Wurzel

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,
I pass a Duke site every Thursday so i'll pop by tomorrow. Fingers crossed !

All the best,
TREVOR.

[Goldie M]

Lovely shot Wurzel, you got it at last Goldie

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Wurzel,

Glad to see you got your Orange-tip, it must have been all the sweeter for pulling off the ambush at the other side of the house You seem to have mastered a particular kind of field craft there

Cheers,

Neil

[Pauline]

I'm so pleased you're trying to catch-up Wurzel . I love reading your diary but when it is a bit behind it doesn't half confuse me . Must be an age thing! Some great shots recently.

[Wurzel]

Good luck Trevor
Cheers Goldie It was hard work getting it
Cheers Neil I am the guerilla butterflyer
Cheers Pauline Almost there - only 7 posts behind now

Quick pull-in 18-04-2015

I’m still behind on my PD but trying desperately to catch up. The only problem is that the Lime Plasterers have been in for almost two weeks now which had meant that I don’t get as much time in the evening to do all the usual chores, my usual 3 hours of ‘homework’, sort photos and write posts. It could have been worse though, pretty much 3 of the weekends were spent knocking old plaster off the walls and filling rubble sacks before taking them to the ‘recycling centre’ (also known as the tip).

It all started on Saturday 18th but before I donned boots and started wielding the lump hammer I had some errands to do including dropping some bits and bobs up at my sister in-laws. As we walked across the small drive something small and blue fluttered down onto the Bluebells. I nipped back to the car and grabbed my camera and there sitting and sunning itself on a Bluebell was a nice little Holly Blue. He hung around here for a bit before flying up onto the hedge at head height. One there he acted in a more usual fashion for a Holly Blue, peering out at me from behind a curtain of leaves.

There must have been a mini emergence as I saw another across town and a third in my local road.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Holly Blue on a bluebell!

That's a first for me, Wurzel. great image!

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,

I feel that your most recent images are rather blue !!.
TREVOR.

[Wurzel]

Cheers David I was quite chuffed (and very lucky) with the shot
Cheers Trevor It is very blue, but this only reflects my general mood and not my political leanings

Tutor time again...20-04-2015

So far my cunning plan for some extra butterflying whilst my daughter is being tutored hasn’t paid off too well. There has been one incredible day but every other time has been wet, cold, windy or all three things together but not this evening. It actually started with a lizard as the tutor’s house backs onto fields and Cokey Down and they are lucky enough to have Slow Worms that bask in their back garden. Under one of the mats were two, both with the ends of their tails missing.

With this great start I headed off down to the local graveyard to follow the route previously worked out. I started on the less maintained side of the Graveyard where a male OT led in down the hedge and promptly disappeared over a lower section. I was annoyed with it teasing me right up until I spied a beige butterfly which as I approached it became my first Specklie of 2015.

My trek down along the river side was actually quite quiet with a Small White fluttering around the pea sticks in the allotment, a Small Tort in the nettle bed and a Peacock further along the path. The Peacock was actually quite aggressive and made a couple of passes over my head as if to drive me away. When I stood my ground it perched rather sheepishly but with a nice background.

I headed back to the Graveyard and it all kicked off around a large Yew tree. I was lured towards it with the promise of a male Orange-tip that didn’t pay off but once there it was hard to fell too bad as I was mobbed by at least 6 Specklies and 5 Holly Blues. The Holly Blues spent the whole time fluttering around the top of the tree, scraping and eventually two of them drifted further into the branches and disappeared from sight for some privacy. The Specklies on the other hand were their usual rum bumptious selves mixing u the fluttering and scraping of the Holly Blues with a little bit of seed basking. They would land, settle and then within less than a minute they would be off again up to about 9ft high and scraping again.

Whilst I was enjoying the blues and browns a white wafted slowly past. Its contradictory sedate yet frantic flight suggested a Green-veined White so I followed it closely as it flew from one side of the graveyard to the other. I thought that it wasn’t going to settle when it started to fly round the flower tops but to my surprise and pleasure it landed and settled. After a short while it took off to look for somewhere more comfortable where it settled down.

So all in all, not a bad haul.

22-04-2015 Woodford Valley

I don’t know where else to fit this in and it doesn’t seem enough to warrant an entire post...My local Orange-tip site has finally produced the goods as the Cuckoo Flower burst forth. A very brief 5 minute stop-off saw me catch up with a single Orange-tip which stopped only long enough for a couple of rushed shots.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Wurzel,

lovely set of photos, especially the Peacock. Beautiful.

All the best, Nick.

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,
There can be no doubt that a Peacock on Blackthorn with a blue sky as a backdrop,has all the
ingredients for a very fine Butterfly ' picture '. I attempted one , but the image by Mike Robinson
must take 1st prize for image of the year so far. Yours has me slightly .
I am also of your ' blue ' images. Thats one Butterfly that's given me the runaround
this year !.

