Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Lovely Photos Wurzel, especially the Common Blue they were bit scarce round here this year but I did manage a few shots. Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Bugboy If I did post things up to date I wouldn't have anything to post for the last week and a half - the weather and work have not been conducive for butterflying
Cheers Goldie Blues have forgotten that they're supposed to live up to their name of 'Common'

WB 13-06-2016 Larkhill

13-06
AM
Well the week didn’t start well with a ‘No stop’ first thing due to the cloudy and showery conditions. It wasn’t looking good the rest of the week either as I had two breakfast sessions, two afters school sessions and a trip to Exeter for training! Oh well hopefully I’ll be able to make up time.
PM
Come the afternoon I stopped in the little lay-by further down the Westbound beyond the half way point near to where I’d found the Adonis before. On crossing the road I found butterflies almost immediately with three or four Small Heath. I then made my way down the path and back up the hill on the other side. The ground here looked good for Dark Green fritillary so I’ll have to try here again in a little while when they start flying. Just off the path were a few Blues, 2 Common Blues, a male and female and 2 Adonis, both males.

As time was getting short I made my way back towards where I’d seen the Adonis previously and found 3 males and a female. However time was seriously eking away and so I had to cut and run in order to get home before I was missed.

17-06
PM
As expected I didn’t get back to Larkhill until the Friday and so I again pulled in at the lay-by closer to the camp. I did check out the ‘Adonis site’ but they appear to have moved on and so I took a closer look at the filed on my left as I walked along the path. A Red Admiral took off from the path, I saw a couple of Large Skipper and only three Adonis. There were Foresters everywhere as well, in fact so many I didn’t know where to put my lens first.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

Nice Adonis, Wurzel. Nearly time for them to be going round again...

Dave

[trevor]

Those underside shots of the Adonis Blue are excellent.
They have been a rare Butterfly for me this year.

All the best,
Trevor.

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, lovely Adonis, I hope I see some in Kent next week. Goldie

[Wurzel]

Cheers Dave Indeed, but I am trying to catch up - it's just that everything has gone crazy at the moment in the week I've added three new species to the yearly tally
Cheers Trevor I reckon the only Blues that have done any where near well this year are Holly and Large, all the others (although I can't consider Chalkhills yet) seem to have had dire first/second broods
Cheers Goldie Good luck with your Adonis hunt
Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

The Devenish 18-06-2016

As K was in the choir for 'Joseph' at the Mayflower it meant lots of Saturday afternoons waiting round to pick her up from rehearsals. The weather hadn’t been great recently but today I finally thought ‘stuff it’ and set off to the Devenish with little L. She decided that she was going to be the boss and so I followed her lead. L said that we should go straight to the Orchid Meadow and so I missed out the Stump and we were soon wandering around the grasses looking for butterflies having successfully climbed over all three sets of gates. While little L had fun admonishing the belligerent Brown Argus and a Common Blue I stumbled across a Silver Y. They have been pretty common this year, generally veering away from me after the initial eruption from the grass or hunkering down wings blurring amongst the turf. Today however it was happy to sit in the open and have its photo taken so I did.

Little L then requested that we went up the Down so off we set (with another gate for L to traverse) but it was very quiet with only the odd White fluttering by along the tree margin. We did the complete circuit and were working our way back down the steps cut into the chalk when a large brown butterfly took off. My first Meadow Brown of 2016 and also unusually willing to pose. Normally they don’t sit with their wings nicely opened until the later in the season by which time they’re torn and tatty. This male was resplendent and the sex brands almost jumped off the wings! Slightly further down the slope was a second as well but this one was more of a Meadow Blonde than brown.

We were now back into the Orchid Meadow and exploring the far end under little L’s orders. There were wild flowers and Orchids all over with the latter represented by three species. Something would fly and L would tell me to try and get shot of it and in this way a Grass moth and Cinnabar, Large Skipper and the third Meadow Brown of the day all fell below my lens. Back near the gate I was under orders to try and get the Brown Argus and so I tried to oblige. I didn’t realise that she could be such a hard task master.

As we headed off little L was relishing the chance to practice her new gate climbing skills and so we had to take the same route back that had brought us here as that meant a further three gate climbs. As we were in the small paddock we did stop for a short while at the Stump much to L’s delight as the bees were peeking out of their burrows at her. We tore ourselves away and made the final gate climb before speeding off to pick up K although we did stop in the car park once there for a large moth (something yellow underwing?). A lovely afternoon when all was said and done.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, sounds like you were under little L's wing that day Goldie

[Katrina]

Great selection of photos Wurzel.

