Slop Bog
Having made two trips already to Slop Bog with no luck I was determined to make my third visit count. Things were looking a lot more favourable than on my previous forays. There had been sightings of one or two Silver Studs and then reports form the weekend of 50 plus males at Slop Bog so I knew that they were about and now, like so many other times this year, I was relying on the weather. I watched the news, checked the web and 3 different Apps on my phone and then Thursday (05-07-2012) everything seemed perfect for an evening visit; warm, sunny, some scattered cloud with light winds!
I practically flew home from work, once the kids had taken their last mouthful of tea they were whisked up to the bath still chewing, stories were read, wife kissed goodbye and into the car. By 6:32 I was pulling up at Slop Bog.
As I practically sprinted along the board walk I scanned the heather on either side for blue waifs flitting around the heather tops with no luck. I slowed down a little realising that although everything looked good they might not be as easy to find compared to last year. However once on the appropriately named “Silver Studded Heath”, they became much more obvious. What I found slightly ironic was that the first butterfly that I found was a female which are usually skulking around down low and so difficult to track down. This little beauty was more intent on sunning herself and strutting herself.
Once I’d had my fill of her I then moved further along the path and something huge and blue caught my eye, a monstrous dragonfly which I have yet to identify but will have a go at when I can get round to it!
It’s difficult to remember exactly how the evening progressed and I was managing to capture moments and get shots of male and female in lots of different poses as well as becoming deeply engrossed in observing for fleeting minutes; so I found it useful when reflecting on the evening to group the shots into category rather than chronological order.
Last year I had limited success with female Silver Studs. I get the impression that the Slop Bog population are late emergers so when I turned up last year the females had only just started appearing. This year with the weather I think things have happened later but quicker hence there were many more females present than on my previous visit. I’d expected them to behave like the literature detailed, but the females I saw were all pretty much out in the open, clinging to exposed heather tops and basking, wings open wide. It allowed me to get some shots like Millerd has previously got, where the sunlight refracts one the wings to give them an iridescent oily sheen.
I was also able to get the more usual closed wings shots and noticed that just like the males they show a high variety in the size of the studs and are slightly less variable in the number of studs.
In one shot I managed to get an underside view of a females’ wing which was in shadow and the studs are not noticeable at all. Does this mean that the blue of the studs is mechanical, a bit like the blue of the male?
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- where have the studs gone?
There were more males than females but whether that is due to timing, different behaviour or just the fact that the males are much more noticeable I’m not really sure. There were some slightly tatty looking individuals with tears in the edges of their wings and missing patches of scales, but on the whole most looked in very good nick. When I first arrived the majority were clinging to the heather, wings tightly closed. The way to find them was to crouch down low and scan across the heather tops with an eye for little white “flags”. As the evening progressed the taller stands of heather appeared to be flying 4 or 5 white flags as the males in particular started to gather together for communal roosting. It was then that I noticed their behaviour changing slightly as now, just as I thought they were settling, they opened their wings and started basking. As the late evening sun caught their black wing margins they’d turn reddish, simply stunning.
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The final set of shots allowed me to continue my stained glass window collection. One males was hanging upside down from a thin, tall heather stem and having got the obligatory frontal open wing shots I gently crept behind him, propped myself on my elbows and took my shots from slightly below and behind. Whilst I was happy with the end result I was less than happy to notice 3 minute Ticks crawling on my hand and trying to find purchase. Luckily they hadn’t had a chance to lock on/bite so I could just brush them off!
Despite seeing only one species of butterfly the whole time I was out a thoroughly pleasant evening. Fantastic weather, scenery and most importantly company!
Have a goodun
Wurzel