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Great Skipper selection Mike, love the group shots. And some stunning Blue's.

Cheers, Wurzel, glad you got to see a Mazarine Blue in the Dordogne, we didn't find any there

It must have been fantastic to see dozens of Turquoise Blues at one site, David.

Thanks, Andrew, groups of butterflies mud-puddling are amazing to see, pity this doesn't happen much in the UK.



Fritillary-wise in the Pyrenees, we didn’t see that many different species. Perhaps we didn’t visit the right places or perhaps we were there at the wrong time. The most common by a long way was the Heath Fritillary, closely followed by the lovely and numerous Spotted Fritillary.


These were the only species of Fritillary that we saw in the Pyrenees.

I have been enjoying your Fritillaries from the Pyrenees.
Your image of the Spotted Fritillary underside is stunning !.

Keen to see more,
Trevor.

I agree with Trevor that Spotted Frit underside is a cracker Mind you the Marbled underside shot is none too shabby Having just about worked out how to separate Heath, Meadow and Kanpwed Frit from each other how do you go about the doing the same for False Heath? :shock:Is it because on the underside working in from the leading edge is goes creamy yellow and then white whereas Heaths have the same creamy white in both those layers?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Glad you're enjoying them, Trevor. The Spotted Fritillary is a stunning and very variably marked butterfly.

Yes they're both stunners, Wurzel The way I understand ID's for the Heaths, is:-

The False Heath Frit. hind wing u/s, row 2 lunules (from the edge) shaded with red, have a black spot inside. Also the amount of orange t/s hindwing is reduced - more brown.

The Heath Frit. hind wing u/s, row 2 lunules (from the edge) shaded with red, have no black spots inside. The
outlines of the lunules are very black too.

You can certainly see this clearly on the underside shot of the Heath - no black spots inside red shaded lunules with heavy black outlines.
If you look closely at the underside of the False Heath,you can see it has black spots.
Not sure if my terminology is correct?

It takes a lot of time determining ID's of some continental species when you've not seen them before

Mike

Brilliant as soon as you pointed it out I could see it straight away Cheers for the tip I'll store that little gem away for the future and hopefully I'll get to use it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Yep - It's the Spotted Frit for me too. Its a beautiful thing and a brilliant, sharp shot of it too. Wonderful stuff.

I'm surprised you didn't see more Frits in the Pyrenees, Mike. Even so, those are good images of the Lesser Marbled Fritillary. These critters are normally very unhelpful to photographers with their propensity to fly around endlessly and settle for short periods only.

My vote is for the Spotted Fritillary too, Mike - ever since seeing fresh males in Corfu in 1971 (!!) I have thought them stunning, and that one certainly is too.

Dave

Glad it's of help, Wurzel

Thanks, Ernie, it's a lovely looking frit for sure

Me too, David, I thought we might see Weaver's or Queen of Spain.

Thanks for your vote for the Spotted frit, Dave Corfu 1971 eh



Old Winchester Hill - 21st Aug.



A visit to OWH today found us walking along the top path from the carpark. In previous years we’ve seen Silver-spotted Skippers and Adonis Blue along here, but not today! We did however find two nice Painted Ladies and a few small Heaths.

Making our way to the hill fort we passed through the gate into the south meadow, noting that sheep were already grazing here. At the top of the meadow it appeared that the sheep had grazed off a lot of the wild flowers, leaving little nectar for insects. Further down The slope we found more flowers, including plenty of Scabious and Marjoram, and that’s where we found our first Adonis Blues and some Silver-spotted Skippers, mainly males of each.

When I reached the bottom of the meadow I bumped into the guy walking his transect. We got chatting about the Adonis Blues we had seen and he informed me that these were a result of a 2012 introduction. Previous introductions had apparently taken place in 1981 and 2002, which had both failed. Apparently with the 1981 introduction the butterfly had at first flourished with it’s numbers building quickly but then just as quickly it dramatically declined until in 1988 there were no recorded sightings. This pattern was also repeated with the second introduction. Apparently since the 2012 introduction numbers have been building slowly, for reasons unknown, and there was hope that this time a stable population would result. His parting words were that if this introduction did fail it may be the last attempt!

