Wurzel

[David M]

That last image in particular is a stunner, Wurzel.

[kevling]

Wurzel,

Love the Marbled White photos. My favourite is actually the one on two stems. It kinda looks like a circus insect on stilts.

Regards Kev

[Neil Freeman]

Great Marbled Whites Wurzel. I totally agree about trying for some different shots, something I have had a bit of a go at myself and hopefully will get more chances this year.

Cheers,

Neil

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,

No doubt,the best Marbled White underside shots i've ever seen, gorgeous. .
TREVOR.

[Goldie M]

Happy New Year Wurzal, love your Marble White shots, the MW's are great to photograph and when captured like yours are they look unreal,great shots, I'll take a leaf out of your book for next year and concentrate more on position I think, that's if they stay still long enough

I go down to my daughter's in Kent every year usually the last week in June the 1st week in July and East Blean Woods has been the place to go, last year I didn't get down there until the 12th of July, I still managed some shots but I was lucky has I only saw a couple of Heath Frit's the car park is usually full of them.

My daughter lives near Blean Woods but not near to where the HF's are usually found in abundance, your best bet to see them if you decide to go there is to go to towards Hern Bay, if you need any more directions I'll be glad to help Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers David for your kind comment
Cheers Kev Now you've mentuoned it I can't get it out of my head that it is a stilt walker
Cheers Neil I liked your PBF from the Species - perhaps as well as stained glass, in cop, on poo I should also start a 'double winged' collection
Cheers Trevor you're to kind
Cheers Goldie Thanks for the info I might tap you up for some more later in the year if I can wangle a trip for Heaths - got to earn the Brownie points first

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Larkhill 10-07-2014

This was one of those Lost Posts which came about during my usual daily routine of stopping off here or there before work and heading out during the break time. It entered the vaults of Lost Post-dom as nothing really stood out as at the time there were plenty of species emerging and most of what I saw I had documented previously. However now in the dark and cold days of winter a quick revisit to that day seems much more rewarding and holds my interest more as the contempt of familiarity has faded.

During my morning stop-off it seemed quite quiet with fewer browns flying around and some of the Blues looking slightly worn. Remembering back now I really miss those morning stop-offs, the morning sun warming my back and the 5 minutes of tranquillity were like my morning meditation.

As it was a Thursday it meant swapping my afternoon stop-off for taking my camera out and around with me whilst I was on Duty. I’d completed the first half of my route checking all the usual stop-offs for smokers with no joy so I moved on towards the garages behind the school. To get there I cut through the back gate and wandered along the footpath. On the way a few butterflies appeared to brighten the walk. First was a Small Tort feeding half way up someone’s drive way and then slightly further on a Meadow Brown

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,

Love that shot of the Small Tortoiseshell,beautifully simple, colour just right and an uncluttered background.

All the best,
TREVOR.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzal, I love the insect in the flower, the colour of the flower brings back thoughts of things to come this year Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Trevor - I was cuffed with that shot, especially as I'd forgotten about it unitl recently
Cheers Goldie Not long now although in mid January it aways seems toooooo long!

I've just started my Tally 2014 so I need to crack on and get my Lost Posts posted...there are still a couple left though...

This became a Lost Post because at the time I was rushing to and from work stopping off whenever I could as I was awaiting the emergence of the first Chalkhills. I could have gone to any number of other sites but I set my mind to finding them at The Devenish and so I finally saw my first Chalkhills of 2014 a week after this visit. It is one of the very few Lost Posts that I struggled to remember as usually my memory is really good, and if not there may be some supporting notes hastily typed at the time. However for this visit there was nothing and so I had to trawl through my memory until eventually it started to come back to me...

Stop-offs - 11-07-2014
Larkhill
It was a cracking bright morning and perfect conditions for a stop-off so I pulled into the car park and set to wandering the Northbound path. The small patch of flowers about half way up was the best spot so I settled there to watch the Hedge Browns. A couple of the males stood out in particular, one because it looked slightly unusual and the other because it appeared so bright and vibrant. The aberrant had greatly reduced pupils of the left hand forewing and the right hand forewing had only one pupil.

