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Hi Allan,

Thanks for your phone message the other night. Could do with your phone number to give you a call sometime. How do you pull aberrations like this out of the bag??!! Excellent stuff! Delighted you enjoyed your holiday in Cornwall & found some decent butterflies & wild flowers! All the best.......Lee Slaughter & family. (Cornwall).

Allan.WLate afternoon visit to Dungeness ,amongst the 60+ Small Coppers, found was this AB;Radiata

Lovely insect but I especially like the photo - it shows the butterfly in context and not as a mere "portrait".

Jack

Hi Lee,
Yes we had a great time down your way ,thanks again for the help ! I,ll give you a buzz at the weekend.
Thanks for the comments Jack,i was pleased to find it ,it was actually the last Copper we saw before leaving .
Regards Allan.W.

In Somerset, it is proving a good year for finding White-letter Hairstreak. The sunny and still conditions are encouraging the butterflies to fly around and be visible fluttering high in gaps in the canopy. The butterfly is usually so reclusive and unobtrusive that it is hard to be sure whether it is actually having a good year, or whether it is just more visible given the weather than it would usually be. Still, I am finding it in woodlands and along lanes where I have long suspected it occurs, but had been unable to find it until now.

The ashes are taking a beating, presumably from Chalara, and this is letting light into the canopy of many usually dark woods. The Silver-washed Fritillaries have been exploring into these areas, and could be doing well in the next few years as a result.

I visited Aberbargoed Grasslands on 5 July. This is a local nature reserve created from the old Ty Fry colliery which closed after the strike of 1984/85, and is awarded SSSI status because of its colony of Marsh Fritillaries on the damp grasslands. Too late in the year for them now of course (I was here 23 May and saw 20 to 25) but the other attraction is the number of Grayling that can be found on the bare earth of the old coal tip. Walking to the top of the tip I was struck by how dry and scorched the earth was. The vegetation consists of typical waste ground flora (Centaury, Groundsel, Dandelion & Hawksbeards, Gorse, Heather and Dwarf Birch), many of the latter with leaves looking almost dead through heat. Normally Grayling can be found resting on the earth but the heat being so intense even at 9 am most seen were whizzing around. I would estimate between 30 to 40 were seen and only 5 or so came to rest. Full species list was Grayling c40, Meadow Brown 30 +, Large White 10, Small White 6, Small Heath 8, Ringlet 5, Small Skipper 5, Large Skipper 2,Wall 2, Red Admiral 1 and Marbled White 1. This last is the first MW I`ve seen at this location. By 11 am I felt as dry as the Birch Trees and headed off for a cold drink and some cake.
So on 7 July I drove down to Bentley Wood, Wilts, in annual search of Purple Emperor. And I was not disappointed. On arriving in the car park at 9 am I saw one female flying around the tree tops and at 12 am on returning to my car I saw the same or another flying across the tree tops. In between times I saw 2 more, again at tree top level, down at Donkey Copse. Huge numbers of Ringlets were seen and Purple Hairstreaks were much in evidence flitting around many of the Oaks but none came down to eye level or below. Full species list; PE 3 possibly 4, Ringlet 100`s, Meadow Brown 40, Gatekeeper 30, Silver washed Fritillary 30 including 1 valezina, Purple Hairstreak 20-25, Marbled White 20, Small Skipper 15-20, Large Skipper 10,Brimstone 10, Large White 10, Small White 5, Green veined White 3, Peacock 6, Comma 4. I tried hard but couldn`t turn any of the Small Skippers into Essex. Most weren`t hanging around for me to examine their antennae !
Jenks.

Yesterday (11th) ,I visited a field near Canterbury ,which was full of Black Mustard( I think !) The main reason for my visit was to hopefully find a rare arable plant(Weasals snout ,a relative of the garden Snapdragon )),which has been seen there along the field edge in previous years ,I was very lucky ,after a bit of searching I managed to find seventeen plants so a good result !I also fluked another arable plant ,which I,d wanted to find for years and actually found it to be quite abundant (Sharp leaved fluellen ) ,while I was at this site ,I noticed that the field was alive with Whites
with hundreds of Small Whites and Large Whites ,with a few Green Veins, in about five steps I counted six mating pairs of Small .
the pink plant is Weasals Snout and the other is sharp leaved Fluellen.
Regards Allan.W.

A small selection showing the wide range of variation occurring amongst the Small Coppers at Dungeness Kent ,over the last few days.

