millerd

[millerd]

Thank you, Colin, for both kind comments and sympathetic knees!

Another warm day (approaching 17 degrees by late afternoon), but I was only able to get out and about at lunchtime, when the sun was rather hazy and it was rather windy.

I saw only two butterflies - a Small Tortoiseshell and a Comma - but I didn't cover much of the usual ground. The former individual was crawling restlessly over the sprouting nettle beds, which I imagine could indicate she was a mated female looking to lay. I will keep my eyes open for caterpillars in due course. The Comma I spotted in profile several feet up above me in a willow, choosing to bask up there rather than nearer ground level as most of the others I've seen have done.

Dave

[Wurzel]

I really like the underneath shot Dave, I need to get me one of those . With regards to the knees I had my first creak the other day and then they cracked too - is this a bad sign of things to come?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

First step down the slippery slope, Wurzel... Only slippery slopes are best avoided at all costs

Dave

[millerd]

My first trip out for a few days and not as long as I would have liked: just a quick ramble locally and then a brief walk at Runnymede later on. The home patch produced a couple of Peacocks and Small Tortoiseshells, plus a Brimstone and an unidentified White seen a bit of a way off. Once again, one of the Small Tortoiseshells was on a dandelion on my front lawn, within a metre of the house. I think I've already seen more than in the whole of last year (which was itself better than 2011). The Brimstone also nectared on a dandelion, and very unusually opened its wings a little whilst doing so.

At Runnymede, a single Peacock was all there was to be seen, though it was nearly six by then.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great shots Dave That Brimstone is just teasing isn't it, almost opening it's wings...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Great shots Dave That Brimstone is just teasing isn't it, almost opening it's wings...

I've seen Graylings and Small Heath do this too. I wonder whether it's just certain individuals that do it as it happens too infrequently for it to be a generic habit.

One of the reasons I'm so keen to see a male Brimstone bump into a female is that the male DOES open his wings during courtship, something that would be lovely to observe.

[millerd]

I was able to spend more time ambling around my local patch today. As always, no two days, even consecutive ones with similar weather, ever produce the same results. Today the Peacocks were the most numerous, appearing regularly at intervals all along the route I take. Where territories overlapped, spiralling dogfights ensued, and by the time I returned home I had seen 13 individuals; to this I could add six Commas and five Small Tortoiseshells.

I also saw three Brimstones, including a female, plus three Whites. The only one of these I managed to approach closely was a male Small White with deformed wings - this did not seem to inconvenience him at all. At one point a male Brimstone set off in hot pursuit of a White, and showed no sign of giving up, even forcing it to the ground a couple of times. They normally call it a day quite quickly when they realise the error: I wonder if the White was newly emerged and the pheremones released caused confusion (as sometimes happens in this circumstance, I believe).

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great stuff Dave I still haven't seen a "white" so you're one up on me I'll have to read up about the confusion caused by pheremones from freshly emerged imagos as I wasn't aware of that.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Nice reports Dave, good to see you are seeing butterflies. Not seen a White myself yet but hopefully not long now.

Speaking of creaky knees, I have an arthritic left one and this winter has given it more grief than ever before. Hopefully some warmer weather will ease it off a bit. Glad I have an articulated screen on my FZ150 to help with those awkward shots

Neil F.

[millerd]

Thanks, Neil. I'm looking forward to a trip to your part of the world (Ryton) in May sometime - the best site for Green Hairstreaks I know. Fingers crossed for the right weather then...

I gazed out of the office window at the glorious sunshine here for a large part of today, but at least I had an excuse to escape when I had to pick up my son from school in Staines. In the five minute walk from car to school gate, I saw a Small Tortoiseshell, a White (probably a Small one), two Peacocks and my first Holly Blue. This butterfly was pottering about in the school's ornamental shrubbery, completely oblivious to the raucous hordes of children just inches away.

My son and I then had a bit of a walk around near home and managed to see five or six Peacocks, a Small White, a Comma, and another Holly Blue. This one was more predictably high up around a sizeable holly tree. Elliot managed a photo of a Peacock on his £15 digital camera, but I need to find a way of downloading it off the device. Instead, here are a couple of mine, including one sitting miles away on the mud of the far bank of the River Colne. There's even a bit of the butterfly reflected in the water - not something I think I've ever captured before.

Dave

[Wurzel]

Great stuff Dave I still haven't had a recognisable white yet here's hoping for the weekend!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Another very warm and sunny day - 21.8 degrees at Heathrow at five o'clock this afternoon. I escaped from work a little early and went to Harmondsworth Moor, electing to walk along a path near the Wraysbury River, rather than the more frequented routes which were overrun with dog-walkers (does anyone really need six assorted dogs?). I was hoping for some Orange Tips, but annoyingly, the edges outside the two-metre wide path had been mown recently, where in past years I know cuckoo-flower grew in the relatively damp riverside habitat. Unnecessary "tidying". Certainly, there were no flowers left to attract butterflies of any sort.

