www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Sorry that Alners Gorse was a waste of time as far as BH were concerned.
Had I been with you I would have been just as thrilled with that Small Tortoiseshell,
a butterfly I took for granted until recently. My East Sussex total is five for this year.

That Shipton BH was worth the trip, however!.

Good luck at Whitehawk!
Trevor.

Thanks for the comments, looking back the trip did indeed have some highlights, Brown Hairstreaks at Shipton Bellinger (eventually) and all those Small Tortoiseshells weren’t to be sneezed at. At least I know not to leave it so late in the season for Lulworths now !

28th August
In 2013 my love for butterflies had yet to be reawakened so the Long-tailed Blue invasion that year passed me by completely unnoticed. By 2015 however I had caught the bug again and I spent many days down in Sussex in late summer/early autumn looking for the things, normally turning up the day before or after they were seen. It's been a long four year wait for the next invasion to try and actually see one.

The most reliable place in Sussex seemed to be Whitehawk hill, with daily sightings popping up all over social media, so with a slightly dodgy forecast in the offing that was where I set off to. I arrived in Brighton in torrential rain which I was promised would clear up (I’ve been promised that before!) so I found myself a coffee shop to sit it out. Thankfully, for once the forecasters seemed to have made a lucky guess, the rain eased and it looked to be brightening up in Brighton.

At Whitehawk Hill I wandered around for a bit, looking for any suspiciously worked area that would signal the ‘spot’ to lurk… suspiciously. It was easy to find, a good few people had been here the previous week or two and the trampled grass stuck out like a sore thumb. For the first half hour I was the only one there, the cloud cover thinning frustratingly slowly but the brightening conditions did awaken some fresh Painted Ladies, a Small Heath impupillata ab. (the forewing eyespot missing it’s pupil) and a rather nice Speckled Wood. As the morning progressed various faces began to appear, some familiar in the form of Dave ‘Good’ Cook and a certain Mr Hulme, and I discovered that there was a BBC news crew also on the way to do a local feature .

We still had to wait awhile though as distant blue sky inched slowly in our general direction but finally my 5-year wait came to an end with a fleeting flyby. We didn’t have to wait long for him to flutter back and soon he started to settle in between patrolling his little territory . He may have been a tatty individual but he was certainly a frisky little bugger, seeing off anything that came past and as time went on, we worked out at least three males were here. One of these others settled just long enough for me to grab a couple of distant shots, my first sighting of a LTB with tails still intact! While all this was going on the film crew followed us around and did a few interviews (I wasn’t asked thank god!) However the day belonged to this old chap, I was still seeing pictures of him cropping up on facebook a week later too, what a trooper! With the sun out there were several other species about to annoy the LTB’s, lots of Whites and the ‘blind’ Small Heath ab. had hung around too. Things seemed to quieten down after noon and with numbers of enthusiasts dwindling, I decided to catch the train over to Newhaven to see if anything was about there. No adult LTB’s were found and all the eggs seemed to have hatched. Whilst looking for eggs I think I also found a larval borehole in a developing pod, a hatched egg nearby a clue to the possible culprit. As for adult butterflies, only Painted ladies and Red Admirals posed for me. I very good day though, now the wait for the homebred LTB’s began .

Hello BB,
Just catching up on diaries and glad you got your Brown Hairstreak.......finally Also, congrats on the LTB, was this not part of your 'mission'?

Cracking stuff Bugboy - glad you got your LTB - good things come to those who wait

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Well done on your first LTB sighting, Buggy. It's a real thrill, isn't it, scruffy individual or not! There have been a few more as well since then I believe, and who knows what the next week or two may bring...

Oh, and that Small Heath ab. is a good find as well - it looks really odd with a "blind" eyespot.

Cheers,

Dave

A bit of a party at Whitehawk today by the sounds of it.
One butterfly does make a day out!.

Trevor.

PS. Another good value rail ticket.

bugboy wrote:...While all this was going on the film crew followed us around and did a few interviews (I wasn’t asked thank god!)

Yes, best to leave it to the professionals, BB. Neil has plenty of broadcasting credits to his name and does it with aplomb.

Wurzel wrote:... Mind you Alners Gorse has got earlier and earlier and often produces the first Brostreaks of the season so they may have already been over? Earlier in the season it's possible to pick up 3 Hairstreaks!..

Indeed, I have only visited Alners Gorse once during our late season visits to Dorset and that was back in 2013...and I failed to find a Brown Hairstreak then.
This year the first BH sightings I saw reported were from there and there seemed to be good numbers being reported in late July/early August.

Congrats on catching up with the LTBs. They are out of reach for me unfortunately due to distance and lack of opportunity due to work and other commitments. One day perhaps.

Cheers,

Neil.

Thanks everyone, so good to finally bag a LTB although things did get even better on that front, but in the meantime...

