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Monday 20th May.

Having seen that Small Blues had been flying for a while down at Bishops Hill we decided to have a run down there this morning (Monday). We left home at 09.15 under a thick overcast although the forecast indicated that the clouds should soon dissipate to give a warm and sunny day.
We arrived 45 minutes later with the overcast still stretching from horizon to horizon but nevertheless set out around the site to see if we could find anything.
For the first 30 minutes or so the cloud persisted and although we found a few roosting Common and Small Blues, they were hunkered low down in the grass. Just after 10.30 the first holes in the clouds began to appear and the Common Blues began to wake up. It always amazes me at times like this how butterflies can suddenly appear where a few minutes before I would have sworn there was nothing.
It soon became apparent that there were good numbers of Common Blues including some nice fresh males and females with varying amounts of blue.
Small Blues also began to appear in similar numbers although many of these were now looking worn and faded having been on the wing here for at least a couple of weeks now. Nevertheless, I managed to find some better looking examples including a few that looked fresh.

One female appeared to be laying but possibly just going through the motions as I couldn't find an egg afterward. Having said that Small Blues eggs can be difficult to find, often being tucked well down in between the flower buds.
Although both Grizzled and Dingy Skippers can usually be found here, Grizzlies are only present in small numbers and Dingy numbers have been lower in recent years than they used to be, probably due to hawthorn and cotoneaster scrub which is encroaching on more and more of the site each year. Today I managed to find at least 3 different Grizzled Skippers and just 4 Dingy Skippers.
Other butterflies seen were half a dozen Brimstones and three or four Small Heath.
Also seen but not photographed were singles of Peacock and Green Hairstreak, both of which kept well out of reach of the camera, as did a number of Burnet Companion and Mother Shipton day flying moths.

It did eventually turn into a nice sunny morning and after a couple of hours had become quite warm so having enjoyed our morning we made a move back home.

Bye for now,

Neil.

Good to see how things are faring at Bishops Hill, Neil, now that I no longer regularly pass the site. The Small Blues are a particular draw, but I always remember how good the Common Blues were there as well - as you have demonstrated!

Cheers,

Dave

Now one Brimstone photographed in sharp focus and close-up with its wings open is special, but two at the same time?!?

Cheers Dave. Yes, the Common Blues were the stars on Monday despite the Small Blues being the primary reason for our visit.

Thanks Ernie. From a dozen or so photos taken as they danced around in front of me, that was the only that was anywhere close to being usuable.

Cheers,

Neil.

Cracking Blues Neil, love the blue female But the have to be reserved for the Brimstone in flight shots - cracking! Was that manual settings or Sports mode?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel. I think that shot was with sports mode. I took a few with my usual aperture priority setting before I thought to turn the dial onto sports mode. As usual most of the shots turned out blurred with that one being the only one worth keeping.

Saturday 25th May.

Well, it was a good job I went out on Monday as the rest of this past week has been a shocker. Tuesday was dull and cloudy and then we had rain all day on Wednesday and well into Thursday night. Thursday and Friday were both dull and cloudy again with occasional drizzle and all week since Monday has felt unseasonably cold.
Today (Saturday) looked to be the best day of the bank holiday weekend and I felt the urge to go a bit further afield. I had seen Marsh Fritillary and Adonis Blue had been reported from Prestbury Hill near Cheltenham last weekend and with a good supporting cast of species down there I decided to have a trip over the border into Gloucestershire.

I left home just before 08.00am and 90 minutes later arrived at the parking spots in the lane at the top of the Bill smyllie reserve at Prestbury Hill, under some dense cloud but with a few breaks in it that allowed the sun through occasionally.
I started along the path down towards the lower slopes and soon started to see lots of Small Blues along with Small Heath and Dingy Skippers.
About half way down the hill I spotted the first Marsh Fritillary which was soon followed by a few more as I made my way further down.
As it warmed up through the morning and more blue sky and sun appeared I saw more and more Marsh Fritillaries until I reckon a conservative count of 30-40 were seen during the time I spent here. It is always interesting to see the variation in this species.
There was still quite of bit of cloud however and this enabled me to spot a nice female going down where I could get some nice underside shots.
I waited until the sun came back out to get a shot of her topside.
A bit later I saw another female in similar circumstances only this time she settled on a small bit of scrub.
I have already mentioned the Small Blues but there must have been hundreds of them, all over both the Bill Smyllie and next door Masts Reserves. A number of times I saw small gangs of them taking minerals from bird droppings or damp patches along the paths.
I had heard that Adonis Blues had been seen in the Masts Reserve and so I wandered through the wood to check out the lower slope there. Sure enough I soon spotted a couple of fresh males and ended up seeing around 12 to 15, all males looking nice and fresh.
I was also on the lookout for Duke of Burgundy and had earlier found a Duchess that looked like she had been around for a while.
I eventually found four males, all in the Bill Smyllie side with just one of them in decent condition. One other was half worn but the other two looked to be on their last legs.
Half a dozen Green Hairstreaks were seen, mostly on their last legs but a couple were not too bad.
A couple of Brown Argus were also spotted with one of them repeatedly returning to a small orchid.
As well as the species already mentioned, a dozen or more Common Blue, half a dozen Brimstones, both male and female, a couple of Speckled Wood and singles of Red Admiral and Holly Blue made up the tally of Butterflies for the day.

