www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Unfortunately they don't see it that way Janet . Mind you we've had worse, one block turned up with a kite surfing set up!

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Martin Down 12-05-2018

I’d been checking the weather app for most of the week and it was looking like Saturday after lunch was going to be the best weather across the weekend. So I suggested taking the girls for a run to Martin Down. Come Saturday morning it was set to become fair from 11am onwards over at Martin. So I did a few jobs and checked again – now it was showing the improvement beginning at 12 . Oh well still okay. After returning from some errands in town the app now showed 1pm as the time when the sun would come out . After dropping Lottie at Dance it became 2pm . It seemed that every time I updated it the improvement came later and later. The final time I checked the improvement would definitely occur at 3pm, honest guv, me tell you no lies, it’s totally Pukka…

So we went and walked through the mizzle from Sillen’s Lane along the hedge to the hotspot at the hollow. Once there the girls set up the picnic blanket in the middle of the path and I wove my way along the small tracks criss-crossing the bank on the side of the Dyke. But still nothing and no sign of the cloud breaking either. Eventually my persistence (or stubbornness or cursing?) paid off and I found a single Grizzlie hunkered down sitting out the drear. Slightly further along was a second also keeping a low profile. The one upside to the less than balmy weather was that I was able to get some nice underside shots which are next to impossible when the sun shines. The Downside? Despite a Herculean amount of searching I couldn’t locate another butterfly. Coffee drunk, books read and mahs sheets completed we gave it up and headed home. I checked the app and now Sunday, instead of black cloud and rain as it had shown all week now showed blue skies and sunshine. AAAHHHHH!!!!
Have a goodun

Wurzel

That is a very nice little skipper for all that effort, Wurzel, especially the underside shot.

Dave

Yes ,very nice Grizzled Skipper shots.
You can thank the cloudy conditions for that, had the sun been out,
you wouldn't have seen them for dust.
I am a recent convert to the late setting Sun for relaxed Skippers and Blues.

Any sign of the Walls ?
Trevor.

I feel your pain, Wurzel! That’s exactly what happened to us at Denge Wood on the 16th- every time we checked the forecast they kept putting the improvement back and, guess what, the sun never came.

What can I say Wurzel!!!!! yet another year without a Grizzled Skipper for me love your shots Goldie

Wurzel,

Nice photos of the Grizzlie. Persistence pays off. I've been too cautious with weather forecasts before, only to find plenty of sightings on social media that evening. You've gotta go for it. My one and only visit to Martin Downs was in similar conditions and you saw one more Butterfly than I did that time

Kind Regards
Kev

Cheers Dave That was one of the few upsides of a thoroughly frustrating afternoon
Cheers Trevor True Trevor, every cloud has a silver lining, cloud being the operative word I haven't been able to get over to the Churchyard and it's not looking good as we're in exam season at the moment
Cheers Essex To make it even worse the next day, which had been forecast to be terrible, was a blinder of a day ...see later when I've written it up
Cheers Goldie Sorry to rub it in Mind you you have got Large Heaths and NBAs up your way
Cheers Kev Yep I'm coming round to the idea that for my weather forecast look out of the window when I'm deciding where to go

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Sorry Wurzel. Nice Grizzly though, and previous Whites.

Cheers Andrew It was made all the more frustrating by the rapid improvement in the weather the following day...

Martin Down 13-05-2018

My skulking round the house and muttering hadn’t gone unnoticed hence why I was now motoring back towards Martin Down. What a difference a day makes indeed as today I was driving with windows down, sunglasses perched on my nose, right arm tanning as it rested on the window with the now obligatory Iron Maiden pumping out of the stereo! I had a feeling that today was going to be one of those golden spells where I would be surrounded by butterflies…

