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Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2016 9:07 pm
by David M
bugboy wrote:This year I've found myself actually chasing a Common Blue through dozens of Chalkhills for a rare picture! That is a truly sorry state of affairs to be in
![Neutral :|](./images/smilies/icon_neutral.gif)
I empathise with this, Bugboy.
Common Blues and Brown Argus have been SO scarce this year that I've treated them like rarities, to be chased down and photographed on those isolated occasions when they've been flying.
Usually, these supposedly common species recover in a good year, but good years are becoming once-per-decade events, so one wonders what things will be like 20 years down the line?
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 24, 2016 6:11 am
by Neil Hulme
Break For Brownies
I've been slaving away over a hot atlas (The Butterflies of Sussex; published spring 2017) for much of this year, and intensively over the last few weeks, to the point where Cabin Fever had really set in by Monday evening. A quick email to a friend and I was heading to Steyning Rifle Range to look for Brown Hairstreaks on Tuesday morning (23 August), for only the third time this year. As I walked down the slope it was obvious from the small huddle of enthusiasts that all the hard work had been done. A perfect female Brown Hairstreak was already posing beautifully.
However, despite the weather being perfect, and this being 'peak week', we only saw another two. My two previous visits were admittedly very short, but only produced singles down low. The Rifle Range is performing well below par this year. This has been due to a problem that I spotted a few weeks back, and that I will be working with the Steyning Downland Scheme and South Downs National Park Authority to resolve before next season. Unfortunately, the Dexter cattle, which were told to eat the coarser grasses on the site, have developed a liking for the tender parts of Blackthorn and Bullace, browsing the shrubs back hard to the woodier growth. Their dish of choice will have been served with caterpillar croutons. However, we know from experience that once the problem is resolved, the population will recover quickly.
Other sightings included a Clouded Yellow (here they come!) and a female Adonis Blue ab.
krodeli. On one of my previous visits I also found a nice Oak Eggar moth.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:53 pm
by Neil Hulme
Trees For Hairstreaks
I currently have 13 potted specimens of the Dutch Elm Disease-resistant cultivar LUTECE in my back garden, which have been purchased by BC Sussex. These will be planted at Littlehampton during the winter, to secure the future of an important White-letter Hairstreak colony. I will be calling for assistance from green-fingered Branch members in due course. In the shorter term the trees are providing a steady supply of food for my daughter's pet Vapourer Moth caterpillar. I'm delighted to see that she's now taking a keen interest in butterflies and moths, without too much bribery.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:58 pm
by Pete Eeles
Neil Hulme wrote:In the shorter term the trees are providing a steady supply of food for my daughter's pet Vapourer Moth caterpillar. I'm delighted to see that she's now taking a keen interest in butterflies and moths, without too much bribery.
Glad to hear it, Neil - sounds like Mia has the "bug bug"
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I'm sure the blood, sweat and tears being poured over the atlas will be worth it.
Cheers,
- Pete
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:09 pm
by Jack Harrison
In the shorter term the trees are providing a steady supply of food for my daughter's pet Vapourer Moth caterpillar. I'm delighted to see that she's now taking a keen interest in butterflies and moths, without too much bribery.
I hope the Vapourer's not a female. Mia might be disappointed if her moth emerges without wings.
Jack
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 7:48 pm
by Neil Hulme
Thanks, Pete. A little more pain to come, but once it's wrapped up I'll be putting my feet up for the next 25 years. I'm sure I'll write again at some point, but I'll never take on quite so much in the future!
Jack: Knowing Mia I suspect she'll just demand £1 for every egg it lays.
BWs, Neil
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2016 8:07 pm
by Neil Hulme
Finishing On The Brown
Yesterday (30 August) I visited the Steyning Downland Scheme (SDS) area, primarily to make a final decision on planting locations for Cowslip and Primrose plugs, in readiness for colonisation by the Duke of Burgundy (now only a few kilometres away!). There will be a fab and fun event to get these in the ground on Sunday September 18, so any locals who would like to help out can visit the SDS website to find out more (see
http://steyningdownland.org/event/dukes-planting-day/).
Of course it would have been rude to visit this fantastic site without having a last look for the Brown Hairstreak. I managed my best count of low-level females this season, with a total of 4 seen in quick succession, all close to the lower gate on the northern flank of the Rifle Range. It was a case of quality over quantity, with one individual being in perfect condition. I suspect she hadn't even reached one of the master trees yet, and will probably still be laying eggs in late September.
The females I see are all given 'condition scores', and this batch rated 10, 8.5, 8 and 6. Apart from being a bit of fun, this has generated some interesting data this year. The usual glut of low-scoring individuals has been notably absent. I'm interpreting this to reflect the problems caused by recent over-browsing of the
Prunus, with the majority of females dispersing quite rapidly in the hunt for more suitably conditioned plants.
