Re: Bugboys mission
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 7:41 pm
Thanks Wurzel, those over excitable Victorian collectors have a lot to answer for when it comes to what is an isn't a named ab!
Thanks David, not nearly as much as the following day...
July 2020
Wednesday 29th was a long day so I’ll split it into three posts. Bookham was the chosen site and being at the tail end of July with Brown Hairstreaks already turning up in droves at all the best sites the target was obvious. I got an early start, it was set to be a nice day and I wanted to make the most of it. I started off along an east facing path where I regularly find Hairstreak eggs but have yet to see an adult. It is however usually teaming with life and being east facing, always a good place to make an early start at. There was plenty about and nearly all various shades of orange and brown, just not the orange and brown target, but those particular chocolate orange butterflies are starting rather late in the morning this year.
This Gatekeeper sported a rather obvious streak and I found another Meadow Brown with a pupiled hindwing ocelli, maybe it’s more common than I thought. There were also a couple of Small Copper, one of whom was catching the morning sun perfectly, it’s a shame the pictures don’t show the shimmer it had in life. Gatekeepers abounded and some so fresh I really couldn’t resist, a male with slightly reduced forewing ocelli, perhaps a bit of ab. antiparvipuncta about him, and a couple of excessa turned up to
.
Dragging myself away, I moved on to the hotspot along the edge of Banks Common where I found (for the first time this season) the familiar figure of Millerd, and a rather lovely hutchinsoni Comma.
Just to break up the monotony of the autumnal colours we found a Common Blue before moving back up the path to loiter hopefully around the Ash master tree
tbc
Thanks David, not nearly as much as the following day...
July 2020
Wednesday 29th was a long day so I’ll split it into three posts. Bookham was the chosen site and being at the tail end of July with Brown Hairstreaks already turning up in droves at all the best sites the target was obvious. I got an early start, it was set to be a nice day and I wanted to make the most of it. I started off along an east facing path where I regularly find Hairstreak eggs but have yet to see an adult. It is however usually teaming with life and being east facing, always a good place to make an early start at. There was plenty about and nearly all various shades of orange and brown, just not the orange and brown target, but those particular chocolate orange butterflies are starting rather late in the morning this year.
This Gatekeeper sported a rather obvious streak and I found another Meadow Brown with a pupiled hindwing ocelli, maybe it’s more common than I thought. There were also a couple of Small Copper, one of whom was catching the morning sun perfectly, it’s a shame the pictures don’t show the shimmer it had in life. Gatekeepers abounded and some so fresh I really couldn’t resist, a male with slightly reduced forewing ocelli, perhaps a bit of ab. antiparvipuncta about him, and a couple of excessa turned up to
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