www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Spent from 2pm till 3.15pm at Welshmoor on the Gower peninsula.

Delighted to say that Marsh Fritillaries are now out (and in force). Totals seen:

Marsh Fritillary 59
Green Hairstreak 7
Small Heath 3
Large White 2
Common Blue 1
GV/Small White 5-10



All I scrutinised were males except one:



She couldn't fly properly such was her weight of eggs!! Is it me or does she seem a little strangely marked as well (I know this species is abnormally variable)?

Wildmoreway wrote:Hi

ust wondering whether any Small Blues have been sighted this year in the car park location at Bath, if so I would like to know the location of the car park so that I could make a visit either tomorrow or on Wednesday.

Thank you.

Odd Down Park & Ride, ST733615 - this is normally a late site (as it is nearly 600' above sea level) and it had not occurred to me to check whether the butterflies are out there yet. My guess is that they probably are not, but if you happen to be in the area and don't mind checking, then the road leading into the car park turns to the left and the grassy area immediately to the left - both in front of and behind the large metal fence - is where the butterflies are most usually found.

Further afield, the BC reserve at Stoke Camp usually has Small Blues a bit earlier in the year (bear right from the entrance gates and the butterflies usually roost in the dip) and there is a colony of Small Blue (and also Green Hairstreak and possibly Adonis Blue) in the Avon gorge in Bristol - not sure of the exact whereabouts but somewhere off the Portway on the Gloucestershire side.

jackz432r

Further research into your Wall Brown. I think it could be "Lasiommata megera ab. croesus". The female of the species certainly has the double
eye spot.
A good reference tool is the Natural History Museum's Cockayne Collection website.

Regards Kev

Marsh Fritillaries out in Chambers Farm Wood - 7 seen this afternoon. But very flighty and very windy so no decent pictures.

Hugh

Mull 4th June

No luck with my searching for Green Hairstreaks and Marsh Frits in some good habitat in ideal weather. Two distantly seen possible Marsh Frits in flight at one location but probably Small Torts.

The Torties are still looking remarkably well preserved and never came in range of the camera being in the middle of huge nettle beds.

As always, GV Whites everywhere, This (female) is of the heavily marked subspecies thomsoni.
Jack

Lovely day spent at Swells Hill Bank & Rodborough Common in Gloucestershire.

These two sites are less than 2 miles apart. I visited Swells Hill first because I knew I'd find Adonis Blues there. Sure enough I did:



I then parked up at Rodborough Common and found the prime area for Dukes of Burgundy:



Spent a total of 3 hours on these neighbouring sites and total species and numbers were:

Small Heath 100-150
Dingy Skipper 40-60
Small Blue 30-40
Brown Argus 15-20
Speckled Wood 7
Adonis Blue 7
Green Hairstreak 5
Duke of Burgundy 4 (including a remarkable aberrant which I'll post in my personal diary tomorrrow)
Small White 3
Common Blue 3
Large White 3
Green Veined White 3
Small Copper 1
Small Tortoiseshell 1

Hi David, I was at Prestbury Hill today and thought about carrying on to Rodborough/Swellshill but ran out of time. We may have actually met if I had.

Neil F.

nfreem wrote:I was at Prestbury Hill today and thought about carrying on to Rodborough/Swellshill but ran out of time. We may have actually met if I had.

Shame, as that would have given me a great deal of pleasure had I bumped into you.

Still, you look to have done pretty well so no damage done.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary spotted at Llynclys Common this afternoon

At the lower part of Brading Down IOW in the early afternoon today I saw 8 Adonis blues, 4 common blues, 1 dingy skipper which buzzed anything that approached it, 1 speckled wood and 1 orange tip.
Good to see Adonis blues here as this is not the usual site for them on the IOW.
Ian