I started at Sillen’s Lane end and there was still dew on the grass looking like little beads of glass but already the butterflies were flying along the hedge with a couple of Brimstone patrolling by and a third still roosting, hanging from a twig within the hedge. One of the Brimstone stopped for a while on the path and angled its wings towards the sun, still a little bit cool? A Greenstreak stopped on the furthest branch out over the path just as I was about to enter the ‘tunnel’ so it would have been rude not to have taken a shot or two. Then it was onwards down through the ‘tunnel’ which is really sheltered and also is where the majority of my Martin Down Specklies originate from. Once in the tunnel there were a few more Greenstreaks thought they were hanging around up high and scrapping. There was also a lovely fresh Dingy looking very like a snuggly carpet, I love their subtle markings. My first ‘pair’ Specklies turned up a short way down the tunnel, well I say ‘pair’ but I don’t think that they were really together. They flew into view tumbling around and spiralling around each other in what I took to be courtship and then one of them just dropped like a stone onto the deck. The other flew round it a few times and then flew off. I took a few shots as it lay there ‘dead’ on the floor and then all of a sudden it resurrected and flew off. That’s one hell of a rebuff! There were also a few Specklies, each time I saw them they were in pairs apart from the very final one right at the far end which was looking forlornly out across the open grasslands. From the tunnel I broke out onto the grasslands at the edge of the hillfort and so took the path skirting round and made towards the Hotspot, the little hollow at the Dyke. Along the way there were more Dingies, Brimstones, a single Greenstreak and also the first few Grizzlies of the day. Over at the hotspot there were even more of the Skippers along with a Large and a Small White. I poured a coffee and set about enjoying the show as one species would fly in take nectar and then another butterfly would fly in, have a bit of a tussle and possibly replace the first. It was great to watch so many butterflies flying at once. Cheered immensely I moved on up the Dyke towards the halfway spot were another footpath crosses the Dyke. I strode up along the Dyke looking down along the length and watching even more Skippers and adding an Orange-tip to an ever growing day list. At the half way point I carried on a little further and here was another Greenstreak down on the deck and another on the end of the bushes. I paused a while back at the half way spot a watched what flew along the bisecting track, a bit like a smaller version of the tunnel. A male Brimstone was sitting minding its own business so I took a few shots and then a large fly cam and sat on his wings, he didn’t budge even a fraction, just sat there motionless. I suppose this is a survival strategy shown by ‘cryptically marked’ animals; remain still no matter what else the camo doesn’t work. I started to make my way back stopping every now and again for notable sightings, a gloriously marked Dingy, velveteen Grizzlie, a Small Tort, a Peacock and a Dingy feeding from an Orchid. As if in a dream I bumbled from one butterfly to the next and seemed to spend equal amounts of time staring down the viewfinder or staring into my notebook tallying up the sightings! I was almost back at the car my head spinning as I tried to remember salient facts from the day ready to write my PD when I was distracted by a Holly Blue. As it flew along the hedge I chanced to look down and there was a miniscule dark butterfly in amongst the taller grasses at the foot of the hedge. My first Small Blue of the year. In between taking shots of this a noticed a second Peacock, another Greenstreak and a few more whites; what a monster of a morning! After getting home I added up all of my sightings and no wonder I was buzzing:
B 26, LW 1, SW 7, GVW 6, OT 4, DS 15, GS 22, GH 21, SB 1, HB 1, ST 1, P 2, SpW 8
Have a goodun

Wurzel

Great shots and great numbers at Martin Down, Wurzel a site that I've yet to visit

Mike

Wurzel. Don't laugh. I am reading your last entry on the 13th June. I marvelled at the numbers of butterflies you saw on Martin Down. I too like Maximus have never been there but want to one day. I read right to the end of your post before it dawned on me that the butterflies were all a bit Springtime. I didn't twig sooner because only the other day I saw a Greenstreak and a couple of Dingies myself. Then I saw the date of your visit. the 13th of MAY!!! I feel pretty foolish I must say.

Also - Iron Maiden and Butterflies, eh? You are a complex creature, Wurzel.

Great selection on that day Wurzel for you, I'd a fly on my Brimstone shot in May it must be a thing with the fly's , ( Free Ride) Lovely Green hair Streaks has well, it's a shame their relatives aren't spread out country wise like they are Goldie

Cheers Mike It's a great site, PM when you plan a visit I can let you know where the hotspots are
Cheers Ernie No worries Ernie I'm always a bit behind with my posting, it comes from too much work You can't beat a bit of Maiden
Cheers Goldie I hear that having seen all the Blackstreaks from Sussex

