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Fabulous weather, Long Tailed Blues flapping around Kent and I'm stuck at work all day!! Grrrr!!

But how can I complain when on my morning walk with the hounds I saw no less than FIVE Clouded Yellows? Who'd have guessed that 2013 would turn out to be a "Clouded Yellow Year" after that dreadful Winter?

I've still got Large White eggs in the garden A batch of caterpillars emerged a few days ago. I placed them in a protective cage and so well did they appear to be doing that this morning before I went to work I had the bright idea of taking them out of the cage and placing them amongst my Nasturtiums. This I duly did but just before leaving I decided to check on them. I'm glad I did because when I looked I saw a Wasp busily eating them! I shooed it away, saw there were some survivors and returned them to the safety of the cage.

If you look to the middle of this photograph you should be able to see signs of the carnage inflicted by the Killer Wasp They'd only been out of the cage for about 10 minutes! Life as a caterpillar isn't easy (especially when there's a berk like Hoggers looking after you..!)

There were still Clouded Yellows this morning in the field where I walk my dogs It's now unusual for me NOT to see one!

After reading your diary I went out to check 'our' Large White caterpillars and found some appear to be missing! Hopefully they are just hiding from todays weather, I will check tomorrow, but might have to get the nets out.

All the Best

Mike

Hi Mike, I was astonished by how quickly my caterpillars came under attack. Ten minutes after releasing them was enough for a Common Wasp to find them and start chomping away. I'd planned to put them on my Nasturtiums but in light of what's happened I think I'll keep them in the cage until they are adults.

Today when out with the dogs I was lucky enough to find a mating pair of Clouded Yellows Here's a rotated image of them I limited myself to taking just a few snaps as I didn't want to disturb what they were doing!

Bodes well for the future They were two of four that I saw today. I love watching them Numbers of Small Tortoiseshells and Brown Argus are on the increase Which is good to see.

Lots of Peacocks still in my garden together with Small Tortoiseshells and a fresh Brimstone.

Hoggers wrote: Today when out with the dogs I was lucky enough to find a mating pair of Clouded Yellows

Tremendous find, Hoggers. I guess they were pretty approachable too (for a change)?

Very nice shots of the mating Clouded Yellows, in fact all of your shots of Clouded yellows
I've had to net my cabbages today as most of the caterpillers have been predated, just some empty skins left behind. There are however a couple of large batches of eggs almost ready to hatch, will hopefully have better luck with them, now nets in place!

Mike

Hi David, you're quite right, they were very approachable but I felt so concerned that I might inadvertently disturb the good work they were both engaged in that I took a few snaps and quickly retired! I guess that all things being favourable the eggs she lays will give rise to a new UK born generation and maybe one that I'll see on my Patch? I wish I'd seen the male afterwards as I see from the photos that he had a very strong Sulpherous colour.

Thanks Mike and good luck with your caterpillars. I don't know whether others are noticing an increase in the numbers of Common Wasps lately? Hardly any of them it seemed this year but I've just evicted three from my living room and almost stood on two in the garden today!

Great stuff Hoggers If they are successful you could be enjoying them for a fair while yet too

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi Wurzel, it'd be marvellous if I could see Home Grown Clouded Yellows into the Autumn!

Today as I left for work I counted 8 Small Tortoiseshells and a single Painted Lady on the Buddleia in my front garden. When I got home late afternoon the Painted Lady was still there together with several Small Tortoiseshells and a few Peacocks.

It's the first Painted Lady I've seen for over a week. Still no sign of any Red Admirals.

Also late afternoon this Holly Blue on the Brambles in my garden

I must confess to having always flicked past the "Long Tailed Blue" entry in my Thomas and Lewington.

But then came all the excitement at Kingsdown Leas!

I turned back to my book and then enjoyed reading Dave Brown's and Neil's heady descriptions of their encounters with this rarity.

Today I finished work early and went straight to St Margaret's for the long walk to the Leas. I was slightly reluctant in that I'd read that flocks of "Twitchers" had descended on the area and I'm not one for large crowds ( I get enough of that in London). But luckily when I arrived it was quiet.

Lots of butterflies on the magnificent cliff-top walk including many Small Coppers, wall-to-wall Wall and four Clouded Yellows Once at the site I headed straight for the Everlasting Peas and this was the first Suspect that I saw At first I thought I'd found a LTB, particularly as he was in a bush right beside the Peas. But as I looked more closely I saw that it was in fact a rather worn Purple Hairstreak A number of brown moths also gave me false hope on a number of occasions until finally I stumbled upon The Real McCoy I took a few snaps before it disappeared from my view chasing a Gatekeeper. I walked up and down the site but did not see anymore and whilst there I bumped into three more butterfly enthusiasts who had yet to see a single one. This was at about 1pm, so perhaps the butterfly goes quiet mid-day. Whatever they do, I hope the other LTB Hunters managed to find them after I headed home I read that LTB eggs have been found in the area, so hope very much that this little gem becomes a long term resident on Kingsdown Leas.

That's a headline that doesn't make sense:

'Butterfly enthusiast let down when Long Tailed Blue turns out to be Purple Hairstreak'.

I can think of far worse dilemmas.

