www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

In my book on insects it has Pisaura Mirabilis down as a Wolf Spider also know as a Nursery Web Spider, easily recognized by the light-yellow line on top of its head and the light coloured flaps beside her eyes.

Many thanks for the confirmation Chris,

and for the extra information and photo Nick

Neil.

Sunday 13th May - Prestbury Hill - there's one....no its not!

Further to my earlier post on Sundays visit to Prestbury Hill, one thing I did not mention was that there were a number of Burnet Companion moths flying around.
When in flight these had more than a passing similarity to a Duke of Burgundy, especially earlier in the day before we had got our eye in and quite a few times I heard a cry of 'there's one...hang on...no its not'.

I remember last year trying to get a photo of one of these moths and found them very difficult to get close to so I was pleased when I managed to get the shot below.
By a spooky coincidence considering Paulines post in her diary about her Foxes, I was relaxing in the back room at home when I looked out of the window and saw a Fox chilling out in the evening sun looking like he hadn't got a care in the world.
I sneaked round to the back door and managed to get the shot below from about 25 yards away on full 18x zoom of my FZ38, the picture being cropped by about half.
Bye for now,

Neil F.

Neil I just love your photo and I am so envious. Although I have wild foxes visiting every night I have never had one looking so relaxed. Mind, having said that I have had a badger fall asleep whilst waiting for her cubs to finish eating! If you have any more similar encounters I hope you will PM me.

Thank you for you comments Pauline.

No Badgers in the garden for me , although I do know where there are some not far away.

Neil.

Thursday 17th May

Nothing in the way of butterflies for me since Sunday, I have been at work during the days and the weather of an evening has mostly been cloudy if not downright gloomy.

The Orange Tip egg that was laid on Cuckoo Flower in my back garden last week has been going orange over the past couple of days.
I have been checking on it every so often and this evening when I went fo a look I found a male Orange Tip had settled down for the night on the same plant.

I tried taking a close up photo of the egg but kept on focusing on the plant so ended up practising on the butterfly instead.
Whilst I was taking the photos a small moth landed by me. It looked a bit like the longhorn moths that I have seen swarming in some places but had shorter antennae and seemed to have more of a 'brassy' colour.
Bye for now,

Neil F.

Alright Neil - cracking shots as usual I like the tufts on the rear of the wings!

I too have noticed some shorter antennae on the Longhorn moths and thought it could be either wear and tear or more likely the female? Just a guess though...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi Neil,

Your moth is a female Green Longhorn (Adela reaumurella).

I find them absolutely captivating creatures.

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Many thanks for the comments guys,

and Mark for the ID of the Longhorn moth

I had a suspicion that it might have been a female but was not sure, up until now I have only seen what I presume are males with extra long antennae.

Cheers,

Neil.

Sunday 20th May

A dull, cloudy and fairly cool weekend here in the Midlands, I was tied up all day yesterday and most of today with 'domestic duties'.

Around mid afternoon today I had the chance to pop out for a couple of hours and decided to try and find a Grizzled Skipper.
I had still not seen one this year and looking through last years photos, I realised that I only had shots of the topsides. I did not hold out much hope for finding anything flying as it was too cool and dull but thought that would try my luck at looking for one roosting and get photos of one with its wings closed.

With this in mind I headed down towards Harbury as I know that Grizzled Skippers could be found there.

http://www.warwickshire-wildlife-trust. ... -sssi.aspx

Walking into the reserve I started looking around, there was nothing flying apart from a couple of large bees.
After about 20 minutes or so of looking at dead seed heads and such like I found what I was looking for
I took my photos and looked around for a little longer but by this time I was beginning to feel the cool wind getting to my hands so decided to call it a day and head home.
This was the only butterfly that I have seen all weekend but considering that I found what I set out looking for I was a happy chappy

Bye for now,

Neil F.

Hi Neil,

Lovely detail, particularly in the first shot, of a butterfly difficult to do justice to - at least in my opinion.

You obviously held a steady hand for those shots ...

Good hunting.

Kind regards. Mark

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for the comments, I think they are my first Grizzled Skipper shots that I have been happy with

Mark Colvin wrote: You obviously held a steady hand for those shots ...

The butterfly was only 12 inches or so above the ground and it was one of those lying down with elbows braced against the ground moments

I am starting to see the benefits of an articulated screen

Cheers,

Neil.

