www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Just catching up with peoples PD's, so started through yours Bugboy.

Love that sequence of LT Blues prior to and in-cop and also the purplier shots of LT Blue uppersides. And the mating Wall Browns. Plus I found both the Grayling in your "Spot the Grayling" competition but have to admit I had to enlarge the second pic to see it.

Thanks for the comments, very much a case of right time right place , had I gone straight to the main area I would have missed it entirely and 5 minutes later I probably would have disturbed them in the act.

September 2020
Thursday 17th. Another sunny day found me once again on the south coast. After filling my boots on my previous two visits with Long-tailed Blue’s I decided to focus on Clouded Yellows this time with a return to Tidemills. The early start this time worked and it didn’t take me long to find a compliant Cloudie, a female who allowed several close approaches as she enjoyed the morning rays. Being somewhat breezy she kept to the sheltered paths along the north side of the site and somewhat contained and relatively easy to follow. Like last time Walls, littered the site. Unlike last time most having signs of wear now, but still mostly looking pretty decent. Common Blues were active in decent numbers once again in varying degrees of wear... And Whites were also present in numbers. As always, they were closely studied as best as could be. Many long-range shots on maximum zoom taken for later closer examination but these all ended up in the bin, nothing out of the ordinary was found although the black markings on this males wingtip did make me wonder.... Other images of him show the forked vein though Shortly before lunch a second Cloudie (there had been numerous flybys since the first female) started to settle and feed regularly. He wasn’t in as good shape as the first female though, he seemed to have a squify forewing. Whilst all this was going on a flock of Curlew periodically circled overhead. I looked hard at them but no sign of a Whimbrel lurking amongst them. I had a new site in mind for the afternoon, Lewes Cemetery. I read on social media about a LTB sighting the previous week and I was curious if it was just passing through or whether there was evidence of a colony. It’s only a 10 minute walk from the station and when I arrived I found that a section is being deliberately left to grow wild. Scanning around I couldn’t see any sign of BLEP or any other type of suitable Pea so I concluded the LTB was just passing through. There was however plenty to keep me occupied, Common Blues and Walls were numerous. A passing Large White also sat for a while and a Hummingbird Hawkmoth was buzzing around non-stop, I suspect a female on egg laying duties since it was showing avid interest in some of the Bedstraws. A single Small Copper completed the species list here. Best spot of the afternoon though was a female Wall on egg laying duties and for the second time this year I managed some clear shots of an ovipositing Wall, this time managing to capture the egg coming out! There was still plenty of time to squeeze some more out of my ticket so I returned to tidemills to see if any more Cloudies would behave, finding only one, the same male as in the morning with a squiffy wing. An accidental open winged shot indicates something happened on his emergence rather than any real damage had occurred. Only once did he settle to show his good side. Walls and Common Blues were of course still active. All in all another entertaining day out

Squiffy wing or not that's a very fine shot of that Cloudie taking off.
With the high number of third brood Walls being reported from Sussex, some away from
their normal haunts, It can only be concluded that they have had a fabulous year.
Hope this bodes well for the future.

Take care,
Trevor.

That was a very full day, Buggy! Great shots of the Wall laying, and of the resultant egg too. The open-wing Cloudie is a corker as well, for all its slightly wonky wing. Very frustrating though to get the shot, only for it to be a less than perfect butterfly. Still definitely worth a or two.

Cheers,

Dave

That open wing Cloudy is definitely worth a few as well as the female Wall laying for a moment there I couldn't quite work out what was going on as it all seemed a bit back to front and then I did a double take and realised that she had her abdomen so far round

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Thanks Trevor, that pic looks better small, slow shutter setting motion blur unavoidable. Yes I think the same climate change that brings us LTB's is now helping the Walls recover by enabling them to successfully fit in the 3rd brood without any problems now, it's a double edged sword that climate change
Thanks Dave, yes a very full day but most enjoyable
Thanks Wurzel, I've discovered that find a Wall laying eggs and you can get right up close

