Neil Freeman

[trevor]

The woodlands around Sussex are well ' stocked ' with Silver Washed Fritillaries.
If only the same could said for the Small Tortoiseshells, although I have seen 13
so far this year, locally, which is better than 6 each for 2019/20.
Some lovely shots in all your recent posts, as for those Clearwing images .

No need to ask if you are enjoying retirement !.
Stay well,
Trevor.

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. With my local area being relatively species poor, any unexpected surprises are so much sweeter

Thanks Trevor. The woods a bit further afield around Warwickshire have good numbers of SWF and they seem to be spreading but it is not a species that I would expect to see around my local patch...yet.
A few years back the Small Tortoiseshells took a similar dive in numbers around here to what you have seen but have thankfully bounced back over the past 3 or 4 years. I must have seen a few hundred this year including the hibernators and now the summer brood. Here's hoping you see a similar recovery down your way.

Thursday 29th July.

After Mondays warm and pleasant weather, the past couple of days have been horrible here. On Tuesday the clouds varied from grey, through dark grey, to even darker grey and almost black, accompanied by rain that varied from drizzle to occasional biblical deluges. Wednesday was pretty much the same but with the addition of a couple of dramatic thunderstorms in the afternoon and early evening.

Thursday (29th) was a return to drier weather although there was still a lot of cloud about, but at least it was being blown swiftly across the sky by a stiff breeze which opened up some occasional nice warm sunny spells. These sunny spells along with the wind dried things up enough for me to do some pottering about in the garden in the afternoon.
A number of butterflies were seen lurking around or passing through, or more like being blown through at times and I ended up seeing at least half a dozen Gatekeepers along with the usual couple of Speckled Woods.

Gatekeeper female - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Gatekeeper female - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Gatekeeper male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Gatekeeper male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Speckled Wood male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Speckled Wood male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

All three common White species were seen with a couple of Large Whites that didn’t hang around although individuals of both Green-veined and Small Whites stayed a bit longer when the clouds slowed them down a bit.

Green-veined White male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Green-veined White male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Small White male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

Small White male - Coverdale 29.07.2021

A slightly worn female hutchinsoni Comma fluttered around the nettles for a bit but as far as I could tell she didn’t lay on any of them.

Comma female - Coverdale 29.07.2021

A few Holly Blues also passed through with at least three different individuals as that was how many I saw chasing each other about a couple of times. None of them stopped and settled though.

As I write this on Friday (30th) morning, it is raining again here and it looks as if we are in for another wet day.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Pauline]

I love that first Speckled Wood shot Neil. I reckon you take some of the best Speckled Wood shots I have seen and given that every photo seems to have been a struggle this season you've done incredibly well.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Pauline.

This season has certainly been a challenge in many respects, mostly due to the weather which has swung from too hot to very wet with many days of incessant dull cloud. At least I am lucky with my resident garden Speckled Woods in that I can get plenty of practice with them.

Not much to report over the past few days with it being mostly overcast with more rain on Friday and this morning (Sunday 1st August), although we missed the worst of the recent storms that hit further south.

My daughter is getting married next weekend and later in the month she will be moving down south. Her husband to be is in the army and stationed on Thorney Island and they have been offered a house off camp in Emsworth. We will be going down to see them at the end of the month and as they will still be settling in, we have a few nights booked into a B&B about 10 minutes drive away.
Hopefully, I will be having a nose around the area to see if I can find any butterflies but will have to balance it with the family stuff...and no doubt see what the weather does.

Cheers,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great set of Hedgies there Neil - the first looks like an excessa and the last is a postexcessa though my favourite shot has got to be the open winged Green-veined White - the balance of white on that is 'spot the dog" Hopefully the weather will cheer up over the next few days, fingers crossed

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. I noticed those extra spots but I must admit that I thought the first one hardly qualified with those tiny extra dots.

The weather tried to brighten up a bit this morning, when I had to take Jane to the doctors for a blood test, but by the time we got back home the clouds had rolled in again and it's been another dull day.
Still, it gave me chance to catch up with this next report.

Garden Moths – July (second half)

Further to my earlier report on the moths that came to my garden moth trap in the first half of July, this is an update to complete the rest of the month.