Yesterday morning ,out early to try for Purple Hairs ,and possibly an open wing shot,on arrival at one of the hotspots ,first thing I saw
was a group of 6 Fallow Deer ,who bolted as soon as they clocked me .On approaching the best Oak ,,I noticed that the PH'S weren't flitting around on the lower branches as normal ,but were actually down in the Knee high grass ,the females were crawling around in large clumps of Birds foot Trefoil
looking (and behaving ) just like Common Blues. Some although very tatty now ,were perching in the grass ,and I managed one or two shots.
Late afternoon at Samphire Ho (near Dover ) found my first second brood Small Blues (5) of the season and also 2 Dingy Skippers
2 Small Coppers ,numerous Whites ,Browns ,1 Large Skipper ,but unfortunately not the hoped for Clouded Yellow.

I came across this unusual Gatekeeper yesterday morning in my meadow. Unfortunately it was extremely active and never settled long enough for a decent photograph. It looks to be same as the aberrant photographed by MrSp0ck and posted on this website.

Allan, those are wonderful images of the female Purple Hairstreak. The only ones I've got that close to have been scruffy, faded specimens.

Wolfson, that Gatekeeper is an absolute stunner. I'm sure it deserves being in the species specific albums.

In my area of Scotland, GV White numbers have built up rapidly this month since the first rain ten days ago.
Today on a stretch of roadside verge with Rosebay Willowherb, butterflies were spaced at about three per metre.
I have never anywhere seen GV Whites in such profusion.

Ringlets fading now (they had a brilliant season) but so far, no Scotch Argus - give them another week or so.

Jack

Thanks for the comments David ,when I got to this site at the weekend ,I noticed several Purple Hairs ; low down in the grass
(something i'd not seen before ) the one in the top picture was positioned ,just so ,and showed a near perfect purple topside ,I set the camera as I approached it onto burst ,and managed 6 shots ,and of these ,that shot was the only one with the full purple (female ) colouration the other 5 ,showed just one wing purple ,the merest move and the colour disappeared !
A couple of shots from the last few days . The Damselflies are White -legged Damsels which I found in some numbers ,ovipositing along the Royal military canal on the Kent /Sussex border .
The Common Blue female is from near Crundale and the Dingy Skip ,on a frazzled Spurge is from Samphire Ho (Dover )at the weekend.
Regards Allan.W.

At least 2 fresh Dingy Skippers seen at Mill Hill near Shoreham this afternoon.

bugboy wrote:At least 2 fresh Dingy Skippers seen at Mill Hill near Shoreham this afternoon.

This could be an interesting year for 'infrequent' second brood butterflies, BB. I wonder if we will see another emergence of SPBFs and, if the weather holds, White Admirals?

Brean Down, Somerset, today. The Chalkhill Blues are well out - 50+ males, 2 females - at this unusual site for them on the Somerset coast. The breeding grounds are on the south-west tip of the peninsula but the butterflies were sensibly sheltering just over the ridge in and amongst bramble, nectaring and roosting. On first looking at the photos, I thought I had an interesting ab (second photo), but it turns out to be a hole near the corner of the wing instead, perhaps made by a thorn.
Also good numbers of Grayling - mostly a little closer to the mainland than the Chalkhills - and Wall, Common Blue, Brown Argus etc. Many of the Grayling here seem unusually pale, especially in flight (I actually mistook one for a worn Marbled White at first), whilst a couple of the Meadow Browns were unusually dark and with reddish markings that put me in mind of the Erebia species.

Went to Chiddingfold today with Millerd to see the second brood Wood Whites. Lots and lots and lots of them. We walked from Botony bay right through to the Oaken wood entrance and on the return route we did a pretty accurate head count, reaching over 120 individuals, in mainly overcast weather! Had it been sunny we could have been nudging 200 There were a couple of notable sightings but you'll have to wait for Dave's and I reports to see them though.

I can only echo David's sentiments - Allan, that is a stunning image of the Purple Hairstreak - the shot we have all been trying to get and that is a remarkable ab Wolfson - well spotted

Silver-washed Fritillary taken at Llynclys Hill today with my Samsung Mobile

Wolfson wrote:It looks to be same as the aberrant photographed by MrSp0ck and posted on this website.

We have been expecting our aberrant to occur again this year, as the last time was a warm year in 2011 [male], the other years were 1993 [female] and one other time around 1998? (not my sighting) [male]. Here are the old pictures for reference.

All aberrants are worthy of attention, Sp0ck, but that one is off the scale!!

Superb specimen!