Apologies for late report
Sunday 2nd June. Aniother sunny weekend and a chance to get out I arranged to meet up with Wurzel to look for Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary in Bentley Wood. Firstly though a quick recce to Wrecclesham for Glanvilles was in order. Though the weather was fine and the vegetation lush the only butterfly seen was a solitary male Orange-tip . However the lake at the bottom of the sand pit grabbed a lot of my attention. As I approached I could here a cacophony of croaking frogs, like nothing I'd heard before outside a tropical country. Some of the croaking seemed right at my feet yet try as I might I couldn't see any individuals that were making it . Wearing trainers standing on boggy ground I had to give up my search. I assume they are Marsh frogs (?), certainly it wasn't like the gentle "knee-deep" of a common frog which I get every to hear every year at their breeding time in my garden pond.
On the way out I met up with fellow UKB'er Pauline and let her know of my findings or lack of them. She was concerned about the missing Glanvilles and stated that although late they were still "around at this time last year". Last year my first Glanvilles at Wrecclesham were not seen until the 6th of June and this was about three weeks or more after they were showing on the IOW. This year the Glannies on IOW have only been around about a week or so I believe so I'm still optimistic they'll put in a showing at Wrecclesham

Meeting up with Wurzel in Salisbury and a change of plan .. Wurzel had just got info on a Marsh Fritillary site off the A36 nr Warminster. His recces to Bentley up to now had not revealed any Small Pearls so it was off to look for Marshies instead.
On entrance to the site after a 20 minute drive, the first sighting was a Small Blue which pleased me as this was my first of the season . Soon after we encountered Dingy Skipper and then a couple of Marsh Fritillaries (second new species for this season ). With a light breeze the butterflies when landing would keep low down in amongst the grass making a clean grass blade free photograph difficult to get shooting at distance with my Canon Tamron 70-300mm set-up.

Soon after arriving a great big grey cloud passed over followed by others and this continued for 3/4 of an hour or so ...and the butterflies just 'disappeared' with the exception of this male Wall Brown, my third new species for the season . Thankfully the sun won out and the butterflies soon returned in some numbers. At one location we had 7 species in an area of about 12ft square ... Common Blue, Marsh Fritllary; Dingy and Grizzled Skipper; Small Heath; Small Blue and Brown Argus, the latter my 4th new species for this season . Wurzel might add a Green Hairstreak to that tally as he's now got his greenstreak goggles on but I think that's stretching it a bit . On the way home I dropped into Bentley to check for the Small Pearls. In the early evening sun I encountered about a 15 or so fritillaries all of them Pearl Bordered. The lack of Small Pearls surprises and concerns me more than the missing Glanvilles at Wrecclesham . There were plenty around on the 26th of May last year, mixed in with equal numbers of slightly scuffed Pearls. Although the visitor book showed Small Pearls I think these were mis-identified. Two of the visitors whom I met showed me their camera shot "Small Pearls" which were actually pictures of Pearls. I expect we'll know if my concerns are founded in the next couple of weeks. Phil

I've been trying to complete my annual 1st brood Wall Brown count for a few days now but other commitments as well as the weather not being suitable has held me back. Today I saw an opportunity which I'm glad I took. There was still a strong breeze unfortunately, but the forecast predicts this will be with us for several days yet so with expectations quite low due to this wind I set off from home for the 4.5 mile walk. The 1st mile is surrounded by arable land so nothing until I reached The Comp which is a path just under a mile in length. This is a warm path as bushes each side protect it from the wind and Wall were evident all along the path with 32 seen here. Then onto Greenway Bank that was affected by the wind and a poor number of just 2 here. For the rest of the walk which also covers High and Over the breeze did have some affect but the total count came to a very impressive 60. This probably would have been even higher in stiller conditions, although The Comp figures were possibly higher today with some butterflies sheltering from the wind. All the same this is by far the highest 1st brood count I've managed in the 5 years of doing this, and to think the 2nd brood is often getting on for double the 1st brood!!!
As I'm writing this outside a Wall Brown is flying around the garden for the 2nd day running.

1st brood counts for the previous years are 2009 (39), 2010 (20), 2011 (30), 2012 (31).
2nd brood counts. 2009 (42), 2010 (44), 2011 (37), 2012 (66).

I also try to do a count on another local hotspot which I will try to do tomorrow.