4th September
September arrived, heralding the beginning of the season winding down here, but whilst I waited for the end of season flourish in the form of homegrown brood of Long-tailed Blues, there is still other stuff to chase at some of my regular haunts…. like Bookham for example. The day promised plenty of sunny spells and not long after arriving I was greeted by a bright orange Comma shaped splodge basking on the hedge along the side of Banks Common. Speckled Wood, Small Coppers, another Comma and a Painted Lady kept me occupied as I walked along, always keeping one eye on look out for any Brown Hairstreaks that may be loitering around. Once again non turned up but I did bump into Millerd coming the other way so we joined forces walking back along the hedge to try and flush some of these Hairstreaks out. We made it nearly the entire length of the hedge seeing much the same collection of species when something caught Millerds eye, at last a 2019 Brown Hairstreak at Bookham who was willing to sit still for me ! Still a draw despite her age, we followed her as she flitted around and posed. Oddly her first pose was under a leaf, seemingly hiding from the sun but after that she behaved quite normally. then a second one showed up and this was quickly followed by a third. Like the proverbial buses, waiting weeks for one to sit and then three show up within 5 minutes of each other ! It all went quiet again after that so Millerd decided to leave on a high, leaving me to go and check on some babies. Last time I looked I had just the two remaining White Admiral larvae, Pete in his hibernaculum and Trevor still out and about with James, Pauline and Dave all having gone AWOL.

Having read the White Admiral section in a certain recently published book I can say with some confidence that Pete chose the ‘partial cut and fold’ hibernaculum design. Next to look for Trevor, no sign but he could very well be nestled somewhere in this cluster of dead leaves which incorporates his last feeding leaf. Although Dave had gone AWOL last time, I wandered down to have another browse where, low and behold, there he was. There had been no sign of any other larvae in the vicinity of this particular clump of Honeysuckle so I can only presume this is indeed the long-lost Dave who had wandered some distance from his last feeding leaf and had decided to construct the ‘Symmetric fold’ hibernaculum design… or perhaps was in the process anyway since the sides don’t seem to be stuck together just yet. Anyway It’s good to have re-found one of my babies . After that I wandered back, the increasing cloud cover leading to a reduction in butterfly activity but a stunning Small Tortoiseshell demanded my attention, a fitting end to a successful few hours .

Great report Bugboy That did seem to be the way with Brostreaks this year - a lot of waiting and then they're all over the place I think next year no-one should turn up until about 2pm to miss out all the hanging around

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I remember that day - for about 20 minutes the pesky things were in all directions! Still, you have to hope that as they were all distinctly worn, they had been leading long and fulfilling lives laying eggs all along the remaining bits of hedgerow, and that next year their offspring will be numerous and amenable!

Good to see the progress report on the White Admiral cats too, and to tie it into the descriptions in Pete's book.

Cheers,

Dave

Hi Old Wolf, sorry I mised your comment earlier. No the LTB wasn't part of the 'mission', that was to photograph the 59 recognised residents and regular breeding summer migrants. However if things continue the way they are the LTB may well become an official 60th species. I've actually managed 62 species over the past five years so I reckon I did ok
Thanks Wurzel bloody BH still, the chase and waiting is part of what makes them such a prize when you do get the buggers !
Thanks Dave, I can confirm the females have been doing their job, I found several eggs on my last visit there last weekend

7th September
Just a few hours spare today, which coincidentally was all the weather allowed me anyway at Hadleigh Country Park and the surrounding areas. Mostly overcast conditions meant that just the odd White was disturbed as I walked through the grass at the country park so I decided to wander off to the wood where I’d seen Heath Fritillaries and have a go at finding some larval nests there.

I failed in that respect but the sheltered clearings in the wood were warm enough for some Red Admirals. They mostly looked quite fresh if rather frisky despite the absence of the sun, but one did allow a close approach. Not a great deal else was about so I returned to the Country Park where slightly thinning cloud had warmed the air a fraction and more Whites were about plus a tatty looking Meadow Brown. Over on Two Tree Island a few patches of blue sky helped to wake a few more things up. The centre of activity was a Buddleja where Small and Green-veined Whites jostled with a handful of Red Admirals The day, which had a distinct end of season feel about it, ended with a few light showers and some approaching dark rain clouds.

Great stuff Bugboy - great final close up of the Red Admiral but for me the first Green-veined is the 'piece de resistance' beautiful I remember a month ago there was a certain end of the season feel but then the weather seemed to rally so I'm wondering what comes next for your PD?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

bugboy wrote:..4th September

You summed things up nicely during that post, BB. Good to know that you caught up with a late Brown Hairstreak, and to be fair, she's in reasonable nick for the time of year.

Thanks for the comments, I'm still a month behind so a good few posts yet to come and who knows, if the sun reappears next week (I'm off all week) maybe I can fit a few more in before winter finally closes the season down.

