www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

A couple of hours today with my youngest daughter was enjoyably spent at Denbies hillside. The sun was shining brightly and the butterflies were making the most of it. Good numbers of meadow browns and small heath were around when we first arrived. I hadn't expected to see much in the way of butterflies today as I thought they would all be over by now but boy, was I wrong! Chalkhill, common, adonis and holly blues were flying as were brown argus, gatekeeper, speckled wood, whites and small copper. I was surprised by just how many chalkhill blues were still around. Then a brown hairstreak threw itself out of a hedge at me and I knew I was in business. I spotted a mothy-thing buzzing around and waited til it settled - it was a silver spotted skipper. There were some male brimstones around in lovely condition who seemed intent on feeding up and were no where near as active as the spring ones I had chased without success. My daughter took my little camera and enjoyed herself taking photos as well as catching crickets and watching lizards. Perhaps some of the nature-bug might wear off on her after all.

I was on Denbies today between about 1300 and 1500 hours after dropping off my daughter nearby. I almost certainly saw you two in the distance further west from where I was searching but it never crossed my mind that you were other than ramblers enjoying the sunny weather. But I spent more time chatting to people than taking pictures.

Adonis Blues were thin on the ground with only three definite males and three probable females. But as you say, Chalkhill were still abundant, although the males were very tatty. And those very fresh Meadow Browns – surely second brood? Plenty of Brown Argus and Small Heaths, one Holly Blue but no SS Skippers. No Brown Hairstreak either.

I hope your daughter does get the bug. There are far worse ways of wasting time.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote:I hope your daughter does get the bug. There are far worse ways of wasting time.

"Wasting time" Surely not!

Good on yer, Sooz

Cheers,

- Pete

It's one of my favourite wastes of time. The older I get the grumpier I seem to be; I'm not overkeen on very late nights and hate music so loud that I can't hear anyone else speak (unless it is played by me in my car ), anything which means I am likely to miss my dinner is automatically ruled out but butterflying still fills me with joy.

I am sorry that I missed you today, Jack. It was certainly a lovely day to be out at Denbies so I am glad that you got to enjoy it too. Unfortunately we cut back through the woods on the way back otherwise we would have probably passed you on the path. My camera battery died half way round right after taking the photo below and I didn't have a spare so enjoyed chatting to a couple of people too.

I thought what good nick some of the chalkhills were in. I had expected them to be finished by now but some looked very fresh indeed. I agree about the meadow browns, some looked absolutely mint.

Oh, btw, just a thought I wanted to mention ... how often are brown hairstreak master trees at the top of the hill?

A quick visit to Denbies yesterday turned up good numbers of butterflies again. Several silver spotted skippers and good numbers of fresh adonis and chalkhill blues around as well as the other species I saw yesterday apart from the brown hairstreak. It was a shame to have to drag myself away and go to work.

After half an hour unsuccessfully stalking a comma in the back garden on Saturday I decided this is a silly thing to do and joined a gym instead. That's me and butterflying finished!!!


Til next spring anyway x

Don't give up Susie! Those are lovely pictures you have taken and you have so many species that we don't get up here. Keep up the good work!

Never fear old chap, I can resist anything except for temptation and once a butterfly addict, always a butterfly addict. I'll be jolly surprised if I'm not back out there next year. And thanks.

A pristine small copper fed on the vebena bonariensis this afternoon and enjoyed the hot sunshine in the back garden today. It seemed a shame to have to spend part of the afternoon indoors but as it was the Sussex AGM I trundled off and wasn't disappointed. The hall was packed and it was great to see some familiar faces there. Under the skippership of the Mighty Hulme Sussex BC is going from strength to strength - both in numbers of members and achievements - and it is wonderful to see butterfly numbers of rarities such as the Duke of Burgundy rising here; long may it continue. Patrick Barkham gave a very enjoyable talk and brought back happy memories of seeing the Queen of Spain last year. I was glad to get in early and get a signed copy of his book before they sold out. However, the main event had to be Michael Blencowe's talk. I didn't think it was possible to top last year's but, boy, did he and then some! It was thoroughly entertaining and all the more to Michael's credit considering that he was carrying an injury incurred at a work party this morning. However, I do now have a vision of Kipper's alter ego burned into my brain which is most disturbing.

The afternoon was only marred by a gentleman who took a tumble in the carpark, but he seemed to be in very capable hands as Kipper and BC members took care of him as I left. I hope he was alright and only shaken.

After a brief taste of summer and such a lovely afternoon I felt quite sad to leave, it feels like such a long time until I'll see my fellow butterfly enthusiast buddies and indeed butterflies again.

Not a lot to report over the last couple of months, other than finding some more brown hairstreak eggs.