There were also lots of day flying moths, including Common Heath, Burnet Companion, Mother Shipton, Grass Rivulet, Small Purple-barred, Cistus Forrester and Five-spot Burnet. The latter species included at least 3 individuals seen with confluent spots (form minoides), this variation apparently being common in this species and I have seen it every time I have been here.
I ended up leaving at 2.00pm having spent a very enjoyable four and a half hours here, mind you over half an hour of that was spent making may way back up the hill and getting distracted numerous times on the way.

Bye for now,

Neil.

Very productive four and half hours Neil Marshies are great value ofr money as not only are they so variable but in different lights the same butterfly can look very different as well Pick of the bunch for me is the last one, the dark ground colour really contrasts with the chequers

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel. It is just a pity that Marshies cannot be found a bit closer for me. There is still much debate around whether they arrived at Prestbury under their own steam or whether they were yet another unauthorised release but prior to their appearance there my nearest site was at Strawberry Banks which is further into Gloucestershire.

Cheers,

Neil.

Another week of mostly dull wet and surprisingly cold weather for the time of year here. A brief spell of sunshine later yesterday (Thursday) afternoon brought a single male Speckled Wood out and another one (or maybe the same one) appeared this afternoon in a similar late bit of sun.

I put the moth trap out on the night of Tuesday 28th but once again was fooled by the forecast when we had some unexpectedly heavy rain through the night.
Nevertheless, I had a result of 34 moths of 18 species with the best moth amongst the usual selection being my first Elephant Hawk-moth of the year.
I looks like we will be getting a couple of days of decent weather over the weekend to welcome us into June, fingers crossed it lasts long enough to dry out the soggy ground around here a bit.

Bye for now,

Neil.

A weekend of two halves, Saturday remained stubbornly cloudy here until late afternoon and there was a fair breeze with a cold touch to it.
After a clear and chilly night, Sunday dawned with wall to wall blue skies and with the full sun it soon warmed up.

Whilst pottering around in the garden during the morning, I had watched a couple of fresh looking male Speckled Wood constantly squabbling with each other and although they would settle frequently between bouts, they were far to flighty in the warm sun to sneak up on for a photo.

After Sunday lunch, I decided to have a look at my local spot by Wagon Lane to see if anything was about. Well, the answer to that was practically nothing with my usual circuit producing just one butterfly, a faded Speckled Wood, along with a couple of Silver Y Moths. It looks like the poor weather and heavy rain here last week has finished off the last of the spring butterflies and with nothing yet emerged to follow on we are definitly in the 'June Gap' here.

First Clearwings of the season.

With it being the first warm sunny day here for ages, I had dug my Clearwing Moth pheromone lures out of the freezer and whilst I was down at Wagon Lane had put the FOR lure out in the garden. On my return just before 3.00pm I checked the trap and found nothing there but thirty minutes later had another look and found three Red-tipped Clearwings in there, my first Clearwings of the year. I have noticed before how multiple Clearwings of a number of species will turn up within a small window of time with nothing appearing to either side.
I then took the FOR lure in and replaced it with the VES lure but without success.

As I write this on Monday morning, the wall to wall overcast is back again but it is supposed to brighten up later, we'll see!

Bye for now,

Neil.

Lovely looking 'Murff' Neil So much for flaming June so far Neil

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel. Yes, if anything we are going backards here again with a return to cooler weather for this coming week.

Saturday 8th June.

Another week during which I havn't seen much, either due to poor weather or being occupied with family 'stuff', an occasional Speckled Wood or two in the garden being about it.
After a clear and cold night, Saturday was chilly to start with but then clouds rolled in to prevent the sun warming things up to any great degree. By early afternoon it had settled down to a mix of clouds with varying breaks during which the sun would feel nice and warm but otherwise a cold wind was very much in evidence.
I decided to have a walk down to my local spot by Wagon Lane where my usual circuit produced just three butterflies, a couple of Speckled Wood that stayed out of reach and a nice male Common Blue that posed for a while before it took off and was whisked away in the wind.
I was particularly looking for the first Large Skippers and Meadow Browns but no sign of either of them there yet. Looking at the forecasts for the week ahead, I am not holding my breathe either.

Bye for now,

Neil.

That is a cracking looking Blue Neil almost the complete 'blue' palette on one butterfly

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers Wurzel. Yes, a result of the light catching it just right Saturday was the last time we saw any reasonable sun here

Sunday 9th June

Sometime during Saturday night, the first of the Lime Hawk-moths that I had reared from a few eggs left me by a female last year emerged and by the time I checked on the cage in the morning it's wings were fully developed.
I wanted to get a photo to record the event and usually like to take my moth photos outside in natural daylight. Sunday was so dull with intermittant drizzle however that I ended up needing to use flash to get a reasonable photo.
Needing to use flash outside in the middle of an afternoon in June says it all about what it has been like here recently and the next few days do not look any better.

