Bugboys mission

[bugboy]

Hi Buggy,

I see you have been busy, and a lot of lovely lovely photos.

The two photos depicting the Orange-tip larva, are both 1st instars, the 2nd of the two is very close to it's first moult.

All the best, Nick.

Thanks Nick, I'd have put money in you being able to confirm or correct my instar guesses! Didn't realise OT's changed colour that much in the first instar!

Excellent, diverse range of images there, Bugboy.

Your diary is fast becoming a 'must read'.

Ummmmm

Thanks David

[Pauline]

I definitely agree with David - your diary is informative, interesting and entertaining - oh, and I love that shot of the mole

[bugboy]

I definitely agree with David - your diary is informative, interesting and entertaining - oh, and I love that shot of the mole

Thank you Pauline I'm glad I'm keeping people entertained on here, I enjoy writing my posts.

Tonights is very short, I have a LOT of pictures to sift through after having an extremely enjoyable and productive day at Wurzels Marshie site, but as a taster here's the first Marsh Fritillary I have ever seen, the first of MANY!

More tomorrow hopefully

[David M]

Find one Marshie and you normally find quite a few.

I'm glad you notched up a lifer, Bugboy. This species is one of the most rewarding when you see it for the first time.

[bugboy]

Very true David!

'Wurzels Marshie site' 30th May part 1

This is the longest distance I've travelled to see a butterfly so far and as a non driver, had been planned for a couple of months in advance. A friend from work had offered to drive me and so for the past week I'd been keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast which seemed to vary on a daily basis. By the Friday though, it seemed that luck was on my side and Saturday was forecast to be a sunny window in a run of not so good days!

The plan was to get there early, ideally around 10 so I could get a feel for the site. We left at 7.30 am (I have very understanding friends ) and got there 2 hours later. I'd been promised a good experience from this site and with reports over the past few weeks seemingly living up to this I got out of the car excitedly only to look at the sky and see an inordinate amount of ominous dark clouds. Still we weren’t going to waste a 2 hour drive so we took a walk up the hill, giving my friend my binoculars to be the twitcher for the day.
Following Wurzels directions we walked up the sheltered path to where it opened out and...... felt the bloody cold wind that was blasting across the hillside! Occasional sunny spells didn’t make much of a difference to the temperature but did wake up my very first Marsh Fritillary (See previous post) which I found low down in the grass, making the most of what sun there was. As I took a few record shots my friend called out asking if this was one as well. Sure enough she had found another one, still roosting so I took some more shots of that one before moving on.

One thing we did see where a lot of 5 spot Burnet moths with a High proportion having merged spots. Given the time of year these could well be the rarer species, Zygaena trifolii ssp palustrella.

As we walked around we did see a few more Marshies when the sun made brief appearances, all low down sheltering from the cold wind, every one photographed just in case this was a good as it was going to get!

even the ones which had seen better days!

Birdlife was reasonably plentiful with various farmland species you don’t see in London, Yellowhammers and Corn Buntings singing and we also flushed up a pair of Grey Partridge, a species I haven’t seen since I was a kid.

As time went on the sunny spells became longer and with a large blue patch appearing suddenly we started seeing Marshies everywhere, almost erupting from the turf, finally the promised experience. I was know in my element now:

even my friend was getting her own special Marshie experience!

and a mating pair making it a hatrick of lifers this year with a mating sighting

A couple of hours had passed now and since I had also promised my friend a pub lunch we decided to make our way back to the car and have a look around the local town. Now every step was producing more Marshies and we were having to watch where we walked. With so many it's easy to see just how variable they are. Even my friend was noticing the variation between individuals.

About halfway down, as I was photographing a male Common Heath moth

she pointed out a flash of sky blue and a beautiful male Adonis Blue settled next to the path and proceeded to show off for us. He was very accommodating and allowed lots of nice close-ups. He also happened to be my first Adonis for 2015.

And just a little further I found a little Marshie cat trundling casually along the path so it would seem the flight period still has a few more weeks to go!

More to come....

[Willrow]

Don't you just love Marshies now Buggy I'm delighted your well organised day went well for you

Regards,

Bill

"When in doubt - venture out"

[Goldie M]

I envey you your Marshies Buggy I haven't seen them for about 3years now Goldie

[bugboy]

Thanks Bill

Sorry Goldie..... but here's part 2 of my Marshie trip

'Wurzels Marshie site' 30th may part 2

Being a Londoner it’s easy to forget you get more for your money in more rural parts of the country so it was with very full tummies that we returned to the site a few hours later, eager to burn off a few caleries! The weather was much improved now, although still blustery, the sun was taking the nip out of it and there were still lots of fresh 5 Spot Burnets around:

The Main attractions were now very active and much more difficult to approach. For such a weak flying, flimsy looking butterfly they seemed to cope well with the wind.

We took a route around the front of the hill this time which seemed a bit more sheltered and we were rewarded with a bounty of species. My friend was doing as good job of spotting them as I was. Marshies were still by far the dominant species but now they were joined by Brown Argus, Adonis Blues, Common Blues, Small Blues, a few very old Dingy Skippers, some Small Heaths and some Green Hairstreaks as well as various whites, a male Orange-tip and a Peacock.

I found a lovely fresh female Adonis and followed her around for a bit.

She was looking to lay, but just like my Duchess a few days ago she vanished into the undergrowth to do the deed leaving me with this rubbish picture!

Oh well.

The male common Blues were all in very good condition,

as were the Small Blues,

and Brown Argus

but the 3 Green hairstreaks varied a little in condition... from

to a little haggered,

to barely recognisable!

As time wore on we started to think about setting of for the long journey back to London. Making our way back to the path down to where the car was parked I came across another 2015 first, a very fresh male Large Skipper, almost certainly less than 24 hours old.

