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29th July: Denbies - Small Copper ab.

Almost exactly a year ago, I found an unusual aberrant Small Copper at Denbies and hardly expected to do so again. However, within a few hundred metres of the 2020 sighting I did just that. It was not the same as the previous one by any means, retaining more orange markings, but was nevertheless quite striking as the hindwings completely lacked the characteristic orange bands. I managed to take a lot of shots of this individual before moving on to where the Silver-spots were flying, and then on my return the same way later found it was still there so felt obliged to take a few more... An inveterate percher, it frequently sat on the most wayward stalks in the breeziest spots, so the number of deleted shots was pretty high. Here are some of those that remained. I believe (cheers, Bugboy!) this one has a name: ab. obscura.

Dave

I was actually looking through an old butterfly book this afternoon and the ab.obscura caught my eye - then I have a read through your PD and low behold there's one It's interesting the way that the area where the orange should be seems darker than the rest of the hind wing -almost as if the orange band has been painted over

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Seems like an age ago since you told me about this little chap! it's an obsoleta rather than obscura, there is no obscura listed for Small Coppers so no idea where I got that from... . Still, a few of these are in order since my search the following day in less than ideal weather (but typical of 2021) proved unsuccessful!

Cheers both of you - he was a great little chap that Small Copper, full of typical energy and feistiness as well as being a cracker to look at. So he's obsoleta: I'll try and remember that, but I probably won't see another one! A shame you couldn't find him, Buggy, but looking back the weather on 30th was pretty awful - very windy indeed - and I didn't go out at all, so if he had any sense he'd have been hunkering well down in the grass.

Having given 30th July a miss, things improved a bit on Saturday 31st, but not by a great deal. I went out only as far as my local patch, but was rewarded with some decent butterflies, some of which were new second brooders. Some of the others first: New Brown Argus......Common Blues......and Holly Blues.As well as these males, I noticed a stranger nectaring among the male Common Blues on the white daisies.She (for it was a female) gradually opened up when the sky brightened a bit to reveal that she was brand spanking new.What a great example of a second brood female Holly Blue. The colour and texture of the blue is entirely different to that of the males, and the borders look inky black on one as new as this. No apologies for posting several shots of her!

Dave

Definitely a few for your Holly Blue on flower

Great find with yet another Small Copper Ab - and that is a lovely shot of the Holly Blue on the daisy I'm wondering what other little treasures you might have up your sleeve that I definitely won't get to see!

Simply WOW for that stunning female Holly Blue.
Never seen such bold and extensive black markings before.

Superb stuff !.
Trevor.

Amazing shots of those female Holly Blues, Dave They don't seem to be doing so well this year, in our part of the world

"it's an obsoleta rather than obscura, there is no obscura listed for Small Coppers" Looks like my memory as well me eyes are going now I was thinking of ab.obscurior in Hedge Browns
That female Holly Blue is a right little beauty Dave - I was scrolling through the images thinking "cracking, cracking, cracking..." and then when I got to her the rest faded from my memory - mind you she's more of a Holly Black than Blue

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

You've posted some impressive female Holly Blues over the years, Dave, but that one is very possibly the best of the lot.

I don't think I've ever seen one as striking as that, with the huge, dark black forewing markings.

Interesting choice of nectar source too. I'm used to seeing Small Coppers on aster but I don't remember coming across a Holly Blue using this to feed.

Many thanks to all of you for the Holly Blue appreciation - she was indeed a stunning butterfly.

The change of the month brought no change at all to better weather. On Sunday 1st August I stayed local once again in mixed conditions, but varied things a bit by having a look at Staines Moor again. Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers dominated proceedings, but some new Peacocks enjoyed the brambles......a few Brown Argus appeared......and Small Skippers were still to be found.Naturally enough, the site speciality generated a few examples - Small Coppers.However, among half a dozen of the regular variety, I found a newly emerged individual that was strikingly different.In fact, the only actual deviation from the norm is that the forewing dark markings are enlarged, but this female did stand out next to the "normal" ones. Apparently there is no name listed for an aberration of this type, so maybe it should just be considered within ordinary variation. Nevertheless, coming only a couple of days after the ab. down at Denbies, I think every Small Copper I see from now on will get thoroughly scrutinised...

Dave

I completed the day on 1st August with a short walk nearer to home. No big surprises here, except for another brand new female Holly Blue that was apparently attempting to lay on something other than ivy. Everything I've read indicates that the second brood lay exclusively on ivy buds, but this lady clearly hadn't read the books... On the other hand, she may well just have been going through the motions as I couldn't actually find any eggs afterwards. Dave

Gorgeous Holly Blues . This lady does seem very confused, the first three pictures show her avidly investigating some 'gone over' Goat's-rue but the second three images seem to show she's inadvertently wandered onto a Dock of some sort and is probably wondering why the Goat's-rue suddenly tastes and smells so strange!

