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Great find Dave and pleased to hear you're on the mend . Seems like your frustrations at missing out on any action were totally unfounded.

Congratulations, Dave, great find. It doesn't matter how tatty a Large Tortoiseshell is - every single one is a major victory. Hope the foot heals soon.
BWs, Neil

And to think, some people out there spend vast quantities of money on train fairs find one, foolish people!

Thank you, Pauline - it was probably a bit of a risk going out walking so soon, but it paid dividends and there appears to be no adverse reaction as far as I can tell.

Many thanks, Neil - it was quite a moment when what I thought was a somewhat large tatty Comma turned out to be something else entirely.

Another aspect of that famous Law, Paul! I drove all the way to Portland and back last summer and may (or may not) have glimpsed a LT - and then one turns up a slightly lopsided ten minute walk from my front door just at the moment I'm passing by! Maybe we should all be more vigilant wherever we are these days...

So, back to the original timeline...

Wednesday 27th April was decidedly cool and cloudy, and I couldn't even find a roosting Orange Tip.

Thursday 28th was more encouraging, so I decided to look for newly emerged Wood Whites down at Chiddingfold. I was early enough for it to be quite chilly, and I walked from the Botany Bay entrance right across to Oaken Wood without see anything at all. However, coming back the other way, I fairly soon spotted my target sitting on a bugle.A burst of sunshine then woke it up, and it flew a few metres to nectar on a dandelion.About ten minutes later, I managed to pick out another roosting butterfly.I carefully tried to relocate this one to a more pleasing pose, but once on my finger it was very unwilling to leave.I think that sometimes the relative warmth of the human hand becomes an attraction, and the salts deposited by sweat can be a draw too.

Aside from a single GVW, I saw no other butterflies. However, the weather looked to be gradually getting sunnier, so I elected to take in another destination before returning home.

Dave

Congrats on your Large Tortoiseshell, Dave, welcome to the club !.
Sorry to read about your foot, NASTY!. Glad it's on the mend.
My Daughter when she was three knocked over a cup of tea, onto her foot.
I can still hear the screams. Fortunately there was milk in the tea so it wasn't scalding.

These things happen,
Trevor.

Brilliant set of Wood Whites Dave As for the Large Tort I reckon that's the Karma Police issuing you your refund/recinding your FPN

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thank you, Trevor - it was time I caught you up! I just didn't think that if it happened it would be on my local patch... I have to say that there were rather more expletives than screams when the boiling water hit my foot last week, and then a few more when it became apparent that it would rather put a block on butterfly outings for a while. I'm very pleased that it seems to be healing pretty well, and some cushioning and a judicious choice of footwear allowed that outing yesterday, though I was probably pushing it a bit. Worth it though.

Cheers, Wurzel! It was pretty extraordinary when you think about it - a great image you've conjured there!

After Chiddingfold on 28th April, I drove a bit further south to Noar Hill again. In remained quite cool, but sun eventually did make an appearance. Initially, all I found was a sleepy Orange Tip in the first pit.Curiously, when chatting to another enthusiast a bit later, she told me that a roosting OT shot was exactly what she had been after for ages. As luck would have it, it was still there to be pointed out later on and she made the most of the opportunity.

Meanwhile, as things gradually warmed up and became a bit brighter, Dukes started to appear - plus a single Dingy Skipper.However, there were more Dukes than anything else.As the sun disappeared again, and didn't look likely to re-emerge any time soon, I watched them go to roost in the scrubby foliage, eventually hiding right under the leaves and effectively disappearing from view.

On this female, you can make out the fact that she has six functional legs......but on this male the forelegs are reduced to one small and apparently useless hairy projection. Dave

Really interesting to see that Duke with half a leg Dave - I can't recall if all males show this or is this a case of atavism - a bit like snakes or whales with tiny stubs of legs?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

All male Dukes have only four useful legs, Wurzel, with the other two (the forelegs) being reduced like this: the females have the full set of six working legs. They are a sort of halfway evolutionary stage between the fully complemented species (like the whites and blues) and the ones where both sexes lack proper forelegs (like nymphalids and browns). You realise you are now going to have to tell me what atavism means...

Friday 29th April was very disappointing round my way - no sunshine and the thermometer only crept up to 12 degrees. However, I managed to find a few of the standby for such conditions at this time of year, the roosting Orange Tip.In fact, I only saw one butterfly in flight, a Speckled Wood.One or two Holly Blues had been hopeful of something better and had come out from their places of concealment - all to no avail.Hopefully the last day of the month would be a better one.

Dave

Great shots of the roosting OT's Dave
"You realise you are now going to have to tell me what atavism means..." - it's where an organism develops features from it's evolutionary past - humans with little tails, Whales with miniscule hind legs, snakes with legs etc.
It was great meeting up today and I was happy that Sidbury preformed and hopefully lived up to my 'bigging it up'

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers, Wurzel and thank you for that definition: I am enlightened.

Sidbury was definitely a great place to visit and in no way embiggened by your description. Everything you said would be there duly made an appearance. A splendid day out - many thanks for the tour. Another several hundred photos to go through now...

Meanwhile, back to the last day of April.