September 2020
Friday 18th. I took a break from the south coast today and visited Bookham to see how the end of season was going there, it normally has a strong Small Copper third brood. This year they are around but in much lower numbers than in previous years, enough to keep me occupied though. Common Blues were also present in ones or twos, some of the males looking very fresh indeed. Only two other species were seen through the course of the day, a couple of very ropey looking Meadow Brown and the perennial Speckled Wood. One of the reasons I chose Bookham today was to look for more Willow Emerald Damselflies and see if I could find breeding evidence. They’re unusual in that they lay their eggs well above the waterline and according to the literature the marks left are pretty obvious. I quickly found a single one close to the spot where I’d found the first a few weeks ago next to one of the ponds here. This particular pond is quite shallow and the dry summer had caused it to recede by several metres, allowing easy access to search the willows overhanging the edge. Straight away I was greeted with sights I’d seen in my books, very distinctive scars along the sallow twigs. I also found that if I worked my way down to older branches, I could find previous years scars. I’d estimate perhaps going back four or five years. Searching further along the bank I also disturbed a couple of pairs in tandem and was able to follow one pair to capture the eggs being laid under the bark of a small Sallow sucker who’s stems were covered in scars. It was fascinating to watch.

Good to see there are still some Coppers at Bookham, Buggy. They do seem to have suffered from the disturbance to that field a couple of years ago - the hedge that was grubbed up must have provided shelter for them (as well as those Dingy Skippers I saw in spring 2018 which are no longer there).

Fascinating behaviour from the Damsels too. Their mating mechanics have always baffled me - I'm going to have to go and look it up now!

Cheers,

Dave

Really interesting set of images Bugboy I still can't quite fathom the how their reproductive organs work like that at opposite ends of the genders body's? Still it makes for nice photography as sometimes they sit in such a way as to make a love heart

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Nice to see your selection of images, as ever, Paul. The Wall Browns and Cloudies in particular make me rather envious.

I'm surprised your Small Coppers are relatively scarce - they've been pretty commonplace round way way through September and into October. Perhaps there are local reasons for this?

Thanks Dave, numbers were lower over the whole site where I usually find many more Coppers, so it wasn't just that hedge grubbing that did for them this year, perhaps the dry conditions dessicated the Sorrel at a critical point in the caterpillars development here? As for the Damselflies (and Dragonflies) mating behaviour, I don't think anyone really knows why they have this unique method. They've been around for a very long time and survived a few mass extinctions though, so it clearly doesn't have any negative impact on them .
Thanks Wurzel, yes they can be very photogenic at times
Thanks David, these days it seems pretty normal now for Walls, Cloudies, Small Coppers and Common Blues to provide a colourful end to the season down here in the south

September 2020
Saturday 19th. Ok so I had had a break from the south coast for a day, it was time to go back to see what I was missing down there again. First stop Southwick harbour where I found just a few Whites and Common Blues. No Cloudies sadly but one of the female Small Whites did have a very clear broken spot on her forewing, ab. divisa apparently. Next it was off to see what was going on at Whitehawk Hill. The LTB initial emergence was now winding down but of course you never know what might be there.
Anyone who’s familiar with the LTB’s social media presence this year will probably be aware of much of the fantastical discussions about them, mainly the much talked about but completely mistaken interpretation that if they were here last year and again this year they must have overwintered. Oddly Clouded Yellows also turn up on the same sites every year but the same people don’t seem to draw the same conclusions .

Another discussion that became quite widely talked about was how much the site had been destroyed by the trampling of the daily deluge of photographers. In most other cases I would have whole heartedly agreed with this statement. However I’m leaning towards the complete opposite in this case, I think the trampling actually benefitted the LTB’s to a certain extent. Part of the worries from people was connected to the mistaken belief that they are resident here, the trampling destroying any immature stages that would ‘overwinter’. Also there was worry about it destroying the BLEP but again this is largely mistaken in my opinion, it would take an awful lot more than some trampling for a few weeks to destroy it, it will come back next year and also it was mostly going over now and dying back for the winter anyway.

The trampling itself also wasn’t particularly widespread across the hillside, merely focused at the top where the males would congregate. BLEP is found over the whole hillside and the females will naturally gravitate away from these trampled lekking areas to lay the majority of their eggs, so I don't think the trampling would do much if anything to damage this temporary population. Also where the grass did become trampled, it died back and dried out creating hollows which would have a warmer microclimate, slightly protected from any breeze by surrounding taller grass and shrubs and, today in particular, I noticed how vigorously these areas were fought over and defended by the victor. Clearly, despite what people were saying, the butterflies knew better, as so often is the case.

