www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

You keep coming up with the goods, fair play Trevor.

I wonder how much longer you'll be seeing such a range of species, and particularly Wall Browns.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

This tiny, but very elegant little Moth landed on my laptop screen last evening.

Has anyone any ideas ?.

Interesting shot of a Twenty-plume Moth (Alucita hexadactyla) Trevor it shows of the '20 Plumes' really well

Have a goodun

Wurzel

That moth could be a Ladies Fan Trevor, it's lovely. Goldie

Many thanks for the Moth ID, Wurzel. I thought it looked like fan as well, Goldie.

This morning, whilst having my humanising coffee in the garden, I noticed the strong breeze
was coming from the West, this wrote off several locations I had in mind.
But the hedge at High and Over offers almost total protection from a westerly, so that was my destination.

Walking from the car, I spooked a Painted Lady, basking on the path. Little did I know that another five
would be found in the meadow later on. Along the fence line a considerable number of Red Admirals
were on the Ivy flowers and on the fence posts waiting for the sun to reappear.

I also realised a recent ambition, and found a lovely fresh female Wall Brown which allowed close approach.

A surprisingly bountiful morning.

Trevor.

Lovely Butterflies Trevor, Painted Ladies so late has well! Goldie

Wonderful Painted Lady shot and the sunshine lifts it, just want to clone away your barbed wire...seems to be too intrusive to me. But the butterfly is a beauty

Glad you enjoyed the Painted Ladies, Goldie. A great surprise to find six.

That fence is a problem, Peter. The sun tends to warm up the area under the hedge in the morning,
consequently the Butterflies like to find the warmest place which happens to be the wire fence
and the fence posts.
Other than that I was quite thrilled with the freshness and brilliance of that Painted Lady, and
the photogenic pose. The image below shows part of the hedge ( and fence ) where the Butterflies congregate.

That familiar hedgerow, Trevor! More splendid Wall shots too, and some great Painted Ladies. They will no doubt be on their way south along with the Red Admirals, just making sure they've fuelled up before the hop across the channel. Interesting that they appear to be gathering together before making the trip.

Dave

Cheers Dave, but a day with the Butterflies doesn't get any better than today !.

Last evening Dave Cook posted an image of a very heavily marked Clouded Yellow on the Sussex BC sightings page,
( worth a look, bottom L/H image of the six posted ).
We agreed to meet up today to try and relocate it. But, in this we failed.
On arrival at Shoreham at 10.00 my car was reading 12c, and the breeze was very cool. I walked the entire site
and found very little of note. As I returned to the starting point Dave was just arriving, and we soon located
our first Cloudie, as we were passing the area of the fuel storage tanks a Helice flew past me and was
immediately identified. But this Butterfly really did give us the run around, spending much time nectaring on
Wild Asters the other side of a steel security fence about 60ft away. The image below was the best I could get.

Dave called out to say that the Helice was now out of the compound and he had found it again, but on inspection
it was in fact Helice No 2, much creamier than the first one.
We were now very pleased with our day, when a mating pair in an accessable spot for photography was found.
Many images were taken of this pair.
As the afternoon wore on we made our way back to the fuel storage area, when a 3rd Helice was spotted
high up on the bank flying between Honeysuckle flowers, we waited patiently for a closer look and eventually
she came within camera range, and stayed put for a considerable time.
Neil Hulme turned up and we were able to relocate this Helice for him.

The one you describe as 'creamier' than the others, could it possibly have been the very rare ab aubuissoni? which is an intermediate between normal and helice. I found one at Tidemills two years ago:

Make up your own mind Paul. The ' creamier ' one is No.2.

Trevor.

trevor wrote:Make up your own mind Paul. The ' creamier ' one is No.2.

Trevor.

Can't really tell from the underside. My one looked relatively normal until it took flight.

Hello Trevor ,
Some cracking finds there Trevor ! particularly the pair,something I've always wanted to find ,and blimey 3 Helice !! I'd settle for one,seen them in the past but can never seem to get near them ! managed 15 (normal Cloudies ) myself today ,11 at Dungeness and 4 "over the border" at
Winchelsea beach , still live in hopes of finding a Helice myself ,before the seasons out .
Regards Allan.W.

I wondered why no helice Cloudies had been reported this year, and then you go and find three of them. Excellent stuff, Trevor. I assume these butterflies are likely to be locally grown? It looks like I may have to stray south one more time this year...

Dave

Woah I might run out of of Mr Greens here I've still not seen a Cloudy this year, let alone ever seeing a mating pair or a Helice and you bag both, the later in a wonderful triplet xseveral hundred

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Yes, a few Mr Greens from me too

Many thanks everyone, I'd hoped today's autumn spree would be appreciated !.

Wurzel, Now's the time to cash in those brownie points, and even go into debit.
But go along to Shoreham. I guess it's about 75 miles from you.

Katrina, You live on the doorstep, make the most of it. It was brilliant today.

SHOREHAM HARBOUR Part 2.

The Clouded Yellows have overshadowed the other sightings of today.
There were quite a few Fresh Common Blues to be found, both male and female,
plus several Small Coppers, a worn Copper sitting in the middle of an oxeye daisy couldn't be resisted.
Red Admirals and Large & Small Whites completed the scene.

Wow Trev, what a great haul! Just hoping for a bit of sunshine on Sunday, so I can get a bit of the action myself...