5th April, Bookham
I took a day off from butterflying yesterday after all the excitement of Monday. The weather seemed mostly cloudy so I did some housework, nothing like some hoovering and giving the bathroom a spring clean to bring back down to earth!
Anyway, today I visited Bookham and what a lovely day it was. Had I believed the forecast on my phone's weather app I may not even have left the house,
that app is now deleted!
It started off a bit chilly and for the first couple of hours all I disturbed was a male GVW and a Specklie.
As the day warmed up though so did the butterflies with Peacocks turning up regularly, probably 20+ by the end of the day and the occasional Specklie.
The odd male Orange-tip flew past but I was most surprised to find OT eggs already, mostly fresh and still white but I did come across one that had gone orange. I found seven or eight by the end of the day.
I checked on a few other eggs, The Brown Hairstreak egg close to the station has still to hatch but a twiny I re-located had, as had my Purple Hairstreak.
There was also evidence of life at the Small Copper nursery but no culprits were seen and no adults were seen either although it can only be a matter of days for them.
The next species to turn up was a Comma, the first of several, most of which seemed to be females. Perhaps the males have all worn themselves out into an early grave!
Following a couple of battling Specklies a Red Admiral swooped up into the tree tops from under my feet. It didn’t take long to descended again though. Just as I was taken her picture a Holly Blue appeared and settled close by. The dilemma now was how to get close to the Blue without disturbing the Admiral.
It proved impossible and the Blue shot after the Admiral only to drop down and start nectaring on some Celandine. He didn't pose well but it's not often you catch one nectaring so I recorded it for posterity nevertheless.
At one point there was a sudden disturbance in the avian world as a female Sparrowhawk drifted over the treetops
Now well after midday things were starting to warm up, Peacocks fighting over sunny glades left right and centre and back in the scrubby fields male Orange-tips flew past regularly, only stopping briefly to check out any spot of white which mostly turned out to be bird poo. The Peacocks and Commas which continued to annoy each other were now joined by the occasional Small Tort and at one point I had a triple nymphalid battle on my hands.
Despite all this action the day did feel a bit odd. Apart from Orange-tips there was a distinct lack of Pierids. Not a single Brimstone was seen and I only had one other unidentified white flyby. Also, despite almost every blackthorn being in full flower I had yet to see a single butterfly nectaring on it.
By now I was probably into Orange-tip double figures, only males though, and I noticed how one Cuckooflower seemed to be rather popular with surrounding ones all but ignored. A close inspection revealed a fresh egg, perhaps so fresh that essence of female still hung in the air around it
.
As the afternoon wore in I decided to do one more circuit of the scrub in the hope of catching some settled Orange-tips. True to form their batteries were starting to run low and several were settling to try and soak up the weakening sun and feed. Another odd moment was when I saw one nectaring on blackthorn, something I've never witnessed before. Shame he didn't come lower but still worth recording. When you think about it it’s not surprising it’s a rare sight, the two wouldn’t normally appear at the same time after all.
Others were feeding on more regular fare.
Elsewhere I finally had a peacock on blackthorn, just the one though. Out of 30+ Nymphalids seen this was the only one I saw feeding.
An interesting day but I left feeling something just wasn't quite right. I have to keep reminding myself its only just April. I think the warm March has skewed up the spring. It's interesting that the Orange-tips seem to have responded to this warm spell but other whites seem to be lagging behind on a more 'normal' emergence here. Could it be that Orange-tips do a lot of their developing over the summer in their pupae so they can ‘spring forth’ as soon as the warm weather appears in the spring whereas other whites don’t start developing until winter has ended? It would make sense for the Orange-tip since it’s larval food source is quite seasonally restricted unlike the others food sources. As for Brimstones I have no idea what's happened to them.