So can I David! I should have sounded more pleased with the Purple Hairstreak, shouldn't I ? And of course I was happy to get up close to the little chap. He certainly fooled me for awhile as despite my research into the Long Tailed Blues I didn't really have a clue what I was looking for and the worn Hairstreak seemed a likely candidate, especially as he was close to the Everlasting Peas.

I see that our experts are running a book on an emergence of LTB's at this site with some money going on late September. I'm certainly going to have another look as I'd love to see a fresh LTB in all its glory.

And the site itself is spectacular. I spent about two hours there and counted 17 species of butterfly ( and without the Purple Hairstreak it would only have been 16 !! )

I managed to see a few butterflies on my walk with the dogs today, despite the rain.

First came this Clouded Yellow Then a few Common Blues Enough to brighten anyone's day.

I saw no less than Five Clouded Yellows on my walk with the dogs this morning The field where I see them was stripped of its topsoil some years ago no doubt with the intention of building on it (this is, after all, Ashford!) although the diggers went away and have not (yet!) returned. And so wild flowers, which some would call "weeds", have established themselves. And it's here that the Clouded Yellows have this year settled and found so attractive I watch the males restlessly quartering back and forth looking for females and every time I see one I feel a thrill of surprise as if I'm seeing them for the first time.

Lots of Common Blues here too, as well as Brown Argus Butterflies don't need much to get along and thrive even in the midst of us and our ever more housing developments and new road systems built for more and more people and cars.

Lashings and lashings of rain today. I rather enjoy walking in the rain and so do my dogs. We even managed to see some butterflies. Several Meadow Browns slowly flapped up as we crossed the field and then a single Clouded Yellow flew for a few feet after being knocked off its perch by my dappy Spaniel A Small Heath Several Common Blues And a highly athletic Painted Lady which stayed for a matter of seconds before flying away through the rain drops It's still raining. My Buddleias seem lonely without the butterflies to ornament their flowers (yesterday I counted 17 Small Tortoiseshells on one bush) but my garden needs a good watering after such a long dry spell.

I was awakened in the early hours by the sound of a torrential downpour that would have spooked Noah. My, but we've had some rain! It certainly watered the garden and replenished my ponds although I couldn't help fearing that it was so intense it would kill any butterfly that hadn't found itself safe shelter. Many of my Buddleia flowers were shredded so forceful was the rain.

By 11am however, the sun was poking through. On my morning amble with the hounds I counted five Clouded Yellows in the usual field I had believed that the butterflies I've seen here were in transit, but I'm pretty sure that the Clouded Yellows I'm seeing every day are the same individuals so it seems they rather like it here.

I also saw many Common Blues And a ghostly Gatekeeper which in flight was almost transparent I decided to visit Dungeness this afternoon to look for Small Coppers (perhaps my favourite butterfly and I'm pleased to say one of the ten British Butterflies honoured by the Royal Mail with its very own stamp- First Class, naturally!)

Well, there were plenty of the little beauties Including two which had blue flashes on the hind wings Buzzing about in the Brambles And ready to challenge all-comers Living amongst the briars must wear hard on their wings and indeed I saw a good many that were very battle-scarred but also some that were still in good condition Unlike on my last visit to Dungeness, I didn't see any Painted Ladies and nor did I see a Clouded Yellow there today. But I count myself fortunate to have my own private Clouded Yellow Reserve just a few minutes from my home

Not MORE photos of Clouded Yellows, Hoggers?!? I'm afraid so Make Hay while the sun shines, I say Difficult to be precise as to how many were in the "Usual Field" this morning as they do so move around... But I'd say easily 8, maybe more They won't be around forever and come Winter, when I'm holed up inside feeling miserable, I can look back through my Diary and bask in the glorious warm memories of Summer. They're like bottles of Dandelion Wine Back home, my Buddleias are laden with Small Tortoiseshells. Numbers of Peacocks have dropped off and although I saw one yesterday, Red Admirals are notable by their absence. Plenty of Whites in the garden though And this Speckled Wood

"Make hay while the sun shines" definitely! It seems that this is almost a Clouded Yellow year,but perhaps not quite. Great shots again especially the Specklie

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel. Whether it's official or not, 2013 certainly has been a Clouded Yellow Year for me! But as the overwhelming colour of my diary has of late been yellow, I've developed an itch for a bit of variety colour-wise.

I don't start back at work until tomorrow, so this morning I headed out to Lydden Nature Reserve near Dover, to look for Adonis Blues.

There were plenty of Common Blues And Chalkhill Blues too Brown Argus And Small Copper Several Wall And two Clouded Yellow,a fly-past and this poor chap who'd seen better days Peacocks, a lone Red Admiral, Large and Small Whites, and a Brimstone Silver spotted Skippers were whirring about in good numbers And at last I came across the Adonis Blues Including this one: it had its wings closed for ages But then took pity on me seeing that I'd waited a long time, and did a twirl for me I saw five of these gems in all. Wonderful.

We are enjoying glorious weather down here in Kent, far too nice to sit at home after work, so I did a quick turn around and headed out to check on the Clouded Yellows I saw three, all of them busily quartering the field in search of females The yellow flowers they favour here have mostly now gone over and so I expect the butterflies will soon be moving on All the more reason for me to make the most of them while I can