After work I managed the manic rush to The Devenish and again I focused on the Hedge Browns as I felt like I’d been neglecting them at this site after the first initial rush of my first sightings and all the time spent looking for Chalk Hills. The Brambles at the bottom of the Down provided most of the sightings and in fact it was quite difficult deciding which butterfly to watch and then photograph. In the end I managed to spy an excessa among the throng and even more luckily it landed within camera lens range. Having got a few shots I went back to searching through the numerous Hedge Browns and this time a female caught my eye for the exact opposite reason the excessa had – the lack of spots and the small amount of orange on the hind wing. Time was passing and I had to head onto work.

Up at the top of the Down there wasn’t too much about, the odd Blue and Brown and also a pair of 6-Spot Burnet locked in copulation. It must be hard work mating as a butterfly/moth as not only do you have to cling on to the grass stems whilst the breeze rocks you backward and forward but you also have to support the weight of your partner from your genitals!

After this I needed to head home as my timing on the afternoon stop-off is even more critical but I couldn’t resist one last Hedge Brown – a five spot under wing or “5su” in my personal notation.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Great shots Wurzal, The Gate Keepers were few up here last year and after the bad August with the heavy rain practically none excistant the ones that did survive were pretty ratty I hope they've a better year up here this year.Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie, I hope the Hedge Browns are good up there in 2015

Old Garden 01-08-2014

I stumbled over this folder whilst clearing through my “Work in Progress” folder. I realised that I hadn’t even sorted through the shots let alone processed them or written the blurb to complete it as a post. The main reason was that they were taken all the way back in August. My family and I had just returned from our annual camping holiday back in Dorset and were due off again, this time to the Outlaws in Wales, the following day. As we’d sold our Tumble Drier (at a more than reasonable price) to my sister in-law previously and we needed to get out clothes laundered urgently we asked if we could borrow her machine for one load.

So it was that I found myself with a little free time in what used to be my back garden. Gone though was the greenhouse and its footings, the borders, the Ivy and Honeysuckle arch, gone to the flower patch at the very top of the garden. In fact it was looking very barren as my in-laws awaited the landscaper so they could start the garden from scratch. The dusty and bare earth wasn’t looking too promising for butterflies and I was convinced that my searching would draw a blank...right up until a tiny orange blur caught my vision. It landed and proceeded to have a bit of a crawl about enabling me to get down to its level where I watched it for a couple of minutes before it decided to try for lusher pastures and it bombed over the fence.

I was glad I rediscovered this folder in the end as when I was sorting through I realised that this was a Blue Badge Small Copper which made a nice find even better .

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzal, just read your post, I think a Small Copper I posted a few weeks back was a Blue Badge the spots were a bit faded so I'm not sure, I'm saying spots because I'm not too well up on Blue Badge Coppers, hope it is the spots I've got right Goldie

[Wurzel]

Alright Goldie - I saw someone refer to a blue spotted Small Copper as a "Blue Badge" and I liked the term so I carried on using it - they do have blue spots though

Site X Part 1

Way back in summer there was a lot of excitement over the discovery of Map butterflies at an undisclosed site near Swanage in Dorset. As it was back in my homeland I thought it would be rude if I didn’t at least look in and pay my respects and I managed to ask the right people the right questions and so discovered the location of the undisclosed site. Since then someone has stepped forward and claimed the butterflies as their release which has obviously taken the edge off of the sightings but it was still a fantastic trip, with cracking butterflies and so I feel its worthy of a trip report whatever the provenance of the butterfly.

The day before Phizloid and I were due to go I was slightly nervous as none had been reported during the previous day but the weather hadn’t been good so I was still hopeful of finding them and I sold it to Philzoid with the promise of a late Lulworth Skipper. So we went for it...