[Wurzel]

Cheers Goldie I don't know about wing, more like under the thumb - the power an 8 year old daughter has over her dad
Cheers Katrina There is still a nice selection of stuff out there...just in much smaller numbers than I can recall

August 2016

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Wurzel]

Slop Bog 19=06-2016

With the photos of Silver Studs coming in from further East I thought it was about time that I visited ‘The Bog’. The sun wasn’t playing ball – determined to remain hidden behind the cloud but I didn’t mind really so long as there were a few glimpses. I’m getting used to the weather being rubbish this year!
Once on site I headed straight across the boardwalk and out onto the heather. It is classed as a ‘dry, lowland Heath with bogs’ but the recent wet spells have turned it into a ‘Bog with a few areas of damp Heath’. It was also quiet and the only action were a couple of fluttering Common Heath moths. The first was a male and then a female with its more striking contrasting markings. There were a few Dragonflies around including a reasonably tame 4-spotted Chaser and also my first Large Red Damsel of the year. By this time I’d worked my way across the ‘Silver Studded Heath’ and was mooching around the verges of the larger body of heather. Finally something more butterfly like flew from one stand of heather to another. Amongst the gloom and rain drops a couple of gorgeous blue flashes shone out, a Silver-Stud and unusually my first was a female.

I spent some time with her and then moved off back towards the small area of heath at the end of the boardwalk. While skirting around the edge of the heather I spied a male and so approached slowly, lowering my feet down in the holes between the heather. As I watched it I noticed some ants appearing so I took a series of shots thinking I would see them tending to the possibly newly emerged butterfly. It was then that I noticed the damage to one of the forewings and as I focused in I saw a bulge underneath the tear from which an ant emerged. It also looked like the other ants were attacking the butterfly, biting at its tarsi and abdomen. The butterfly flew leaving the first ant with the fragment of wing looking a lot like a rolled up carpet slung over its shoulder. I caught up with the butterfly and it seemed to have suffered only a little from the attack.

I then set to quartering the heath and this turned up a couple more fresh makes and a new moth species for me.

Over the further side a Large Skipper appeared during the briefest of sunny spells as did a Cloudy Buff but then it was back to photographing Silver-studs in the gloom. I finally had a count of 6 males and 1 female and it was time to head home. Hopefully the low numbers are just a reflection of the comparative earliness in the season of my visit or the less than conducive weather but it felt like an all too familiar story. A trip to see a particular species and very few of them once found.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[millerd]

The story does sound familiar, Wurzel. The numbers just aren't there. However, your SSB were lovely and fresh, and the one molested by ants is extraordinary. Usually the ants appear to protect emerging butterflies, but these seem to have turned on it completely.

I love the "strawberry-jam-and-custard" Clouded Buff too.

Dave

[bugboy]

Great SSB's Wurzel, your day out seeing fresh animals was better than mine, I had to settle with photographing them in drizzle!

[peterc]

Fantastic photos, Wurzel.

Your moth looks like a Marbled White Spot to me.

ATB

Peter

[Wurzel]

Cheers Dave It was really unusual behaviour to see as, like you say, I though the ants 'tended' to the butterfly Perhaps it's been a bad year for the ants and so they've sussed the butterfly out and turned on it?
Cheers Bugboy But only slightly better Bugboy - I did only get 15 minutes of sun the whole time I was there
Cheers Peter Thanks for the ID

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Pauline]

Fascinating observations and great shots of the Blue with ants. I hope Vince picks up on this and includes it in his 'notes' (if he hasn't already) as it must surely be very unusual behaviour. I am intrigued and interested in any theories why they would do this? Are they a different type of ant perhaps?

[Goldie M]

Hi! Wurzel, great shots of the SSB's I hope it's not a new trend this attacking of the SSB , like Pauline , I'm hoping it's a different Ant. Goldie

[essexbuzzard]

I agree,it's extraordinary behaviour ,I wonder if it has been a bad season for ants too,forcing them to turn rougue?

