www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

See you next year Pauline have a good close season and maybe we can tempt you out to the Social

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Ten out of ten for presentation, Pauline. There may well still be things to add to 2016's review though. I reckon with all these south-easterlies we could see a few migrants over the coming weeks.

Hi Pauline,

Great round up of your season with some lovely images. Thank you for your comment on my photos but you really are already taking some that I wish I had taken...and I never did get a Buff Tip to my trap this year.

All the best,

Neil.

Thank you all so much for your amazing comments. I really do appreciate them so much and they keep me going over the long Winter months which I have come to dread. Before I get on to the butterfly posts I hope you will allow me to explain the late(ish) start to my diary. Some might recall that a few years ago I picked up a dreadfully injured wild rabbit just by Noar Hill on my return from looking at BH. She took 3 months to recover and by that time was too tame to be returned so she was installed in a large kennel and run and a companion was provided for her. Lucky was a lovely rabbit. To me she was special and unique and it was interesting to compare her behaviour with her domestic companion, Magnet. Just after Xmas I took them both to the vet for their annual jabs and he unfortunately detected 2 large lumps in Lucky's abdomen. She had been spayed so we hoped that ruled out at least one form of cancer. She was booked in for x-rays and scans and it was such a relief to be told that the lumps were in fact abscesses rather than any form of tumour. Nevertheless, they had to be removed so she was booked in for her op. and put on medication in the meantime. I don't think you can imagine how shocked I was when I found her dead the night before her op. I was gutted. I didn't feel like getting a replacement but my little buck became withdrawn and stopped eating. He was missing her even more than I was. I eventually found a suitable replacement. A 3 year old female who had been discarded after being used for breeding. When I had her spayed it was clear there was a problem - the results came back from the lab that the uterus was cancerous and by now she had developed rabbit syphilis, a legacy from the many bucks used on her. Well, to cut a long story shorter, things are much more settled now and I am able to get on with butterflying. I shall just conclude with a few shots of Lucky in happier days.

Good to hear from you again Pauline even though your post is a sad one, hope fully the sight of Butterflies will cheer you up, looking forward to your posts Goldie

Hi Pauline and welcome back to a new season. Sorry to hear about Lucky, lets hope that a few spring butterflies will manage to lift your spirits,

All the best,

Neil.

Hi Pauline and welcome back.

Sad to hear about your woes with certain of your pets. I hope this year is a more positive and fortunate one for you.

Welcome back Pauline Hopefully 2017 from now forwards will bring you more butterflies and joy than 2016 seemed to.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Butterflies active, check.

Birds nest building, check.

Primroses in flower, check.

Bee Flies out, Check.

Pauline's back, Spring has most definitely sprung

Sorry to hear about your bunny's. Hopefully the springtime butterflies will lift your spirits.

The Butterflies beat you out of hibernation this year .
It is a sure sign that the new season is upon us when Pauline starts posting again !.

There is always new life to replace that which has passed.

Best wishes,
Trevor.

Good to see you posting again Pauline although sorry to hear about your winter problems.

What a splendid weekend - I saw my first Orange Tip today (will write up in my diary tomorrow) so the season is really under way

Mike

Thank you all for your very warm welcome. It is great to be back but I have a lot of catching up to do and I do so enjoy reading what others have been up to.

It is always hard to close my diary for the winter but it is inevitable as so many chores beckon. However, although my outings are considerably reduced, it is certainly possible to lure me out and reports of a LTB sighting at Warnham nature reserve did just that. I had not been to that venue before but I remembered it was close to where Goldie stayed on one of her visits down south.

Seems it is only 45 mins away and the weather was good so off I set. To cut a long story short, I did not find the LTB – just Vince (nice to see you Vince) and a couple of Kingfishers, but it is an interesting reserve and I passed the time taking some shots of a couple of Small Coppers, given that they had been such a rarity on home turf. I decided to call it a day and made my way to the exit but just before I got there I saw what I thought was another Small Copper, posing nicely on a dead flower head. As I got closer I realised it was way too big for a Small Copper. As I watched it flitted from the grass to various stalks, not staying in any one place for more than a couple of seconds, but totally ignoring me, until it landed on my shorts and opened its wings. Yes, I was watching a female Brown Hairstreak but only managed a couple of record shots, my surprise was that great – the last thing I was expecting to see on 14 September – and something of a rarity at that site I was told.