Some very nice images Neil, considering the weather we've had you've done exceptionally well, keep up the good work

Regards,

Bill

Hi Bill, thanks very much for the comments

Tuesday 22nd May

A couple of cracking days weather and I am stuck in work. I went out for a quick stroll round the block at lunchtime and almost immediately saw a male Brimstone passing through.
It then dawned on me that this was the first male that I have seen this year, I had seen a female a couple of weeks back but that has been it for me so far this year. Perhaps that is the price I have paid for all the Orange Tips I have seen, can't have it all

I arrived home this afternoon and after the 'domestic duties' had been done I spent an hour or so doing some gardening followed by another hour or so of chilling out and listening to the birds singing as the afternoon turned into evening.

Butterflies seen in the garden were the usual Orange Tips, Holly Blues, Speckled Wood and Green Veined White.
Another good day forecast for tomorrow, hoping to get out for a couple of hours. I don't know where yet, will see where I end up.

Bye for now,

Neil F.

That second shot is a classic delicately balanced on the Dandelion head:mrgreen:
I too was stuck at work bit I escaped for a few hours this evening, I can heartily recommend it

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Lovely pictures

Thank you for the comments Wurzel and DMS, much appreciated

Wednesday 23rd May

I had managed to book the afternoon off work at short notice, not that easy usually
After doing a couple of quick chores I headed down to Bishops Hill, about 40 minutes down the M40 for me. This is an area made up of Limestone waste from a local cement works that has made a remarkable recovery and part of it is now managed as a nature reserve.

My main reason for heading to here is that it is one of a small number of places in Warwickshire where Small Blue can be found and I was figuring that the past couple of days of sun may have brought them out.

Indeed it had .
I spent a couple of hours here and saw well over a dozen Small Blue along with equal numbers of Dingy Skippers. There may well have been more but I am wary of counting the same ones more than once.
Also seen were 3 Grizzled skippers, 3 Common Blue and a fair number of Orange Tips and Brimstones passing through, again I do not know how many times I saw the same ones going backwards and forwards.

It was very hot here and the butterflies were very active, occasionally settling in a slightly shadier place which enabled me to get some photos.
Around 4.00pm I decided to carry on to Ryton Wood / Meadows which is about 20 minutes drive towards Coventry from here.
I parked in the WWT car park at Ryton Wood and walked though the wood towards the meadows which are managed by Warwickshire BC.
Coming out of the wood, I headed to an area along the hedgerow where I had seen Green Hairsteaks last year and sure enough there were about half a dozen doing aerial acrobatics above some Hawthorne and around an Oak tree. These remained too high up to get photos of but I did manage to find a couple more further back in the meadow.
Also seen here were half a dozen each of Dingy and Grizzled Skippers and again a few Brimstones and Orange Tips passing through along with some whites that remained too far away to identify.
By this time it was around 6.00pm so I walked back through the wood to the car and headed home.
A great afternoon into early evening and one which felt like the butterflies were finally out in numbers

Back to work tomorrow then I am off to Norfolk on Friday for a week...fingers crossed for what I see there

Bye for now

Neil F.

Great photos, nfreem, and one can sense your euphoria at finally seeing butterflies in decent numbers.

Is it me or is practically everyone seeing Grizzled Skippers this year?

Cracking photos again but it's that damn green thing again As it was low to the ground is it a female?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wurzel wrote: it's that damn green thing again As it was low to the ground is it a female?
Wurzel

The shots are of 2 different individuals (sorry Wurzel I hope you have seen one by now). They are both females I believe, they were both shuffling about in clumps of Birds foot Trefoil which they breed on at this site.

Saturday 26th May - Norfolk part 1

I returned home today from a week spent on a family break, staying on a caravan site at Burgh Castle in Norfolk.
This was the first break that my wife had felt confident to go on since having her stroke at the end of 2010 and so with my 2 grown up sons we had booked a week when we could all get the time off from work and college.

My wife can get about a bit now with the aid of a stick or frame and with my sons around to help out it meant that we could get out a bit and do a bit of exploring and during the first weekend, when the weather was glorious without a cloud in the sky, we had a look around the local area.

Around the back of the site we were on there is the remains of a Roman fort (the 'castle' in Burgh Castle). The walk from the car park here passes through some lovely meadow areas and this was where we saw our first butterflies, Orange Tips, Large and GV Whites and a couple of Small Coppers .
More photos to sort through so more to follow.

Bye for now,

Neil F.