May 2013

[Wurzel]

Absolutely cracking shots Phil

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[adrian riley]

News from Norfolk, 19th May
A single Green Hairstreak at Syderstone Common this morning. This site is Small Coppertastic, but no sign yet this year.
Check out http://www.bugalert.net for current national sightings.
Adrian Riley

[kevling]

Butterfly hunting in Ipswich today with my 8 year old daughter. Highlight for us was watching a pair of mating Speckled Woods (see attached photos). Also nice to see my personal favourite, the Orange Tip and a beautiful Green Veined White.
Also a number of Holly Blues, but sadly all of them uncooperative to the butterly paparazzi.
Very enjoyable morning.

Regards Kevin & Emma

[Neil Freeman]

After yesterdays cool and cloudy conditions here in the midlands today was much better with some good warm sunny spells

I had seven species through my garden before 11.00am this morning, Holly Blue, Speckled Wood, Orange Tip, Green-veined, Large and Small Whites and a Comma.

Last minute decision to go over to Ryton Wood Meadows this afternoon to find that Green Hairstreaks are finally out in numbers there. Also a single Dingy Skipper, my first for this year and apparently the first at Ryton this year.

Loads of photos to sort through so updates in my diary later.

Neil F.

[David M]

Absolutely cracking shots Phil

Totally agree. It's a common enough species but Phil's captured some extraordinary stills there.

For me, today has been routine. Just a quick hour and a half walking up (and down) Kilvey Hill.

Substantial numbers of all three Whites on the wing; I reckon approaching 3 figures. Large Whites were everywhere - I don't remember the last time I saw so many.

Other than that just healthy numbers of Speckled Woods and two Small Coppers to report. Common Blues (along with Walls and Small Heaths) will have to wait till next weekend.

[EricY]

Checked out Foulsham common (Norfolk) today on way back from Lakenheath's Red footed Falcon, also Stone Curlews @ Weeting heath. No grizz skips seen by me but one was seen but another visitor (saw the photo). Did see 2 small coppers & around 3 Brimstone. Eric

[Trev Sawyer]

A great butterfly weekend and for once the weather was helpful...
Yesterday, My wife and I popped over to Totternhoe Quarry to look for Dukes. The weather stayed steadfastly overcast despite a suggestion that the sun might shine and it seemed that the chances of finding our quarry was slim - especially when a group of fellow butterfliers turned up on a transect walk and told us they had only seen one solitary Small White. We had a bite to eat and I decided to give the hawthorns a proper scan as I was desperate to find the Duke. After a while I found the only butterfly of the day - but it was indeed a Dobby!

This morning, we went to our local Grizzled Skipper site at Over where we bumped into David Newland and, later, a couple of Grizzlies. Skipper numbers are still very low here, but hopefully there are more to come.

Unexpectedly, we managed to get out again mid-way through the afternoon and decided to visit Devil's Dyke at Newmarket. Here we found about a dozen Dingy Skippers, one of which posed nicely for some photos. As we walked back towards the car, we bumped into a young lad and his father who had just arrived. We stopped for a chat and it soon became obvious that here was a young man with a real interest in butterflies - he actually reminded me of myself about 35 years ago. His keen eyes snapped onto a butterfly which jinked past us and we were soon looking at a freshly-minted Brown Argus. Well spotted Alex!

What a fabulous weekend - one I will remember for a long time to come.

Trev

[David M]

That could well be the first Brown Argus of 2013, Trev. There's currently nothing listed on the BC first sightings page.

Well done.

[dilettante]

That could well be the first Brown Argus of 2013, Trev.

We had a BA reported in Cambs today as well. http://www.cambs-essex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings.php

[Trev Sawyer]

Yep, that's the same one. As I say, Alex should claim the glory - I'd probably have missed it if it wasn't for his eagle eyes

Edit: Actually the first Brown Argus has now appeared on the BC site as 16th in Yorkshire.