A very good 2/3 hours spent today at Castle Hill NR Woodingdean , Brighton .
The day started well at home with Holly Blue , Speckled Wood and a very worn out Painted Lady on Grand Avenue Worthing .
Butterflies seen at Castle Hill were

Small Blue circa 100 ( probably many more present ) surely a record for the site .
Wall Brown circa 80 seemed to be one every 10 metres or so .
Small Heath circa 18
Dingy Skipper circa 12
Adonis Blue circa 12
Common Blue circa 6
Brown Argus circa 6
Grizzled Skipper 3
Speckled Wood 2
Green Hairstreak ( nectaring on Birds Foot Trefoil ) 1
Large white , Small White 1 each

One Grizzled Skipper was a very interestingly marked aberration similar to ab taras but with the white spots on both the upper front wings merged into almost perfect W shaped letters .

Disappointing not to see any Small Coppers but the numbers of Walls and Small Blues were both very encouraging .

Aberbargoed Grasslands NNR, South Wales. Revisited the reserve yesterday to do a 'proper' count of the Marsh Fritillary, my attempts last Sunday were partially thwarted by a keen breeze. On the 'core pasture' I counted in excess of 100, while on the adjacent smaller pasture I was delighted to count around 45, this represents a very healthy population considering this smaller pasture is about only 20% the size of the 'core pasture'. Finally, a small out of the way area I've been keeping my eye on for several years produced at least 15 individuals, this suggests further movement and pleased me greatly.

My first Small Copper and Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary of the year were also seen. Dingy Skipper were just into double figures as were the Small Heath both species were very active in the warm yet breezy conditions.

Mid-afternoon I visited Parc Penallta which is only fifteen minutes away from the Grasslands. Lots of activity throughout the upper areas of the parc, where the following species were recorded:-

Dingy Skipper 14no
Brimstone Latish!
Large White 6no
Small White 6no
Green-veined White 9no
Orange-tip 3 males on wing
Common Blue 6 males 2 females
Small Copper 7no
Small Heath circa 25

My total species seen this year now stands at a respectable twenty four.

Bill

PS. Apologies for no images, I'm just getting into a new Windows8 PC...a totally different operating system to my old XP

Excellent work, Bill! I'd love a trip to Aberbargoed right now as I've never been there in ideal conditions.

Instead though, I'm going to take a little trip over to Alun Valley (will be a first this year since my conservation work there last February).

I expect to see a few Small Pearls, and who knows, given the recent conditions, a Large Skipper isn't out of the question!

David M wrote:Excellent work, Bill! I'd love a trip to Aberbargoed right now as I've never been there in ideal conditions.

Instead though, I'm going to take a little trip over to Alun Valley (will be a first this year since my conservation work there last February).

I expect to see a few Small Pearls, and who knows, given the recent conditions, a Large Skipper isn't out of the question!

Good luck David, the Alun Valley is a great place to be in the sunshine (as are most places!!!) but watch out for the midges, I know they seem fond of you, so take your Deet

Bill

A late trip to Totternhoe provided a cloudy and overcast start, with the Small Blue hunkered down in the vegetation, but soon livened up after the sun came out. Large, Small and GV White, OT, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Small Heath, Brimstone and Dingies; but the Dukes (4 or 5) were all a bit faded and tatty. The Small Blue were still in full swing...even some by the picnic table in the car-park area.

Large Skipper seen this afternoon on my local patch at Stanwell Moor, Middlesex (immediately northeast of J14 of the M25).

Dave

millerd wrote:Large Skipper seen this afternoon on my local patch at Stanwell Moor, Middlesex (immediately northeast of J14 of the M25).

Wow. That's quite a surprise given how retarded things have been this year. Perhaps the recent warm spell has accelerated a few emergences.

Spent just under two hours at Old Castle Down (the High Brown site) near Bridgend this morning. There weren't too many Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries about but those that were all looked in tip top condition without the scratches and blemishes that frits inevitably get within a few days of scrambling about in the bracken/brambles/hawthorn, etc.





It was quite blustery on the top, so most of the butterflies (Small Heaths excepted) were to be found in the warmer dips and troughs. Totals seen:

Small Heath 60-80
Dingy Skipper 30-40
Brown Argus 20-30
Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary 9
Common Blue 4
Speckled Wood 3
Green Veined White 2
Wall Brown 1

Good numbers of Marsh Fritillaries (12) and Dingy Skippers (9) at Chambers today.

Hugh