www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

I was that other bloke that met Susie at Botany Bay.Yes,I had some good pictures,but the etiquette is just to push that bloke out the way,at least that is what happens often with birdwatchers.At least I am pleased that many people are enjoying the wood and that it is being improved and opened up by the forestry commision.All we need is the pearls reintroduced.It is my local patch and I have hardly seen anyone there before,so this website must be making a difference.The next day I do believe I bumped into P.Eeles on his travels without realising it.For reference,I am the local retired vet.

Hey, Phil, great to see you here! Cracking photos, but I wouldn't have expected anything less. I have been looking at some of your photos on your site - beautiful!

If I see you up at Chiddingfold next week I will remember to give you a (lady like ) shove. Feel free to gently shove back.

P.J.Underwood wrote:The next day I do believe I bumped into P.Eeles on his travels without realising it.For reference,I am the local retired vet.

I only bumped into one couple the entire time I was there - so nice to meet you Phil!

Cheers,

- Pete

I had a lovely time today at the photographic forum so thank you to everyone who organised it or spoke today. It was nice to see so many attendees too.

Thanks to Lee for giving us a lift up to Magdalen Hill and well done for spotting the Marsh Fritillary. It was my first glimpse of this species I really liked the site and green hairstreaks were so frequent they seemed almost common place.
I also saw Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Heath, Brimstone and various white. Other people saw dingy and grizzled skippers but they eluded me.

Hi Susie

Nice to meet you today, and what a great day it was too. Glad you liked Magdalen Hill Down, one of my favourite sites ...

Clive

It was a pleasure making your acquaintance, Clive. You are fortunate being able to go to such a lovely site.

Susie wrote:Thanks to Lee for giving us a lift up to Magdalen Hill

No worries!

I spent the day out with the family today but had a chance late this afternoon to pop along to chiddingfold again. It was VERY breezy but I managed to see a few wood whites putting themselves to bed and get a little bit of video of them courting which I really wanted.

Photography sounds so easy at the forum but try putting it into practice when it is blowing a hooley and everywhere you try to kneel down is prickles. At one stage I think I nearly knelt on a snake because something rustled through the undergrowth a bit sharpish.

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I notice that the female has a mark on her wing, or is it a natural spot?

That's an amazing video. I love the head nodding! I wonder how long I will have to wait until wood whites move up here!

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Here's a bit more of them.

I've been wondering lately, given the amount of woodland around here and there seems to be plenty of the larval food plant why there aren't more wood whites about. I can't see a great deal of difference between the woodland at Chiddingfold and around here.

Heyshott was the desired destination for today but by the time I got there conditions were not ideal, it was sunny and windy. The dukes were out in really good numbers and it was great to see three, four and sometimes five dog fighting, with the occasional dingy skipper or green hairstreak joining in. Unfortunately when they weren't fighting they hunkered down in the turf close to ground making photography far from ideal. I got a few shots though.

Butterflies for today: Duke of Burgundy, dingy skipper, green hairstreak, brown argus, common blue, small heath, brimstone, orange tip, small white, speckled wood, small tortoiseshell.

When I got home there was a painted lady in the garden. There was a red admiral in the garden on Sunday and I wondered then if it was a migrant.
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I went to Denbies Hillside today. The chalk hillside is getting very parched and I saw quite a number of blues with crippled wings which I blame on the arid conditions. It was very sunny and windy again and not ideal for photography.

Species seen today: Adonis and common blue, brown argus, small heath, green hairstreak, brimstone, grizzled skipper, dingy skipper, orange tip, small white, large white, speckled wood and plenty of green hairstreaks too (mainly laying eggs).

Plenty of five spot burnets and other day flying moths around. A couple of rose chafer beetles were buzzing about. Several lizards but no snakes today. A beautiful broad bodied chaser too.

In the meantime, I took a little bit of video of this couple with a grizzled skipper trying to butt in.

I think there should be a caption competition!

http://www.facebook.com/v/10150237118281972[/video]

More photos to follow.

Ace film - but shouldn't it have an 18 certificate ?
As to captions...as 'ask Diedre' always says "threesomes never end well"!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Very wise.

A bit more dirt, this time of a different kind. All tastes catered for here.




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And finally a few photos.
This chap's so fresh his wings are still soft. And this one was unlucky

I have never seen more than two blues together at one time! Great pictures and videos. Sometimes I come on here and get a little depressed at how few butterflies there are up here!! I had a very fruitless day's searching today, thanks mostly to a cold south-easterly wind.

some superb pics there Sue. salad burnet must be the butterfly equivalent of a four poster

It was back to Denbies today and the grass was a mass of butterflies on this sunny and very windy day.

Seen today were adonis blue, common blue, brown argus, green hairstreak, small heath, dingy skipper, grizzled skipper, large skipper and comma.

There were lots of malformed andor abberant butterflies about. I find myself increasing intrigued by what causes these abberations.

The first and the third butterflies seem to have a similar form of aberration but the latter has more black near the body.

Hi Susie,

I was at Denbies this evening. Not for long, but long enough to find similar looking specimens to yours. I'm going back there later this week with the camera fully charged. Be nice if the stiff breeze could drop a little though...

Had a Burnet Companion fly up from grasses and settle high in a beech tree, which is something I've never seen before (thought I had a massively early Brown Hairstreak, lol!) Also jammed into a single Micropterix tunbergella on beech leaves, it's pretty darn rare in Surrey. Google it and have a look - tis a stunning moth with crazy funky hairdo!

Gibster.