Yesterday (Wednesday 22nd May) was definitely my "busiest" butterflying day of the year ... here's why:
Bentley Wood
With a promise of some sun (that didn't materialise until late afternoon!) I decided to head off to Bentley Wood in the morning to see how the Pearl-bordered Fritillary were doing, knowing that a few had already been seen this year. Despite the heavy cloud, I had one of those rare moments, where within 10 feet of setting foot in the Eastern clearing, I spied my first male PBF with wings open, clearly trying to catch the few rays that were trying to break their way through the cloud. This was clearly a good omen. While a couple of other visitors took photos, another male PBF was found and, with a breeze picking up, this critter decided to keeps his wings closed, revealing the lovely white pearls from which this species gets its name. It flitting from grass stem to Silver Birch and, at one point, sat atop some Bluebells. By this point I had well over 100 photos, of which the following 4 are acceptable
- Pearl-bordered Fritillary (male)
- Pearl-bordered Fritillary (male)
- Pearl-bordered Fritillary (male)
- Pearl-bordered Fritillary (male)
I then returned back to the first male who had now been left in peace, and he also had his wings closed. As I knelt down to get a photo of his underside, the clouds parted and the briefest of sunny spells caused him to take to the air, travel 5 feet away, directly to a female that had clearly just emerged and that was completely invisible to me on a nearby Bramble and, without any courtship whatsoever, mating took place right in front of my eyes - I had a front row seat
How the male found that female so quickly was quite staggering, and I can only assume that a newly-emerged female must give off some kind of pheremonal signal. This all happened at 0945. With the clouds now back, the happy couple sat with their wings closed for at least an hour before another shaft of sunlight caused them to open their wings - a really quite beautiful sight. At 1150 they were still there, but I needed to move on given the day ahead and the schedule I was keeping!
Hampshire Duke site
I then went to a site that the Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch has had cleared of scrub and that's near to what I believe is the largest woodland Duke of Burgundy colony in the country, and where the larval foodplant is Primrose. I was really pleased to find 5 Duke of Burgundy in this new area, 4 very fresh and all male, suggesting that this species is just emerging here. The same site was alive with whites when the sun came out.
- Duke of Burgundy (male)
- Green-veined White (male)
BBC
I eventually headed off to Oxford to meet up with John Brown, an award-winning BBC photographer (he filmed the "Madagascar" series, for example - see his excellent website at
http://www.johnbrownimages.co.uk) and thoroughly nice chap, who's been filming footage for a Springwatch special on Butterflies and Moths, currently scheduled for July (the date may change, of course!). A few weeks ago I got a call to ask if I had any livestock that John could use for filming immature stages. Although John didn't have time (given the deadlines) to film the spectacular White Admiral larvae I've been rearing, he did make use of some other livestock I provided. But the main reason for visiting was take ALL of the livestock that John had been provided off his hands, so that they get successfully reared through to (hopefully) fulfill a purposeful life.
With livestock safely packed away, I then drove back home to sort out the livestock and grab some tea. I've never had so many species "on the go" at any one time, and the garden looks like a zoo with sleeves on quite a few trees and bushes, and lots of potted foodplants also in use, but am confident that everything will get through to adulthood ok. I then set off for a Hampshire and Isle of Wight branch main committee meeting. I eventually got home at around 11pm, absolutely shattered and absolutely elated
Cheers,
- Pete
. Your images are superb, my personal favourite being the Small Tortoiseshell ova. I noted that, such is the size of the Peacock egg mass, the leaf has become distorted as it struggles to grow normally, although the egg mass has also slightly changed shape as a result. It should be interesting to see how both batches develop because the nettles are still quite small for the time of year (as can be seen by the last photo).
