Re: Neil Freeman
Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 5:01 pm
Thanks for the comments David ,Wurzel, Dave and Goldie, very much appreciated as always
Saturday 5th May Part 1 – Goings on in the garden.
Saturday dawned with wall to wall blue sky and glorious sunshine but I wasn't building my hopes up as this often happens here and then clouds build quickly though the morning, in fact the forecast had us down for a mostly cloudy day albeit warmer than of late.
After doing the usual early morning shopping we were back in the house by 09.30am and with the sun still shining from a clear blue sky I went to sit in the garden with a mug of coffee and just chill for a few minutes. I then just pottered about for a bit whilst I had a think on what to do later, much depending on whether the clouds would build up or not.
Butterflies were already quite active and I watched a couple of Speckled Wood spiralling around each other down the bottom of the garden. When these finished their tussle one of them went next door but the other settled in one of the usual spots and showed itself to be a quite fresh individual that had already had a close escape, once again proving the effectiveness of those hind wing eyespots.
With it rapidly warming up he quickly closed his wings to regulate his temperature and for the rest of the morning whenever I saw a Specklie settled in the garden they had their wings tightly closed.
A few 'whites' were soon passing through including at least one each of Green-veined White and male Orange-tip. One of the wandering 'whites' settled briefly and turned out to be a female Orange-tip, the first female of this species I have seen in the garden so far this year.
By midday and with the rest of the day looking like it was going to remain warm and sunny we decided to have a drive down to Snitterfield Bushes...more to come on this in my next report.
Back home later in the afternoon, I was once again pottering about in the garden and watching the various butterflies passing through, most of which were still very active but occasionally one of them would stop for a brief moment.
I then spotted a female Brimstone fluttering about around the alder buckthorns and as I watched she dropped down onto a dandelion which gave me the chance to grab a few quick photos.
She then carried on fluttering around the buckthorns and occasionally settled to lay a single egg each time.
After doing this for a while she dropped down again, this time appearing just to have a rest...
...before carrying on fluttering up and down the garden and every now and then coming back to the buckthorns.
Whilst on one of these trips up and down the garden she was intercepted by a male who chased her about before they both went next door and I saw them settle high up in one of the neighbours trees. I managed to get a photo at full zoom and a very tight crop appears to show them in cop.
Assuming that the female had already mated and was not laying infertile eggs, I have read that some butterflies will mate more than once, but I am not sure how common this is and with which species. Anyway, I have never seen Brimstones in cop before and if this pair is typical then it appears that it may take place fairly high up in trees and shrubs.
Also, a couple of observations; firstly I have read somewhere, not sure where now, that Brimstones are a morning butterfly and not often seen flying past early afternoon. The Brimstone activity in the garden described above all took place after 4.00pm and carried on until well past 5.00pm. Maybe this is down to air temperature which was certainly on the warm side at the time.
Secondly, I have often read that Brimstone females prefer young shoots on small plants in full sun to lay their eggs. Yesterday, and this is something have seen before, the female seemed to prefer laying on shrubs in partial shade. I have half a dozen alder buckthorn shrubs from whips I planted some years ago and they all receive full sun at some point in the day, some in the morning and some in the afternoon with a transitional period when each is in partial shade.
Anyway, now to sort out the photos from Snitterfield for part 2.
Bye for now,
Neil.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Saturday 5th May Part 1 – Goings on in the garden.
Saturday dawned with wall to wall blue sky and glorious sunshine but I wasn't building my hopes up as this often happens here and then clouds build quickly though the morning, in fact the forecast had us down for a mostly cloudy day albeit warmer than of late.
After doing the usual early morning shopping we were back in the house by 09.30am and with the sun still shining from a clear blue sky I went to sit in the garden with a mug of coffee and just chill for a few minutes. I then just pottered about for a bit whilst I had a think on what to do later, much depending on whether the clouds would build up or not.
Butterflies were already quite active and I watched a couple of Speckled Wood spiralling around each other down the bottom of the garden. When these finished their tussle one of them went next door but the other settled in one of the usual spots and showed itself to be a quite fresh individual that had already had a close escape, once again proving the effectiveness of those hind wing eyespots.
With it rapidly warming up he quickly closed his wings to regulate his temperature and for the rest of the morning whenever I saw a Specklie settled in the garden they had their wings tightly closed.
A few 'whites' were soon passing through including at least one each of Green-veined White and male Orange-tip. One of the wandering 'whites' settled briefly and turned out to be a female Orange-tip, the first female of this species I have seen in the garden so far this year.
By midday and with the rest of the day looking like it was going to remain warm and sunny we decided to have a drive down to Snitterfield Bushes...more to come on this in my next report.
Back home later in the afternoon, I was once again pottering about in the garden and watching the various butterflies passing through, most of which were still very active but occasionally one of them would stop for a brief moment.
I then spotted a female Brimstone fluttering about around the alder buckthorns and as I watched she dropped down onto a dandelion which gave me the chance to grab a few quick photos.
She then carried on fluttering around the buckthorns and occasionally settled to lay a single egg each time.
After doing this for a while she dropped down again, this time appearing just to have a rest...
...before carrying on fluttering up and down the garden and every now and then coming back to the buckthorns.
Whilst on one of these trips up and down the garden she was intercepted by a male who chased her about before they both went next door and I saw them settle high up in one of the neighbours trees. I managed to get a photo at full zoom and a very tight crop appears to show them in cop.
Assuming that the female had already mated and was not laying infertile eggs, I have read that some butterflies will mate more than once, but I am not sure how common this is and with which species. Anyway, I have never seen Brimstones in cop before and if this pair is typical then it appears that it may take place fairly high up in trees and shrubs.
Also, a couple of observations; firstly I have read somewhere, not sure where now, that Brimstones are a morning butterfly and not often seen flying past early afternoon. The Brimstone activity in the garden described above all took place after 4.00pm and carried on until well past 5.00pm. Maybe this is down to air temperature which was certainly on the warm side at the time.
Secondly, I have often read that Brimstone females prefer young shoots on small plants in full sun to lay their eggs. Yesterday, and this is something have seen before, the female seemed to prefer laying on shrubs in partial shade. I have half a dozen alder buckthorn shrubs from whips I planted some years ago and they all receive full sun at some point in the day, some in the morning and some in the afternoon with a transitional period when each is in partial shade.
Anyway, now to sort out the photos from Snitterfield for part 2.
Bye for now,
Neil.