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Laverstock 14-05-2018

Another Monday and anther tutor session. As the weather was being kind again I did the usual drop off and legged it up the Down. On the first stretch I counted a singles of Brimstone, Small White and Green-veined White with four other whites that were too quick to ID. As I started the ascent I found two Dingies who broke apart from tussling to greet me. From here I carried on up the steep slope of the Down with the intention of checking out the far side. As I carried on up the path narrowed, hemmed in on both side by Bramble and Hawthorn with the occasional scallop. A male OT flew in one of these and a Large White was in another. I wondered what I would find in the final one and it turned out to be a pair of Green-veined Whites which unfortunately were too high and at the wrong angle to get any decent shots. As I broke through out onto the top of the Down on the other side another Green-veined White was taking nectar with it’s wings held down at an unusual angle. After this I made across the top of the top and then down the gully but it was very quiet. Somehow I made it to the bottom without breaking my neck. In my haste I’d not changed into my boots and I was just wearing my Converse and on this terrain I may as well have been wearing slippers for all the traction and grip I had. Still I reached the bottom of the gully and the reward for my daredevil Slalom sliding was a Grizzlie and Dingy with another Green-veined White right at the very bottom where the Dark Greens hang out later in the season. After this I felt like I was in need of a hurry up as the hour was almost up. So I motored on round the lower fringes of the Down. This area always seems less impressive than other areas of the site, possibly because I’m always hurrying through to either get back or get to the gully or it could be because this is where the Down is steepest so less easy to access? However there are some nice little respite areas where the Hawthorn has grouped together where the slope is slightly less steep. These are often worth checking out and so it proved today with another Grizzlie and Dingy hanging around and three Greenstreaks. One stayed high up in the Hawthorn whilst two more were lower down on the Brambles. However I couldn’t get any shots of these two as each time one would perch the other would attack it. I tried several times to capture them in flight using Sports Mode but they were moving so quickly/erratically that I either got the foreground or far distance in focus whilst the Greenstreaks remaining green or brown blurs. In the end I accepted that the apparently easier subjects weren’t going to be easy at all and set about trying for the Greenstreak that still remained aloof. It meant standing on tip toes and stretching out the camera as much as possible but I was happy-ish with the results. After this I really did get a wriggle on and did my best to ignore any distractions. It was all going so well, I’d made it off the Down and right the way along the PROW at the edge of the field and was just walking down the short stretch of path before the final straight when a Specklie landed right in front of me. As I leant down to take its photograph it turned its head on one side and opened its palps up looking like it was trying to have a chat. I leant in a bit further and bent my knees and off it went allowing me to make my way back to pick up Little L with moments to spare. Have a goodun

Wurzel

Pewsey Downs 17-05-2018

Oh the joys of trapped time! I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before but again rather than just using it to play cards I decided to try out a new site – Pewsey Downs. It was a relatively short drive from work of only about 10 minutes and meant driving out along the Alton Road. When I was about half way along I looked out to me right and there were the Downs I was planning to visit with their undulations looking like the body of a woman. I carried on and pulled into the dusty car park and immediately headed the wrong way. Well it possibly wasn’t the wrong way but it was the least productive way as after a couple of whites in the car park the only butterfly I saw on the walk to the down top and back was a Small Tort. Instead I tried for a few shots of some Linnets. So it was back to the car park and through, across the road and then things seemed to pick up with 2 Small Torts in a nettle bed just inside the reserve and a Gen-veined White leading my on across the field like a tiny tour guide. So far so like a typical grazed field. Then I climbed over a style and the vegetation was still close cropped and grazed (by some nearby cows) but there was different feel to the place but still no butterflies. So on past cows round back the hill top before spiralling round up to the top to the ‘nipple’ as I believe it’s referred to locally (hence the previous analogy of the naked woman). It was gloriously sunny now but the wind was quite strong, at times whipping up and round the hill. I found a little hollow that offered the tiniest bit of respite from the breeze and here I stumbled onto a Greenstreak. It was well out of place being at the top of the hill and not the bottom, in grass and nowhere near a Hawthorn. I tried for a shot but it obviously knew it was in the wrong place and so took off to find a more salubrious dwelling. In leaving however it did put up a Wall which I was able to follow and get a few shots of as it clung to the side of the Down. Interestingly it would sit in little patches of dead grass rather than the much more available green turf – presumably to be better camouflaged? I carried on round and down other side and then walked along the bottom fence line which was covered by Hawthorns. Along the route two more Greenstreaks put in an appearance. Ordinarily they would have been out of reach of my lens but luckily the path was at the top of a ridge running parallel with the hedge/road and so I was at the same height as my quarry. Mind you it was bit precarious leaning over the drop to get the lens just close enough for a shot. Near the bottom of the track I reached the really good looking part of the site. It was a series of hollows and dips carved into the chalk and overgrown. As I left the path make my way into the network of dips and mounds a further two Greenstreaks played in the sun and after a quick wander round I’d bagged a brace of Dingies. It was almost time for me to start back so I retraced my steps up along the ridge. I was almost back to the edge of the reserve and contemplating how I would get past the cows that had converged around the style when a glorious golden butterfly hove into view. It landed up ahead but started to close up before I could get close enough. Luckily I could see just enough of the hind wing to see that not only was it my first Small Copper but that it was also a caeruleopunctata, a blue badger. I stayed for as long as I could but it didn’t open up any more so I shuffled backwards and then walked round giving it a wide berth so as not to disturb it. Then it was back past cows and through nettle bed spooking an aged Small Tortoiseshell, across the road and jump in the car. I got back just in time to enjoy the feast of beige that is the food option prior to any late events and so back to work… Have a goodun

