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ChrisC wrote:your snails eggs i think could actually be caddisfly eggs.
Chris

You're right Chris, thanks for that. Not sure of the parenting skills of the mother though, they were no where near any water bodies, unless there are caddisfly larvae that live in damp leaf litter...

Susie wrote:It was good to see you Buggy. What you mean to say is that you nearly missed me among all those old cows

You were right about the butterflies, plenty of freshly emerged ones still about. The sun came out and it was lovely.

oh Susie, those cows didn't look that old at all

Yes I was cursing sods law walking back when the sun came out properly!

I went for a little strole this afternoon on my local patch, the weather a vast improvement to yesterday....just a shame the butterfly activity didn't follow suit. Small Whites were quite numerous and a couple of Large Whites and Green-veined were enoying the sunshine but apart from a single Meadow Brown, A Red Admiral, two Speckled Woods and a Small Tortoiseshell fly by that was it. I would rather have been out chasing Adonis and searching for ovipositing Brown Hairstreaks but I made the most of what I had to work with, just a shame the RA didn't settle for me, she was a real beauty! I did find a very patient and accomidating male Common Darter though

Time to squeeze in another trip to Bookham Common this afternoon on my usual half day at work. Tomorrow I plan to go down to the south coast in search of Clouded Yellows and anything else that may get blown across the the Channel, hopefully some Adonis action as well and maybe a late Wall or two. Anyway, work means I wont be able to check on my WA cats for at least a week.

As usual I started off in Brown Hairstreak territory. The weather wasn't great, warmish but mostly cloudy and with a distinctly autumnal nip to the air. Nothing much was flying, singles of faded female Gatekeeper and Common Blue and a couple of female Meadow Browns and the odd Speckled Wood. However, arriving at my Brown Hairstreak spot near their Master trees, I disturbed a rather lovely Red Admiral. She was a bit flighty and with all the long grass I wasn't able to get very close. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the pictures properly that I realised I had a unusual ab. A series of blue spots along the inside of the hindwing red band. I've looked in all the usual places but can't find anything like it, gutted that I wasn't able to get better pictures of her!

After she buggered off over a hedge leaving me all alone I decided to look for Hairstreak eggs. On virtually the first piece of oak I looked at I found this: I don't rate it's chances of getting much past Christmas at the latest, not very well hidden at all! Bad parenting skills

I didn't find any more Purples so I wandered over to some low growing bushy Blackthorn to try my luck at finding my first ever Brown....BINGO! Just like the adults, bigger than you expect and sticking out like that how any make it to hatching god alone knows! They are both low down, 6 or 7 inches of the ground at most which may help them avoid Tits and the like but if a half blind Wren staggers past surely they'll be gonners! Interstingly, as the above picture shows, they have been laid in an area that was cut back allowing fresh low growth to shoot up over the summer, just what female BH are supposed to prefer

Well, over at the WA Towers I found Shifty/Sid missing, just an abandoned leaf to show where he'd been. There was no sign of any hibernaculum so I have to conclude MIA and most likely eaten Lofty is still feeding: Cyril seems to be somewhat confused having eaten most of what could be used to construct a hibernaculum... and Brian II is well and truly asleep in the tiniest hibernaculum in the world! New boy Stan doesn't seem to have moved since Saturday. After this update I returned to the Hairstreak eggs to make sure I was able to track them down easily again Found them .... a few more things to keep an eye on over the winter....should they last that long!

Your detective work is admirable, Bugboy.

I will certainly keep my eyes peeled henceforth for those blue hindwing spots on Red Admirals.

Not just the blue spots but also the black circles they are embedded in. I've never seen that before and can't see any hints of it in the books. I find it very interesting as I didn't know that pattern was there, even latently, in red admirals.

Guy

EDIT - After looking at loads of photos I see the black markings are normal (just not visible in most of the pristine spécimens the books show) but I can't find any with the blue spots.

I don't want to appear to be jumping on a band wagon but I am sure I've seen a red admiral like that too lately with the blue.

Padfield wrote:Not just the blue spots but also the black circles they are embedded in. I've never seen that before and can't see any hints of it in the books. I find it very interesting as I didn't know that pattern was there, even latently, in red admirals.

Guy

I can see the black circles in some pictures (below) but mostly much less obvious than todays one. I wonder if she will hang around?

Susie wrote:I don't want to appear to be jumping on a band wagon but I am sure I've seen a red admiral like that too lately with the blue.

Dammit, I was hoping I'd discovered a brand new ab. so I could name it, Vanessa atalanta ab. buggeri........ maybe not

bugboy wrote:

Susie wrote:I don't want to appear to be jumping on a band wagon but I am sure I've seen a red admiral like that too lately with the blue.

