back garden 17.06.2012

There are still a couple of Orange Tip caterpillars on the garlic mustard.

Orange Tip caterpillar - back garden 17.06.2012

It looks like we will have a few days of good weather next week, think I will have to try my luck at work and see if I can book a days holiday at short notice and have a day out somewhere.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

Good luck there Neil, I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Wurzel.

Day off successfully sorted out for tomorrow weighing up options on where to go.....

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Wednesday 20th June - Salcey Forest

I spent a good portion of Tuesday night checking various regional BC sites for sightings before I made my final decision on where to go on Wednesday. I finally decided on Salcey Forest as I particularly wanted to see Wood Whites and had not had the chance so far.
Salcey Forest lies just south of Northampton, right next to the M1 and along with Fermyn Woods and others in the area is a remnant of the old Royal Forest of Rockingham, a medieval hunting forest. On a good day I could get there in about on hour and a quarter from my house but unfortunatly I hit some congestion on the M6 going past Coventry and it took me a good hour and three quarters before I arrived.

I parked in the horse box car park in the southern part of the forest and started off along the tracks, heading in the general direction of the meadow alongside the M1 described in David Newlands 'Discover Butterflies in Britain'.

After about 10 minutes I saw my first Wood White, a female, fluttering amongst the vegetation at the side of the main ride.

Salcey forest - first female Wood white seen along here

Wood White female - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Continuing along I soon saw half a dozen more, mostly males patrolling along the rides. It was a nice sunny morning with the occasional passing cloud that gave me the opportunity to take some photos as they settled and waited for the sun to reappear.

Salcey Forest - Wood Whites seen along here

Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Wood White male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

I also saw a couple of Red Admirals along here, my first this year.

Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Red Admiral - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

By the time I had walked through to the meadow it had clouded over and for about an hour or so it went quite dull until the sun started breaking through in the afternoon. Apparently Black Hairstreaks may be found along the treeline in this meadow where there is a lot of blackthorn but I had noticed that only a couple had been reported recently from elsewhere so I was not that hopefull. Nevertheless I had a good look around the blackthorn but without success.

I did find my first Large Skippers this year, four of them, all males.

Salcey Forest - meadow alongside the M1

Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Large Skipper male - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

I think that is enough for this post, I was going to post photos of other stuff, Dragonflies etc plus a few more butterflies but will save them for my next entry.

Edit; Location photos of rides and meadow added.

Bye for now

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

Great to see that you managed to get out and get some cracking shots - can I uncross my finger for you now?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks for crossing your fingers Wurzel, I hope they are uncrossed now

Photos of rides and meadow added to the previous entry.

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Some more from Salcey Forest

Continuing on from my day at Salcey forest on Wednesday.

Making my way slowly along the meadow previously mentioned, I came to a small pond near the far end. As I approached it I saw a grass snake slide into the water and swim across to some rushes on the far side. Getting closer I also noticed that the water was teeming with tadpoles and there were a number of newts just hanging at the surface of the water. I tried taking some photos but didn't get any good ones against the reflection off the water.

Salcey Forest - pond in meadow

There were three male Broad-Bodied Chasers that were busy 'chasing' each other across the pond and were occasionally joined by a Four-Spotted chaser. The resulting dogfights were brilliant to watch with each individual breaking off for a quick rest before rejoining the melee.

Broad-bodied Chaser male - Salcey forest 20.06.2012

Four-spotted Chaser - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Large Red Damselfly - Salcey forest 20.06.2012

Also in this area were a number of Cinnabar Moths and I finally managed to find one that was not settled at an angle deep amongst the grass.

Cinnabar Moth - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

I spent over an hour watching the goings on around this pond and by the time I started to make my way back down the meadow it was mid-afternoon. Along the treeline I saw what at first I took to be another Wood white but when it settled it turned out to be a faded female Orange Tip which surprised me a bit as I had thought that they had finished flying for this year.

Orange Tip female - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Walking back through the rides towards the car park I saw a few more Wood Whites, or the same ones again that I had seen earlier, and also a Peacock which again surprised me a bit. I can only assume that he was a late survivor as I cannot imagine that any of this years have emerged yet and he certainly did not look fresh.

Peacock - Salcey Forest 20.06.2012

Arriving back at the car park, I was walking up to my car when a glimpse of something white moving in the vegetation to the side attracted my attention to a female Wood White busy ovipositing deep amongst the vetch.