8th September
This was my last chance to get out for a bit but where to go? A few options popped into my head but the winner was Ashtead Common. After a few visits I was pretty confident I knew where the Brown Hairstreaks would be lurking, and since the females were now well into egg laying duties, I should surely be able to track one or two down here. Typically the weather forecast didn’t live up to much, the predicted clear blue skies rapidly clouded over to around 50/50… despite the app steadfastly insisting cloudless skies. Notice how they were hedging their bets though with a 2% chance of rain, this was accurate, there were a couple of light sprinkles Still, a day of sunny spells is usually better than a full sun day. In between the cloud cover and showers I did find some action, a few Whites, Meadow Browns and Speckled Wood. I’d been wandering round for over two hours and was beginning to think it would be another failed Brown Hairstreak day when finally I caught sight of the familiar fluttering around a Blackthorn. Like Bookham the day before, I hadn’t seen a single Gatekeeper so this could only be one thing. She stayed tantalisingly up in the Blackthorn and on the surrounding Bramble so it was a case of camera at arms reach job and hope the auto-focus knew what I was aiming for… She didn’t hang about for long and I lost her over the hedge but sitting nearby was a rather lovely Comma Another 45 minutes passed and with temperatures still creeping up I had enough to keep me occupied but no more Hairstreaks. I was thinking about heading off but gave in to temptation with one last circuit of the most likely spots. 30 seconds later I turned the first corner and there she was, darting out the hedge and fluttering along. She was a good poser and not in too bad shape considering her probable age. During my time watching her she laid a single egg but she most the time just sitting around . After she finally gave me the slip I spent another half hour or so looking for more but it would seem that was it for the day as far as Hairstreaks were concerned. A very nice looking male Green-veined White did get my attention though. The day wasn’t quite over, at Ashtead station was a Buddleja positively heaving with Whites, Red Admirals and Painted Ladies and during the cloudy spells the railings seemed to be the place to hang out. So after a dodgy start I didn’t do to bad with the Brown Hairstreaks in the end .

I had a long two week wait for my next chance to get out but it’s pretty fair to say it was going to be worth the wait !

Glad to see you found another spot for the Hairstreaks, Buggy, after the trials and tribulation of Bookham this year. There was a good showing of other stuff as well, by the look of those photos. Some of the forecasts have been distinctly unreliable lately - this is apparently because of "very mobile weather patterns". Not helpful when planning a day out at a distance - though if the next adventure is the one I think it is, they got that one spot-on quite a bit in advance (thank goodness! ).

Dave

I can see why that Green-veined White caught your attention Bugboy - it really stands out Glad the Brostreaks started playing ball after playing hard to get for so long, they certainly kept us waiting this year

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hmmm, 'very mobile weather patterns' sounds like a bit of a cop out. My real bug bear though with these forecasts is that fact that the now casts are equally as inaccurate . Anyway lets see if your guess is right eh Dave
They certainly did but it's all part of the fun with that particularly species isn't it

21st September
It was a long two weeks before my next chance of butterflying presented itself, work getting in the way mostly. The Saturday looked like the last day of a warm spell of weather and with the imminent prospect of a home-bred generation of Long-tailed Blues appearing it was a trip down to the south coast that inevitably beckoned. I’d arranged to meet up with Millerd down at Newhaven Tidemills, where it was easy for him to find a parking spot, have a wander and if nothing appeared to then move on to Whitehawk Hill via train. There was a stiff breeze blowing and with very little in the way of shelter here there was precious little on the wing, so after doing a circuit of the site we decided to cut our losses and move on to Brighton where sightings seem to be almost guaranteed! It was as we were leaving we caught sight of the familiar figure of B’rex, also perusing the BLEP. Like us, he had drawn a blank too, but after chatting he did suggest another site he knew that might have some action that wasn’t too far away. Well it would be silly to ignore a bit of local knowledge so off we went .

It didn’t take long for our day to improve drastically, within a minute of arriving we saw the first LTB . It was here that we ended up spending the day (joined by Neil H after an hour or so) with several LTB’s keeping us on our toes and providing a good workout on what was a rather steep (and at times slippery) site. There was a good mixture here too, from freshly emerged to older immigrants still laying eggs making up the total of nine insects that seemed to be present. Anyway, enough waffle, here’s what we saw from my perspective . Numerous other species did turn up in one’s and two’s, Clouded Yellow, Common Blue, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Small & Large Whites, Walls but they all barely got a look in, the only other thing I took a picture of was this friendly Lizard, which found my bag a very convenient place to soak up some rays. A real highlight of the year Big thanks to James for suggesting we checked out the site

Great to relive that day again, Buggy, but from a different perspective - literally! How we all weren't more in each other's shots I don't know... You did rather better than I did for butterflies with their wings open, but still managed a few with their noses buried in the pea flowers I see. Their favourite pose... Brilliant.

Cheers,

Dave

A cracking array of images Bugboy I'd not noticed before how variable their under wing patterning and eye spots can be

Have a goodun

Wurzel