Wurzel

[William]

Lovely shots Wurzel - if I had to pick a favourite I'd go with the large white on the finger, such a wonderfully fresh specimen

[Wurzel]

Cheers Philzoid As far as I can remember the first LW is one of my team mates and the second is my hand and I took both shots (using autofocus of course ). I think that Brimstone was a once in a life time

Cheers David It was great to see that despite the lashing that we've taken here in Salisbury there are still butterflies about

Cheers Mike This year I thought that I should have something to keep me occupied during the close season

Cheers William I was doubly chuffed with that one as it was a rescue from the five aside football pitch and I also managed to take it with one-handed

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

and the second is my hand and I took both shots (using autofocus of course )

DSLR hand-held with one hand and the picture is that detailed Amazing

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Wurzel, lovely photos again. you obviously had a great year with the butterflies in 2013, keep them coming.

All the best, Nick.

[Neil Freeman]

Great post again Wurzel with more great photos

Interesting that you feel that Orange Tips were slightly down, I have seen similar comments from others based further south than me. My impression was that around my patch they had a really good year, I certainly had more in the garden than I have had for some years. From what I have seen it seems that they may have done better in the northern half of their range.

I am with you on the Clouded Yellows, I went from no photos to loads, including a couple of helice , mostly thanks to a week in your beautiful home county

Looking forward to the next instalment,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Philzoid I reckon it was my years of Zen training, you know me 'Mr Chilled out'
Cheers Nick There are a few more in the pipeline
Cheers Neil Here is the next installment - I've been marking Mocks, ISAs and various other stuff for pretty much every waking minute recently so it's taken me a bit of time to get his done.

The “Aristocrats”

14 White Admiral, 6th July Bentley Wood

It seems a shame to start with the White Admiral; a species that I love to watch as it bombs across the vegetation as if it’s doing a strafing run, because I had an uneasy feeling that it didn’t do particularly well in 2013. They were present in the usual sites and I also saw them just over the road from Martin Down at Kitts Wood but I can’t recall seeing as many of them as over the last couple of years.
I said at the top “a species that I love to watch” but it’s also one which I get very frustrated by when trying to photograph it as whenever I have encountered them they are always so active. Even when taking nectar from brambles they are constantly shuffling round the flower head or tilting this was and that to drain the sweet fluid. I think next year I need to try and get to the sites much earlier in the morning to try and catch them with their wings shut as I’m still lacking a shot of a really fresh individual in such a pose.

15 Purple Emperor, 14th July Bentley Wood

My initial shot below (just wings from a corpse) sums up how 2013 ran for me with His Nibbs. I made a couple of visits to Bentley Wood this year and after seeing a couple in the car park and another couple at Donkey Copse on my first visit I came away slightly frustrated as I only managed to get a couple of distant grab shots. Still there were good numbers as Bentley, probably slightly up on last year even if they were less obliging, unlike Fermyn which was just spectacular it seemed. Still I didn’t mind reading all the reports from up north as the following week I was making a return visit...
After a fantastic start waiting in the car park for Philzoid my hopes were really high as everything put in an appearance including two Emperors. So setting off we had got almost to the crossroads when we were called back by the girls as there was an Emperor on the path...well a set of wings at any rate. So I took a photo which served to remind me that while we were hunting Emperors for photography others were hunting them for food. After a few hours with Baitman and a few more sightings this proved to be the closest shot that I got all season. So I reckon a good year for His Nibbs even if they had all bu$$ered off to Fermyn! Next year I’ll be ready...

16 Red Admiral, 1st May Salisbury

There seems little point in comparing whether Red Admirals were early or late as they had such an abysmal year but for the sake of consistency there was almost a three month difference in their appearance. The 16th February in 2012 was quite early for them but I also saw them in March and April in 2012 unlike this year.
I was hoping that they might suddenly pick up as things warmed up or that their numbers would be swelled by migrating cousins but this never really seemed to happen. On a ‘good’ year I can count on seeing one or two at most sites, sometimes more, but that wasn’t to be this year. I was struggling to find any at some sites and when they did put in an appearance there was generally only a singleton. Looking back over my notes three records demonstrated to me how badly they were doing. First was that at Alners Gorse I saw one yet there were 2 Painted Ladies and at least 3 Clouded Yellows. Second it was a similar story at Martin Down with a singleton over three visits yet Clouded Yellows numbering a minimum of 3 and possible maximum of 7. The final record was a paltry 3 in my old garden at the tail end of the season whereas in 2012 I could see 7 in one gaze!
I’m not sure why the numbers were low? The winter got colder as it progressed and lasted into March and April so perhaps hibernators perished, starved or frozen? Alternatively their migration Northwards could have been the key, was there some climatic factor which meant that they just didn’t get here? Whatever the reason I only hope that they do a ‘Small Tortoiseshell’ next year.