Wurzel

That's not a bad haul for 10 minutes down the road from work, Wurzel! It just shows its worth making the most of those so-called captive time slots.

Incidentally, try as I might, I just can't see the naked woman in that photo...

Dave

Cheers Dave She's just behind the second Linnet... I only became aware of the shape of the Downs when I walked it a few years ago with the pupils and then all referred to 'going up to the nipple' Next time I go by I'll try and get a picture, well it'll have to be several photos joined together to get it all in.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

First stop Bentley Wood 19-05-2018

Having given the Pearls of Bentley a fortnight to catch up with the rest of the country and finally emerged I arranged to meet Philzoid there bright and early. I got there just after 9 and set about wandering the Eastern Clearing looking for ginger butterflies. It didn’t take long and by the information board a tried looking PBF landed briefly. It seemed that perhaps the previous weekend would have been early enough… I carried on over the bridge into the middle section of the clearing and here there were another couple of Pearls milling around, generally not stopping long enough or in an ‘easy’ spot for any shots. So I carried on down to the bottom end where an old log provided the perfect perch for one of a pair of Pearls that were patrolling. Pleased to have my open wing shot in the bag I worked my way back to the middle section and Philzoid arrived. After catching up and noting a few Brimstones, a Large White and Green-veined White we started our search for the Pearls in earnest. Up to now with our combined total of 6 things seemed to be okay though some were looking a bit ‘lived in’. We made our way across to the other of the clearing through the moor grass to the track. In a little square cut cleared area between two blocks of conifers were four more Pearls bombing around low to the ground, grabbing the slightest of sips of nectar occasionally. Further up the track was a 5th bringing the running total to 11.

Almost back by the main part of the clearing we found a little patch on the wrong side of the fence where there were two more Pearls flying along with a Grizzlie. One of these perched long enough for a quick closed wing shot but both were becoming increasingly active. Also all the new fencing was proving a hassle. Before you could use a deer track and hop over the ditch. Now when a Pearl would fly to the other side of the fence you’d have to run all the way round. It felt like they knew this as they’d zig-zag through the fence from one side to another while you didn’t know whether to stick or twist! Finally, after checking out the bottom end (2 Pearls and a Peacock) and returning one female made it easy for us as she started ovi-posturing which gave me enough time to get into position, semi-crouch and get a few shots. After spending some time with the Pearls in the main part of the clearing we made our way to one of the more recently cleared areas, primarily because an Argent and Sable had led us there as part of its merry dance. Whilst Philzoid concentrated on this and a Tree Pipit which held a territory here I flipped my camera to Sports mode and sent some time with a courting pair of Brimstone. So Pearls seen and photographed for another year (hopefully not the last from this site) we set off to a totally different type of habitat for some totally different butterfly species…

Have a goodun

Wurzel

A good selection of Pearls there, Wurzel - the shots and angles and frustrations are all too familiar! That new fence is a real nuisance in the way it follows the ditch which the butterflies have always enjoyed meandering down and along. No doubt it is important in managing the grazing regime. One thing I've noticed before is that there seem to be very few flowers here these days - the bugle (always a favourite with both PBF and SPBF) is very scarce.

I can guess what's coming now...

Dave