However, the wide grassy areas were full of dandelions, and I really wonder what the hibernators would do without them! Where the bramble beds grew untouched and tangled, Peacocks and Commas set up their territories, inevitably with a lot of overlapping and consequent border disputes. I must have seen over a dozen of the former and about half that of the latter - plus a solitary male Brimstone.

I am a little concerned not to have seen an Orange Tip over the last week of mostly sunny and increasingly warm days. Still plenty of time yet, however, despite a plummet in temperatures forecast tomorrow: only 11 or 12 at best here. Brrr.

Dave

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks, Neil. I'm looking forward to a trip to your part of the world (Ryton) in May sometime - the best site for Green Hairstreaks I know. Fingers crossed for the right weather then...
Dave

Hi Dave,

Hoping to be there myself sometime, my son Chris has still to see a Green Hairstreak. The Warwickshire BC open day is at Ryton on May 18th, not sure if I can make that one yet, If not then will probably visit sometime around then, depending on weather.

http://www.warwickshire-butterflies.org ... l.asp?id=3

Cheers,

Neil F.

[millerd]

Looks like I might be at Ryton the week before that (11th) unfortunately.

With half an hour to kill on Friday at Cherwell Valey Services on the M40, I set off for a walk around the big open area at the back. In past years this has been full of Orange Tips, but not today. All I saw was a solitary Comma enjoying the late sunshine.

Saturday was a washout near me, culminating in a hailstorm around seven in the evening and some good rainbows. On Sunday, a walk with all my three boys around the local patch went off under bright skies, but with temperatures just scraping 12 degrees, we didn't expect to see a lot. We certainly didn't - just one Comma, but Toby did manage to spot a Speckled Wood to double the total butterfly count for the day. It was also my first of the year, but it didn't stop for a photo.

The forecast is better for the next few days, so (work permitting) I'll set off once again ever hopeful of Orange Tips.

Dave

[Wurzel]

I was in your hailstorm at about 3pm on Saturday when it hit Salisbury Good luck with the Orange-tips in the next couple of days, lovely shot of the Comma too

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Not a nice storm, was it Wurzel! There was even a white covering for a little while.

A better day today, but spent mostly in the office. I was able to get home in time for a local walk at around five, when it was mostly cloudy, but not entirely. One brief sunny interval enticed a Speckled Wood out but not long enough for it to be photographically immortalised. Another quick burst of sun energized a white butterfly into action in amongst the hawthorns: It eventually stopped, a bit distantly, but close enough to see it was another new species for the year, a Green-veined White. A poor photo recorded the event for posterity.

Dave

[millerd]

The benefits of that old adage: always take the camera with you.

I went into Staines this afternoon to pick Elliot up from school. Whilst waiting for him to finish playing with a few of his friends, a couple of Whites ambled across the playing field, two Holly Blues flew along different bits of hedge, and a Peacock dashed across the playground at full tilt. Having extracted my son, we returned to the car. As he settled himself inside, I spotted another Holly Blue in the adjacent shrubs, and amazingly it decided to choose this moment to sit and bask at around head height. My camera was in my coat pocket, so I could hardly pass up the opportunity...

Dave

[millerd]

A simply glorious day.

After work, I popped into Harmondsworth Moor, as I had exactly a week ago. Within five minutes, I had seen five butterflies of five different species: a Peacock, A Comma, an Orange Tip (at long last!), a Brimstone and a White (Small or Green-veined). This boded well: I set off along the same circuit as last week, and saw many of the same butterflies, mostly Peacocks and Commas, tussling with each other over the same stretches of path. However, I also came across two further Brimstones and several Whites, another Orange Tip and a very worn Small Tortoiseshell. At least two of The Whites were definitely of the Green-veined persuasion, and one obligingly settled to "puddle" on a patch of damp mud. Returning to the car along a shadier part of the path, a Speckled Wood passed in the opposite direction, and near the car park, I spotted a Holly Blue over a tall stand of brambles.

Eight species, possibly nine (if one of the Whites was a Small one) - much more like it.

Dave

[Wurzel]

I didn't get a chance comment last night Dave as work got in the way - it almost did tonight but I've finished for the night so...
Holly Blue Lush photos! And a great report from today.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Thanks, Wurzel.

A piece of luck as ever - you never expect a butterfly to plonk itself down a metre from your nose and open up like that. But that camera goes everywhere now...

I've wangled myself a day off tomorrow, and now don't know which way to go - things are springing up everywhere. Maybe Denbies...

Dave