17 Painted Lady, 7th August Ffos-y-ffin

Whilst I saw Painted Ladies at many more sights in 2013 than in previous years I was actually slightly disappointed with their numbers. Don’t get me wrong there were still more about than the last few years present but I seem to remember reading somewhere that good years for Cloudies are also good for Painted Ladies. So having seen reports as well as observing bucket loads of my own Cloudies I was hoping for many more Painted Ladies. About 4 or 5 years ago it was a particularly good year and there were present in 10’s and more everywhere yet this year despite seeing them at many more sights they were only singles or the occasional pair. Perhaps this was just a taster and there will soon be a major influx year when they’ll number in the thousands.

18 Small Tortoiseshell, 5th March Pewsey Vale School

While some will recall 2013 fondly for the good numbers of butterflies in the summer, the Cloudies or the Long Tailed Blues, for me 2013 was the year of the Small Tortoiseshell. For a few years whenever Small Torts were mentioned it was always in a concerned manner, phrases like ‘not as many as in my youth’, declined by 70% or serious drop in numbers were bandied around. Yet this year I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many. They’re never been a real problem to find but instead of seeing 2 or 3 in my old garden it was more like 5 or 6, and I saw them pretty much at every sight I visited. The most notable Small Tort event was on a visit to Five Rivers in May. I visited an area of Bramble hedge and saw plenty of Small Torts as I approached so I thought that I’d try and count them. So I started at one end of the hedge and started counted as I walked to the other end, only to get three metres along its length before losing count as they were fluttering forward and back. I was definitely sure there were 15 as that was the highest number I’d manage to count but there was another eight metres or so still to count from! In terms of numbers an unbelievable upturn of fortunes. Perhaps the long cold spell worked in their favour knocking the parasites on the head?
In terms of first sighting a Small Tortoiseshell at Five Rivers was my first and it was earlier than last year, though I’m not too confident that much can be made of that. With hibernators it isn’t really an emergence, if the weather is pleasant they may appear and should it turn they’ll disappear as quickly as they appeared, it’s more of an intermission, a lucky coincidence. Plus I was raring to go back in early March having been cooped up for what felt like an age so my early sighting might have been just because I was out looking, not that it was any earlier. They were also my last sighting of 2013 and first of 2014...good old Bob

19 Peacock, 14th April Mottisfont

Despite looking earlier in the year for this species I still didn’t see it until a few weeks later than in 2012. They seemed to suddenly appear once the weather finally started to pick up possibly because they couldn’t hang on any longer.
Overall I feel that they had a pretty good year, obviously not as good as their cousins the Small Torts but still pretty good! For me it was a good year with Peacocks personally as I was lucky enough to see almost the whole gamult; spring butterflies freshly awoken, worn and tatty individuals living out the last of their days, beautifully fresh and newly emerged even various instars of caterpillars thrown in for good measure. I was also surprised with how late into the season I was still finding them with sightings into the middle of October. I think that I may possibly have given up on them a bit too early in previous years.

20 Comma, 06-04 Five Rivers

Through 2013 I never once thought ‘I haven’t seen a Comma for a while’ and so my suspicion is that they just carried on business as usual with no real noticeable increase in numbers. I don’t think they saw a downturn but they bumbled along maintaining their numbers. In terms of emergence (or should that be appearance?) they were only a week later than the previous year at good old Five Rivers. A lovely coincidence was that I saw my first Comma of 2013 on exactly the same bank only three metres away from where I’d photographed my first Comma of 2012.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[William]

That Red Admiral Underside is fantastic Wurzel !

[philm63]

I agree Wurzel, some excellent shots there. What camersa set-up do you use?

[Nick Broomer]

Lovely photos again Wurzel. I especially like the Painted Lady on Fleabane, the 2nd and 3rd Small Tortoiseshells and last but not least, the 2nd Peacock. Beautiful photos.

All the best, Nick.

[Wurzel]

Cheers William , it was one of only a couple that I managed to get all year.
Cheers Phil I use a Nikon D60 with a 105mm Nikkor lens, set it to Macro and then creep up on them and point and shoot
Cheers Nick you're too kind

February

Not long now!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Some change on the horizon...