Trev

[legless2007]

Sunday 19th May

I had a lovely day on the Prestbury Hill reserves. I saw my first ever Green Hairstreaks, so spent 2 hours watching them. 10 or so individuals, its was such a great experience.

They were scrapping with some Long Horned Moths, can anyone help with the species please?

Also my first Duke of Burgundy of the year, 6-8 individuals including this pair. I was hoping for a photo of the underside, I couldn't have hoped for this.

Jo

[Vince Massimo]

Having returned from holiday yesterday, my first job was to visit my site at Happy Valley, Coulsdon in order to check the Small Tortoiseshell and Peacock eggs that I watched being laid on 2nd May. They were located (with some difficulty) but neither batch had hatched after 17 days. However, I did encounter 4 small larval tents of either Peacock or Small Tortoiseshell which comprised mainly 1st instar larvae. The largest contained some very early 2nd instars which will soon start to show typical colouration depending on the species.

1st and 2nd instar Peacock or Small Tortoiseshell larval tent - Coulsdon 19-May-2013

Soon afterwards I saw a Peacock fluttering about in a nettle bed. It was exhibiting typical behaviour for a female looking for a laying site. While I watched she carefully selected a suitable leaf by rubbing her front legs on the surface. This was a quick motion, rather like a rabbit digging a scrape, and then, at 13.58, she commenced to lay. She finished at 15.08, producing what looked like a standard batch of approximately 400 eggs. The host plant was only 15cm high and fortunately located on the edge of the nettle bed adjacent to a path. This allowed me to crawl to within camera range and get some shots while laying flat on my stomach.

Egg-laying Peacock - Coulsdon, Surrey 19-May-2013

Egg-laying Peacock - Coulsdon, Surrey 19-May-2013

Fresh Peacock egg mass - Coulsdon, Surrey 19-May-2013

Female Peacock (resting after egg laying) - Coulsdon, Surrey 19-May-2013

I hope I've not used up all of my luck for the season

Some of these images have now been used to update my Peacock early-stages report which can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=37&t=6485

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

I hope you do the lottery Vince Brilliant photos!

Cheers,

- Pete

[dilettante]

I only had time for a quick walk around my S Cambs village yesterday evening and saw very little, but I was pleased that this Orange Tip settled with wings open for a few seconds.:


Orange Tip male. Sony A77, Sony70-300G

I don't normally use that lens for butterflies, but it was what I had on the camera at the time and it seemed to perform ok, and I was glad of the extra reach. (That was shot at 250mm, with some cropping).

[TedP]

Re Foulden Common, Norfolk. It was I to whom EricY referred. I saw 2 (maybe the same on twice) Grizzlies and managed a single shot before it vanished! Nice to meet you Eric.

[Jack Harrison]

Isle of Mull 20th May

I confess to becoming jealous of the butterly reports coming from the south. Very little happening here. Low cloud today, 140 metres above sea level at the moment, the highest it's been all day. Sure I get a good view out of my 'office' window but it would be nice to see a few more butterflies. Picture taken at 1500 hours.



Jack

[Stampy98]

A warm but overcast day with a breezy northerly.
My plan was to photograph pearl bordered fritillary at Ewyas Harold. Numbers were low due to the sun never shining in the period I was there. Photography opportunities were good with an individual posing for underwing and upperwing shots. Totals as follows:

16 pearl bordered fritillary
2 peacock
1 speckled wood
1 orange-tip
1 green veined white
2 small white
1 small tortoiseshell

[MikeOxon]

Isle of Mull 20th May

I suspect that this qualifies as dreich. Hope it gets better soon - the west coast is often fine in late May/early June.

Mike

[sahikmet]

Sunday 19th May in the garden, Peacock, orange tip 2, comma and holly blue. Cheers Sezar

[dilettante]

Photography opportunities were good with an individual posing for underwing and upperwing shots.

Hopefully you'll be sharing some of these here?