Cheers Philzoid for your kind comments
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Looking forward to the session at the session at the weekend
Cheers Essex
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
You've got me wondering now about the reason for bluer females in cooler climes - something to look into...
The “Aristocrats”
I know that this is an artificial grouping housing the Riodinidae and only some members of the Nymphalidae but due to their common names they seem to fit. Also this year review whilst enjoyable to do is very time consuming and if I included all of the Fritillaries and Browns in this as a single instalment I might not get any sleep for the next week or two.
26 Duke of Burgundy 06-05 Bentley Wood
I was slightly worried for this little butterfly when the gorgeous spring weather (those heady 2-3 weeks in March) gave way to the cold deluge but at the one site where I saw them they appeared in good numbers with sightings on 3 different occasions. On the first sighting there was one Duchess (is that the official term or is it just a female Duke?) and it posed a problem in sexing it. I’ve now leant that the wings of the female are more rounded and lobed and it’s taken a lot of looking through books and Apps but I can now start to see the difference in, typical though now I’ll have to wait for 6 more months before I’m able to use this new knowledge, by which time I’ll have forgotten it!
On my second visit there were two different individuals and then by the third there were at least 6 or 7. Doesn’t sound particularly impressive but last year in the same area I saw a single Duke and I seem to recall sightings of singles only from the recording book the previous year. So to have a couple of these little beauties buzzing around your feet was a joy which I have difficulty in describing. What the Duke lacks in bright and lurid markings it makes up for with panache and charisma. Hopefully next year will be even better for them in my neck of the woods. I can’t wait!
27 White Admiral 01-07 Bentley Wood
It’s difficult for me to say how well I think White Admirals did this year. Personally I found more at Bentley Wood than I’ve ever seen with 5 or 6 on one visit so I’m inclined to feel that they had a good year because of this. On the other hand however I didn’t see one at Garston Wood this year and when I visited Alice Straits the locals there were disappointed by their numbers. So overall I think they held their own but by virtue of doing well in some places but not as well in others. For me next year the main task in terms of White Admirals is to try and capture the classic closed wing shot. I tried this year with mixed results and whilst I got some shots I was happy with the classic field guide closed wing shot eluded me.
28 Purple Emperor 15-07 Straits Inclosure
For me this was a cracking year for Purple Emperor. After a couple of distant sightings and shots, observing some male posturing and bravado at Goose Green and not finding any at Alice Straits I tried my luck for the third year on the trot at Bentley Wood. I’ve written several times about the wondrous time I had on that day so to avoid reiterating here were a few highlights which may seem like an odd collection of memories...
Dog turd in a bag,
Cheering on urination,
Gathering round dead rabbits,
Bated breaths
The buzz of excited chatter
Stunning colours
Mesmerising.
I was washed away by the festival feel and only wished that I could have retired to a tent with a few beers ready for the same thing the next day!
In all seriousness though they did seem to start later and last longer this year. On the one visit to Bentley we had at least three males come to the ground along with an Empress (again is that the correct term or is she a female Purple Emperor?) which is 4 times the number I’ve seen on previous years. What I feel was different this year was that we didn’t have the strong winds that we’ve had the last couple of years. I remember someone telling me that they’ll just grimly hang to the tree tops during really bad weather and the wind can rip them to shreds. Last year I remember some quite strong winds during just before or during their flight time but we didn’t get those this year so could that account for, what seemed to me, improved numbers?
Incidentally my older daughter called me into the living room the other day while watching one of the Tinkerbell films to get me to tell her younger sister that she HAD seen the butterfly that was in the film and there was Apatura iris.
29 Red Admiral 16-02 Front Garden (last one so far 18-11- back garden)
It seemed to be a good year for Red Admirals with sightings spread over 10 months of the year! After the first in February things quietened down with only the odd sighting here and there. Then from mid July on their numbers started to pick up and I even managed unwittingly get a shot of one on my camping holiday with what could be eggs. But it was the tail end of the year that provided the wealth of Red Admirals. Local Ivy bushes and Buddleia were crawling with them. On the town walk the tiny Ivy there had seven on it along with a couple of whites and a Comma and even my garden homed 5 at one point! Interestingly they seemed to focus round one plant first before moving on mass to the next. So in my garden it was the Ivy arch by the greenhouse first, then the smaller bushes along the left hand fence, followed by the single plant on the right hand fence and then nectar all dried up they just basked. If there were other species they too would be on the same plant and it reminded me of the feeding behaviour of mixed Tit flocks during the winter. Finding food can be hard work so the last thing you want is to arrive to a tree that’s been stripped bare of all edible materials. So if you join up with other birds/butterflies then you can keep an eye on where they’re feeding and not waste effort trying the same patch which won’t yield anything (it’s a workable hypothesis at least
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
).