Anyone watching the weather over the last few weeks will might have not bothered and could have recorded the weather once and then just re-watched it again and again as we seem to have had no end of storms and huge amounts of rain. I realized that I’ve not seen Salisbury on the map since Boxing Day as every time I watch the weather it is covered by blue either as part of a huge blanket of rain or a lone blue blob right over the city while all around is clear! Still this weekend we had some respite and seeing the sun for the first time in what felt like an age I thought I better make the most of it.
First I took the family to the local garden centre and hanging around the Primroses and Pansies were a Bluebottle and my first Drone Fly of the year but unfortunately no butterflies hanging around in the warmth of the glass houses.

After lunch it was still dry though the wind was picking up but I headed out to the park and the wooden bridge to what was still about. On the way I noticed that some of the flowers in the local gardens were in bud and when I watched the Black Headed gulls some were sporting more than a hint of their hoods to come, a bit like 5 o’clock shadow for gulls. Also the flood waters across the meadow are starting to drain and now it looks like a flooded field rather than a lake. I’m not sure how long it’ll be before it reverts to a lake...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[philm63]

Wurzel

We have a lot less species than you up here but this winter we have also had a lot less rain it appears. A good bit has fallen but I have not seen any unexpected flooding at all this winter, just lots of bad weather, although the past few days have not been too bad

Phil

[Maximus]

Thats a beautiful Peacock photo in your previous posting Wurzel and the shot of the gull with the spire of Salisbury Cathedral in the background shows a nice touch

Mike

[Neil Freeman]

Lovely photos of the Aristocrats Wurzel

I too only saw a handful of Painted Ladies and not that many more Red Admirals. I would never have guessed at the beginning of last year that I would see more Clouded Yellows than Red Admirals and Painted Ladies put together.

I am also with you on it being the year of the Small Tortoiseshell, at times I saw more together than I even remember in the days of my youth.

I think the numbers of Peacocks around later in the year is a curious one. They usually tuck themselves away fairly early, and indeed around my neck of the woods most had disappeared before the Small Tort numbers really built up. Then later on in September there seemed to be more about again making me think that there was at least a partial second brood last year.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Phil - I'm thinking that I might need to buy a boat soon we've had so much rain down here Still I reckon that around June we'll be having a Hosepipe ban
Cheers Mike I was pleased with the spire/gull wing symmetry
Cheers Neil Its interesting that you saw a similar pattern up your way as further east people were saying that it was Peacocks that boomed Perhaps an East/west divide?

The Fritillaries

21 Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, 9th June Bentley Wood

These seemed to be later emerging then last year even at the early recording sites. I also remember that they seemed to be recorded first down in Cornwall and then there was a good fortnight before they started appearing elsewhere. Even with my somewhat tardy efforts to see them at Bentley Wood me feeling was backed up by the sightings book. The main thing for me though was that they seemed to be doing well this year and when I strayed from the Eastern Clearing I was seeing them along the rides across the Wood which was heartening.
Over the last couple of years I’ve noticed that the frits can be variable in the brightness of their underside markings. Over my first couple of encounters with Small Pearls some of the ‘panels’ on their under wings seemed almost dark red. In 2012 they appeared more uniformly orange with no real noticeable difference in the colour between panels. Yet this year there were definitely some more reddish panels. Could these differences be due to difference in pupation temperature as I’ve read that some reared butterflies can be thermally manipulated to produce aberrant?

22 Pearl-bordered Fritillary 12th May Bentley Wood, Eastern Clearing

This year they were slightly later than last year at Bentley, by about a week and that is a hell of a lot later than in 2011 when they lived up to their old common name of ‘April Fritillary’. My ‘later sighting’ could have been down purely to when I managed to make my visit but even the first sightings recorded in the book at the site were later.
I feel like they had a good year as although I saw them in slightly smaller numbers on my first visit I then saw them over the successive weeks on three further occasions over a range of areas at Bentley Wood and in good numbers. So while they might have been later they lasted the distance. I’ll add the caveat ‘at Bentley’ to how I think they did as this is the only site that I’ve ever seen them at so one of the things I want to look at doing over the next couple of years is finding them at a few different sites. That being said; why go further to see the same thing when I can just pop to Bentley and spend more time, use less petrol and get to see plenty of Pearls?

