www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Sorry to hear about your loss Neill, I was only 21 when my father died, but time heal's and memories last for ever. Goldie

Once again my heartfelt thanks for all the kind messages.
It just goes to show what a fantastic community there is on this forum to receive so many kind words from people who, for the most part, I have never met in person.

hideandseek wrote:Hi Neil,

..............but i think you might need a new camera, you seemed to have worn yours out

All the best, nick.

Hi Nick, I think the good old Lumix is good for a bit longer yet

My knees however might not be, they suffered a bit on Saturday. The terrain in the Wyre does undulate a bit.
Vince, I have added the female Pearl to the standard imago folder, my feeling is that she falls within natural variation.

Cheers,

Neil

Monday 3rd June - The next generation in the garden

Arriving home from work this afternoon I did my usual of grabbing a coffee and going to sit in the back garden to chill out for a bit.

There are still a few Orange Tips passing through along with a some Whites and a couple of Holly Blues although the latter have definitely not been as numerous around here as last year.

Checking the Alder Buckthorn where I had found Brimstone eggs a while back I was pleased to find some caterpillars, half a dozen without looking too hard.
Looking further along on the Garlic Mustard I found a couple of newly hatched Orange Tip caterpillars. It is amazing that even though it did not feel like there was any wind in this sheltered part of the garden, as soon as I tried to take some photos the plant stems started bobbing about in a bit of breeze.
With the Peacock eggs that I watched the female lay the other day this gives me plenty to keep an eye on over the coming weeks to watch them develop.
Bye for now,

Neil.

Excellent work Neil. I rescued a Orange-tip`s egg from the local council`s mower, it is now a third instar larva. I hope you post more photos of all your caterpillars as they progress.

All the best, Nick.

Great observation, Neil. Hopefully you'll keep us updated with developments regarding these larvae?

I am sorry to hear about your Dad Neil. It is always good to have a hobby to immerse yourself into at times like this and chasing butterflies can be very therapeutic.
Lovely pictures as ever. I particularly love that picture of a Brimstone on a Bluebell. A butterfly I still haven't manage to see!!

Thanks Nick(Morgan), I quite liked that photo myself

Nick, David, I will hopefully update the developments, predators, parasites and weather permitting.

Tuesday 4th June - Prestbury Hill Part 1.

After the events of last week, I went into work yesterday and sorted out some days off, both this week and next, in order to make necessary arrangements and also to give myself some time to unwind a bit.

One of those days was today and with the weather being as good as it is I made a bit of a last minute decision to drive down to the Gloucestershire BC reserve at Prestbury Hill by Cheltenham. My main aim was to see Duke of Burgundy but the reserve is also good for Small Blue, Dingy Skipper and Green Hairstreak. In fact I had heard that in common with other sites that Small Blue were out in good numbers there this year.

Arriving at around 10.30am, I parked at the top of the Bill Smylie reserve and headed down the Hill to the sheltered lower slopes. Even though the weather was good there was still a stiff breeze at the top of the reserve.
Having been here a few times before, I headed straight to one of the spots where I had seen Dukes before and sure enough there was one waiting for me
Over the next couple of hours or so I bimbled about from the little 'valley' at the southern end of the reserve through to the lower slopes of the 'Masts' reserve, seeing well over a dozen different Dukes and a couple of Duchesses.
As well as the Dukes there were dozens, if not hundreds of Small Heaths, loads of Small Blues and Dingy Skippers and I saw 3 Green Hairstreaks. These will be in the next post once I have sorted through the rest of my photos.

Bye For now.

Neil.

That is quite a cathartic experience, Neil.

You invested your time well.

Lovely shots and I'm sure the lift you got today was beyond what words can do justice to.

The cycle of life goes on and you're one of the lucky ones who can appreciate its beauty and resonance.

Thank you for the comments David,

It is a shame I missed you at Rodborough, it would have been great to meet you . As you can see, I got settled at Prestbury and ran out of time to go any further.

Looking forward to seeing your photos from Rodborough and Swellshill.

All the best.

Neil.

Cracking shots of the Dukes Neil, some lovely marked individuals

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Hi Neil
I have just caught up with your news too please accept my condolences. We spent a great day at Fermyn last year and I thoroughly enjoyed our company - my dad also died a couple of years ago in purple emperor season and I took great comfort by dissappearing into the woods before his funeral and I had the most magical experience which I wrote about on the purple empire site see ' a special moment' http://apaturairis.blogspot.co.uk/searc ... results=50 who knows why it meant but I know what it meant to me.
Perhaps we will catch up at Fermyn again this year?
Kind regards mark

You've got some lovely Duke photos there Neil - think I'm going to have to get myself back to Noar Hill to see how they're doing.

Thanks Wurzel, much appreciated as always

Hi Mark, I read your blog. I know exactly what you mean with your comments.
It would be good to meet up again at Fermyn, not sure yet if I will be going this year, it all depends on when His Imperial Majesty decides to show up. I will be looking out for sightings in a few weeks time.

Thanks Pauline, I didn't think that I would be seeing Dukes this year, it was a last minute decision to drive down to Prestbury, which made it all the more special.

Tuesday 4th June - Prestbury Hill Part 2.