The milder and drier autumn certainly seemed to give the Red Admirals a bit more of a chance to feed up before their hibernation or return flight to the continent? I’m not really sure where they go so that’s on my list of things to find out over the winter.
30 Painted Lady possible seen 17-08 Lodmoor – defo 26-08 Five Rivers
A couple of years back I remember seeing Painted Ladies all over the shop, then for the last couple of years including this year I’ve only managed to have a couple of sightings. However it seems pointless deliberating on how well they’ve done as the mass irruption years seem to be cyclic with a roughly 10 year period so we’re only about a quarter of the way through. The odd thing is that on both occasions that I saw them this year I set out with a feeling that I’d see them. Usually on the journey I think ahead to which species I might see so as to prepare myself for what to look out for. My first sighting could have been from Lodmoor as something that was a bit like a reversed Red Admiral, orangey but too light to be a Comma, bombed up the path. Unfortunately it didn’t stop and it was gone before I got a chance to confirm its identity. On the second occasion I planned to go straight to the large Buddleia bush at Five Rivers for Red Admirals, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells and possibly a Painted Lady. Once at the site there indeed were a few Red Admirals, two Small Tortoiseshells, a Peacock and my first definite Painted Lady of the year. What was more pleasing was that I was able to get some shots of the closed wing which was a first for me. My second definite was from just up the road at Old Sarum and was slightly darker than the individuals that I’m used to. I also noticed this year that some have blue “eyes” in the circles along the margin of the hind wing; that’s what ‘s great about observing wildlife, there’s always something new.
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31 Small Tortoiseshell 21-03 Pewsey
This is another of those once common species that seems to be on a decline. There were very low numbers first brood this year and happily those numbers picked up when the second brood arrived. I felt that this was probably because during the cooler, wetter spring they focused on getting by and breeding and so were less obvious to us buttefliers. They had work to do and so got on with it under difficult circumstances and they did alright at that if the higher second brood numbers were anything to go by. Still even with an increase they didn’t get to the numbers that I remember seeing as a kid. Even with the second brood they were outnumbered 2 or 3 to one by Red Admirals. It is often said about common butterflies that “if they were rarer then we’d appreciate their stunning colours/markings more”. Hopefully that won’t be true for Small Tortoiseshells, I don’t need for them to become rarer to appreciate them, and I hope that they don’t.
32 Peacock 28-03 Someone’s garden!
My first of the year was photographed in one of my neighbours front gardens. I had to do a run to the shops and took my camera with me just in case and there it was. I do find it ironic that the first butterflies that we see in the season are actually the last from the previous and they look slightly under dressed and shabby compared to the new growth that they are feeding on. Peacocks always seem to me to be an ideal indicator species because they are large and striking and so therefore easy to identify and count. This year I saw them in the same places and in the same numbers as last year so I feel that they held their own.
33 Comma 25-03 Five Rivers
Commas seemed to do really well this year with sightings from pretty much everywhere that I went. My garden produced up to 3 at any one time and wherever there was a Buddleia a Comma would soon appear. Because of this I went through a time when I didn’t pay them much attention, “oh look another Comma” and I think that in the end I almost stopped noticing them. I did notice that I rarely saw them in groups and the majority of my sightings were of singles so a bit of a loner the old Comma. Then during the autumn they were on hand to cheer me up once the majority of other species had disappeared and to offer a bit more variety from the ubiquitous Red Admirals. I sometimes feel sorry for the Comma as it’s almost the poor relation of the group as it’s not the largest, the brightest, the smallest or the rarest but what it lacks in these respects it makes up for in reliability – it won’t let you.
Have a goodun
Wurzel