Mid September I received an email from a friend to tell me that he had seen 86 Small Coppers on 3 sites very close to me. Well, that got me REALLY excited. So, my next trip out was to Broxhead Common on 18 September, less than 10 minutes away, where 29 Small Coppers had been seen a few days previously. As there had since been a severe thunderstorm I was unsure what, if anything, I might find. I was not disappointed however as I counted about 2 dozen Coppers in a very small area, many looking very fresh and several females egg-laying. I truly felt as though I had somehow been transported to Dungeness and had a glimpse of the world Hoggers lives in. Needless to say I took many, many photos so only a small selection in this post.... and the blue badge variety which I have never before photographed was in abundance – about one in three!
Egg-laying on Sorrel

Apart from the Small Coppers there was a small colony of Brown Argus (I wonder if this is where ‘my’ Brown Argus came from?), a couple of which were very fresh, as well as some lovely Commas, Speckled Wood, Red Admirals and a single Common Blue – but the Coppers were the stars in my eyes!

Welcome back, Pauline, but sorry to hear of your winter losses.
Fancy bumping into you at Warnham. I had only popped in because I was passing and did not even have a camera or binoculars with me at the time. I also had a brief sighting of a Brown Hairstreak by the cafe on that date.

Vince

Lovely start to your 2017 postings, Pauline, even though they are redolent with the signature of last autumn!

I'm sure you have much more to share and look forward to catching up!

Thank you Vince. Would have been good to chat but being in the hide at the time I wasn't sure of the protocol.

Thank you too David. For completeness I shall try to rush through Autumn activities as I can't wait to post more recent events. As a brief interlude I shall mention the birds nesting in my garden. I have a number of boxes throughout but every year the same 2 boxes are chosen by Nuthatches, even though they are designed for the many Woodpeckers around here. For over a week I have watched the male plaster up the large entrance and now that he is satisfied with his work he constantly sticks out his head and calls for a mate. Yesterday I heard a female calling back to him. They are quite noisy but once he has been successful in persuading a lady back to his abode they are both silent so as not to reveal their whereabouts whilst rearing their family:

At Last Pauline you got a Blue Badge, It looks like I should have timed my holiday for later in the year Pauline then I could have seen the Brown Hair Streak !!!!!
Lovely shots by the way , I just love to see Butterflies on flowers but so for the ones I've seen are just basking in the Sun, looking forward to your next shots Goldie

How many years have I been looking for a Blue Badge Goldie?????? I was beginning to think they didn't exist and folk were just having a laugh with photoshop Well, I've gone from seeing Coppers I could count on one hand to dozens and dozens in a tiny area but what I don't know yet is whether they are there year after year. The spot is a sea of Sorrel so I'm hoping so.

Being on my doorstep, I felt compelled to return to this site to monitor a couple of eggs I had seen being laid. Sadly, there was no sign of one and although the other had obviously hatched and clear signs of early feeding from the leaf noted, the sorrel leaf was now detached from the main plant and there was no sign of the larva. There could have been a host of reasons apart from the usual predators. This particular spot is right on the edge of a path where folk walk their dogs, but the main site (which is just a carpet of Sorrel) is also home to an active badger set. Sticks and markers I had placed to mark the eggs had been knocked and trampled and I feel sure the badgers are the culprits. Although this made tracking the eggs somewhat difficult, the number of Small Coppers in such a small area provided both photo opportunities and the chance to study their behaviour. By now I was well and truly hooked and spent a great deal of time without moving, simply watching and recording. The following are some of the very many shots taken:

Welcome back, Pauline. Wow, those Small Copper shots are amazing. The second to last one on the acorn especially.

Dave

Yayy!...You got your Blue-spotted Coppers ...I can stop feeling guilty

Great photos as well, especially the last selection of poses

All the best,

Neil.