Bugboys mission

[Wurzel]

I was getting a bit envious of your haul but then when I saw that you'd spent five hours working your local patch it became a case of 'fair play' Mind you five hours out butterflying...I'm starting to get envious again

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Haha, when I go butterflying I GO butterflying Wurzel! I was actually multitasking, an impressive haul of 49 bird species as well despite all the winter visitors vanishing.

Went out again today, Abney Park for a couple of hours and then a short bus ride up toTottenham Marshes. Nothing butterfly related to report though. It was a few degrees colder today and clouded over after lunch. I did make a new friend though....

After watching her mate give her a tidbit she hopped down to near where I stood and pecked around, occasionally looking up at me, I think with a look of 'well, can you do any better', sadly the answer was no, I was all out of worms!

Also came across a Magpie collecting moss to line its nest with:

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Buggy,

I see you got of to a great start to the butterfly season. nice photos, especially the Robin.

The Magpie builds a nest of twigs, then loads of mud to adhere it together, then they cover the mud with rootlets, not moss. Magpies and other birds often pull moss, leaves up etc., in order to find the goodies within to eat.

All the best, Nick.

[bugboy]

Hey Nick,

thanks for the comments. I watched the magpie for quite a while, it was definately aiming specifically for the patches of moss and finally flew off with a gob full. I suspect it would use it to help bind the mud together in the nest. They do make pretty damn decent nests for crows, seen a few wind blown ones which stay in one piece despite crashing to the ground!

cheers

Buggy

[Neil Hulme]

Hi Buggy,

Yes, your Magpie would have been collecting moss for lining its nest. Although they will rip up moss in order to forage for crane fly larvae and other invertebrates, there is only one reason for them to carry off clumps of the stuff.

In replying to a website query, the RSPB replied: "Magpie nests are quite complicated builds tending to be loose, bulky with an outerlayer which forms a roof making them often appear round in shape. Inside the main part of the nest is mud (ocasionally dung) bow shaped twigs which are then lined with finer twigs and grass and another layer of lining which tends to be made of grass, mosses, hair, feathers, leaves and other soft material. Sometimes they have two door nests as well."

BWs, Neil

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Buggy,

I have studied breeding birds for over forty years, [before i stopped and,i haven't climbed up to a nest for a good many years now] that included nest structure, egg colouring, shape, size etc. Not one of the Magpies nests i climbed up to, had any lining apart from rootlets, how times have changed. Other members of the crow family, like Crows and Rooks have always used feathers, hair, wool etc. for lining their nests, [and i used to climb up to those nests as well] but Magpies, no, never seen the like.

All the best, Nick.

[Neil Hulme]

I'm not so sure that times have changed. The Magpie has always been an opportunist - and highly intelligent. In early 1972 I climbed a Magpie's nest (High Salvington, Worthing) which was not only lined with moss, but also sheep's wool and green tinsel, presumably from discarded Christmas decorations!
BWs, Neil

[bugboy]

Hi, thanks for the comments guys, here's cropped shots of all the pics I got. By the time I was close enough to get anything decent he/she had already been picking up the moss and then returned to the floor to gather some muddy leaf litter as seen in the final pic. If it was just after mud alone the path I was watching from was pretty much made of 99% mud!

Since it was quite cloudy yesterday I delved back into my slide back catalogue when I got home to get a few more boxes digitized. Found some particularly vibrant Small Tortoiseshell pics from 2005:

And then came across this pic which looked oddly familiar:

Couldn't work out why until I was browsing this site last night and with a bit of tweaking realised it has more than a passing resemblance to Neil Freemans avatar!

[bugboy]

Another quiet day on the butterfly front with this chilly easterly breeze continuing to put a lid on temperatures. Despite that there were a few Small Tortoiseshells about and I saw my first Peacock of the year. Another flyby encounter with a red admiral and a fleeting glance of what could have been a Comma....

All the tortoiseshells were necatring on the Blackthorn blossom along with the single peacock. Unfortunately the Peacock didn't sit long enough but a tortoiseshell was happy to sit to give me some imagies which for me epitomise early spring:

[bugboy]

With the Weathermen/women promising a bit of blue sky this afternoon I traveled across London for a bit of change of scenary to my old local patch, Dollis Valley Walk. The promised blue sky appeared mid afternoon but unfortunately not a single butterfly was seen. Rather quiet on the bird front as well although nice to see the resident Lapwings courting on the farmland, a rare sight these days, and a couple of birds sat close enough to get some half decent pics of them.

and a female Grey Wagtail having a spruce up:

On the way back I had a casual browse of some Oaks and out popped in front of my eye's a Purple Hairstreak egg! I had looked at these Oaks back in January but found nothing so wasn't expecting anything, always nice when something unexpected like this happens.

