Cheers Philzoid
I reckon it was my years of Zen training, you know me 'Mr Chilled out'
Cheers Nick
There are a few more in the pipeline
Cheers Neil
Here is the next installment - I've been marking Mocks, ISAs and various other stuff for pretty much every waking minute recently
so it's taken me a bit of time to get his done.
The “Aristocrats”
14 White Admiral, 6th July Bentley Wood
It seems a shame to start with the White Admiral; a species that I love to watch as it bombs across the vegetation as if it’s doing a strafing run, because I had an uneasy feeling that it didn’t do particularly well in 2013. They were present in the usual sites and I also saw them just over the road from Martin Down at Kitts Wood but I can’t recall seeing as many of them as over the last couple of years.
I said at the top “a species that I love to watch” but it’s also one which I get very frustrated by when trying to photograph it as whenever I have encountered them they are always so active. Even when taking nectar from brambles they are constantly shuffling round the flower head or tilting this was and that to drain the sweet fluid. I think next year I need to try and get to the sites much earlier in the morning to try and catch them with their wings shut as I’m still lacking a shot of a really fresh individual in such a pose.
15 Purple Emperor, 14th July Bentley Wood
My initial shot below (just wings from a corpse) sums up how 2013 ran for me with His Nibbs. I made a couple of visits to Bentley Wood this year and after seeing a couple in the car park and another couple at Donkey Copse on my first visit I came away slightly frustrated as I only managed to get a couple of distant grab shots. Still there were good numbers as Bentley, probably slightly up on last year even if they were less obliging, unlike Fermyn which was just spectacular it seemed. Still I didn’t mind reading all the reports from up north as the following week I was making a return visit...
After a fantastic start waiting in the car park for Philzoid my hopes were really high as everything put in an appearance including two Emperors. So setting off we had got almost to the crossroads when we were called back by the girls as there was an Emperor on the path...well a set of wings at any rate. So I took a photo which served to remind me that while we were hunting Emperors for photography others were hunting them for food. After a few hours with Baitman and a few more sightings this proved to be the closest shot that I got all season. So I reckon a good year for His Nibbs even if they had all bu$$ered off to Fermyn! Next year I’ll be ready...
16 Red Admiral, 1st May Salisbury
There seems little point in comparing whether Red Admirals were early or late as they had such an abysmal year but for the sake of consistency there was almost a three month difference in their appearance. The 16th February in 2012 was quite early for them but I also saw them in March and April in 2012 unlike this year.
I was hoping that they might suddenly pick up as things warmed up or that their numbers would be swelled by migrating cousins but this never really seemed to happen. On a ‘good’ year I can count on seeing one or two at most sites, sometimes more, but that wasn’t to be this year. I was struggling to find any at some sites and when they did put in an appearance there was generally only a singleton. Looking back over my notes three records demonstrated to me how badly they were doing. First was that at Alners Gorse I saw one yet there were 2 Painted Ladies and at least 3 Clouded Yellows. Second it was a similar story at Martin Down with a singleton over three visits yet Clouded Yellows numbering a minimum of 3 and possible maximum of 7. The final record was a paltry 3 in my old garden at the tail end of the season whereas in 2012 I could see 7 in one gaze!
I’m not sure why the numbers were low? The winter got colder as it progressed and lasted into March and April so perhaps hibernators perished, starved or frozen? Alternatively their migration Northwards could have been the key, was there some climatic factor which meant that they just didn’t get here? Whatever the reason I only hope that they do a ‘Small Tortoiseshell’ next year.
17 Painted Lady, 7th August Ffos-y-ffin
Whilst I saw Painted Ladies at many more sights in 2013 than in previous years I was actually slightly disappointed with their numbers. Don’t get me wrong there were still more about than the last few years present but I seem to remember reading somewhere that good years for Cloudies are also good for Painted Ladies. So having seen reports as well as observing bucket loads of my own Cloudies I was hoping for many more Painted Ladies. About 4 or 5 years ago it was a particularly good year and there were present in 10’s and more everywhere yet this year despite seeing them at many more sights they were only singles or the occasional pair. Perhaps this was just a taster and there will soon be a major influx year when they’ll number in the thousands.
18 Small Tortoiseshell, 5th March Pewsey Vale School
While some will recall 2013 fondly for the good numbers of butterflies in the summer, the Cloudies or the Long Tailed Blues, for me 2013 was the year of the Small Tortoiseshell. For a few years whenever Small Torts were mentioned it was always in a concerned manner, phrases like ‘not as many as in my youth’, declined by 70% or serious drop in numbers were bandied around. Yet this year I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many. They’re never been a real problem to find but instead of seeing 2 or 3 in my old garden it was more like 5 or 6, and I saw them pretty much at every sight I visited. The most notable Small Tort event was on a visit to Five Rivers in May. I visited an area of Bramble hedge and saw plenty of Small Torts as I approached so I thought that I’d try and count them. So I started at one end of the hedge and started counted as I walked to the other end, only to get three metres along its length before losing count as they were fluttering forward and back. I was definitely sure there were 15 as that was the highest number I’d manage to count but there was another eight metres or so still to count from! In terms of numbers an unbelievable upturn of fortunes. Perhaps the long cold spell worked in their favour knocking the parasites on the head?
In terms of first sighting a Small Tortoiseshell at Five Rivers was my first and it was earlier than last year, though I’m not too confident that much can be made of that. With hibernators it isn’t really an emergence, if the weather is pleasant they may appear and should it turn they’ll disappear as quickly as they appeared, it’s more of an intermission, a lucky coincidence. Plus I was raring to go back in early March having been cooped up for what felt like an age so my early sighting might have been just because I was out looking, not that it was any earlier. They were also my last sighting of 2013 and first of 2014...good old Bob
19 Peacock, 14th April Mottisfont
Despite looking earlier in the year for this species I still didn’t see it until a few weeks later than in 2012. They seemed to suddenly appear once the weather finally started to pick up possibly because they couldn’t hang on any longer.
Overall I feel that they had a pretty good year, obviously not as good as their cousins the Small Torts but still pretty good! For me it was a good year with Peacocks personally as I was lucky enough to see almost the whole gamult; spring butterflies freshly awoken, worn and tatty individuals living out the last of their days, beautifully fresh and newly emerged even various instars of caterpillars thrown in for good measure. I was also surprised with how late into the season I was still finding them with sightings into the middle of October. I think that I may possibly have given up on them a bit too early in previous years.
20 Comma, 06-04 Five Rivers
Through 2013 I never once thought ‘I haven’t seen a Comma for a while’ and so my suspicion is that they just carried on business as usual with no real noticeable increase in numbers. I don’t think they saw a downturn but they bumbled along maintaining their numbers. In terms of emergence (or should that be appearance?) they were only a week later than the previous year at good old Five Rivers. A lovely coincidence was that I saw my first Comma of 2013 on exactly the same bank only three metres away from where I’d photographed my first Comma of 2012.
Have a goodun
Wurzel