Nick Morgan

[Padfield]

I'm glad you saw Ziz knys, Nick! I seem to remember that was a butterfly you had hoped to see last year but missed. I look forward to seeing more pictures from your trip.

Guy

[NickMorgan]

Internet Explorer seems to be crashing a lot tonight, so to save having to re-attach my pictures (again) I'll add the others as a separate post.

The other butterflies I saw in Spain were just one-off encounters.
This Clouded Yellow spent more than half an hour feeding on the thyme on the shaded track I regularly visited. I only briefly saw one other down by the river.

I followed this Bath White for a couple of kilometres along a track close to the villa. Every time I thought I was about to catch up with it, it would hop across the track to another patch of thyme. Eventually, I managed to get close enough to picture it, thanks to my camera's X24 zoom! It wasn't until I looked at the picture that I was able to identify the butterfly. This was the only one I saw on my trip.

There were one or two larger brown butterflies I saw during my trip. Some of them were very ragged, but these two look to me to be a male and a female Meadow Brown. I would be pleased if anyone could help me with their identification.

I spent some time looking around an area of pine woodland south west of Alora, but didn't see any butterflies at all there. I also checked an area of woodland to the north of the village, but only saw the same species that I had already seen near the villa.
Two days before we were due to leave, and as I thought I may never see any other species a Long-Tailed Blue briefly landed on the thyme on the local track I regularly visited.

On our last day, a small orange butterfly landed in the garden while we were having lunch. I think it is the southern form of the Small Heath, but again, I would be happy to be corrected if I am wrong.

Along with a Large White and the five skippers on the previous page, I think that makes 21 species for the holiday. I have to admit to being a little disappointed that I didn't see more. I thought I may have seen the odd Swallowtail or Fritillary and I would have loved to have seen a few more blues. I suspect that I would have had more luck earlier in the year when there would have been a lot more flowers and the temperatures would have been a little lower.
However, after the summer we have had in Scotland, it was fantastic to be able to spend some time every day looking for butterflies and being guaranteed to see some each day.

[NickMorgan]

During our Spanish holiday my wife and kids were keen to go to Gibraltar to see the monkeys! I was happy to go along with this as I remember Guy saying how good the area is for butterflies. It was an interesting place. We managed to park the hire car on the beach in La Linea on the Spanish side of the border and then walked for about 15 minutes to reach Gibraltar. Once through the border we bought our Hoppa tickets for the buses and made our way to the cable car. We made our way to the top of the rock and while the family cooed over the Barbary Macaques I kept an eye out for butterflies!

View from the rock looking towards Morocco

It wasn't long at all before I saw a couple of Two-tailed Pashas chasing each other above the trees below. This was a nice surprise as I thought that July was between generations. There were a number of other butterflies flying around, but not stopping to allow identification. Eventually a Scarce Swallowtail landed in a tree near the path and I perched on a wall above a severe drop to get a picture.

Later I saw it again, this time showing off the upper-side of its wings.

A Swallowtail then flew by, but didn't stop for a picture. A Holly Blue was more amenable, but I forgot to take the lens cover off the camera, so only managed a fuzzy picture once I had figured out why everything was black through the view finder!

Safely back down at the bottom of the rock we had lunch and then my family allowed me half an hour to explore the Alameda Botanical Gardens (I always draw the short straw). The gardens aren't enormous, but they are very interesting and were alive with butterflies. On so many occasions, I didn't know which butterfly to watch, there were so many in the air. I think because of this, I struggled to get many pictures.
Most of the butterflies didn't stop for long between sampling various flowers. I was keen to get a picture of a Cleopatra, but I didn't see one still for more than a moment and in the end I just pointed the camera towards were one was feeding, but it didn't stay there long enough for me to zoom in to it!

This Small White didn't even stay still that long!

Close by this Lang's Short-tailed Blue was more cooperative.

There is a resident population of Monarchs in the botanical gardens. They looked magnificent gliding between the trees. I would have loved to have had more time to try to catch one in flight.

There were so many smaller butterflies enjoying the various flowers. I'm not sure what these flowers are, but they were proving a great hit with Southern Brown Argus, Geranium Bronze, Common Blue and Small Coppers.

On a shady path I noticed some Speckled Woods enjoying the shafts of sunlight hitting the path. I thought I had seen Speckled Woods up on the rock, but couldn't be sure, so it was good to see them here.

As well as these I saw Clouded Yellows, Large Whites and a Long-tailed Blue. 15 species during a brief visit! I could so easily have spent several days just in the botanical gardens and I am sure I would have found a lot more species on the paths around the rock. Altogether a very interesting place with the narrow streets of the urban areas and the remarkable number of butterflies.