Female Wood White ovipositing on vetch

A nice end to a good day

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[ChrisC]

stunning wood white, fantastic wing detail. the dragonflies are pretty darn good too

[Pauline]

Lovely photos of Wood Whites Neil, especially the egg-laying. Isn't it just so hard to get a clear view and you have to be so quick!

[Neil Freeman]

Thank you Chris and Pauline, your comments are much appreciated

Saturday 23rd June.

Last week my oldest son Chris had mentioned that driving home from work he passes Babbs Mill Park and LNR and asked me if it was worth a visit.

http://www.solihull.gov.uk/parks/babbsmill.htm

I told him that although I knew of the place and that it formed part of Kingfisher Country Park in Birmingham I had never actually been there.

http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/kingfisher

To correct this lack in my local knowledge we decided to go and have a look this afternoon, not expecting to see much due to the blustery wind and grey overcast, but to have a recce to see if it was worth further visits.

We were pleasantly surprised to find a large lake at the side of the River Cole with good paths around that went past the lake and through some good meadow areas with plenty of shrubs and mature trees.

We had a good wander around, at one point enjoying a very low flyover from a pair of Herons on their way towards the lake

As mentioned we did not expect to see much in the way of Butterflies due to the weather and so were well pleased to see a Painted Lady in one of the meadows albeit one that had seen better days. This was a first for us this year, in fact I only saw one Painted Lady during the whole of last year.

Shortly after, the sun made a feeble attempt to break through the clouds but it was enough for us to see our first Meadow Brown of the year

My son Chris taking photos of the Painted Lady with my old FZ38 that is now his.

River Cole in Babbs Mill LNR

Painted Lady - Babbs Mill 23.06.2012

Meadow Brown male - Babbs Mill 23.06.2012

Despite only seeing the two butterflies, it was a very pleasant couple of hours and we will certainly be back there again.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Wurzel]

It's great when you find somewhere new, I'm always on the look-out for places to call in for 10 minutes on my way home from work

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Sunday 24th June

Spent the day at home today and tried to do a bit of gardening but kept getting interupted by regular but brief showers, just enough to keep everything a bit wet.

I checked on the Orange tip caterpillars and was pleased to see that there are now three again, one of them had been hiding lower down on its plant and was munching on the leaves instead of the seed pods.

Orange tip caterpillar - the largest one.

Orange Tip caterpillar - lower down on garlic mustard leaf

There was another recently emerged male Speckled Wood flittering about between the showers. Thinking about it, I have not seen a female in the garden yet this year.

Bye for now,

Neil.

[Gothic_dreams]

Nice to see the caterpillars doing so well despite the bad weather of late

Chris

[Neil Freeman]

Saturday 30th June

My son Chris said he was popping in to his work for a short while this afternoon and probably going to drop in to Babbs Mill on his way home. I made a last minute decision for him to drop me off at Babbs Mill on his way past and then he could meet me there later as he was only going in to sort some rotas out for his work next month and wouldn't be long.

It was reasonably sunny with the odd cloud but there was a strong blustery wind that made me wonder if there would be anything flying. As it turned out, over the next couple of hours, including when Chris joined me later, I saw a total of 7 Large Skippers, 5 Ringlets, 4 Red Admirals and a single Speckled Wood.

Large Skipper male - Babbs Mill 30.06.2012

Ringlet - Babbs Mill 30.06.2012

Ringlet - Babbs Mill 30.06.2012
06.2012

Red Admiral - Babbs Mill 30.06.2012

There were also loads of 'blue damselflies' that when checked closely turned out to be a mixture of Common Blue, Azure and Blue-Tailed Damselflies.

The females of Blue-Tailed Damselfies may occur in five colour forms of which we identified two today.

http://british-dragonflies.org.uk/speci ... -damselfly

Blue-Tailed Damselfly male - Babbs Mill 30.06.2012

Blue-Tailed Damselfly female form 'typica'

Blue-Tailed Damselfly female immature form 'rufescens'

An enjoyable couple of hours, especially as it was a last minute decision

Bye for now,

Neil F.

[Gothic_dreams]

Some more lovely photos father, Especially the Large Skipper and the second Ringlet underside shot

Chris