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Thanks Guys for all the kind words, much appreciated as ever

Recent Doings

As ever this week, I've done the two Haddon transects, both of which have been very productive, with Heath Fritillaries seemingly approaching their peak and Small Pearl - Bordereds doing very well (and showing reluctantly for the camera). Heaths are very easy to find and photograph on a day with brief sunny intervals, and well worth a go. Both them and Small Pearl - Bordereds are slightly past their best now, the latter being extremely difficult to photograph in the sunny weather. Large Skippers are also out in force at both sites.
In other news, my peacock larvae have now pupated.

Some lovely shots William, especially the Large Skipper and the Peacock pupa. I particularly like your style of photography where the butterfly isn't 'in your face' so to speak yet the lovely atmospheric background provides a really appealing image.

Thanks Pauline - I've been lucky enough to get out to some really great places recently, and it's nice to take some of that away in the photos. There should be some Collard Hill stuff soon as I've had 4 days (another tomorrow) there helping the wardens - a fantastic experience

Lovely images of your Peacock pupa William

Great to hear how well the Heath Fritillary are doing on Haddon Hill, my recent visit there was a delightful experience.

Bill

"When in doubt...venture out"

Yes, a superb image of the Peacock pupa.

Thanks Bob and Willrow, I've been talking to some of the Exmoor BC folks and it seems this is actually one of the best Heath Fritillary years on record at Haddon - single figure counts are normal, when I've had up to 20, which is great news .

Cracking Collard

Over the last 5 days I have been fortunate to help out members of the National Trust in their work at Collard Hill. As many will know, it has been a poor season for Large Blues on the majority of their Somerset sites, with the well - documented situation at Collard repeated across the Poldens at nearly all their locations (I believe a couple of private sites at lower altitudes have fared better).

Fortunately, this scarcity did not deter that most hardened and optimistic of species, the british naturalist, and counts of 50 visitors each day (with 93 on the open day) were fairly standard at Collard. Despite the paucity of Large Blues, many of these went home with happy faces, as most days the unremitting efforts of National Trust volunteers and visitors tended to turn up an obliging female of some description.

As one visitor quite rightly pointed out: 'If you don't see the Blue, enjoy the view', words that held true throughout the week as, in the periodic absence of arion visitors sampled the other delights Collard had to offer. These included...

Small Heaths (every day I was there 2 were fighting by the bench on the centre of the site, a small wonder they did not die of exhaustion in the heat), and Marbled Whites.
Orchids of various kinds, lots of Pyramidal, including a nice var.albiflora , Bee - including the legendary var.trolli (Wasp Orchid) of which one specimen is flowering this year.
Small Tortoiseshells in abundance...
Including this female mating with a Meadow Brown, a rather unsettling sight in the Eastern Glade.
A host of Migrants, including Hummingbird Hawk Moth, Clouded Yellow, Painted Lady and Red Admiral (I saw about 20 of the latter each day, flying strongly northwards up the slope, never stopping), photos of the former two's eggs here.
Burnet Moths of different stages of development everywhere...
And of course, 'the view'.
Some Blues to follow....

Brilliant Blues

Despite their rarity this season (we had around 4 on transect when I was there), Large Blues performed fairly well for visitors when found. Best spots to look were 'The Eastern Glade' (on cooler days), the bottom of the gravelled path that takes you down from the bench to the bottom of the site (quite often egg - laying females here in the morning) and the slope in the middle of the site above (in the morning) and around the gorse (on cooler afternoons). It was however, largely pot - luck as the Blues do range over the site in their search for either females of thyme.

Males were virtually unapproachable, and I only ever got photos of one as it rested after mating, but females were relatively easy to get close to once found, perching on thyme to lay eggs and nectar. A very fresh female was found on the open day that stayed pretty much within 10 metres of where it was found at 11:00 all day, still being there when I left at 5:00. This lack of any meaningful activity was seen in several Large Blues and is perhaps why they were so difficult to find, and numbers so low as they rested on grass stems in the intense heat.

