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My first Gatekeeper of the year at Fairmile Common today.

Cheers

Lee

Danbury lakes, Essex. About 15 meadow Brown, 10 Ringlet, 6 Small Skipper, 1 Red Admiral, and the White Plume below. Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

Rich

Was out doing a butterfly transect at a fen/bog which is 5 acres roughly and full of plants, trees and found 150+ ringlets 20+ narrow-bordered five spot burnet, 10 straw dot and 3 small tortoiseshell. Seems butterflies are a little lacking lately, except for ringlets and meadow browns. It was 25C there and not much of a breeze.

Yesterday morning took a drive to Oversley Wood by Alcester to see if there was any Purple Emperors about. A few had been reported from here over the past week.
Unfortunatly I did not have any luck but there were SWF in good numbers plus a few White Admirals. Also seen were half a dozen Red Admirals and a couple of nice fresh Hutchinsoni Commas along with hundreds of Ringlets, Meadow Browns and Skippers, mostly Large but with a few Small as well.

After a couple of hours there, I drove over to Snitterfield Bushes by Stratford upon Avon. SWFs in good numbers here as well plus a couple of White Admirals. A Couple of Red Admirals and Commas and again Ringlets and Meadow Browns again in their hundreds. Also in a meadow alongside the wood, loads of Marbled Whites.
The prize of the afternoon went to a beautiful fresh SWF var. Valezina, bit of a surprise this as I thought this is well outside of the normal range for this form.
All in all good day despite the lack of Purple Emperor.
As I have a few days off work, I think I will drive over to Fermyn tommorrow, hope the weather holds.

Neil

A sunny two hours at Warehorne by the Royal Military Canal in Kent this afternoon brought me my first Gatekeepers ( 2 ) of the year. I also saw three White Letter Hairstreaks in the Elms ,a single Purple Hairstreak, Marbled White, Comma,Meadow Brown and a Holly Blue. A lovely place and well worth visiting.

My first Gatekeeper of the year at Nostell Priory this afternoon. Also many Ringlet, a few Meadow Brownsa and a couple of tatty Small Tortoiseshells. Male Emperor dragonfly too.

Hugh

admiral halsey wrote:Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

That's a Brown Argus, Rich!

Dave

Another beautiful day of weather and butterflying. I made the return visit to Arnside Knott, this time via train to try and save both money and my carbon footprint.

The aim was seeing my bogey species, the Northern Brown Argus. Thankfully I saw two, after 2 hours of walking up and down the same meadow! Thanks to "Lawts" for the tip off on the exact location.

Was also pleasantly surprised to bump into "David" from Liverpool who I'd met for the first time in Fermyn on Friday. It's a small world!

Back in Sheffield later in the day I saw my first second generation Holly Blue of the year. Will be interesting to see if this generation is as abundant as the first generation, having seen 5 fluttering together in April.

And so ends a cracking week off work. Next trip will be to Lindrick Common (near Worksop) on Tuesday 12th. Hoping the introduced Scotch Argus will have emerged by then.

admiral halsey wrote:Danbury lakes, Essex. About 15 meadow Brown, 10 Ringlet, 6 Small Skipper, 1 Red Admiral, and the White Plume below. Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

Rich

White Plume Danbury 3 July 2011.jpg

unknown blue.jpg

Hi,

That is not a white plume, a white plume is bright white, not quite sure which plume it is though.

I started the day at Southwater with Susie's splendid guided tour, and the amazing selection of goodies is described on that thread. I think my highlight were the Purple Hairstreaks down at nearly eye-level.

I visited Denbies (again!) on the return journey, where it was cloudy and rather muggy. Four Chalkhill Blues appeared today, and the Dark Greens were still around in Steer's field, but not very active under the overcast.

Over to Box Hill next, primarily in search of a cup of tea, but here too there were Dark Green Fritillaries, and a nice mating pair of Marbled Whites.

Finally, I popped into Fairmile Common, and under lowering skies found one solitary Silver-studded Blue.

Dave

Lovely, Dave. That second CHB captures a newly emerged male superbly! Stunning shot.

Cheers

Lee

Seconded. Gorgeous shots.

Thank you, both. I did sit and watch this little beauty for quite a while.

Hope you find them tomorrow, Susie! You may have to look quite hard, or just be lucky .

Dave

I'll find them. They're one of my favourites!

With a bit of luck I'll find some of your dark green frits too.

Mind you, I doubt I'll be as lucky as the person who found a Queen of Spain in Suffolk today.

If the sun shines, you should see the DG Fritillaries in Steer's Field. Keep an eye on the clumps of knapweed. There were three or four flying sporadically today despite the cloud when I was there. As a contrast to your Southwater meadow, Marbled Whites may outnumber the Meadow Browns, too!

Wasn't there a Queen of Spain "colony" established in Norfolk/Suffolk for a couple of years a little while ago?

Dave

PURPLE HAIRSTREAKS
Loads at Alners Gorse, Dorset.
I find these a touch easier to photograph than WLH, they seem to decend more readily.

millerd wrote:

admiral halsey wrote:Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

That's a Brown Argus, Rich!

Dave

Thanks Dave.

Dave McCormick wrote:

admiral halsey wrote:Danbury lakes, Essex. About 15 meadow Brown, 10 Ringlet, 6 Small Skipper, 1 Red Admiral, and the White Plume below. Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

Rich

White Plume Danbury 3 July 2011.jpg

unknown blue.jpg

Hi,

That is not a white plume, a white plume is bright white, not quite sure which plume it is though.

I've had a good look around the net, and have yet to find a closer match than white plume. Be glad to solidly ID though. This one was captured around 1pm, which is odd as info points to nocturnal species!

Rich

A couple of snippets of info. that I picked up from Birdguides recently:-

Large Tortioseshell in Cornwall in recent days

Camberwell Beauty in Norfolk over the weekend

Also mini influx of Hummingbird Hawkmoths along the Yorkshire coast c.20 between Spurn and Easington, (only a few miles) over the weekend.

Steve

Dave McCormick wrote:

admiral halsey wrote:Danbury lakes, Essex. About 15 meadow Brown, 10 Ringlet, 6 Small Skipper, 1 Red Admiral, and the White Plume below. Also saw the Blue below, not sure of sex or species. Thought it could be a female Common Blue, or a Brown Argus.

Rich

White Plume Danbury 3 July 2011.jpg

unknown blue.jpg

Hi,

That is not a white plume, a white plume is bright white, not quite sure which plume it is though.

I agree with Dave on this, it isn't a white plume (Pterophorus pentadactyla); but having said that I am not sure what species it is. Possibly a worn Platyptilia ochrodactyla, which can sometimes be very pale...? (your thoughts Dave..?). The markings are there, but very indistinct...

Piers.