July 2013

[Essex Bertie]

After last week's Meadow Brown/Small Tortoiseshell debauchery, have I found Small & Essex Skippers at it??
sea wall, R. Blackwater, (only in) Essex
I would put the one on the right as 'Small Skipper', but a closer look at the species pages suggest 'Essex', so perhaps I'm wrong. Any thoughts?

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Essex Bertie,
Agreed. More of this stuff goes on than we probably realise. Of course we mustn't judge them .
BWs, Neil

[Essex Bertie]

Thanks Neil,
If I'm right, I just don't fancy sorting the hybrids on transect next year!

[Hugh Middleton]

A Silver Washed Fritillary in the Limewoods today. A scarce sighting in Lincolnshire. Also White Admiral(2) Purple Hairstreak(1) Small Copper and lots of Whites(large and GV) Meadow Browns Ringlets and Small Skippers.

If anyone is interested, at Chambers Farm Wood there is a moth night on Saturday at 9-30pm and a butterfly open day on the Sunday starting at 11 am Further details on the branch website. White Admirals, Purple and Brown Hairstreaks should be seen with the chance of a White letter.
If you do come say hello to this grumpy looking old man with a moustache

Hugh

[Jack Harrison]

Isle of Mull 22nd July

Scotch Argus hunt today. Just one seen and a dreadful record shot. It’s early in the season.


Speckled Woods – very fresh. What is the brood sequence here on Mull? Just two seen in May but now they are numerous in late July.
Note the feeding (proboscis): Rush, Grass and on Bracken (presumably moisture).
Rush

Grass (photo from angle hence distortion)

Bracken

Jack

[badgerbob]

An evening visit to High and Over produced many Chalkhill Blues, both male and female. Plenty of Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Essex Skippers around as well. Also, at last an emperor dragonfly settled, not the best condition but the first I've managed to get after many attempts!! Six Spot Burnet Moths are also everywhere and mating as soon as the female emerges.

[Vince Massimo]

A Painted Lady in reasonable condition today at Coulsdon, Surrey.

Painted Lady - Coulsdon, Surrey 23-July-2013

Lots of other activity in the meadows. However, fresh Small Tortoiseshells have disappeared, but there are many new larval webs containing the second generation. Still no fresh Peacocks yet, but a few new Brimstones. Best of all are a number of sightings of Dark Green Fritillary which are new to this area and seem to be spreading.

Vince

[George]

Spent the last two days butterflying (Sunday at Prees Heath for late Silver Studded Blues and Whixall Moss for Large Heath) and then yesterday at Arnside Knott and Meathop Moss. Very hot yesterday with lots of large fritillaries whizzing around on rocket fuel!! Thought I was too early for Scotch Argus but ended up seeing loads of them (conservatively 60-70).

Large Heath showing well at both Whixall and Meathop but as it was so warm they never settled anywhere!!

Can recommend Ye Olde Fighting Cocks at Arnside - comfortable room and lovely breakfast.

Will post pictures later

[nomad]

Jack. Beautiful Speckled Wood photos. I love the butterfly on bracken. Wonderful colour. Peter.

[badgerbob]

Couldn't resist another look today at the Chalkhill Blues at High and Over. Called up there this morning with the sight of heavy rain falling from the heavy clouds nearby and the sound of thunder in the distance. Past the gate and the first sight was of a pretty fresh Ringlet with its wings flat open. After a short while it moved and treated me to a great view of its fantastic underwings. The Chalkhills also put on a good display despite the odd large raindrop with many seen including at least 7 mating pairs. A great short visit which also included a fresh Red Admiral and Peacock as well as the normal suspects.

[Willrow]

Fermyn Woods - Monday 22nd. There was no way I was going to miss some of the delights that have been so well documented on these pages over the recent ten days or so at this iconic Purple Emperor location and having missed last weeks major frenzy when all the who's who of Uk Butterflyers assembled (except me who was in North Wales on hols) I emailed PhilB (fellow UK B member) at very short notice and we arranged to meet at 8.30am opposite the Gliding Club, this meant leaving home at 4.45, but us butterflyers are a hardy breed and never fazed by such early hours and I was parked up at 7.45 after a relatively comfortable journey, in fact I had the car parking area to myself and I thought I was in the wrong place but after a quick recce Phil arrived and my concerns proved unfounded and under his expert guidance many of the major 'hot-spots' were shown over the morning session. We were joined early on by another UK B member Simon Roddis who proved great company for us during the day. There are far too many great moments to describe here, but let me hasten to add that this was without a doubt my very best day yet with HIM and I know Simon agreed, we had the privilege of watching a male in excellent condition taking substances from Dog Rose (sure beats the other dog variety don't it ) for at least three quarters of an hour...wonderful experience! Around mid morning a PE landed on Simon's polo shirt which happened to be near purple in colour, myself and Phil grabbed a few shots (we will send them on to you Simon...) but there is no way I'm putting a picture on here of a blokes posterior taken in the middle of a woods even if it has a Purple Emperor attached!!!