The jury is still out on why the Large Blues are in such low numbers and so late. One theory is that Collard's claggy, clayey soil stores water, lowering its temperature and retarding the development of the thyme and the Large Blue larvae in the ants' nests, this explaining their lateness, whilst the drought conditions last summer caused thyme to wilt and starve the young larvae, resulting in a high mortality before they reached the ant's nests and low numbers this year.

Time and science will tell, and hopefully there'll be some interesting answers after the yearly egg counts etc. have taken place, certainly, many of the females were busy laying eggs, here is the first one I photographed on Sunday morning on the upper slopes.
The legendary open day female...
With a crowd of suitably respectful admirers...
And Jono, the Large Blue Warden...
More females...
A few oddities, a Large Blue and (blurry) Small Heath...
And two sitting together, post - cop.
With all the egg - laying females around, having watched Dave Simcox at work, I picked up the trick of finding Large Blue eggs...
Finding eggs was very satisfying, but there are few feelings as satisfying as watching a butterfly that until not so long ago was extinct in Britain, fluttering over the grassy sward, in a field filled with wildflowers, in its search for thyme to bring on the next generation....brilliant.

Fantastic photos William. I love the last one!

I agree - that last photo is remarkable. I love it.

Guy

One of the best sequences I've seen on this site (and there has been plenty of competition).

Thanks for sharing.

Great report and beautiful images. The last one and the quarter open female are the pick of an excellent bunch for me. Many of the regulars on UKB have their own photographic styles, but I'm particularly fond of your 'butterflies in a landscape' shots - they capture summer memories and feelings so well, and that's not easy to do.
BWs, Neil

Totally agree with the other comments William, great reports and beautiful images.

Cheers,

Neil

I'm just 'catching up' on your diary William, great reports and really lovely images in your last three posts

Mike

Absolutely stunning photos William. I can imagine many of them as illustrations in an expensive book about butterflies - and if they were, then I would definitely buy it. I wish I could emulate your style and produce images like that.

Hi William,
Excellent Large Blue pictures, I think. Not just the butterflies but also the "spirit of the occasion" with the "butterfly tourists"
Best Wishes,
Philip

Superb shots William. Like others, I think that last shot is just brilliant!

Cheers,

- Pete

I can also throw my hat into the ring regarding that last shot, sublime comes to mind

Have a goodun

Wurzel

William
On the 31st of May you wrote-

A nice gentleman I met also informed me that he'd seen a Green Hairstreak, though I failed to catch up with that.

That "nice" man was me. I also saw you in the distance at Collard on a few weeks back, you were busily strolling around with a clip-board, but I didn't get to see you again.
I have only just discovered your diary here, and it is excellent.
Your photos are superb, and you have both real artistic flair, and technical skill for someone so young.
Keep up the excellent work - you are putting we oldies to shame.
I revisited Haddon on Sat 21st, and saw dozens of HF, mostly around the area below the large dead tree, and some a little further east. There were also a few over that rise - but only a handful.
I am always worried that it is rare to see youngsters enjoying butterflies (on the last foreign foray I had we were 17 people, and I was the youngest at 59 years!!) and meeting you has given me real hope for the future.
Hope to bump into you again.

Roger

A really big thank you for all the kind comments guys, I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity I did, and my 5 days spent at Collard will live long in the memory, the photos provide just a small record of an incredible experience at an amazing site, and if they capture a bit of summer, then I am much the happier.

The breadth of knowledge and character exhibited by the people met on the site were fascinating (one gentleman specialised for example in Grasshoppers and another lady in Figwort Weevils), and the butterflies themselves were beautiful. The last photo took a bit of time, an egg - laying female was bouncing around the grass at the top of the site, and I fired off a few photos in an attempt to do her justice, more luck than judgement, but a wonderful moment.

Roger - it is always great to put a name to a face, I did find that Green Hairstreak a week later, and several more besides and your kind words are much appreciated, as a young person, it is a pleasure to be outdoors in the incredible places that butterflies fly, look forward to seeing you again in the field!

BWs

William