With another chilly week ahead I suspect I will have to make do with this for now, still plenty of time for the season to hot up, bring on the Orange Tips!

[David M]

Good spot, Bugboy! A Purple Hairstreak egg is surely adequate compensation for the lack of adult butterflies?

[bugboy]

Good spot, Bugboy! A Purple Hairstreak egg is surely adequate compensation for the lack of adult butterflies?

Thanks David, it will definately suffice, those are my first pics of Purple Hairstreak eggs so made up for a lack of adults. I marked the twig so if I get a chance I will return and see If I can follow its progress, worth a shot. If I find it as a caterpillar I shall name it 'Bob'!

[David M]

Well, if you've found eggs, you can be sure there will be adults in the vicinity come mid-July. This is a species seldom seen at close quarters so you may have to spend a few hours getting 'Hairstreak neck'.

I'm sure it will be worth it if your search comes up trumps.

[Tony Moore]

You were very lucky to find such an exposed egg at this time. Most of the obvious ones have fallen prey to the Blue Tits. I only managed to find two 'spring' eggs this year, where there were many dozens in the Autumn. Both were tucked deeply into a multi-bud and very grubby.

Tony M.

[bugboy]

Works taken over the past week or two, the build up for the easter holidays means all work and no play for bugboy! Having said that it's been a pretty poor start to spring all things considered...or maybe with last year still fresh in mind perhaps I was setting my expectations too high this year. My grand total still sits at 4 species so far, 1 Brimstone, 1 Peacock, 2 Red Admirals and several Small Tortoiseshells. A trip out today added no more butterflies to the tally, the gusty wind felt cold enough to give polar bears frostbite at times, so I settled for some spring flowers to practise my macro eye, still getting used to my 105mm lense. After years of using a 50mm i'm still getting used to not having to get as close to the subject as I used to!

Coltsfoot:

Sweet Violet:

Primrose:

This little fella also popped out in front of me, picking up little morsels of food. Took about 20 pics but they rarely sit still so only 3 were even close to being in focus!

Lets hope the weather calms down a bit this month so we can do some proper butterflying. I have a week booked off in the middle of April and I've planned a few excursions to kick start the season.

[David M]

Having said that it's been a pretty poor start to spring all things considered...or maybe with last year still fresh in mind perhaps I was setting my expectations too high this year. My grand total still sits at 4 species so far, 1 Brimstone, 1 Peacock, 2 Red Admirals and several Small Tortoiseshells.

Agreed, Bugboy.

Although I've seen 5 species in total, collectively my tally is fewer than two dozen individual butterflies.

We need not only a week or two of sunshine, but decent temperatures besides.

[Wurzel]

Things do seem to be slow starting this year Bugboy but hopefully that'll mean a sudden shed load of butterflies once the weather does finally settle down and improve. If my memory serves me rigth it was like this two years ago - with teh cold lasting into mid April - and that turned out to be a great year with Long-tailed Blues breeding and Clouded Yellows all over the place! Here's hoping...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[bugboy]

Yes indeed David, a good week of good temperatures and the season would certainly get started properly

You're right Wurzel, 2013 was a particularly dismal spring. I remember my local colony of Sand Martins turned up about 6 weeks later than normal and as far as I could tell completely failed to breed!

[Neil Freeman]

Just catching up on your PD Bugboy, that Speckled Wood a few posts back does look a bit familiar , nice one.

Cheers,

Neil.

[bugboy]

Had a couple of spare hours today, well I decided to take a break from the spring cleaning anyway, so grabbed my camera and went for a wander. The chilly wind has finally decided to bugger off but it didn't take the clouds with it.... until I got back home, sods law ! flushed 1 Peacock but that was it butterfly wise, Insect life in general is starting to liven up though:

A 26 Spot ladybird navigating its way through some towering spines!

Queen Bombus terrestrius waiting for the sun to appear

Female Hoverfly Syrphus sp.

Week off work starts next saturday, so weather permiting some mini expeditions planned