Dave, Well I thought the male Holly Blues were good, but that the striking colours of that female are even better. Nice group shots of the CHB too. It’s nice to see butterflies in such large numbers together.

Kind Regards
Kev

Cheers, Buggy - yes, it was a very odd bit of behaviour. At least (as far as I could tell) she didn't actually lay any eggs here.

Thank you, Kev - for a common butterfly, Holly Blues do produce striking individuals when new. It's also been good to see such high numbers of Chalkhill Blues this year, with genuine "clouds" of butterflies.

Monday 2nd August started first thing with a lot of warm sunshine, and I was up and out on my local patch by 8 o'clock. It was worth the effort, because as has happened so often this summer, by lunchtime cloud had well and truly taken over. I counted 170 butterflies of 15 species, and there were a variety of new individuals from several of these. Within sight of home, a sprawling wild buddleia was playing host to a couple of home-grown Painted Ladies resplendent in salmon-pink......Commas......Peacocks......and Red Admirals.There must have been a notable local emergence of the last of these, as I managed to count 20 today, much higher than any previous day this year.

Also rising in numbers were Common Blues, with 24 seen - both males and females, and mostly pretty fresh.One female was particularly striking, a very dark ground colour with contrasting red white and blue markings.In complete contrast, there was another which was almost entirely a uniform mid-brown......but definitely not a Brown Argus, as the underside confirmed. So rare these days to see a completely brown female Common Blue.There were several Brown Argus flying with the blues to provide the possibility of such confusion. Other species seen:
Large White
Small White
Green-veined White
Small Copper
Holly Blue
Gatekeeper
Meadow Brown
Small Skipper
Essex Skipper
For the last two on this list, it turned out to be the last sightings of the year here.

Dave

Great to see a Brown Common Blue for once Dave - they could be considered a rarity a few years from now if the trend of increasingly blue females continues Still it'll make it easier for beginners to positively ID Brown Argus Some more fantastic Holly Blues, and great Painted Ladies. That Small Copper was really interesting too - those markings are so large it almost looks like a couple of spots fused together (even though they only have single spots in those positions) - the closest I could see was 'anticrassilunulata' as the two marks nearest the body run into each other?

Have a goodun and stay safe

Wurzel

Just catching up with your diary again Dave, you have seen a great selection of butterflies recently(ish). A cracking Small Copper ab and Those Holly blues are beauties

I still see enough 'brown' Common Blue females around my patch for particularly 'blue' ones to be exceptions. The really blue ones seem to be more prevalent further south, except for in Cornwall where most of those I have seen there over the past few years have been predominantly brown.

Cheers,

Neil.

Cheers, Wurzel and Neil. I've got so used to seeing "blue" females that finding a completely brown one was a bit strange. Comparing it to the other one I posted, you could easily think they were entirely different species. Do any other species of blue show such diversity in females? I know there can be a fair bit in Adonis Blues, and a slight degree of variation in Chalkhills and Silver-studs, but there are all the continental ones about which I know very little. Almost all the images of them posted here are of the males, which may of course be because all the various females are shades of brown and it is tricky to tell the species apart.

Anyway, fresh female Common Blues are anything but common. They can be exquisitely beautiful and no two seem to be alike.

Dave

I tempted fate a bit on 2nd August after the successful morning near home, by popping down to Bookham at lunchtime to see if I could find any Brown Hairstreaks. By the time I got there, what sunshine there had been had completely disappeared and I struggled to find any butterflies at all. However, my recce provided the intelligence that in all the likely Hairstreak hotspots there was a great deal of flowering hogweed and angelica, but on the downside, many blackthorn-lined paths were choked with other vegetation from the wet spring and summer weather and in some cases were nigh-on impassable.

I managed one interesting butterfly shot, a female Silver-washed Fritillary that had seen better days but from the colour that remained must have been notably dark in her prime. Maybe not valesina-dark, but distinctly green.The other surprise was coming across this Egret plumb in the middle of the path, nowhere near any obvious body of water.I know it's been wet lately, but...

Dave

Looking forward to the following days post . Egrets are seen quite regularly at Bookham apparently (not by me though) and they'll happily hunt in grassland as well as in wetter places. With all this rain we've had this year the place must be teaming with frogs and newts and there's plenty of insects to snack on too, grasshoppers aplenty today!