Following on from where I left off the previous report, the third week of the month saw a run of very warm and dry weather and although this also led to clear nights, the overnight temperatures stayed up in the mid-teens which resulted in some of my highest numbers so far this year.
The night of Sunday 18th produced the highest tally with a total of 294 moths of 66 species which were made up of 119 of 30 macros and 175 of 36 micros that I managed to count and identify, although many micros and small geos flew off and were not counted.
I also had a new species for the garden (NFG) in the form of a Drinker Moth. I have occasionally found the larvae of these around my local sites but this was the first adult I have seen around here.

Drinker Moth - Coverdale 18.07.2021

During the rest of that week, overnight temperatures dropped a little but remained around 12 to 14 degrees and I put the trap out again on the 20th and 22nd with totals of 180 of 59 and 177 of 52 respectively. The night of 20th also saw no less than 3 NFGs with Small Yellow Wave, bordered Pug and Narrow-winged Pug all turning here for the first time.

Small Yellow Wave - Coverdale 20.07.2021

Bordered Pug - Coverdale 20.07.2021

We then had a return to cooler and wetter weather and I ran the trap just twice more. The forecast for the night of the 25th caught me out as it ended up being clear and quite a bit cooler than I expected which resulted in a lower catch of 117 moths of 36 species. I don’t usually run the trap on two consecutive nights but the following night looked to be more promising so I went for it again with a better result of 225 moths of 63 species.
Since then, the weather deteriorated even further and some wet and windy nights meant that the trap did not go out again for the rest of the month.

I know I have already posted a couple of Poplar Hawk Moths this year but they are so docile and photogenic that I just can’t resist.
One from the night of 25th July.

Poplar Hawk Moth - Coverdale 25.07.2021

Another one on the following night which photos confirmed to be a different individual.

Poplar Hawk Moth - Coverdale 25.07.2021

A few more favourites;

Common white Wave - Coverdale 18.07.2021

Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing - Coverdale 18.07.2021

Buff Arches - Coverdale 20.07.2021

Ruby Tiger Moth - Coverdale 26.07.2021

Including what is possibly the cutest looking moth in the UK,

Canary Shouldered Thorn - Coverdale 26.07.2021

Canary Shouldered Thorn - Coverdale 26.07.2021

and some attractive micros,

Eudemis profundana - Coverdale 18.07.2021

Pammene aurita - Coverdale 20.07.2021

Ypsolopha sequella - Coverdale 18.07.2021

Top view of the one above showing why it is sometimes called the 'Playboy Bunny Moth'

I am now up to 192 species made up of 109 macros and 83 micros so far this year.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Pauline]

Some lovely looking moths there Neil - I think your photography shows them off to their best. I've heard there is going to be another heatwave down here at the end of the month - coming in from Africa apparently!

[Wurzel]

That Moth, the Playboy Bunny, is a cracker

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Pauline. Fingers crossed for the weather down there, I could do without a heatwave, pleasantly warm will do me .
How is the season going down there? things are still running a bit behind up here and I am curious as to what might still be flying.

Cheers Wurzel. That is a cracking little moth, I have only had a couple here before so always a good one to see.

Wednesday 4th August.

After another couple of mostly dull days, yesterday (Wednesday) looked to be much brighter and warmer although the clouds were forecast to build up once again in the afternoon.
After dropping Jane off at her Mom’s for a couple of hours, I carried on to Blythe Valley Park to see what was around. With the recent grotty weather, I had not visited here for a couple of weeks and was wondering if any summer brood Common Blues were out here and maybe Small Coppers and Brown Argus.
I parked up and followed my usual route around the site and saw loads of butterflies, the most numerous of which were Gatekeepers which were all over the place. Most of the males were looking past their best now, not surprising with some of the storms we had here last week, but some of the females were still looking respectable.

Gatekeeper female - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Meadow Browns were around in reasonable numbers but definitely not as many as I have seen here in past years.

Meadow Brown female - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

A couple of Speckled Wood were dancing about in the dappled shade along the path through the woods but they stayed well out of reach for a photo.
No Ringlets or Marbled Whites were seen, it looks as if the recent storms finished off both of these here.

Both Small and Essex Skippers were zipping about with the Essex being the most numerous and the Smalls mostly looking tired and faded now.