23 Dark Green Fritillary, 17th July Martin Down

I saw Dark Greens one week later this year than last but that was only because I was having trouble getting out and seeing them. In fact it felt like they were actually slightly early judging from the reports at County level? Still when I did get to Martin Down they were in much larger numbers than last year, almost back up to the heights of 2011. From the Blandford Road car park I headed to the dip at the start of Borkeley and worked my way along the bottom of the depression there and for a while I just wandered in wonder as there were so many DGFs around. I’d try to watch one only for it to be disturbed by another and then as I’d settled my eyes on that one another one would buzz it and so on and so on. I also found some over at Kitts Wood but they were a lot less social then the Martin Down crew. It was a memorable evening as I took my fill of photos and made up for lost time. A great year for the DGF so hopefully 2014 will be even better.

24 Silver-washed Fritillary, 7th July Bentley Wood

These too were a slight bit later than last year though by this stage of the year things seemed to be catching up. Once I started seeing them they seemed to be having a good year with comparable numbers to last year especially at Bentley Wood. A couple of highlights this year were finding them at Stourhead and Kitts Wood which is just over the road from Martin Down. This means that there are three fritillaries available at this site along with six of the Skippers and most of the blues too! It was also a good year for me for Valesina. Somehow I’ve been lucky enough to see these every year of my four years butterflying and this year I was doubly lucky as I saw them at both Bentley Wood and a lost wanderer at Martin Down. The Bentley Greenish played true to character, staying further in the wood in the shade and away from the edges of the ride. It was very flighty and very difficult to approach so I didn’t get a photo. Yet the Martin Down one was not only in the wrong habitat but also totally out of character as it posed for photo after photo whilst taking nectar at the side of the main path from Sillen’s Lane in full glaring sun. Just goes to show that you never can tell.

25 Marsh Fritillary, 25th May Martin Down

If I said that I thought Marsh Fritillaries had a fantastic year it may be because I had a slightly skewed view having only seen one (possibly two) individual through the whole of 2012. This year not only did I read county reports of sightings into the forties and fifties from some sites but I was lucky enough to see them at two different sites myself, one of which held bucket loads! That site is on the ‘hit list’ for next year as when Philzoid and I took a chance visit there we were stumbling over Marshies left, right and centre. It was a truly memorable morning; scrambling up and down steep chalk hills, finding Walls, Greenstreaks and Small Blues and witnessing a Battle Royale involving pretty much every spring specialist but the main memories of the day are filled by Marshies. The sun would pop out and thirty seconds later there would be Marshies flitting around as far as the eye could see and then as it dipped behind a cloud they would disappear as if playing a solar powered game of hide and seek. I’m not sure how they fared in other parts of the country but round my way they had a cracking year.

Have a goodun
Wurzel

[philm63]

Lovely shots Wurzel
I envy all of you with Fritillaries nearby, I think the nearest to me will be up on the North York Moors in Yorkshire; however, the Morecambe area might be closer as the crow flies. The shots you and others post certainly make me feel the travel would be worthwhile to see them

Phil

[Nick Broomer]

Great last couple of posts, Wurzel. Both to read and absorb the beauty of your photography. I particularly like the Black-headed Gull in flight. Great.

All the best, Nick.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Phil I 'm exceedingly lucky that I live so close to Bentley Wood which can hold 5 different species (6 if you go with the old name of the Duke) Saying that...I'd kill for Large Heaths or a Northern Brown Argus

Cheers Nick I'm still working on the Browns but I'm almost there. UI was really happy with the flukey Black Head shot - the wonders of 'Sports Mode'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Philzoid]

Great post and great pictures Wurzel . I particularly like the Open wing Pearl on the dead leaf and the underside Dark Green on knapweed (DGF 1 of my top 10 UK butterflies) The less said about the open wing, open air greenish the better

Despite my limited experience of Small Pearls I also noted your observation on their undersides this year. The maroon patches in front of the pearls look almost black on one of my shots from Bentley. I've not found any specific information about this on the net.
On UKB's Small Pearl page there is mention of a former Scottish sub-species, insularum which is described as "brighter in colour and markings both upper and undersides". However it not thought to be distinct from specimens found at altitude in Wales. With our particularly cold spring last year what we saw might have been a function of the temperature as you allude to .
Also, the two pictures showing the undersides appear to illustrate perhaps both ends of the colour range. Images on google show a range also.

[Neil Freeman]

Another great post Wurzel, interesting observations and cracking photos

I particularly like the second DGF underside, a beautiful image.

Cheers,

Neil.