When I arrived today it was a bit overcast, a few enthusiasts were roaming around the main spot next to the allotments and a single LTB had been located here. As the clouds began to thin and break up though I moved to the secondary lekking area and when the sun finally broke through, I had two or three all to myself. After a little while one male became more dominant and successfully defended this area against all other interlopers, this ‘ruined’ trampled spot did seem to act like a Mecca to your average LTB. After a couple of hours here I decided to move on once again. I’d heard about the mass emergence of Common Blues over at Mill Hill and wanted to see for myself. Well I wasn’t going to be disappointed! Even my usual route around the horse paddocks threw up more Common Blues than I’ve ever seen here before. Walls were also present and a Cloudie flew past but most notably a fresh Comma appeared, I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these! Reaching the rough grassy areas near the bottom car park the Blues were already out in vast numbers. It had become quite overcast again so most were inactive, either roosting or trying to soak up the weak rays still fighting through the cloud cover. I tried to focus on the females, of which there seemed to be an infinite variety. A fellow enthusiast was also here and taking a break from the Blues, we both focused on a Clouded Yellow looking for somewhere to roost for a while. Moving down onto the main slope, Common Blue's remained by far the dominant butterfly, however somehow (I’m not sure how) I picked out something a little different flitting around, I hadn’t needed to go to Whitehawk to get my LTB fix today after all . I later found out this was the first sighting of one here. Presumably just passing through though. Anyway, back to the Common Blues…there were hundreds! Here's a male who thought he'd try his luck on a roosting female , he predictably was out of luck ! and to finish, some butterflies on a stick I guess this would have been a standard experience for those Victorian collectors.

An excellent reminder of just how many Common Blues were on Mill Hill this year. How you managed to find the needle of a single LTB amidst that particular icarus haystack I can't begin to imagine - brilliant observational skills.

Your comments about the trampling are interesting too. I also noticed when I was there that the patches of flattened grass were favoured spots that the males repeatedly returned to (warmer and more sheltered I imagine). I've seen this on my local patch where a small area of grass was worn by my regular visits and became the favourite basking/perching location for Small Coppers. I feel less guilty about this in consequence!

Cheers,

Dave

I would imagine you considered your rail ticket for that day to be excellent value for money!.
Shame about Southwick on your visit. Mind you there was a lot of Cloudie action on the bank
near the steps yesterday when I arrived, then it went quiet, even in sunny periods for a couple
of hours with none seen at all. Anyone arriving around lunchtime would also have drawn a blank.

Bob the Egret ( or offspring of Bob ) is doing fine, and was frequently seen.
Strange there only ever seems to be one Egret present there.

All the best,
Trevor.

A fantastic collection of Blues Bugboy and you did really well to pick the LTB out from among them so many Common Blues - not sure I can recall seeing photos showing so many stacked up in the same spot
I too kept having to bite my tongue when people started banging on about LTBs overwintering on Social Media, just shows a little knowledge can easily lead to 2+2=5
Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Thanks Dave, yes as I'm sure you know, the key to any good habitat is a mosaic of micro habitats.
Thanks Trevor, yup, very much worth it. You have to get your timing just right to find Cloudies at these sites, they're very transient and each wave of eggs laid by females passing through all hatch around the same time and then move on quite quickly.
Thanks Wurzel, I'm still not entirely sure how I managed to find that LTB, apart from saying a huge chunk of luck was involved!

September 2020
Sunday 20th. Another break from the south coast, this time into Essex to see what was going on at Hadleigh Country Park and Two Tree Island, two good late season hunting grounds and this year with the added attraction of some possible third gen Walls. Unfortunately most of the Thames estuary was hiding under a thick blanket of cloud which looked set to hang around for a large portion of the morning so it was with some surprise that the only butterfly I saw in the first hour was a Wall. Even so a break in the cloud cover didn’t seem likely for still sometime so I took a wander over to one of the Heath Fritillary woods. I’d recently seen that some second brood Heath Frits were out in Blean so I figured it was worth a shot, not least because they tend not to hide away when roosting. Extensive searching though came up fruitless, indeed I found nothing on the wing until a few breaks in the cloud encouraged a handful of Speckled Wood to tumble from the lower canopy above me. With the sun finally burning away the cloud cover I returned to Hadleigh Country Park to find… not a great deal to be honest . It took a bit of searching to find anything, with somewhat surprisingly after my earlier sighting, not a single Wall. A couple of Brown Argus and Common Blue and a solitary, surprisingly fresh female Meadow Brown along with the obligatory White flybies were all that appeared. I was all the time hoping for a Clouded Yellow but there didn’t seem to be any around, that was until I was about to leave to check out Two Tree Island. I found a nectaring female, quite active but with the only flowers lining the edge of the path, easy to follow and she provided some lovely backlit shots and another accidental upperside shot Over on Two Tree Island I headed to the sunlit banks of Ivy which are usually covered in late season Nymphalids. Today, nothing, not a single butterfly .