Lots of whites were flying, most of them actively patrolling but I managed to get close enough to examples of all three common species to grab a few photos. Green-veined were by far the most numerous, followed by Small with just a handful of Large Whites.

Green-veined White - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Small White - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Large White - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Peacocks were very much in evidence all around the site with a good couple of dozen seen, often flying around various stands of thistles and stopping regularly to feed up in readiness for hibernation.

Peacock - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Peacock - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Peacocks - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

One of the Peacocks has some small dark patches in the centre of its forewings, something that I have never noticed before.

Peacock - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

A single Comma was spotted amongst the Peacocks on one patch of thistles.

Comma - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

No Small Tortoiseshells today, I reckon the recent weather has convinced them to go into hibernation. I often find that they tend to disappear around here when the Peacock numbers build up.

Around a dozen Common Blues were seen, all fresh looking males with no females seen.

Common Blue - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

Common Blue - Blythe Valley 04.08.2021

I failed to find any Small Coppers or Brown Argus which, along with the freshness of the male Common Blues leads me to think that we are still running a bit late here. This is not surprising really as despite the few days of a so called ‘mini heatwave’ that we had a couple of weeks back, we have not had any sustained spells of weather warm enough or long enough to pull the season back.

As forecast, the clouds had been building up through the morning and by midday they were producing long dull periods so I made a move.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Katrina]

Great Peacock series there - the photos brightened up my evening.

[David M]

Lovely to catch up on what you've seen lately, Neil. the whole page is a riot of colour.

I'm sure I said it last year when you posted it, but that Canary Shouldered Thorn is as cute as a kitten.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Katrina, glad you like them

Thanks David. Yes, like a fluffy yellow ball with wings from head on

Just a few butterflies seen over the weekend, mostly random whites. Overall, the weather was cloudy with plenty of rain showers but it did stay dry just long enough for the photos at my daughter Sarah's wedding on Saturday.

We did not indulge in the misguided and unfortunate modern practice of releasing butterflies but I did spot a strange unidentified silver species on my daughters flowers

Cheers,

Neil.

[trevor]

I wish them well !.

[Wurzel]

Congratulations to them and all the best

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[David M]

Very nice, Neil.

Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple.

[Neil Freeman]

Thanks Trevor, Wurzel and David

Not much to report so far this week. The weather has improved over the past couple of days, with less cloud and more sun, but I have been busy with family stuff and not had much chance to get out looking for butterflies.
During breaks in my 'duties' I have seen some butterflies in the garden, mostly passing Whites and Holly Blues with a couple of Speckled Woods and Gatekeepers usually lurking around.

One Green-veined White, easily identified by his shortened antennae, has been coming back repeatedly for a few days.

Green-veined White male - Coverdale 09.08.2021

He was often joined by other whites, mostly other GVWs but with a few Large and Small showing up as well.

Green-veined White male - Coverdale 10.08.2021

The male Gatekeepers look like they are on their last legs now but a couple of females are looking a little bit better.

Gatekeeper female - Coverdale 09.08.2021

The male Specklies are as feisty as ever with at least two of them squabbling over the best sunny spots on most days.

Speckled Wood male - Coverdale 09.08.2021

I have noticed before that, when the males are busy chasing each other about, a female will come fluttering through completely unnoticed by them.

Speckled Wood female - Coverdale 09.08.2021

A Peacock has been hanging around since Tuesday spending most of its time on the buddleias feeding up in preparation for hibernation.

Peacock - Coverdale 10.08.2021

The only Holly Blue which I saw settled was a rather tired looking individual which stopped on some ragwort for a refuel.

Holly Blue - Coverdale 10.08.2021

These past few months have certainly flown past, I can't believe we are nearly half way though August already

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Neil Freeman]

Thursday 12 August.

A pleasantly warm if rather breezy day. In the morning I took my Mom to a dentist appointment and arriving back home later in the morning I found a Peacock on one of the buddleias. At first I assumed that it was the same one that has been hanging around for a few days now but I took a couple of photos and looking at them later, I realised that it was a different individual.

Peacock - Coverdale 12.08.2021

Along with a few Large and Small Whites that came and went, a Red Admiral also turned up, the first of these that I have actually seen in the garden this year.