Dammit, I was hoping I'd discovered a brand new ab. so I could name it, Vanessa atalanta ab. buggeri........ maybe not

Hey, you got the photo! It's yours. Even if I did have a photo I would destroy it if it meant an ab would be called that

Susie wrote:

bugboy wrote:

Susie wrote:I don't want to appear to be jumping on a band wagon but I am sure I've seen a red admiral like that too lately with the blue.

Dammit, I was hoping I'd discovered a brand new ab. so I could name it, Vanessa atalanta ab. buggeri........ maybe not

Hey, you got the photo! It's yours. Even if I did have a photo I would destroy it if it meant an ab would be called that

9th September, South Downs, Eastbourne.

Clouded Yellows were the aim today. I’ve been seeing lots of reports recently of sightings along the south coast but they don’t seem very eager to come far inland this year so if they won’t come to me I’ll go to them. It was rather cloudy when I arrived and the sea breeze was, well breezy but the scenery is always pleasant! It stayed cloudy for the first few hours and not too much was flying. A Painted Lady got blown across and was deposited in the turf at my feet where it sat and shivered for a minute or two before taking flight and being whisked off in the wind again. A few meadow Browns were flying and all seemed to be very fresh, this female can’t be more than a day or two old! Eventually the clouds began to clear and by 11 I had a clear blue sky. Small Whites became very numerous now and remained the most numerous butterfly all day. A couple of Large Whites were about as well but they never settled. A few Speckled Woods were about and a Small tortoiseshell paid a fleeting visit, the first I’ve seen for quite some time! I checked out the path I’d found the Walls on in May but I’ve obviously missed their second brood so I wandered off to find some sheltered sun traps to see what was hiding from the wind. More Small Whites and I nearly trod on this basking Common Blue. I saw a small brown butterfly fluttering around some Knapweed, probably a female blue and on closer inspection I was right, turned out to be a reasonably fresh female Chalkhill, another species that seems to be having an exceptionally long season. A little further on I found 4 male Blues all trying to hold the same territory. This involved frequent brief aerial scuffles before they realised ‘wrong species, you can stay’ except for the two Commons, but even they had to take a breather at some point! Like the female earlier, the male Chalkhill was very fresh and the Adonis was in pretty good nick as well and both were happy to pose for me in between bouts. A Small Copper paid a brief visit to the spot before shooting off on his own little mission. Common Blues turned out to be rather... common. Second only to Small Whites today and much more Common than Clouded Yellows who were very noticeable by their disappointing absence .

The only other butterfly I saw in the end was Small Heaths. So no target species today (well I was hoping for Adonis ) but there was enough around to keep me occupied, 11 species in September's not to shabby at all, and a day at the seaside on a sunny day is never a wasted day

Sorry you didn't get your Cloudy but at least you saw some great butterflies , I'm back at work so trapped inside
Great Small Heath, that's the most spots I've seen on one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Wurzel wrote:Sorry you didn't get your Cloudy but at least you saw some great butterflies , I'm back at work so trapped inside
Great Small Heath, that's the most spots I've seen on one

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Oh God, you're counting spots on them now as well....... I have one with an extra forewing eyespot if you're interested

Yeah I've got one of those too By the way your proposed Red Admiral ab name is a well used Dorset saying used to denote surprise and shock: " Well bugger I..." so it gets my vote

Have a goodun

Wurzel

15th September, Bookham.

Well it seems that the weather is deteriorating at a rate of knots. Tuesday was predicted as the best of a pretty dreadful week so I managed to swing a lunchtime finish at work and sneak a couple of hours at my current home from home, Bookham Common. I got a fair bit of sun there, enough to wake up a few Speckled Woods. I made my way to my White Admirals to see if any are still visable/alive, there’s been a lot of weather since my last visit so it would be anyone’s guess as to what I would find.
Brian II is still snoozing. He’s actually invisible to me until I take a picture and zoom in (I’m still in denial about needing glasses! ) Unfortunately I couldn’t locate any of the others on this patch. That’s not to say they have been predated though, there is a fair bit of dead leaf littering the honeysuckle so I could still locate them in further wintery searches or when they awake in the spring.

Over at Stan’s pad I suspect he’s preparing for winter. There’s not a lot of leaf left to eat and he was sitting at the top of some dead leaves below his platform. Are they silk lines holding these leaves in place or just the hairs compacted down? Compared to Brian II’s little bedsit of a hibernaculum this is virtually palacial if it is where he intends to sleep the winter away. As I watched him he wandered up to have a nibble of what was left of his platform. Hopefully next time I visit he will be tucked away for the winter. In other news I easily located the Brown and Purple Hairstreak eggs and other than Speckled Woods the only other butterfly I saw were a couple of Meadow Browns.

