July 2012

[Wurzel]

Cracking shots Philzoid, especially the female Silver Washed

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Trev Sawyer]

Very few trips out with a camera so far this "summer", but I did take a few shots between showers the other day.
I think this must be some sort of aberration - as it appears to have adapted to the wet weather (best viewed large)... Any ideas?

Ah well, it passed the time waiting for the sun anyway

Trev

[Bill S]

Very few trips out with a camera so far this "summer", but I did take a few shots between showers the other day.
I think this must be some sort of aberration - as it appears to have adapted to the wet weather (best viewed large)... Any ideas?

Flipper Fritillary.jpg

Ah well, it passed the time waiting for the sun anyway

Trev

Brilliant Trev nice one. Is that a Dark Green on lavender?

Great shot.

Bill

[Trev Sawyer]

Yes Bill, but it was a home-reared one - I'm not sure they would use lavender in the wild.

Trev

[Bill S]

Yes Bill, but it was a home-reared one - I'm not sure they would use lavender in the wild.

Trev

Arh, I thought so. We planted a big row of lavender in the garden last year and I know we have DGF on the chalk hill behind the house so I was starting to get excited...

Cheers

Bill

[Pauline]

Love your sense of humour Trev - really cheered me up and brought a smile to my face on yet another dreary day.

[Nick Broomer]

Ditto, excellent photo Trev.

All the best, Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Nice one Trev

Excellent day at the Warwickshire BC open day at Ryton Wood and Meadows today. Six personal firsts for the year,

Gatekeeper - 5 seen.
Small Skipper - about half a dozen.
Marbled White - 2 dozen or more.
Purple Hairstreak - 1 flypast up into an Oak.
Silver-washed Fritillary - 3 males and 1 female.
White Admiral - 2 flighty individuals that didn't settle.

Also seen were loads of Ringlets and Meadow Browns a single tatty male Brimstone and a fresh male Common Blue, plus by other members Small Heath and a single Green-veined White.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[Jack Harrison]

This might be only a White Admiral

but it's a very special one - photographed from my garden in North Wootton in NW Norfolk.
Spotted by my good lady who called me down to confirm her discovery.

Jack

[Debbie]

Shropshire Ringlet.

[selbypaul]

This might be only a White Admiral

but it's a very special one - photographed from my garden in North Wootton in NW Norfolk.
Spotted by my good lady who called me down to confirm her discovery.

Jack

Nice one Jack. There can't be many people who have seen White Admiral in their garden!

[Hoggers]

I went on a Fritillary Hunt in Kent today: First stop High Elms, Cuckoo Wood, in the meadow underneath the pylons where I saw four Silver washed Fritillaries

Then to near-by Lullingstone Country Park on the golf course where there were about 15-20 Dark green Fritillaries

[Jack Harrison]

selbypaul:

Nice one Jack. There can't be many people who have seen White Admiral in their garden!

Again today 15th on buddleia.

Jack

[Ian Pratt]

A rare day this summer when I have seen 10 different species of butterfly as opposed to 10 different butterflies! First sighting of white admiral, silver-washed fritillary, ringlet and gatekeeper. Also saw small and large skippers, green-veined white, marbled white, comma and meadow brown.
Apart from two weeks in Provence in May this is the best day's butterflying this year, I think! Shows what an awful summer we have had as I could usually guarantee 20+ species in a half day at the beginning of June each year.
Ian

[IAC]

Hi all,
It is always surprising what you can find even in the worst of conditions. Most of what I found today I grant you is as common as custard but nevertheless satisfying enough to put a skip back into a very weather beaten butterfly fan. I strolled down from Lamberton on the English Border near the A1 down towards Burnmouth and managed to see 2 Red Admiral,1 Painted Lady, 30 Common Blue, 26 Meadow Brown, 6 Ringlet, 1 Large Skipper, 1 Grayling and 6 Small Heath. Also saw a few moth of which were Latticed Heath, Silver Y, Twin Spot Carpet and Blackneck...the Blackneck are a wee bit of a rarity round these parts. I had a long hard look for Small Blue larvae....I found a few unconvincing larvae after a number of hours of searching...funny thing is...it is quite enjoyable....better than sitting at home cursing at the weatherman.... or woman....

Cheers,

Iain.