Red Admiral - Coverdale 12.08.2021

A bit later in the afternoon I decided to go for a wander down to my local spot by Wagon Lane Park. As the day had progressed, thicker clouds had blown in on the stiff westerly breeze but it still felt warm and there were plenty of butterflies to be seen. Most numerous were constantly flying whites, most of which appeared to be Green-veined although I did confirm a few each of both Small and Large Whites as well.

Lots of Gatekeepers were around with the males all looking to be well past their best now. Some of the females were impressively large individuals, looking more like particularly bright Meadow Browns than Gatekeepers until a close look confirmed their ID.

Gatekeeper female - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

I have seen quite a few females this year with the extra spots on their hindwings which I believe qualifies them as ab. postexcessa. To be honest, my own thoughts (which I realise are probably not shared by many) are that the spots on Gatekeepers can be so variable that many of the named abs. really come under natural variation and it is only our aurelian forebear’s obsession with putting a name to every slight difference that has led to them having their own names.

Gatekeeper female - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

Meadow Brown numbers have dropped right back here now and I only saw about half a dozen this afternoon.

A couple of faded Small Tortoiseshells were seen but they are now easily outnumbered by Peacocks here.

Peacock - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

I reckon that most of my local Small Tortoiseshells have disappeared into hibernation and I can’t blame them given some of the weather here lately.

I have mentioned before that small colonies of both Common Blue and Small Copper are hanging on at this site and I am always pleased to confirm their continued presence here, so was chuffed to find one of each today. The Small Copper looked like he had been about for a few days with some damage to his hindwings but the Common Blue looked to be nice and fresh.

Small Copper - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

Common Blue - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

A couple of male Speckled Woods were spotted in their usual corners and a nice looking female came fluttering along the hedge line and stopped just long enough to grab a quick photo.

Speckled Wood female - Wagon Lane 12.08.2021

I was going to check out the large Buddleias in the far corner of this site but I mentioned before that this spot is a hangout for some of the local young thugs and noticed a few lurking around today so didn't bother…just in case.

Arriving back home again, I noticed the Peacock (or one of them) and the Red Admiral were still tucking in on the buddleia although they were getting blown about a fair bit in the blustery wind.

Today (Friday) has been cloudier and windier with some occasional drizzle and the next few days look to be similar. I guess, as is the usual tradition, we’ll have to wait for the schools to go back before we (hopefully) get a proper improvement in the weather.

Bye for now and stay safe,

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Great set of shots Neil - interesting to see the Green-veined White with the shortened antennae it looks almost like someone has just trimmed the ends with a pair of scissors, I wonder if/how that affected sensory capabilities?
"we’ll have to wait for the schools to go back before we (hopefully) get a proper improvement in the weather"...as a Teacher this is one of the most frustrating things about the school holidays (after their appalling timing - why can't we have the 5 weeks in May/June with a week in mid July? ) we have great weather right up until the last day of term, grotty weather pretty much throughout and then come the day after the August Bank Holiday we suddenly get our summer

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

[Neil Freeman]

Cheers Wurzel. I did wonder myself about the way the antennae on that GVW seemed to be snipped off at the same length, a bird attack perhaps?
My daughter Sarah, who is a support teacher, tells me that there has been some discussion about splitting the long summer holiday and spreading it through the year but, as with a lot of things these days, no-one can agree on how to do it.

The only butterfly that I have bothered trying to photograph over the past few days was the Red Admiral which returned to the buddleia just after 9.00am on Friday (13th) morning before the clouds built up again.
I rather like the red background provided by a delivery van that pulled up briefly outside our house.

Red Admiral - Coverdale 13.08
2021

We ended up with a fair bit of rain on Saturday and then Sunday was yet another mostly cloudy day although some short lived brighter spells in the afternoon did allow me to spot a couple of Green-veined Whites and a Holly Blue passing through the garden.

As I write this on Monday (16th) morning it is dull and gloomy with a leaden grey overcast although it just might brighten up a bit later, fingers crossed.

Bye for now and stay safe.

Neil.

[Wurzel]

Lovely Red Admiral Neil They're having a particularly good summer it seems I've seen more this seasons than I can remember seeing before

Going back to the splitting of the summer holiday - they'll probably try and foist some weeks on in February, October and December

Have a goodun

Wurzel