19th September, Bookham & Denbies. (Part 1)

Well that’s a turn up, a large high pressure system floats over just as my weekend off starts ! I woke up early and left to make the most of what would turn out to be a glorious early autumn day. Getting up early was a particular struggle this time however, having enjoyed myself at a fancy dress party the previous evening.

The plan was to a quick wander over at Bookham to check on my cats and then an afternoon wandering around Denbies.

Not much was flying at Bookham apart from several Speckled Wood. A few distant whites passed by and I disturbed a single female Brimstone who drifted up into the top of the nearest oak. All my hairstreak eggs were still present and correct and whilst looking for more I noticed a small twig looking back at me! My best guess at its ID is a Brimstone Moth.

I browsed a few Oak trees as I made my way to the White Admiral cats and managed to find two more Purple Haistreak eggs wedged in amongst some buds. and yes that skin coloured background is my hand!

Other non butterfly inhabitants that caught my eye today include this fly, Tachina fera, also known as ‘your worst nightmare’ if you happen to be a Lepidoptera larvae ! It’s not too fussy as to which species it lays its eggs on/in apparently!! Common Darter Dragonflies were very common and this Hoverfly, Myathropa florea, was enjoying the morning sun. At the White Admirals Brian II hadn’t moved and still no sign of any of the others I was following. Stan however (who I thought was perhaps looking to hibernate 4 days ago) had moved leaves and was munching away. He was living dangerously though, being very obvious both from above... and below! Good luck Stan, there’s A LOT of small birds in this wood.

Well with the temperatures soaring (for September) it was time to make a move to see what was happening over at Denbies...

19th September, Bookham & Denbies. (Part 2)

A glorious blue sky accompanied me to Denbies and I was also happy to find there was an almost complete lack of wind, a bit of a novelty this year! Walking past the vineyards of Denbies Wine Estate I noticed several very fresh looking Meadow Browns. The males were way too active to sit for me but this female did, whilst ovipositing, looking remarkably fresh for over halfway through September. Arriving at Denbies there were a few more meadow Browns and quite a few Small Heath flitting around. I was still hoping for a glimpse of a Clouded Yellow, just a fleeting flyby would do! Blues were still active, possibly a couple of female Common but for the most part they seemed to be mainly female Chalkhill. Don’t think I saw a single Adonis. The one male Chalkhill I saw also looked incredibly fresh given the time of year. It would seem the Chalkhill brood has outlived the Adonis here! Anyway here’s a selection of female Blues, if anyone can spot an Adonis amongst them....(I think the first is a Common Blue, it was noticably smaller than everything else I saw, the rest I'm going with Chalkhills unless someone says otherwise) One Small Copper paid me a brief visit and allowed a few pics before whizzing off somewhere in an orangy blur. Walking along the top path that runs parallel to the woodland I noticed quite a few male Meadow Browns, all looking exceptionally fresh. In the heat they weren’t the easiest to capture but it did seem to suggest a second wave of emergent’s here. There were also fresh females around but the males seemed to outnumber them, it seemed like early June, not mid September! Is there such a thing as a partial second brood of Meadow Browns? I had a few vanessid flybys, a peacock harried me briefly and a Small Tortoiseshell whizzed past down the hill. I Also came across a Comma who seemed to have set up a territory around a patch of scrubby Bramble and closeby a rather old looking Silver Spotted Skipper was feeding on a Scabious Admiring another fresh Meadow Brown I noticed a pale splodge on the path several feet in front of me.....Yes at last, a Cloudy ! I crept closer, shooting record shots with every step, waiting for it to take to the air and vanish down the hill. As it turned out though I needn’t have worried, this lady was in no hurry to get anywhere fast and merely fluttered and floated from flower to flower to the point where I was easily able to follow her for nearly half an hour without any trouble, taking the best part of 100 pics in the process! Easily my best ever Clouded Yellow encounter, I was able to get a good range of pictures, my favourites being the backlit ones that show off her full depth of colour . She stopped a few times on short patches of turf and noticed she was ovipositing, that would explain why she was in no hurry.
When a large cloud blotted out the sun for a bit, it allowed me some nice close-ups of her Species number 45 for the year ticked off

Like you, Bugboy, I too saw my first UK 'Cloudie' recently, so I know just what a thrill it is! I particularly like the in-flight shot. Well done!

Clouded Yellows have been scarce this year, well spotted and nice shots

Cracking Cloudy Bugboy This species has evaded me this year - it seems in years when I see Cloudies I don't get Wood Whites and vice versa

Have a goodun

Wurzel