Good evening and thank you everyone (Dave, David M, Wurzel, Mike and Goldie) I am enjoying the lack of pressure and revisiting some of the really lovely days of the summer. And I feel at this rate of 'progress' I will get to August before Christmas, but by then I also hope the Waxwings will be here again, taking up my time.
I have spent a happy afternoon revisiting and publishing several pictures from July 11th. It was a real blast of fun seeing the pictures again and seeing that quite a few were worth sharing (I took a couple of hundred so there are more available
). It was a memorable day, spent at Bucknell Wood (near Silverstone) a place that I know Mike also enjoys from time to time.
On arrival, I was surprised by hearing my name being called. For me, that is a very unusual occurrence as I tend to visit Bucknell alone and don't expect to meet anyone I know...so I advanced to the bramble jungle at the 'old car park' in some confusion as the strong light of a baking hot summer day meant I couldn't see my fellow naturalists. But as my eyes got used to the light I recognised them as the current and previous County Recorders David and Doug. They often meet up all around the County - especially if there has been an interesting sighting. Which apparently there had been... and they wanted to show me what they'd found.
But as I had targeted Bucknell for Purple Hairstreaks and I knew nothing about the sighting I'll start there - if I may. I'll leave the other details and pictures to the end, but by all means skip ahead if you can't wait..
As a throwaway David and Doug mentioned that there were many Purple and White-letter Hairstreaks about. And as I quickly found out (and experienced during the rest of the Summer) they were behaving really oddly.
As an example they believed they were ground lovers...It was magical. they were descending from the trees and fluttering around these plants and grasses. Mostly impossible to get a picture, but this was my best...
And I had never before seen them as flower visitors but I saw this more than once....I presume both the grounding and flower visits were about water. As it was bone dry everywhere with possibly some dew remaining on the green patches...
But they continued doing the feisty end of a branch 'see you pal' posing as well..
Which was very entertaining and still brings a smile. Although at the time they were sitting for just seconds at a time and it was a merry-go-round of activity. And I was trying very hard to get some purple. I felt that the rest of the wood would offer better Purple opportunities so I spend time with the other butterflies present in numbers. The 'old car park' is really all about the Silver-washed fritillaries (and the White Admirals) that haunt the bramble bushes. On a good day (like that day) every bramble has competing SWF butterfly action. There are too many to count and of them a good percentage are form Valenzina. So I will focus on those.
And at this early stage of the season it was possible to get pictures of butterflies in great condition, looking dark and moody. I feel spoiled with the quality and numbers of Valenzinas that are there some days. I am still waiting for my first mating shots, but next year is another chance.
So to the big reveal....
The local transect champion had spotted an aberrant SWF and Doug and David pointed it out. It was very active and I managed only half a dozen quick shots during my two hour visit. It was a lively butterfly...
That day certainly showed the power of twitter and 'well-kept secrets' as by the time I left there was a steady stream of visitors 'looking for the ab' (based on the original notification to BC). But I was inscrutable as I had been sworn to secrecy, and also I didn't post publicly at the time. It is a special place and it is beginning to get too many visits so I applauded the desire to manage the news.
But here it is a few months on in all of it's well-worn glory.
I am a regular at the site and I visited a number of times in the following days. I am pleased that it went back to a more normal flow of visitors. I saw other SWF aberrations which were equally interesting and I will bring those shortly if I get the chance. And I also managed to get some better purple action...
but thats all for the 11th July