On arrival we walked into the field and were greeted with a depressing sight – a few disconsolate individuals wandering around peering into bushes and some standing around chatting seemingly having given up. We made enquiries with one chap and it turned out that he’d been there for three hours and hadn’t seen one. “Oh” I said and turning to look back over the field – “isn’t that one there?” as a miniature White Admiral flew down the hill straight past us, landed and started to feed right in front of us. Literally on site for four minutes and there was one flying past, the lucky Hat does it again. After a few shaky shots (I’d forgotten about the twitch that comes with Twitching it’s been so long) it was gone almost as quickly as it had appeared.

Chuffed with the reward we thought we’d have a bit more of a look around the site to see if we could find some other Maps and also to see what else it had to offer. Which as it turned out was a great range of species. One little area bordered by two paths on either side of it held all of the locales specialities. It was hard to know where to begin as three species of Blue, a Clouded Yellow, an aged Lulworth Skipper (I do try to honour my promises ), Wasp Spider and Grayling all vied for our attentions. It was great I didn’t know where to point my lens first but that wasn’t a problem as it was a small area so when a butterfly would take off a slight head movement would be enough to bring another into view.

A Cloudy flew into view and led us a merry dance up the hill. It would settle just long enough for us to see where it went down, relocate it, approach it and then it would be off. It would seem to feed very briefly before flying taking off again and taking nectar only a few metres away whilst all the while ascending the side of the hill. I was confident that this was just a Cloudy being a Cloudy and it wasn’t us continually disturbing because most of the time we didn’t move and it still fed, took off, landed, fed, took off, landed etc. In the end I reasoned that it was working it’s way up the hill and so I ran up the path so as to get above it and then I tried to anticipate where it would land. The trick paid off with the butterfly landing quite close to me twice, with a blue in between and a Brown Argus for afters.

By now we were half way up the hill and vegetation changed from flowers to short thin turf and a Small Tort, Red Admiral and Peacock all did a fly along the hedge but other butterflies were a bit thin on the ground here. Instead we watched a pair of Raven overhead like flying crosses and ‘gronking’ loudly.

We decided to head back down the hill for lunch and as we descended we saw someone peering into a bush with great interest...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pete Eeles]

I stumbled over this folder whilst clearing through my “Work in Progress” folder.

It's not just me then - that's good to hear! Every winter, I always come across something that I'd forgotten to process! Nice photos, and congrats on the Map!

Cheers,

- Pete

[MikeOxon]

........On arrival we walked into the field and were greeted with a depressing sight – a few disconsolate individuals wandering around peering into bushes and some standing around chatting seemingly having given up. We made enquiries with one chap and it turned out that he’d been there for three hours and hadn’t seen one. “Oh” I said and turning to look back over the field – “isn’t that one there?”...........

Isn't it a great feeling when that happens! It happened to me once with a bird and a group of disconsolate twitchers. (mind you, I've had the opposite too, and 'dipped out' on a bird.)

Your description of anticipating the movements of the CY is an example of good field-craft. It works well with Silver-spotted Skippers too, where I think the best plan is to stake out a likely flower and wait for the quarry to come and pose.

It's splendid to read a post like this in the middle of Winter - there's something to be said for holding these reports back, so that they can be enjoyed without the distractions of planning and making one's own butterflying trips.

Mike

[David M]

You kept that one quiet, Wurzel.

[bugboy]

Stonking set of pics Wurzel! Sounds like a great day out

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,

You've kept that Map sighting very quiet!. As for your images ,well done!. The Bindweed flower makes
an excellent backdrop for the Map.
I wonder if anything will survive for this year,if it does the Sandbanks ferry will be very busy .

All the best ,
TREVOR

[Goldie M]

Once again Wurzel, your Shots are tops, don't think I've seen a Map Butterfly yet only in a book they look lovely.Goldie