Bye for now,

Neil.

Your Elephant Hawk moth reminds me that there was one on the
ceiling in the bar in my local pub last year. Once I had identified
it and pointed it out everyone got their phones out and gazed in awe.
It sure was a beauty.
Great series of reports and images recently. Your Adonis Blues and
Marsh Frits in particular. A for those clearwings, amazing !

Thanks Trevor. Those Marshies and Adonis seem a long while ago at the moment. Lets hope things buck up soon.

Sunday 16th June.

The less said about this past week the better suffice to say that it was appalling and culminated on Saturday with rain on and off all day with some of it being especially heavy. The rain continued into the night with the result that Sunday dawned under still cloudy skies with everthing very soggy.
By around 10.00am the clouds were breaking up and the sun began to dry things up. it was still fairly breezy although the wind had moved around to come from the south-west so had lost that coldness that did so much to keep temperatures well down last week.

By late morning it was feeling quite pleasant and I spotted a Speckled Wood and a Brimstone pass through the garden although I was busy in the kitchen and they had vanished by the time I went out.

Early afternoon had settled down to something like a 60/40 split of slow moving clouds and blue sky with warm sun so I decided to venture down to my local spot by Wagon Lane to see if anything was about yet. My usual circuit produced just half a dozen butterflies, better than my last visit over a week ago but still very disappointing for the time of year. These included my first Meadow Browns of the year with two fresh males seen. The first one settled deep down amongst the grass where I just managed a record shot but the other one seen a bit later went down in a better position when one of the many clouds covered the sun. Knowing how flighty they can be this early in their season I hung back and waited until the sun began to come out again which prompted him to open up giving me the chance to sneak up and get some shots.
The only other butterflies seen were four Speckled Wood and a single unidentified White that fluttered along a hedgrow in the distance.

The speckled Woods consisted of three males in various condition and a female that kept low down in the grass where she occasionally settled for a bit. I followed her for a while hoping to capture some egg laying action but if she did any it was while she was hidden from view.
So then, still very slow going here but it looks like next week will finally warm up a bit although it still looks to be a bit unsettled...we'll see.

Bye for now,

Neil.

Lovely shot of the Meadow Brown Neil - they don't normally open up like that at this time of year; when they're all ragged and torn or course they practically flaunt their topside Things have been very slow and everyone I talk to seems to ask the same question "where are all the butterflies?", maybe we're feeling the ill effects of the 2023 drought?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Neil Freeman wrote: ↑Mon Jun 17, 2024 7:33 am...The less said about this past week the better suffice to say that it was appalling...

You could equally apply that to the whole year thus far, Neil. It's turning into the worst I can recall.

Good to see Meadow Browns have emerged though. I guess they won't mind the damp conditions quite so much as other species.

Cheers Wurzel. It was a case of waiting for the clouds to move with that Meadow Brown after watching where he went down and then, much like with Orange-tips, capturing the moment when he opened up when the sun came back out.
I think there is a combination of factors at play with the low numbers of butterflies so far with dry weather last summer, a mild winter and a cold wet spring all playing a part.

Thanks David. Yes, it is the worse season I have known around here for many years. For me it reminds me of a run of poor summers in the mid 1980s that finally came to an end with a good summer in 1989.

I am still waiting for the weather to buck up here although it is forecast to improve from later today for the next few days. We'll see, it is all 'jam tomorrow' with the forecasts at the moment with the next day forecast to be better but when we get there it is yet more cloud.

In the meantime, a bit more moth 'stuff'.

Early Thorns

Back in March, I had a female spring generation Early Thorn to my garden moth trap and she left me with a couple of dozen eggs. I had previously raised these before and decided to do so again as they are easy to raise on hawthorn of which I have plenty in the garden. Last time the eggs were left me by a summer generation female which meant that they overwintered as pupae and emerged the following spring whereas this batch would emerge this summer.

I didn't bother photographing the larvae this time but here is a photo that I took of a fully grown larva last time I reared them.
The larvae grew rapidly until they pupated in loose cocoons amongst the hawthorn leaves or in dry leaves that I scattered on the bottom of their container especially for this purpose.

The first adults emerged on Saturday night with a couple more during Sunday and then a couple more last night. This gives me 11 so far with 10 of them being males and 1 female.

I photographed a couple of the males on Sunday morning in their emerging cage which is in a corner of the garage where the poor light means I had to use flash.
The female was photographed later in the afternoon in natural light outside in the garden.
All were released in the early evenings into the vegetation at the bottom of the garden.

Bye for now,

Neil.

Another three Early Thorns emerged last night (19th) all females this time giving me 10 males and 4 females so far.

Cheers,

Neil.