By this time it was getting late so we made our way to the bottom of the car park slope, seeing a flypast by a single Clouded yellow along the way. Here we found more Adonis males and some Chalkhill Blues in reasonable condition, along with several mating pairs. We also found two mating pairs of Adonis which was good to see and bodes well for their future. What really surprised us however was the amount of Silver-spotted skippers in this area. Along with many males were some very fresh looking females, some egg-laying in the grasses.

Numbers wise we saw twenty Adonis Blue males and a single female in the south meadow, and eight Silver-spotted Skippers.

At the car park slope we saw ten Adonis males and two mating pairs. Silver-spotted Skippers numbered at least 30 plus, but that’s right up the slope of the hillside to the gate at the top, however they whizz around so fast that counting them is far from easy!

It's easy to see that those are two different Painted Ladies Mike; the first looks a bit swarthy and the second has blue spots in the hind wing spots Great set of images as always but that final one of the SSS is a beaut Fingers crossed the Adonis hold on...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Well done, Mike. You got an Adonis with the black spots on the hindwing margins.

Thanks, Wurzel, fingers crossed indeed.

Thank’s for pointing that out, David, I think that’s a first for me.



Hautes-Pyrenees - July 2018


Although we didn’t see many different types of ringlet in the Pyrenees, trying to identify those that we did see has been quite challenging. Some appear at first glance to be quite similar and there also seems to be a fair bit of variation within each species, just to make identification a little bit more difficult! So If I’ve got any wrong please feel free to correct me.


This one I'm not sure of unless it's Bright-eyed again?

Whilst they are right pains to identify they certainly are subtley attractive butterflies and those shots are lush Mike
I only have very limited experience of this group so I wouldn't even know where to begin to start identifying them, sorry I can't be much help..

Have a goodun

Wurzel

One Ringlet that can't be mistaken is the Brassy Ringlet.
All the colours of a Rainbow can be seen from certain angles.
Getting near one is a challenge though !.

Great reports from the Pyrenees,
Trevor.

I agree with your IDs, Mike, but that Yellow Spotted Ringlet is most surprising. I'm aware there is a form where the markings are scant (or even absent) but it's quite a surprise to see one staring me in the face like this.

Excellent find.

Great shots of those beautiful Fritillaries and Ringlets Mike. And a very nice selection from OWH.

A pain to ID but I agree with you about their subtle beauty, Wurzel

They do live up to their name, Trevor, and they are a bit flighty.

Thanks, David, that form of Yellow-spotted Ringlet was a surprise to us too.

Thanks, Andrew, for your comments regarding the Pyrenees and OWH



Hautes-Pyrenees – 2018

The following are a few of the other species seen during our stay.


Pearly Heath was seen at most sites and is a lovely looking little butterfly.



Large Wall Brown we encountered a few times, mainly at higher altitudes.



This was the only Southern White Admiral of our visit.



We only saw a handful of Marbled Whites!



A single Comma and Small Tortoiseshell!



Wood Whites and male Orange-tips were encountered reasonably often. The latter never stopped anywhere very near, but it was novel to see them flying in mid-July.



It was great to see Owl flies and Black Redstarts, too.


During our week in the Hautes-Pyrenees we saw a total of 55 different butterfly species. Although this may not seem a great total given the amazing and varied habitat available, 23 of these species were lifers for us

On reflection we should perhaps have spent another week in the Pyrenees exploring habitat such as this stunning glacial valley pictured below, but I suppose you have to save some for the next time

Another fantastic selection Mike - I wouldn't know where to start with the compliments I know what you mean about having to leave something for next time the only problem is the next time doesn't seem to come quickly enough

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Excellent reportage, Mike. I've thoroughly enjoyed it. I only get to the Pyrenees in late spring so it's interesting to see what species are around later in the year, and you've a couple that would have been lifers for me too!