Saturday 30th April was promised to be a sunny and warm one. I made an early start and was at Incombe Hole (between Pitstone Hill and Ivinghoe Beacon on the Chilterns) before 0800. I parked at the NT car park at Pitstone Hill, and walked across open downland, and despite the brilliant early sunshine, it was pretty nippy until I was down in the shelter of this typical chalk valley.This area is another good site for Duke of Burgundy, and a saw perhaps a dozen altogether, well spread out. The ones I saw seemed to all be a bit worn, and perhaps newer ones appeared later.As things warmed up, the skippers started to show themselves, and there were good numbers of both Dingies......and particularly Grizzlies.At one point I was edging in to try for a shot of a Dingy Skipper nicely flat on a dandelion, when a Grizzly landed nearby and began to disturb the other butterfly.Unfortunately I was not prepared for its next move, which was to hop up onto the dandelion and try to dislodge the Dingy altogether. As a result, all I managed was a quick insufficiently-zoomed shot of the pair together before they both flew off.A nice comparison, though.

Also seen here: Small Heaths (quite a few), Green Hairstreaks (only one or two), Brimstones, Orange Tips and Peacocks. Overall for me though, the day belonged to the Grizzlies. Dave

The Chilterns are so well sprinkled with sites worth dropping into that such an early start allowed for a visit somewhere else. In fact the next spot was only five or ten minutes drive away, at the old chalk quarry near Pitstone church.

This location is a reliable one for Small Blues, and I was hoping that perhaps one or two males might be out. There was a decent variety of other species around......including a pair of Grizzlies that went on to mate out of reach of the camera......but in the end I did track down my target - a single male Small Blue.Every year I forget just how tiny this species is, and how tricky they are to persuade the camera to focus on!

Dave

millerd wrote: ↑Sun May 15, 2022 7:31 pm ...Unfortunately I was not prepared for its next move, which was to hop up onto the dandelion and try to dislodge the Dingy altogether. As a result, all I managed was a quick insufficiently-zoomed shot of the pair together before they both flew off.DS+GS 300422.JPGA nice comparison, though.

A great shot and really shows how small Grizzled Skippers really are.

Cheers,

Neil.

Thank you, Neil. My regret with that shot of the Grizzly/Dingy combo is that I couldn't get a bit closer or zoomed in a bit before they both flew off. Still, as you say, it does show that though Dingy Skippers are small butterflies, Grizzlies are significantly smaller.

The sunshine on 30th April continued until the end of the day, and as I don't believe in wasting it I had a rather unstructured local amble once I'd returned from the Chilterns. Predictably enough, this included a good number of Holly Blues (I counted over 30). Females appeared to be outnumbering males now.The males seen were generally looking a bit worn too.However, they still can't resist the attractions of a nice fresh pile of horse manure. This pile was clearly of such good quality, a queue was forming...Commas tend to come into their own late on sunny afternoons, though numbers are beginning to drop.I've noted in this diary a few times before how one particular gate is often "guarded" by a watchful Comma: today's incumbent was taking his duties very seriously. Dave

A Watch-Comma Brilliant set of posts since my last comment Dave SO many great shots to choose from but teh stand out one for me was the Dingy and Grizzlie sharing a Dandelion (even if it wasn't a cropped shot)

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Actually, Wurzel, I still had to crop it a bit... They were just too far away. Yes, that Comma should be called "Gatekeeper" but that might cause confusion...

Before launching into May, a quick resumé of April. Meteorological stuff is for Heathrow, pretty close to me.

Overall, April 2022 was a warmer-than-average month with an average daily high of 16 degrees (the average is 15). The chilliest day was the 1st, when it only reached 9 degrees, and the warmest was the 15th with a respectable 23. There was only one air frost, on the night of 2nd/3rd. Sunshine was around average at around 5.5 hours daily, but it was very dry, with only around 35% of normal April rainfall.

Two further species of butterfly appeared during the month (Large White and Small Copper) to join the ten seen up to the end of March. All 12 were seen on 20th, when around 150 individual butterflies were counted. Five species accounted for the majority of these: Holly Blue (30), Orange Tip (28), Peacock (27), GVW (27) and Speckled Wood (15).

Dave

Sunday 1st May was a sunless and fairly cool start to the month. I found only four butterflies - a Speckled Wood dislodged from its roost in a tree and quickly regaining its perch, a Peacock trying to soak up some UV from somewhere, and a couple of Holly Blues optimistically (but vainly) waiting for the sun.As the nearer of these two Hollies clearly wasn't going anywhere, I tried a close-up shot or two. And that was it for the day.

Dave

Brill close-up Dave - those whispering ways worked wonders again

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Cheers, Wurzel - there is a high cuteness factor with Holly Blues (though maybe not quite as high as the one for certain skippers... ), and I can't resist taking these shots when the opportunity arises.

Monday 2nd May was a bit sunnier and warmer, so I split the day with a visit to Staines Moor sandwiched between a couple of walks on my usual patch. The target on the Moor was the Small Copper - and I found a handful, though certainly not in the high numbers I have seen here. There was not much else flying down here, so the rest of the day's entertainment was back on familiar territory. I'll keep that in a separate post.

Dave

Things certainly seem quieter this year Dave - hopefully it'll be a slow build into the season and the numbers will average out similar Lovely shots of the Constabulary

Have a goodun

Wurzel