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Great shots of the SSB there Dave. I always find the Blues difficult to photograph but you have captured lovely, crisp images there

HI Dave,
A fine set of Silver Stud. images. A very photogenic species, especially when posing on flowering Heather.
When I was a very small Boy I thought that all blue Butterflies lived on Heather, we used to picnic at Hindhead.

Cracking Silver-Studs Dave Hopefully the weather will cheer up next week so I can get out for some of my own
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thank you all - here's hoping the weather will improve so that we can all go out and find a few more.

I spent the last weekend in Yorkshire and didn't see a glimpse of sunshine, and one solitary Small White. On the way back on Sunday I also passed through a huge storm near Luton which included an amazing display of lightning.The week since back home has been little better, but I had to go out this evening round my local patch as it's been a whole week since last I did so. It was bright and quite warm at least, but still with rain in the air. It took little time to track down some more Orange Tip caterpillars, of varying sizes from the tiny to the quite large, and on several different plants. Out onto the open field/meadow area, I found a handful of roosting Common Blues, a single Small Heath and half a dozen new male Meadow Browns. At this point in the season, these butterflies are a beautiful velvety brown, and the flash of orange from the raised forewing underside is a great contrast. By August, we'll be largely ignoring them...

One of the Common Blues was noteable for being of the variety ab. flavescens, where the underside lunules, normally red/orange, are instead a pale yellow. Compare the normal one below. I saw an example of this here last year (or was it the year before?) so I wonder if this is genetic, and present in this particular population. This variation is worth looking out for as it can be easily dismissed as a worn individual, whereas this is definitely not the case as you can see. I believe that when this ab. occurs in females, the upperside lunules can be similarly affected, but in the male (as in the one I saw today) the blue upperside is quite normal.

Dave

[quote][/quote]Same time, same place, twenty-four hours later. More sunshine, but not so warm. The day had had a few hefty showers in it (again!) and everywhere was wet. Four species were seen, including another new one for my patch this year: the Large Skipper. Looking at all the photos, I seem to have seen four individuals with varying degrees of wear - all males. a selection: There were a couple of Common Blues, more active than they were yesterday, two or three Meadow Browns and a similar number of Small Heaths. One of these had clearly been caught in the rain and looked very bedraggled. I also saw a handsome dragonfly take a moth from the air and settle down to enjoy its meal. Dave

Great closeup of that Dragonfly, it's a female Black-tailed Skimmer, the males are powder blue with black tips to the abdomen. If I was a betting man I'd say the unfortunate meal was a Burnet companion.

Popped over to your SSB site at fairmile common today, saw at least 20 I think including 3 females. Males were active even in light rain!

I must get over there again soon, Buggy, or maybe one of the other Surrey sites near me. As long as they haven't all drowned - there have been a few hefty storms this week.

Up the M40 to Cherwell Valley and back this afternoon - miraculously the sun came out for the whole journey. I had time to briefly have a look at the meadows round the back of the service area: lots of flowers (including a fair bit of birds-foot trefoil) but only one solitary butterfly in the whole expanse - a fresh female Large Skipper. Dave

The weather is still being decidedly iffy here to Dave - I think it could be one of 'those' years I reckon that if a similar aberrant feature keeps showing up in a population is must have a genetic basis, you might get to name the 'form'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

And "iffy" again today, Wurzel. No sunshine today here until 8 in the evening, when the sky cleared...

However, I still went out early afternoon to see what might fly on a cloudy day with a bit of heat getting through from the midsummer sun. Five species were prepared to brave the sunless conditions: Common Blue, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper and the first Small Tortoiseshell for a while. Meadow Browns in particular - they reached double figures quite easily.There were still plenty of Orange Tip caterpilars around, getting gradually larger.It was good to see the Small Tortoiseshell, a particularly heavily marked individual. They are still not common round here. Dave

Great photos Dave, in seams to be a year for beating the weather so far Goldie

Some sunshine this morning, but unfortunately I couldn't get out in it until after one - when it promptly disappeared. This meant yet another walk under cloudy skies, with much the same result.

A Common Blue posed on its food-plant: There were more Large Skippers flying today, with several perching hopefully on the brambles (though most took the opportunity to nectar when there was a bit of extra brightness). Once again, I saw a Small Tortoiseshell, though not the same one as yesterday. Finally, caterpillar of the day was the Peacock, with this nest of black wrigglers looking shiny and bloated as they tend to do before a skin change. It would be nice to have a proper sunny day again...