As mentioned previously I arrived at the top of the reserve at about 10.30 and started to head down the Hill. I had barely gone ten feet when I saw the first Small Blue, closely followed by another and in fact there were a fair few near the top of the reserve which surprised me a bit as on my previous visits here I had always seen them in the more sheltered areas at the bottom of the slope. Moving further down it soon became apparent that there were good numbers pretty well distributed all over the slopes. It seems that Small Blues are having a good year going by the posts by some other members. I didn't count them but there were certainly more at Prestbury than I have seen on my visits over the past couple of years.
Slightly further down the slope I spotted a Small Heath, my first of the year, closely followed by a second, then another, then another.....They were everywhere, dozens if not hundreds of them, again all over the slopes. Sometimes I would be watching one fly over the grass and it would get intercepted by others until there were up to half a dozen gamboling along until they split up and went their separate ways. As usual with this species they always seemed to settle in the most unphotogenic positions and I spent ages trying to get a half decent shot of one.
There were also good numbers of Dingy Skippers, the males often getting involved with the 'furballs' of Small Heaths or indeed anything else that flew past. Some of these were looking well faded and indeed living up to their name but there were also a good number of fresher looking examples.
Around midday things were warming up and the butterflies were getting more flighty so I sat down for a while to eat my sandwiches in a bit of a hollow by the gate that leads through to the Masts reserve. In the few feet around me I could see Small Blues, Small Heaths, Dingy Skippers and a male Duke of Burgundy all competing for their bit of space
To make the moment complete I also spotted a couple of Green Hairstreaks scrapping around a small Hawthorn right in front of me. One of them would return to a perch on the Hawthorn and the other would retire to one or another of the nearby shrubs before taking off for the next round
Other Butterflies seen were a number of Whites, a couple at least of which were 'Large', a couple of Speckled Woods and a couple of fresh male Common Blues.
I watched one Common Blue try to settle a couple of times and repeatedly get chased off by a rather feisty male Small Blue. He eventually touched down briefly before the Small Blue saw him off for good and he disappeared rapidly across the slope.
As well as the butterflies, there were numerous Burnet Companion Moths and Latticed and Common Heaths.
I also saw a few Forester Moths and a couple of what I think are Pyrausta nigrata
A cracking few hours at one of my favourite places. On a day like this with butterflies all around and glorious views over Cheltenham and towards the Malvern Hills it can be the perfect place to be

Bye for now.

Neil.

Brilliant! great photos and your sightings reflect my experience this week. Good to see the Common Blues, we saw 1 female 10 days ago, I didn't see any on Sunday

Hi Jo,

It was your reply to me on twitter the other day that helped my decision to drive down. I was originally thinking of going later this week but at the last minute decided to go yesterday morning. Glad I did

All the best,

Neil.

Saturday 8th June - A return trip to the Wyre Forest.

Since our trip out a couple of weeks ago my son Chris had been working shifts again and not had a chance to get out until this weekend. As he had yet to see Pearl-bordered Fritillaries and he had never been to the Wyre Forest we decided to take a run over there today.

By the time we arrived at around 10.30am the early cloud was thinning and the rest of the day was quite warm and sunny with just enough cloud to slow things down occasionally to take some photos.

We followed the same basic route that I had followed last week, starting along the old railway line and then following Dowles Brook to Coopers Mill looking in the meadows along the way. It was soon apparent that last weeks good weather had brought out even more Pearl-bordered Fritillaries as there were many more about than last week. I would think that numbers have peaked at the Wyre this week with some of the individuals looking well worn but with quite a few good condition examples mixed in.
I did not think that I would be taking that many photos considering the amount that I took last week but I was wrong

Amongst the earlier examples that I photographed was the one below with a white patch on its hindwing.
Although fairly mobile in the sun, the PBFs were stopping regularly to nectar from various flowers, an activity that was not always without risk.
In one of the meadows by Coopers Mill I saw my first Small Coppers of the year, two males on the same sunny bank that would have a bit of a scrap whenever they met.
All day I had been looking carefully at every Pearl that we saw, especially the fresher ones, on the lookout for a possible Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. It was not until we had a last look in the meadow by the old railway line on our way back to the car park that I got a glimpse of a brighter orange, a fresh male Small Pearl
During our wandering along Dowles Brook we had also seen a fair few Beautiful Demoiselles, both the darker winged blue bodied males and the green bodied females.
Chris was well pleased with the day, he saw many more PBFs than expected, in fact at one point whilst surrounded by half a dozen, he said '"I thought these were supposed to be rare "
With the icing on the cake of the SPBF it was a great day

Bye for now,

Neil.

Great photo's Neil from Wyre F, wish I had known about all the PBF's a couple of days earlier as I would have come up to see them this w/e. Too far for a day trip (330 miles round trip) know the area well as did a lot of courting there years ago, Wife is from Bewdley & in fact was raised until she was 12 in the cottage up river near Dowles that the Lady was murdered in last year! When I checked weather it looked good for there this w/e, it is cloudy & freezing in Norfolk, a winter coat & gloves job with nothing much to see! Eric

Hi Neil, great photos, excellent report, hope all as ok as it can be.
Regards, Mike

Great shots Neil of the PB and SPBF's and the Small Coppers are lush What's next on the list up your way? Down here I'm hoping for Glanvilles, Silver Studs and Large Blue?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Eric, from the forecast it looks as if you my be getting your turn at the best weather this week.

Thanks Mike, everything is as well as can be expected.

Thanks Wurzel, not sure what will be next up here. I have not found any Small Coppers or Common Blues at my local spots yet.
I am off down to North Devon for a week on Friday for a family holiday, not sure what to expect down there with the late season this year. Some species like Marsh Frits which I would normally have thought I would have been too late for don't seem to have been out for long and others like Dark Green and High Brown Frits that would normally be out may not have emerged.

Cheers,

Neil.