Later in the day, when passing through Findon Valley, I decided on a quick yomp to the top of Cissbury Ring, to catch the beautiful sunset. The reward, apart from the view, was a newly-hatched female Adonis Blue. These will be some of the last butterflies I see this year, so it was great to find a couple of corkers to close the innings.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 4:32 pm
by Goldie M
Lovely shots of the Butterflies Neil, we're all concerned up here in the North at the lack of Butterflies, this time last year the Small Tortoiseshells were every where, in my garden nearly every day right up till October,
so far we've seen none this July or August, I keep looking for them every day, so far nothing, I'm hoping they could just be late. Goldie
![Sad :(](./images/smilies/icon_sad.gif)
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 8:34 pm
by Buchan Boy
That female Adonis is gorgeous,not had a great year meself with Adonis's but that shot brings good cheer,nice one.
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 9:42 pm
by David M
Not a bad way to (almost) finish off, Neil, though I suspect that there may well be a twist or two for you before 2016 is out!
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 5:49 am
by Jack Harrison
Adonis or Chalkhill. Either you Neil or Pete has made an error.
If you want to send me a PM, I can let you have a membership form for the Mis-Identification Club
Jack
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:24 am
by Pete Eeles
Jack Harrison wrote:If you want to send me a PM, I can let you have a membership form for the Mis-Identification Club
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
That'll be me, Jack
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
I originally posed a question here before sending Neil a PM instead and received a detailed response.
The well-documented characteristic that I was going on was the colour of the scales on the hindwing upperside between the red dots and the margin, where most authorities say that these scales are blue in Adonis, and white in Chalk Hill. However, looking at other photos in the gallery (for Adonis), such as these, then this characteristic is subtle at best:
gallery/image.php?album_id=162&image_id=11587
gallery/image.php?album_id=162&image_id=8196
Cheers,
- Pete
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:23 pm
by selbypaul
Neil Hulme wrote:Trees For Hairstreaks
I currently have 13 potted specimens of the Dutch Elm Disease-resistant cultivar LUTECE in my back garden, which have been purchased by BC Sussex. These will be planted at Littlehampton during the winter, to secure the future of an important White-letter Hairstreak colony. I will be calling for assistance from green-fingered Branch members in due course. In the shorter term the trees are providing a steady supply of food for my daughter's pet Vapourer Moth caterpillar. I'm delighted to see that she's now taking a keen interest in butterflies and moths, without too much bribery.
BC Ulmus LUTECE.jpg
Hi Neil
Well done to you and BC Sussex for purchasing the DED resistant elms. It's something I'm currently trying to persuade Sheffield Council to do in the current street tree "replacement" (felling) programme. Some good news to come out of the bad hopefully! Are you in contact with Dr David Herling about the DED resistant elms? If not, I highly recommend you contact him sometime. I spent an hour speaking to him on the phone the first time we spoke. A truly remarkable man with an amazing knowledge of everything elm related.
Paul
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 3:42 pm
by Neil Hulme
Thanks, Paul, and good luck with your highly commendable plans.
I use this valuable resource
http://www.hantsiow-butterflies.org.uk/ ... 201115.pdf courtesy of BC Hants & IOW Branch.
BWs, Neil
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 3:49 pm
by Neil Hulme
Vanessa The Vapourer
Over two days this week the bizarre life of the flightless female Vapourer Moth was played out in our Worthing back garden. The moth emerged at 14:15 on 12 September, having been nurtured over the previous weeks by my five-year-old daughter, Mia, who found the caterpillar in a local park (she's now got three species on the go).
An amorous male Vapourer came calling at 15:39 and was gone by 15:48. By 16:40 she was laying eggs and in just a few hours she had squeezed out more than 130. It seems rather sad that she had nothing now to do, other than wait for her life to ebb away. She died during the afternoon of 13 September, having moved no further than 1 centimetre.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 5:11 pm
by Neil Hulme
Sunset On The Season
On Tuesday (13 September) I could no longer resist the urge to get outside and enjoy what may be the last of our Indian Summer. I decided to have a look at a Brown Hairstreak site recently discovered by one of our members (David Cook) at Burgess Hill, also exploring a little further afield. It does look very good and despite being so late in the season I saw two female Brown Hairstreaks still at work.
As I wandered along the course of a small stream I came across a patch of flowers where 11 male Small Coppers were battering the living daylights out of each other - that more than doubled my 2016 tally, demonstrating the resilience of butterflies as this third brood emerges. Having found this 'pot of gold' I dropped in for 30 minutes at Cissbury Ring on the way home, finding a further 15.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2016 8:41 pm
by Butterflysaurus rex
Lovely Coppers Neil, great to see Mia's moth menagerie is going so well. Great photos of the female Vapourer I'm sure Mia was fascinated by it, I know I am.
Glad to see you got out for a bit, what a relief eh!
All the best. James
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 8:24 pm
by selbypaul
Thanks Neil
As you say, an excellent article
Paul
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 8:44 pm
by David M
Many thanks for that Vapourer moth sequence, Neil. I can't think of any online resource that would bring it to life quite like that!
Fascinating.
Re: Neil Hulme
Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2016 6:26 pm
by Neil Hulme
Thanks, all. I must confess that the speed of the entire process took me by surprise. Always something to learn!
BWs, Neil