[Wurzel]

Cheers Pauline, Goldie and Essex It could be a different species of ant - I've seen wood ants ripping Heath Fritillaries apart or the correct species gone rogue due to them having a poor season as well, either way it was a fascinating spectacle and luckily the SSB survived.

Larkhill WB 20-06-2016

This was going to be one of those funny old weeks I reckoned – first there was the Solstice, then there was the ever changeable weather and finally there were so many activities going on at home and work that I didn’t know when I’d be able to check out the further goings on at Larkhill or not.

20-06
Not a good start to the week as I couldn’t stop in the morning as it was peeing with rain and then come the afternoon when things were slightly better the lay-by was completely full of vehicles all parked in readiness for the Solstice. There wasn’t even space to squeeze right at the edge of the car park area.

21-06
AM
I didn’t think that I’d have been able to have made the stop this morning it being the day of the Solstice but when I drove up towards the lay-by there were only a couple of vans left and even they looked like they were making ready to be offski. So I pulled in anyway and started down the Westbound path. I think the butterflies must have realised that the Solstice had occurred as today there was a changing of the guard. Whereas usually I would be greeted by the odd Small Heath, Blue and then not much else today the first butterfly of the morning was a Meadow Brown. A few more steps down the path and there was my first Marbled White of the year – despite bemoaning to millerd only the day before that it would probably be another fortnight before I saw my first! A few more steps and there was my first Ringlet as well. I walked down to the half way point and then back and in the end came up with a best fit total of 2 each for Meadow Brown, Marbled White and Small Heath and three each of Ringlet and Large Skipper. So it seems that the Solstice really is the start of summer!

PM
By the afternoon I had Larkhill to myself and so I gave the place the once over. It seemed in a lot better nick this year than how it had been left last year – probably due to the lack of grazing by the horses and the sward was at full height. There was more of the same down the Westbound path with all the same species seen as during my morning visit but all were now much more active bombing up and down the path.
As I made my way back to the car something larger and brighter flew around the shrubbery near the patch of Golden Rod. I carefully got closer in and there was a beautifully fresh Small Tort putting on a great display – turning and twisting its way round the food source and posing evey now and again alert and upright.

I drove home experiencing mixed emotions. Relief and happiness that the summer butterflies have finally arrived and concern as I still haven’t recorded Brown Argus, Small Copper or Small Blue at the site this year. Hopefully a second or third brood might fare better than the first but for the Dingy Skipper which I also haven’t seen here this year the only hope is that I missed them and they had quietly got on and bred whilst evading my lens/eyes?

23-06
AM
All five species were present again this morning although the Small Heaths are starting to look really tired and worn. I hadn’t been happy with the shots that I‘d gotten of the Marbled White the day previously and so I focused all of my attentions on them this morning. A couple were easily disturbed as I haven’t remembered how to stalk them yet but luckily I came across another couple that were much dopier and more docile.
One in particular sat nicely on a network of grass stems which made it look like I’d interrupted it just as it had started weaving a basket. As I took a few shots it seemed to wake up a bit more and so lifted its forewings up as if to flash its eyes as Grayling and Meadow Browns do. I’d not seen this species do this before and was surprized that they’d bother as they don’t have the most obvious eyes to startle potential predators with?

24-06
AM
I’d have to make this stop count this morning as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to stop on the way home as it was the year 11 Prom and so I was on Bouncer duty with one of the Maths teachers. Again Large Skipper, Ringlet and Meadow Brown were all represented as I waded down the Westbound path – the grass is now at mid-thigh height and when walking down the track in the wheel ruts can sometimes reach my waist. Most were roosting open winged and trying to catch the early morning sun and would flutter off weakly as the grasses swayed back from my passing. It was interesting to see the different approaches of the Ringlets and Meadow Browns. The Ringlets fluttered low, just bobbing over the tops of the grass stems and would then bury themselves down lower in the vegetation whilst the Meadow Browns gained height and flew up to the tops of the bushes and sought somewhere to land from up there.
The Marbled Whites are building nicely in numbers it seems with 11 the maximum count this morning and some were roosting open winged on the ground in the tyre ruts whilst the others were making flags on the stems. On the return journey I had something of a blast from the past as a Common Blue put in a brief appearance, sitting on its own little ‘bridge’.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[Goldie M]

Love the Marbled Whites Wurzel, I'm just wondering if they'll still be there for next week when we travel down South, I hope so, your shot's of them are great. Goldie