Keep up the good work,
TREVOR.

[Pete Eeles]

Nice Holly Blue shots Wurzel - and glad to see you've added (what I consider to be) the best shot to the species-specific albums! Although you might have to wait a while before I create a Slow Worm album

Cheers,

- Pete

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, Great photos of the Green Veined White, I think I'mm going to visit the Grave Yards more often,Goldie

[Maximus]

Your Holly Blue shots really bring a smile to my face, Wurzel Simply stunning

Mike

[Butterflysaurus rex]

For me your Holly Blue photos really hit the spot Wurzel, excellent images of a difficult species to get a good photograph of.

All the best

James

[Philzoid]

Just been catching up on your Diary Wurzel. That rocket looks more like a missile with that angle of trajectory.

You've been pulling out the stops with some of those photos. That first of three Green-veined White shots is an absolute beaut

Phil

[Willrow]

Your probably the most prolific Personal Diary poster on UK Butterflies Wurz, I've just caught up with your more recent adventures and there's much quality included with the quantity...really great stuff, very well done

My Regards,

Bill

"When in doubt - venture out"

[Wurzel]

Cheers Nick I was very happy with that Peacock shot
Cheers Trevor The background does add to the shot doesn't it.
Cheers Pete It was Vince what told me to add it
Cheers Goldie Graveyards are great for wildlife and they're easy to find to being the dead centre of town...I'll get my coat
Cheers Mike and Rex only he'd opened up a little...
Cheers Philzoid I was chuffed with that one myself, I've since discovered that the rocket had wooden fins to go into space? hmmmm:?
Cheers Willrow After your comment I had a night or three off but back to the grind stone now

Work 23-04-2015

Another day, another dollar. Somehow I managed to get another free lunch time possibly because the pupils were preparing for another subjects exam which meant I was able to duck out and make the most of the reasonable weather. How long it will last who knows – I’m slightly dubious about nice weather this early in the season – it often means that some pretty dire weather is just round the corner but I hope that I’m wrong.

I took the usual route and headed out across the fields to the back path. Whereas before there were Small Torts to accompany me the whole way now there were none and I didn’t see a butterfly until I reached the back path. Once there a Small White and then a Large White flew by which was a great way to prompt my memory on the how to identify them. The Small White looked creamy almost whereas the Large white was striking pure white with black wing edges visible even in flight. The path then threw up the usual smattering of Small Torts (5 in total) and a couple of Peacocks. When I reached the far end I finally found what I was looking for. Up ahead were a couple of lbj’s having scrap, spiralling over and over each other.

Almost at the end of the path there were another air of combatants and as I approached they broke apart and headed into opposite directions. Luckily I managed to follow one with my eyes and it must have felt a little depleted after its previous exertions and so too nectar from a Dandelion. This gave me the ideal opportunity to get in real close.

Happy with my find I took the short cut back through the housing estate and just as I was about to walk back onto the premises proper a Holly Blue caught my attention and then of all things a female Orange –tip flew into view and investigated some Cuckoo flower that I never knew flowered here – perhaps Orange-tips are going to be easier next year? She was very flighty and the wind kept swinging her backwards and forwards like she was on a playground ride so all I could manage was a record shot but it was a first for this part of the ‘school patch’.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

HI Wurzel,

Keep that camera handy, there's a Holly Blue near you! , they seem to be everywhere at the moment.
No Dukes last week , hopefully tomorrow,

Best wishes,
TREVOR.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Trevor Hopefully I'll get my Dukes now

Way home 28-04-2015

I’ve been a bit busy over the last couple of weeks at work – in fact things have been really hectic and so it’s seems like an age since I’ve stopped off at Enford when in actuality it’s only been 11 days. I’m trying to get home as quickly as possible as the Lime Plasterers are in and so I have to clean through behind them and set the TV, DVD and sofa up. But tonight I did stop off for a couple of minutes. it started off well enough with a Green-veined White slightly further up along the road.

Then it got really good with an absolutely cracking Orange-tip which settled three times! In fact the only reason it took off the second time was because a Bee bothered it. I would have cursed that Bee if it hadn’t then settled on the bank slightly further up the road! Once it had taken off I walked beside it and watched it as it patrolled up the road. It would fly in a diagonal line up the bank, circle a flower a couple of times and then fly back down to the road before flying along parallel with the road for a short distance and then it would repeat the whole procedure again. Luckily it did stop for the third time and there weren’t any interfering bees around this time so I was able to get in really close a second time!

Have a goodun

[Paul Harfield]

Hi Wurzel
Just Catching up. That third Green Veined White on Cow Parsley? is super Also love your 'in flight' Speckled Wood