[NickMorgan]

10:30 this evening, and 13 degree, we were saying goodbye to some friends who had popped round and my wife spotted a butterfly on the buddleia. I had a look and it was a Green-veined White, that looked as though it had settled for the night. I thought that I should try to take a picture, but it isn't particularly good, so a few minutes later I thought I should try again. When I went out the butterfly had flown off! I don't think I disturbed it at all and it is strange to think of butterflies flying around after dark!

[NickMorgan]

Four days of no rain. That must be the first time since March!! There has been a fair amount of cloud, but quite a few sunny spells, particularly in the late afternoon. There certainly seems to be a regular phenomena of it clouding over at lunch time, but it doesn't seem to impact too much on butterfly numbers.
On Tuesday I was at Barns Ness on the coast where there were good numbers of Meadow Browns and Ringlets. I also saw a few Common Blues and two Green-veined Whites.
On Wednesday I walked along the new River Tyne Path to inspect it for flood damage. There weren't too many butterflies around, but amongst them I saw a couple of Green-veined Whites taking minerals from the silt on the path. I have never seen this before.

Yesterday I did my transect. Much of the route is still suffering from having been flooded. I counted 19 Green-veined Whites, but only one Ringlet and one Small Tortoiseshell. It is odd how the number of Ringlets has dropped so quickly on this site, while numbers are still good elsewhere. Also, I have only seen two Meadow Browns there this summer. It doesn't look as though the whole meadow was flooded. It was cut a couple of months ago, but it was left at about six inches high, which I would have thought shouldn't have impacted on the chrysalises.

Today I went to a long disused quarry in the hills near Haddington and I was delighted to see so many butterflies. I estimate that I saw over 100 Meadow Browns, about 40 Ringlets, 30 Common Blues, 15 Green-veined Whites, 10 Small Coppers, 4 Small Tortoiseshells, a Large White and a Small White. It was super to see so many butterflies in such a small area.

I have never seen more than one female Common Blue in one place in the past, but today I saw more females than males.

This Green-veined White was digging deep to get to this thistle's nectar.

All of the Small Coppers I saw were the aberration caeruleopunctata. Some more so than others.

There is also a small area of buddleia, which proved attractive to a number of butterflies including this Small Tortoiseshell.

This is a definite site to keep an eye on in the future and I am grateful to local enthusiast Abbie Marland who introduced me to the place.

[Debbie]

Great pictures and intersting

Debbie

[NickMorgan]

Thanks Debbie.

[NickMorgan]

There's a fairly limited number of butterflies up here in East Lothian, so please excuse my excitement over what may seem like mundane species! So far I have seen 17 species here, and if I see a Painted Lady then I may manage 18 in total for 2012. Last year we had some Holly Blues, but that new colony didn't seem to make it through the winter, although there were two records in nearby villages, so I remain hopeful that there is a hidden colony somewhere. We also had some sightings of Small Skippers here last year, but none reported this year.
At least the number of butterflies has picked up since July. Good numbers of Common Blue and Small Coppers, and Ringlets and Meadow Browns have been as good as ever.
On Thursday last week, I thought I should check out some possible sites for the Holly Blues. I walked through a wooded area near Aberlady and spotted a small brown butterfly chasing a Large White. It turned out to be a very faded Speckled Wood. Amazingly two years ago they didn't exist in East Lothian. I found a few of them in John Muir Country Park last year and this year they have regularly been spotted around Aberlady and Haddington. So they seem to have advanced by about 15 kilometres a year over the last two years!

There are plenty of white butterflies around just now. Green-veined Whites being by far the most numerous, but also reasonable numbers of Small Whites and Large Whites.

On Saturday I visited my Dad down in the Scottish Borders. I took the opportunity to check out a lovely little valley above his house, which is a great place for Northern Brown Argus. I wasn't anticipating seeing any of them, but I just wanted to check out the valley for Scotch Argus. Unfortunately, it turned out to be very windy there and there were very few butterflies in the air. I only saw a couple of Ringlets and Meadow Browns and three Small Heaths. What really excited me was a Skipper. I have never seen a Skipper in Scotland and this one was battling with a Small Heath. It briefly landed on some knapweed and then flew off before I could pick up my camera. Local expert Iain Cowe said that he was 100% sure it would have been a Small Skipper, which I find very exciting. Another lifer for me this year to add to the four new species of Skipper I saw in Spain last month!

I spent some time checking for Northern Brown Argus eggs on the rockrose. I found several, and all but one had hatched.

Back home on Sunday I was delighted to see our buddleia was proving very popular. All morning there were at least four Small Tortoiseshells on it along with a few Small Whites and Green-veined Whites.