I spent a bit of time birdwatching. It was high tide and the Little Egret had come in from their saltmarsh feeding grounds. The resident Kingfisher was also here but playing hard to get and I only managed a few ropy distant shots. I finally did come across a butterfly as I was leaving, a male Wall who had seen better days but in the absence of anything else, he had my full attention!

Splendid CY female upperside, Buggy! Caught at the moment of take-off (you can see the partially-withdrawn proboscis as she disengages from the flower). Shots like this are almost impossible to achieve deliberately, but who cares if you can get such a good one by chance and patient concentration on the species.

Cheers,

Dave

A full 10 points for that female Cloudie open wing shot, superbly ' frozen '.
If only they would display like that when nectaring or at rest.
Well worth buying a camera with rapid burst shoot feature.

Great stuff,
Trevor.

Really like that backlit sequence Bugboy that culminates in the cracking open wing shot They are such brilliantly coloured butterflies it's such a shame that they don't open up, particularly when the other whites do so

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Fair play, Paul, that's a superb image of the open-winged female Cloudie. One of the best I've seen, in fact, irrespective of whether it was intentional or not.

Thanks Dave, It's a shame the body slipped out of focus but at least the far wing is relatively sharp
Thanks for the 10 points Trevor
Thanks Wurzel, there's some more backlit butterflies for you below
Thanks David, it's always a pleasant surprise when I capture that particular shot with a Cloudie

September 2020
Monday 21st. And back I go to the Sussex Coast, this time starting off at Whitehawk Hill. Another overcast start to the day meant more hard work finding something to point my camera at. Upon arrival were just two other people here, both wandering around the main spot. I decided to look further down the slope, which turned out to be a wise decision, I disturbed a single fresh male LTB who posed for me impeccably, the bright but cloudy conditions meaning uppers and unders were willingly displayed. Not sure if it counts as an ab. but the eye spot on the underside was particularly sparkly, usually they’re just edged in sparkles. I think this one is my favourite of all the ones I saw this year, not just because he was a bit of a looker, but also I had him all to myself I managed to attract the attention of the other two enthusiasts after getting my fill of pictures, neither of whom had seen one before so they were very appreciative .

After 20 minutes or so he managed to give us the slip and the two other enthusiasts decided to leave, had they stayed 10 minutes longer they would have been tripping over LTB’s since the cloud cover cleared and suddenly they were everywhere…. well at least nine anyway. Over the next few hours a few more enthusiasts arrived, including Benjamin. The LTB’s, all males, spent the early part of the active spell fighting over the favoured trampled areas until a few dominant males took ownership. The remaining ones could sometimes be found further out on the slope but in a far more transient state, not really holding territories as far as I could tell. Other butterflies seen were a couple of Small Coppers, several Small White including a mating pair being watched over by a lone male, a few Walls and a Clouded Yellow who wasn’t stopping even when it went a bit cloudy. To finish the day I nipped over to Tidemills again in the hope of some more Cloudie action. Unfortunately it had clouded over quite significantly by the time I got there and only a single Red Admiral flyby was all I had to report on the butterfly front. I was thinking it was a bit of a wasted trip with even the birds not doing much when I nabbed myself an avian lifer. I was just lining up a Redshank on the opposite bank of the channel that runs behind the site when a larger wader flew up on my side. Luckily it landed on the other side and when I got a good view, I saw it was the rarer cousin of the Curlew, a Whimbrel, probably stopping off on its way to Africa for the winter.

Very satisfying to get a good butterfly to yourself, Buggy, and that LTB is a particular bonus. Some great shots, too. Those underside spots you mention seem very variable, with and without sparkles in silvery turquoise, and sometimes the orange part is barely there as well. Now we're seeing more and more of this species, we start to notice all these little differences.

Well done with the bird too - I doubt I'd even have spotted it, let alone worked out what it was!

Cheers,

Dave