[badgerbob]

With the clouds lifting briefly yesterday afternoon I had another quick look for White Letter Hairstreaks along the Cuckmere valley. Another failure as expected (only 4 seen so far this year all in the canopy) but at Littlington I photographed a Comma which nearly qualifies as an ab. O album. Very similar to the 'comma' marking of the specimen that Vince and myself got at Birling Gap a couple of years ago.
Also seen was a smart beast which I believe to be a Volucella Zonaria!!
In the amazing 'heat' of the day (about 17 degrees) plenty more Commas, Meadow Brown and Red Admiral and also a couple of Small Copper and Gatekeepers about.[album][/album]

[Willrow]

Bentley Woods, Hants/Wilts Border. First visit of the year to a favourite place, the Met Office had forecast a very reasonable day with good amounts of sunshine...guess you know what we actually got folks... loads of leaden grey sky and low temperatures After a very promising start that gave a high tree top view of HIM the Purple Emperor we were all to be denied any further sights and sadly this was to be the only sighting of the day for the many visitors lured to this wonderful woods by the promise of good weather in what has been an utterly awful July, but could it possibly be that PE are simply later this year? I'm so glad I at least managed to see HIM, many went home disappointed.

Reasonable amounts of Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral but many were showing the signs of bird predation. I also added Gatekeeper and would pose the question of whether a freshly murdered Purple Hairstreak counts as a valid year sighting, myself and UKB's Jenks, who I bumped into for the second time this week had a very profound discussion on this point, we agreed to ask fellow Butterflyers their views on the matter, what do you think

Other species seen were Small Skipper, Large Skipper, Red Admiral, Comma, Marbled White, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet. Thats 12 species in total which makes it 40 for the year if Purple Hairstreak is deemed a valid sighting potentially there are a further nine species I could get if I include the rather elusive Clouded Yellow only time will tell!!!

Should you visit the woods during this wet weather, be forewarned that the woods are waterlogged on many of the footpaths and I would advise good footwear should you venture off the main paths or otherwise your in for wet feet and mud up to your knees...real great British Summer fun

Bill

All photo's taken with the Panasonic Lumix FZ150 set to iA (Intelligent Autocus) Macro mode, the PE shot being the exception.

[David M]

Like Bill (above post) I too couldn't resist a trip to search for the Monarch of the Woods on Sunday, only I ventured to Bernwood Forest near Oxford. I share Bill's frustration with the weather forecast, as although it started off cool but fairly sunny, by 11.30 slow moving grey clouds had blotted out the sunlight and although they shifted a little while later, we only got another 45mins or so of decent sunshine before they rolled back and resolutely stayed put.

It was quite a bizarre day to be honest. There were several other Emperor hunters, and although I hoped to see one, I EXPECTED to see lots of Silver Washed Fritillaries and White Admirals, whilst I reckoned Purple Hairstreak was at least a 70% chance.

Well, Silver Washed Frits obliged, with about 15 being seen:



Highlight of the day though was undoubtedly the immaculate looking Emperor spotted feasting on something unpleasant on the verge of the main ride:



He was quite engrossed in his imbibing, and at one stage there were SIX people clustered around Him taking photographs. The sun kept going in then coming back out, so this meant He regularly opened and shut His wings, giving everyone a good all round view:



I guess He was grounded for about 20 minutes before walking round in a circle, trotting off about 10 cm and then taking flight, doing two or three circuits of His audience before zooming off back to the canopy.

I ventured into the meadows where Marbled Whites, Small Skippers and Meadow Browns were very active, but much of the land was waterlogged, and there was no way of getting to some of the hedgerows to check for Purple Hairstreaks.

I did get to see one solitary White Admiral before the weather turned, though it was up into the canopy and out of sight within seconds, giving no opportunity for a photograph.

Like others have mentioned, the wet spell doesn't seem to be doing Meadow Browns and Ringlets and harm. They were exceptionally common today:

Meadow Brown 200+
Ringlet 150+
Large Skipper 30-50
Small Skipper 20-30
Marbled White 20-30
Silver Washed Fritillary 12-18
Purple Emperor 1
Small White 1
White Admiral 1

[Neil Hulme]

Congratulations David. Emperors on the deck are as rare as rocking horse poo poo this year.
Neil

[EricY]

Being in Sheffield on grandparenting duties saturday, I was delighted to wake up sunday morning to clear blue skies & lot of sunshine. I just had the morning available so took off to Burbage brook on Longshaw estate. Main target was to walk from A6187 (Hathersage rd) upstream to the stone packhorse bridge for goldringed dragonflies. After 2 hours searching & none found, just 1 small heath in the grass, I retraced back to the road & crossed the bridge. Below the bridge in bracken I found 4 Dark green frits in same place I found them last year, so a pleasent morning in the sunshine was productive in the end & it was sunny all afternoon up there as well! Eric

DGF Burbage brook

DGF underside