Recently we took in two under weight hedgehogs. Sadly one of them died last week but the other one is doing well and putting on plenty of weight. The snow has all but gone now, but we had nearly a foot and it was fun while it lasted.

I defrosted and refilled the bird bath on Wednesday night, on Thursday morning it was like this

Neil must have spoken to the weather fairies again as despite this freezing cold snap we've been having today was positively mild. It was perfect weather for hunting for brown hairstreak eggs and that was the plan at Steyning rifle range where a decent sized group of people gathered to be led by Neil Hulme and Michael Blencowe on a Sussex BC event. We were shown where to look, what to look for and what to look on. Before long cries of one here, two there, or even four on this one were ringing out. A microscope linked up to a laptop provided excellent close up images of the eggs.

At lunchtime the group broke up and on my way home I decided to stop off at Southwater to see if I could find any brown hairstreak eggs. I've never been to Southwater in the winter and it felt slightly odd without it's high summer canopy of leaves, flowers and butterflies. Once into my stride though I soon felt more at home and despite the mud trying to slurp my wellies off I bimbled on feeling utterly peaceful and at home. I had ear marked the site as being potentially good last summer and went straight to the spot where I had made a mental note to revisit. Voila! The first stem of blackthorn I looked at had a group of three eggs and a single egg on it. To say I was eggcited was an understatement. After searching the perimeter of the field I found a total of 11 eggs. I must admit to being a bit disappointed after such a flying start. Apart from the first cluster all the eggs were single and a fair distance apart, whereas I normally find that if there is one egg around there will be plenty more in the vicinity. A lot of the blackthorn was overhung by trees and the bushes were large and lichen covered which is never good. The small blackthorn whips that the butterflies prefer had been taken out when the field had been mown and I searched a few of the shredded twigs on the ground in the hope of rescuing any eggs there but didn't find anything other than a couple of moth eggs. As time was running out I made my way home but resolved to go back and check the adjacent field where the marbled whites fly in summer as this tends to be sunnier and the blackthorn will be more exposed.

I'm not really a birder but when a white tailed sea eagle turns up only half an hour away and it is a beautiful sunny morning it's simply too tempting to resist. As I pulled up by a group of birders I asked had they seen anything but they hadn't. I parked the car next to them, got out, and there it was flying, being hassled by corvids and with two buzzards flying next to it. By golly but it's a big critter. Great stuff!! Then it settled into a tree and sat there for the next hour without moving, so I went home. The birders there were a lovely bunch and were very generous with letting me view through their spotting scopes as my binos didn't have a hope.

Driving home from work today I was chuffed to bits to see a sundog. I just got a quick snap on my phone as I stopped at a road junction.

Susie:

I was chuffed to bits to see a sundog

Optical atmospheric effects are a great passion of mine. This is an excellent link:
http://www.atoptics.co.uk/

Sundogs (parhelia) are far more common than is often realised. From the air, are seen almost every flight that is at the right time of day as you fly through patches of cirrus. But that doesn't make them any less interesting.

The phenomenon I really enjoyed when flying was St.Elmo's Fire:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_fire
I would rather cruelly call the cabin crew to the flight deck on the pretence of wanting another coffee and said absolutely nothing to the girls when she came into the cockpit. Many were terrified by the light show as I pretended nothing was happening.

One day I couldn't resist calling one of the girls to the front to show her an interesting cloud formation. It was an exact phallic shape. She failed dismally in the attempt to stifle her giggles

Jack

all this talk of sun anomalies reminded me of a link a friend in canada sent to me. hope you don't mind my adding it.
http://worldwellnesssymposium.wordpress ... ire-light/

Happy Christmas

it's interesting stuff, isn't it Jack, and thanks for the links.

Those photos are stunning, Chris, the last one in particular.

That waterfall is amazing.

My friend Michael, who likes clouds and related phenomena, noticed a sundog in the summer this year when we were in Seven Sisters Country Park in the summer.

The strangest thing I've ever seen was in Leicester some years ago. There was a blanket of cloud but with a squarish hole right through it. On the inside walls of the void was a rainbow, quite beautiful.

Cheers

Lee

Today's (26th Dec) high cloud has the potential to produce some good sundogs this afternoon. But the cloud is thickening from the west so might spoil things if it becomes too thick.

Start looking from about 1430 hours, that is about 1.30 before sunset. Sundogs occur 22 degrees either side of the sun at the same angle above the horizon. Frequently one sundog is much brighter than the one on the other side. Indeed, sometimes only one side has a sundog.

If you are very lucky, the much rarer phenomenon of a 22 degree halo (or part of) can be see but this is not usually coloured except in the sundog location either side of the sun.

Jack

The conditions looked suitable when I was driving up to London at lunchtime but I didn't see anything. It was probably a bit early and watching the weather while driving is not really recommended anyway. I'll be looking out for them from now on anyway.