The other two buddleias are still in bud, so hopefully they will continue to attract butterflies for a couple more weeks. Maybe time for a Painted Lady to make an appearance!

[Pete Eeles]

I spent some time checking for Northern Brown Argus eggs on the rockrose. I found several, and all but one had hatched.

Top stuff!

Cheers,

- Pete

[NickMorgan]

We have had a few sunny days here recently. The weekend was great and I seemed to have some resident butterflies on the buddliea. Two Peacocks, three Small Tortoiseshells and four Green-veined Whites every time I looked.
Today's transect in Haddington found the usual Green-veined Whites and one Small White and much more excitingly my first Small Copper for this year on my transect.
On the way back I saw a Comma, which is the first I have seen since April. I also passed a small buddliea which had six Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell on it. It's starting to get late in the season, but I think this is the best time we have had for butterflies here this year!

[NickMorgan]

I feel like my life is complete! I was down at my father's house near Selkirk yesterday helping him tidy up some branches along his driveway and my son and I had a bonfire. Between loading branches onto the fire I checked out an area of Garlic Mustard. There were a lot of dried seed heads which I searched all over for Orange Tip chrysalis without any luck. I was thinking that if they had chosen there to spend the winter, they would have been at risk of being flattened if we had heavy snow. I checked some overhanging branches thinking that they would be more robust, but nothing and just as I was about to give up and while I was explaining to my son where I thought the best places to look would be I found one! It was on a Garlic Mustard plant that was growing out of the remains of a wall of an old mill and it was under some overhanging elm branches. The cunning mother of this Orange Tip must have thought it all out prior to laying the egg!

I have been looking for Orange Tip chrysalises for years with no success. I was so delighted to find this one. I didn't think that I had any chance of finding one this year as I have hardly seen any eggs and it has been such a poor season, weatherwise.
My son now thinks that I am completely mad, but I think he has been coming around to that view for a while now.
I am very happy. It has been a pretty lousy year for butterflies up here, but this chrysalis more than makes up for it! I'll eagerly await my visits down to Dad's to see how it is getting on!

[Vince Massimo]

Nice find Nick .

It's always very satisfying to actually find one of these in the wild. In Orange-tip pupae the green ones are less common than the brown ones and I have only ever seen one in 3 years of searching. In this case it should be interesting to see how the pre-hatch colour changes differ from those of the brown form. I am also monitoring one at the moment so we will both have to wait until April to find out.

Vince

[NickMorgan]

Thanks Vince. I'll have to look for a brown one when I next go down. I imagine they would be less easy to find.
I tend to go down every three weeks or so, so I will keep an eye on it and photograph it if it changes at all.

[NickMorgan]

Wow, what a day. There was a definite tinge of autumn in the air this morning when I left the house. Later in the morning I had a site visit near a coastal village called Dirleton. It was only 12 degrees and very windy, but the sun was shining. As I bumped down a farm track a small white butterfly flew across the track and as I got closer I saw that it was actually blue. I jammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car, but unfortunately I didn't find it again. It looked so much like a Holly Blue, but I guess I will never know!
On my way back I drove past a house with a row of yellow, white and mauve buddleia in the garden, which was alive with butterflies. I jammed on the brakes again and had a closer look. I counted at least 11 Red Admirals, 2 Peacocks, 3 Small Tortoiseshells, a Comma (the first I have seen since March) and the first Painted Lady I have seen all year. They were all in remarkably good condition. Along with Saturday's Orange Tip chrysalis this month has been fantastic for butterflies, making up for a miserable year.

Just like buses, I haven't seen either of these in over six months then they both turn up on the same bush!

[Neil Freeman]

Great photos Nick,

I really like the Comma and Painted Lady on the White Buddleia, a more subtle colour combination than usual.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[David M]

In some ways, this time of year lends itself better to the more spectacular species in the UK than any other. All 5 Vanessids are prominent, Whites still abound, a few species of Blue can be seen fairly regularly, Speckled Woods, Meadow Browns and Small Coppers are ekeing out the last rays of warm sun and the occasional migrant (such as Monarch) can be anticipated.

[NickMorgan]

I think this is the best time we have had for butterflies all year, but then again this is the best weather we have had all year. Strangely I only had two Peacocks and one Comma on my transect today, though. All of the whites had vanished. It was pretty cold last night, but I wouldn't have thought it was cold enough to harm any butterflies.

[IAC]

Hi Nick.....I am just a bit green...........what can I say..... just superb..

Iain.

[Wurzel]

I agree with Neil that shot of the Comma and PInted Lady is ace Is it just me but are the butterflies more approachable at this time of year too?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[NickMorgan]

Thanks folks. These butterflies were certainly concentrating on feeding and took no notice of me at all! Quite different from earlier in the year.