www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Two sites visited today.

First was Haddon Hill in Somerset:

Heath Fritillary 12-18
Large Skipper 5-10
Green Hairstreak 3
Red Admiral 2
Small White 1

Next up was Collard Hill, which was surprisingly quiet:

Meadow Brown 20-40
Common Blue 5-10
Ringlet 2
Small Tortoiseshell 2
Clouded Yellow 2
Small Heath 2
Large Skipper 1
Marbled White 1
Red Admiral 1
Large Blue 1
Speckled Wood 1

Old Castle Down, Near Bridgend, South Wales In a week that I sighted five of our British fritillary species Small-pearl Bordered, Marsh, Heath, Dark Green & High Brown - today rounded it off with a morning visit to this lovely location. At least 30 High Brown Fritillary and similar numbers of Dark Green Fritillary were highly active in the hot sunshine it was only when the cloud cover helped that they settled long enough for a few images.

I will try to give a fuller account of my past weeks activity for those interested when I catch up with my Personal Diary once time allows for now here are a few shots to be getting on with

Bill

"When in Doubt...venture out"

Wow - stunning, Bill.

Today, I followed your mantra and when in doubt, I headed out. It wasn't promising with grey skies and the odd spot of drizzle but I was determined to see some Silver Studded Blues. Fairmile Common didn't disappoint, with 8 males seen and the hoped for one bright (not sunny) spell brought a few out to play, briefly.

My summer begun on Friday evening with a late afternoon into sunset stroll around Howell Hill in Ewell, with many fresh Small Tortoiseshell, 1 fresh Comma and my first Meadow Browns of the year followed by unexpectedly, several mint fresh Marbled Whites. Made my evening!

Photos to follow in due course (I'm still about a month and many trips behind).

Lee

What a surprising weekend it has been for Black Hairstreak! I began the day with my transect at Woodwalton. Approaching the edge of a wooded area I stirred a Black Hairstreak It flitted around in the grass before heading off into Riddy Wood. This is a good 1.5 kilometres away from Monks Wood as the butterfly flies
Still plenty around in Monks Wood today, one in the car park, so despite the poor weather conditions they do still fly if it is warm enough and as mentioned in an earlier post quite late into the afternoon/early evening. Until last Friday was convinced you needed sun and timing around midday to get a photo opportunity. I stand corrected
Females down in overcast conditions with quite brief periods of sunshine

Sapperton Glos today.

Not the best weather yesterday(14/6/14) with light drizzle on an off through the day, but a couple of breaks in the clouds did produce some brief sunshine!

The day was all about the Marbled Whites though, with very good numbers showing...I reckon there could have been up to 50 seen on the day too, including several females.
Very little else was sighted on the wing, just 2 Common Blues(male an female) and 2 Meadow Browns, so if the marbled whites had not of shown, then the day would have been a "wash out".

Location - Darland Banks, Gillingham, Kent.

A couple of photos, both pics are not cropped. Cheers Paul.

Small PBF Isle of Mull 15th June

Purely a record shot. Three seen alongside road to Glengorm (initially spotted from car by wife). She later saw one (no reason to doubt her i/d) in a garden in Tobermory not 200 metres from our house.

Jack

This was the first Ringlet I saw this year - is it ab. arete?

Matsukaze wrote:This was the first Ringlet I saw this year - is it ab. arete?

Great 'spot', Matsukaze! Definitely an ab.

Fenn's Moss and the large heaths have emerged. These fellows must be world champs at "almost settling" - then when one does it flies away before you can get a shot. This was the best I could do not helped by forgetting my macro and having to make do with mediocre kit lens. Also lots of meadow brown, ringlet, a few brimstone, common blue - quite a few white-faced darters.

Hi Matsukaze,
Ab. arete it is. Nice example.
BWs, Neil

Mull Small PB Frits

Out again to visit the "new" habitat discovered only yesterday. On the Glengorm road.



They are real devils to photograph as the flowers, eg bugle, that they use for nectar are short and swamped by taller grasses.
It is seemingly impossible to "isolate" a butterfly from the background.



I would doubt that even DSLR users (with the small depth of field) would have too much success in this location.

Jack

Superb images of the Black Hairstreak PhilB & Ros, I'm sure you have some type of spell to charm them with

Great reports coming in from so many other UK Butterfly members at present and the fine photo's are a joy to view too

Bill

"When in doubt...venture out"

Thank you Bill. As the old saying goes, the harder you work the luckier you seem to get. Many hours put in but well worth it. I should like to add my thanks to all the people on here who take time to post sightings and write diaries, it's what makes this site so great

Amazing, isn't it? On 30th June LAST year I visited Whitecross Green Wood and saw about a dozen Black Hairstreaks in perfect weather conditions (wall to wall sunshine and mid 20s).

Yesterday, twice that number were seen in the M40 Compensation Area at the back end of Bernwood Forest, a couple of miles down the road, in overcast conditions.

In a 6 hour visit, less than an hour was what one might term reasonable conditions for watching butterflies, but the Hairstreaks were fine so long as the cloud was of the whitish variety - once the grey stuff descended, your only chance was to stumble upon one on a wild privet spray.

I still believe this weekend may present a good opportunity to see this species. Certainly a few seen yesterday appeared in very good condition.

Very few other butterflies seen and those that were were generally ones 'flushed' out of the grasses. Single figure Meadow Browns, Ringlets, Speckled Woods, Marbled Whites & Large Skippers, although there was a welcome Comma seen nectaring on privet amidst the warring Black Hairstreaks.

This one is rather interesting; among the High Brown Fritillary I saw at Old Castle Down, Near Bridgend last Saturday was this heavily marked individual, this is about the best shot I managed to get as it was rather active in the heat. I will leave it to others to advise if it warrants the status of an abberation.
Bill

"When in doubt...venture out"

That's definitely some kind of ab, Bill, though quite which one I'm not sure.

Every year the Alun Valley site seems to throw up a few heavily marked individuals. Maybe there's a local freak gene at work?

Here's one I saw last year for example:

Dark Green Fritillary have started to emerge at Hutchinson's Bank, Croydon. Other Butterflies seen today, Plenty of Ringlet, Marbled White, Small Tortoiseshell, and fresh Grizzled Skipper, and at Chapel Bank a Green Hairstreak.

Lots of speckled woods around at home - really pleasing after a lean couple of years.

Dropped into Danesway Bank near Sapperton in the Cotswold yesterday on the way home from Whitecross Green Wood to look for Large Blue. Being used to driving a few miles up the road to Collared Hill to see this species it was nice to look elsewhere. Like at Whitecross Green Wood the conditions were far from ideal, though we did manage to locate four, none of which were doing very much and speaking to another couple there they'd seen another six in a different part of the reserve. Marbled White, Small Heath, Common & Small Blue and Meadow Brown also present. A nice reserve in a nice part of the UK.
Roger