Thus came the end to another great day out chasing butterflies so I shall end with a few more pictures of the stars of the show

Buggy

[millerd]

It's a great site, isn't it, Buggy! I'd say you saw a few more than I did two days earlier, despite Friday's rain and wind in between. Good stuff.

Dave

[bugboy]

After a small accident with boiling hot water and an unprotected foot last night I find myself housebound for a couple of days (phoned in sick today), but having been looking out the window for most the day it doesn't look like I was missing much outside.

Hopefully I shall be properly mobile again in a few days but in the meantime, since we are now half way through the year here's an updated tally of species I've seen so far this year:

1 Brimstone
2 Small Tortoiseshell
3 Red Admiral
4 Peacock
5 Small White
6 Comma
7 Green-veined White
8 Speckled Wood
9 Orange-tip
10 Holly Blue
11 Large White
12 Green Hairstreak (lifer)
13 Grizzled Skipper (lifer)
14 Dingy Skipper (lifer)
15 Small Copper
16 Small Heath
17 Brown Argus
18 Painted Lady
19 Pearl-bordered Fritillary (lifer)
20 Duke of Burgundy (lifer)
21 Wall
22 Glanville Fritillary (lifer)
23 Common Blue
24 Small Blue (lifer)
25 Marsh Fritillary (Lifer)
26 Adonis Blue
27 Large Skipper

It's all going rather well

[Maximus]

Looks like you're doing very well. That's a great Marsh Fritillary site and you certainly filled your boots with them. I hope your foot heals quickly

[bugboy]

Looks like you're doing very well. That's a great Marsh Fritillary site and you certainly filled your boots with them. I hope your foot heals quickly

Oh it is a fab site and yes I did fill my boots with them. After sifting through and binning all the rubbish I was still left with over 100 pictures of them

[Wurzel]

Great to see another happy customer Buggy! Did you try the Pelican? Geat shots and some really nice variants in there - really like the white spotted one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Some great shots Buggy, lots more than me lots of lifer's too for you , that's great, Goldie

[Paul Harfield]

Hi Bugboy
Just catching up with your diary. Looks like you are having a great season so far (apart from the boiling water incident of course ). 8 lifers and a basket full of Marsh Fritillaries, what more could one want. I am very envious Good luck for the rest of the season and hope your foot recovers quickly

[bugboy]

Hutchinsons Bank 3rd June

I had been planning a long trek down on Box Hill today, having not visited for quite a while, but after my mishap with the hot water and foot I figured a shorter trip closer to home would be a safer bet, so of I went for probably my final fix of Glanvilles for the year. I arrived quite early, around 10.30 and saw nothing for half an hour. The clouds had decided to make their presence felt and only the occasional sunny spell warmed the air for a bit. The odd Dingy Skipper buzzed past and a faded Green Hairstreak made an appearance, briefly settling in front of me:

This one was actually my first one from this site.

Some more wandering revealed not much at all for another half hour or so. An old female Holly Blue made a brief appearance:

and I did disturb this mating pair of Pugs. I've tried identifying them from my books but to be honest I'm still non the wiser as to what species they are, maybe someone else on here will have an idea?

A Green-veined White stopped off for some refreshments:

and a Small Blue settled in front of me, just at the moment the battery in my camera decided to die. He'd buggered off by the time I'd replaced it so, still waiting for the sun to come out properly, I decided to go over to the cutting, one of the sites hot spots.

Just as I arrived the clouds cleared and the temperature soured. A couple of Brimstones were flitting around and I disturbed another nice small blue, this time I got a few shots.

A rather gravid female Cinnabar Moth was flying around, obviously looking for some ragwort on which to lose some weight on!

Still no Glanvilles though so perhaps the short flight season had actually ended. It was nearly noon so I decided to head off and and explore the wood opposite where I found my White Admiral larvae a few months back.

As often happens, just when you decide it's a no show, one appears and one did, a nice fresh male so just for Wurzel

Enough with the Glannies you're killing me

here's a selection from what will probably be my final encounter this year with an adult Glanville Fritillary.

and as an extra special treat for Wurzel, here's a few attempts at stained glass Glanvilles

The ever present Mrsp0ck made an appearance (he's almost as common as Glanvilles in these parts!) showing another butterflier around and we shared the male for a bit before going our seperate ways.

I still wanted to see if I could find any White Admiral activity in the wood so I spent half an hour wandering around. It's much more overgrown than earlier in the season and I wasn't able to get to most of the honeysuckle without lacarating my legs on the thick Bramble undergrowth. Oh well, I satisfied my curiosity with looking at the other invertebrate life lurking in the undergrowth. There were lots of these funky looking weevils, Hazelnut Weevils I believe.

a Green Shieldbug

and a few Mirid Bugs
this one has a ridiculously long scientific name, Dryophilocoris flavoquadrimaculatus

and this one Rhabdomiris striatellus, shows it's not just lepidoptera that sometimes have issues expanding their wings

So farewell Glanvilles, look forward to seeing you again next year

[MrSp0ck]

We had a fresh female glanville later this afternoon, as well as about 4 or 5 fresh males, the female had just emerged [just missed pictures of her expanding her wings] and her first flight was up into a bush. I have put pictures on the June Sightings post.

The Ringlets, Marbled Whites, Dark Green Frits, Meadow Browns are all due out around the 14th so more to add to your list soon

[Katrina]

Great Glanville photos too! . I particularly like the first one.

[Wurzel]

You can go off people you know Bugboy I have come to peace with not seeing Glannies this year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

You've ticked off quite a few lifers thus far in 2015, Bugboy. How many do you have left?