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Hi Dave, nice fresh looking Small Whites there. Finally saw a few more Commas myself this afternoon, they have been a bit thin on the ground around my patch so far this year.

Cheers,

Neil.

Those Small Whites look mint Dave, they even have the marginal hairs Did you check them in case they were Southerners - I've been doing that loads recently

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks for the kind comments, all.

Another week gone now, and there are still some fresh butterflies out there. On Friday, I spotted a Speckled Wood and then a Small White close to my son's school when picking him up, and then on Saturday despite cloudy conditions there was a Red Admiral high up on some ivy close to home.

Sunday 11th October gave me the opportunity for a proper wander round my local patch in some decent sunshine, though as promised it was a bit cooler than recently. I saw four Red Admirals and three Commas, plus one Speckled Wood in flight. All but the Speckled Wood (which was really too difficult to judge) were new-looking specimens: in fact one Comma may have been very newly emerged if the spots of liquid on its leaf are meconium shed after leaving the chrysalis. One of the others was very much darker than average, unusual as there is normally nothing like as much variety in the winter brood. One Red Admiral was initially spotted on the ground, apparently taking moisture from the path. It then flew up to bask. The others were nectaring on ivy, as they will no doubt continue to do in sunny weather until the flowers go. Dave

Great that you're still seeing Commas, Dave. They seem to have disappeared in my neck of the woods.

David M wrote:Great that you're still seeing Commas, Dave. They seem to have disappeared in my neck of the woods.

Great that you're seeing anything since it all seems to have disapperaed from my neck of the woods!

It's still happening round here too Dave loads of RA"s , I think your Comma must be a fresh one, it was only about 3/4 weeks ago I saw some Comma Cat's they were quite large and since then I've had some in the Garden Goldie

Great shots Dave especially the proboscis curler

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks, everyone. Only a week ago, but it seems a world away... It's been a chilly and mostly cloudy week.

Sunday 18th October: Despite some fairly warm sunshine today, I scanned the ivy for Commas and Red Admirals and saw nothing. However, with my eyes pointing upwards, I overlooked a Small Tortoiseshell nectaring on a dandelion by my feet. I haven't seen one here for about three months, so it was a pleasant surprise. It didn't stay put and led me a merry dance across the field, disappearing completely when the sun went in. So sadly no photo. With luck, it will appear in the same spot in spring - where I normally see the first ones of the year.

Dave

With all the excitement down on the south coast, where have I been over the last few days? Yorkshire... However, it's been great to catch up with all the splendid photos of LTBs that others have taken, and it would be terrific if the weather kept them coming for a few more days. Anyway, Yorkshire was also sunny and mild, and there were a few butterflies to be seen nectaring on the ivy in my sister's garden.

On Saturday 25th October, there were a couple of Red Admirals. I also found a few white butterfly chrysalids in the front porch.
On the following day, it was the turn of a Comma and another Red Admiral. A Peacock was also disturbed from an outhouse, but was too flighty for a photo. Dave

Nice to see the Red Admirals and Comma Dave Looking forward to your LTB

Have a goodun
Wurzel

Hi Dave,

I love those Commas against the blue sky, especially the second shot.

Cheers,

Neil

HI Dave;

'Spotting when they ease those wings open'

That's a good description of how the Holly Blue does open up. Rather like the
Brown Hairstreak, very slowly. The tense moment comes as you wait, camera ready,
will it open up fully before flying off !. Very often only a partial opening is all you'll
get. A frustrating but interesting little Butterfly.

All the best,
Trevor.

PS. Coming to Windover Hill next year ?.

Well, it had to be done. A nice sunny day for once, so it was off down the road to Wisley for a therapeutic dose of winter butterflies.

I say winter - it seemed more like spring, with daffodils, crocuses and baby irises out. Many trees and shrubs were also in bloom, or just coming into flower, including a lovely display of camelias and the odd magnolia (especially my favourite, the stellata variety). Various scented shrub varieties were in flower too and the breeze was quite aromatic in places. But I digress...