Dave

At last - some sunshine, though it came at the end of yet another extremely wet day. After work I didn't have a lot of time to play with so stayed fairly local and visited Harmondsworth Moor for the first time in a while. For some time, all I saw were a handful of Meadow Browns,and I was on my way back to the car when I was distracted by a white butterfly. Something different for a change, and more so than I had thought - it was the first Marbled White of the season. The wind made life a bit difficult, as well as the ubiquitous high grass overtopping everything else including the Marbled White's favourite knapweed flowers, and the blowing pollen was starting to make me sneeze. However, a few photos were achieved. The Marbled White had actually led me to a more sheltered spot, where several Large Skippers were zooming about.Curiously, some of the flowers here turned out to be kidney vetch, which I thought was usually limited to chalk. It is possible the soil here does have chalk in it, as I believe it is an artificial site created years back as a side benefit of one of the major construction projects linked with Heathrow and/or the M25, and it may come from deeper down originally.

The Marbled White (or possible one just like it) came around again, but disturbed another quite different butterfly - a Small Tortoiseshell - and disappeared. The tortoiseshell appeared quite golden in colour, rather than deep orange, possibly accentuated by the early evening sunshine.One of the photos I took made it look distinctly odd - I have no idea why. Dave

Lovely Marbled Whites Dave I generally start to look for species about a week and a half after you first report them as that's roughly how far we are behind over this way (I've probably said that before so apologies if it seems familiar). There is something unusual about your Small Tort - there doesn't seem to be as much difference between the ground colour and the usual white marks on the leading edge of the fore wing? It seems to look like the Small Tort Hutchinson's equivalent - if that makes any sense?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Marbled Whites already, this season is zooming by! Shame the weather isn't aware its fast approaching high summer!

Marbled Whites AND 2nd brood Small Tortoiseshells?

....MUST be midsummer!

Thanks, all - yes, Marbled Whites herald summer - we just need the sun to agree with this.

The last couple of days have again been cloudy until the end of the day. I've been out locally both days and seen the same stalwarts as before, soldiering on under grey skies - Common Blues, Small Heaths, Large Skippers, Meadow Browns and Small Tortoiseshells. When the sun did appear for a few minutes, it showed there were far more butterflies around than I'd thought - no extra species, but Meadow Browns erupted from the grass all over the place, and there were quite a few Small Heaths as well. Here's a small selection from both days. The highlights? Yesterday was the lovely fresh female Meadow Brown found just round the corner from home, the first female I've seen this year. Today, it had to be what is for me perhaps more than anything the midsummer butterfly - the hutchinsoni Comma. With the colours and elegant flight of a fritillary and its aerial battles with Large Skippers in particular, they are a splendid sight.

Dave

A great eclectic mix there Dave After my speil about being 2 weeks behind in my last comment I only went and found my first Marb the very next day, very timely it being the herald of summer and seeing it on the Solstice

Have a goodun
Wurzel

Hi Dave,

A great mix of summer species in your recent reports. I haven't had much chance to get out round my local patch lately and seeing your photos had made me realise how quickly the season whizzes by.

Cheers,

Neil.

HI Dave,
I remembered your ' pale ' Small Tortoiseshell from 20th June, when I spotted one today.
Most unusual. It was the colour that attracted my attention.

Great reports as usual.
Trevor.

Yes, an interesting selection, Wurzel, but all prepared to fly in the absence of sunshine.

Thanks, Neil - yes, suddenly it's not spring any more but summer is really stuttering to start. It amazes me how much you can see despite the weather.

Thanks Trevor - I wonder why we have pale Tortoiseshells? I have to say the golden colour is quite attractive instead of the usual orange.

On Friday 24th I drove down to Taunton to spend the weekend with an old friend from school days. As I had the whole day to do it, I made a detour off the A303 north to Collard Hill following the encouraging report on the Large Blue blog the previous evening. I arrived under cloudy skies with a bit of drizzle, but it was bright and quite warm. Nothing of any sort appeared to be flying, but someone had found a Large Blue hunkered down on the grass amongst the raindrops. I could see brighter weather out to the west, so sat down and stayed with the butterfly whilst others wandered away. Sure enough it brightened and warmed a bit more, and the butterfly became active, flying up a short distance to sit on a flower. It slowly decided to open its wings as well, showing that it was very new, but slightly damaged.I took an extraordinary number of photos, of which these are just a few. The sun then came fully out, and suddenly there were Large Blues everywhere, mostly females laying eggs on every available bit of thyme. The very steep terraced-looking slope not far from the entrance seemed a particularly favoured spot, sheltered from the wind. The sun stayed out for a couple of hours, but I then looked up to see an ominous dark cloud. My brisk walk back to the car was not quite brisk enough - down came the rain. As I drove down to the road to Taunton, it got worse, and across the levels it was almost impossible to see. I think I struck lucky with the timing! Here is the view before the rain arrived. A great interlude with a lovely butterfly - their dark shade of blue (especially when it was still cloudy) is unlike anything else. Dave