During the day we saw twenty three different species, including White-letter Hairstreak, Purple Hairstreak, White Admiral and a Silver-washed Fritillary that thought it was a White Admiral, indeed it's skills would have graced the Gliding Club on the other side of the woods, none of us had seen this type of behaviour in this species before, it continued for some ten minutes or so around us as we watched in fascination. As this was my first visit to Fermyn Woods I was not expecting to see so many Brown Hawker dragonflies on the wing, at one stage there were as many as six patrolling a stretch of ride about fifty metres in length, this insect is rare in South Wales and the spectacle was another nice bonus, during my visit I counted over fifty.

I want to thank Phil for his unselfish sharing of local knowledge and great company, its days spent in such fellowship that makes our hobby such a special one, and please don't let it go to your head mate but I think your all round knowledge of our butterflies is really special too many thanks for helping to make the day one that will stay in the memory. During the day session I believe we saw as many as ten or twelve different Purple Emperor in lovely sunny warm weather conditions (30c) that were not previously promised by the Met Office. After Phil left at around 4pm I had some refreshments and took in an evening session and another five Purple Emperor were seen between 4.30 and 6pm all taking minerals from the paths, this might be some type of days visit record during the Purple season but I saw not a single insect on Canis turdis...

Bill

My journey home was a very happy one, even allowing for having to top up with petrol at extortionate prices at a motorway service station because I was still in Purpleland and clean forgot about a trifling little thing such as petrol

[andy brown]

Finally worked out how to add pictures, Here a few from earlier this month and today

Silver Studded Blue - 5th July 13 Bramshott Common

Silver Studded Blue - 5th July 13 Bramshott Common

Six-Spot Burnet Larvae - 5th July 13 Bramshott Common

Small Blue 24 July Magdalen Hill

Small Blue 24 July Magdalen Hill

[Jack Harrison]

Isle of Mull, 24 July

Speckled Woods are truly abundant at the moment with one every 20 metres or so on a woodland track. While they still enjoy the traditional habitats of sunny areas within wood, here on Mull they are also seen on open grassland. They do display the usual pugnacious attitudes towards any other butterfly that invades it patch but in some ways seem to be more “laid back” here. They also use nectar sources more than I am used to in the south.

Here two quite happily co-exist on Ragwort.


However, this shows the more typical resting pose.


Also seen on my woodland walk near the Forestry Commission Offices: two Scotch Argus males that defied the camera, a handful of Meadow Browns and GV Whites and amazingly in a sunny glade, a very tatty Dark Green Fritillary.

Jack

[sahikmet]

To day at Aston Rowant Chalkhill Blues on hill facing M40. Also plenty Marbled Whites, Small Skipper, Small tortoiseshell, large white. No Silver Spotted Skippers were seen. Sezar

[susanna.rice]

His Majesty - The Purple Emperor spotted 11:30 19 July

[susanna.rice]

Small Tortoiseshell - 12:45 24 July 2013

[Stampy98]

A brief visit to Hailey Park, Cardiff yesterday (24/07/2013) to check progress of Essex skipper. Warm but too windy for photographs. Species noted:

8 Essex skippers
40 small skipper (most tatty now)
4 common blue
ringlet
40 meadow brown

[David M]

A brief visit to Hailey Park, Cardiff yesterday (24/07/2013) to check progress of Essex skipper..

Interesting stuff, Stampy.

That's not far from Forest Farm but I've never yet seen Essex Skippers there. Must confess, I was checking all the Small Skippers at Alun Valley this morning, as I don't think it'll be too long before Essex reaches Bridgend!!

[badgerbob]

Essex Skippers are having their best season for ages around Seaford. Today I called again to High and Over, once again lots of Chalkhill Blues including one male emerging and being tended by a couple of ants. This seems to be witnessed many times with Silver-studded but not mentioned too often with Chalkhills.

[Jack Harrison]

Argyll 25th July

Finally got a Scotch Argus in the frame. In fact, this was on the mainland just to the southeast of Oban.

They are real devils to photograph with auto-focus. There is minimal contrast (which is how my auto focus works) so there was a lot of trial and error. Best results were in burst mode with slight movement of the camera in and out. One shot was bound to be more-or-less in focus.



For those not familiar with Scotch Argus, habitat and behaviour and indeed appearance in flight (apart from the subtle orange) are very similar to Ringlet, especially the males. In Aberdeenshire, Ringlet and Scotch Argus fly together in some localities and they can be tricky.

Jack