The queue for the butterflies was advertised as 50 minutes at the main entrance to the gardens, but in reality it was only 20, if that. Once inside, however, there were a lot of people packed together in the warmth and humidity. This did not make for relaxed photography, but at least modern technology meant most folk did not feel the need to get that close to the insects. There was nothing unusual flying today, but here is a selection. I have identified what I can with the aid of the supplied guide, but all observations/corrections are welcome. One or two were not on the guide at all. The following unknown species had a glorious blue/purple patch on the forewing in certain lights A group of five gathered together for some reason. I'm not sure about any of these. A pleasant interlude before the season kicks off - perhaps only a month away...

Dave

Hi Dave

Great shots. I visited earlier in the week and have had a lot of help from Martin and Guy in trying to identify these. I believe/think your unidentified ones are Great Eggfly (Brown), Great Eggfly (Blue) and Pink Rose. Guy kindly sent me a link to his own photos from a butterfly house which is incredibly useful - you will find it in my diary.

The Tiger Mimic Queen (Lycorea haia cleobaea) is not that, its a form of Heliconius Ismenius, as the wing shape is heliconid and not what is listed which has broader forewings. They were also egg laying on the Passiflora alata, the mimic doesnt feed on Passionflowers as they are too toxic, thats why its mimicing the heliconius.

There is a picture of this form on this link http://www.heliconiusworks.com/pages/c_species.htm

The Unidentified ones are

The Heliconid i would say is Small Postman, H. erato, but they are always difficult to tell apart from the postman, without seeing egg laying, the pupae, or picking the females up and smelling them [ ive not done the latter], when a female is picked up two yellow scent glands appear from the end of the body.

Great Morman [P. memnon]
The others are mostly Great Eggfly as Pauline has said, the male is the one with the 4 egg patches on the wings, the female is the blue wing patch version.

Did you visit the Butterfly Conservation people stranded in the Hatching area.

Fantastic images Dave - they're making rue the gales and rain outside even more Still shouldn't be long now, maybe five more weeks til things really start kicking off

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Great way to spend the day Millerd out of the cold winds and rain, with such lovely Butterflies, Goldie

Thanks for the ID info, Mr Sp0ck. I won't correct my labelling on here as your amendments are immediately below, but will do so on my own copies. I didn't get a chance to chat with the BC people, as their table was busy when I passed through - I had to admire the variety of citrus trees instead.

Wisley was actually shut yesterday because of the windy weather. Ever since a nasty accident at Kew involving a branch breaking off a tree, no one will take any chances.

Thanks for your kind comments Wurzel and Goldie - it does make a big difference to the winter blues to see some colourful butterflies and the sunshine made a big difference too. Though they do fly in these glasshouses when it's cloudy, a bit of sun wakes them up properly and suddenly there are four times as many as you thought they were.

Dave

The Citrus medica is very impresive, people were asking if they were giant lemons, ive always wanted to grow that species. Last year the citrus plants got laid on by escapee swallowtails, that we put back into the main display area, but they were laying for about 30 minutes before they were in reach.

I hope to have tropical butterflies again in my greenhouses when the weather warms up in the spring.

Getting twitchy now - another chilly day with deceptive strong sunshine from time to time, but no butterflies. I had a trawl today through a few other photos taken during the winter, but nothing much sprang out. An odd selection:

Firstly a frosty day on 22nd November up at Hindhead Common. I'd forgotten that before the record-breaking warm December, there had been a couple of cold November days. I came across a curious stone commemorating a murder, and a Robin doing a bit of pre-Christmas posing. Next up is a particularly bright parhelion (sundog, or false sun) seen from home on 16th January. It appeared brighter than the real sun, which is in the picture behind cloud cover. Finally, one morning when taking my son to school, I noticed a particular evergreen tree that I'd somehow overlooked before. It looked familiar, but rather out of place in a suburban front garden. Closer scrutiny revealed the presence of plump black shiny fruit - it was indeed a sizeable olive tree, complete with olives which appeared to be ripe. I know olives are quite hardy (down to minus 10), but I have never see such a large one growing in the ground in the UK, nor one bearing ripe fruit. Roll on spring...

Dave