Re: Bugboys mission
Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 8:58 pm
Hi Wurzel, I think Small Heaths still have some way to go before the beat Walls as the most annoying butterfly !
Thanks David & Pauline, I'm glad I'm still keeping peoples attention after all this time
Thanks Sonam, I'm very much enjoying your posts as well, nice to have something different to look at
9/6/16 Chiltons
I wanted to see if there were any Dukes still hanging on at my usual site. The forecast promised sunny intervals to start with but as usual they got it wrong, on the plus side it was a different wrong this time, wall to wall blue sky from the moment I got off the train.
Aldbury Nowers Nature Reserve seems to be having a severe case of ‘june gap’ at the moment with, apart from Speckled Woods, singles of Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small White, Small Copper and Small Blue. I spent a bit of time on my knees looking through Kidney Vetch flowers for Small Blue eggs, something I tried and failed to find last year. Today I was successful and found 6 on 3 flower heads. The eggs of Britain’s smallest butterfly, probably the smallest thing I’ve tried to photograph. There was also a Large Skipper who was much more well behaved than yesterday’s one! Moving onto the hillsides that separate the nature reserve from Ivinghoe beacon, butterflies became more plentiful, in particular, Brown Argus seem to have had a recent mass emergence with many looking quite stunning! It’s not too surprising at the amount of them since the entire slope is carpeted in flowering Rock-rose Common Blues were also out in numbers as were Small Heath An hour later I arrived at the Beacon and set about seeing if any Dukes were still active. I found one male behind the car park who looked to be in reasonable condition but more searching proved fruitless. Oh, in case anyone is curious as to why I go out at every available opportunity, you don’t get scenery like this in London! Moving on to the gully I was surprised to have an Orange-tip flyby. A male who settled deep in a Bramble thicket but as far as I could tell he looked really very fresh. At the gully there were no Dukes but there was a very fresh and very beautiful male Small Blue who unfortunately refused to bask properly for me. He was a decent size and did look very blue in flight, blue enough for me to think it was a female Common Blue until he landed. Further on I spent some time watching a female Green Hairstreak be extremely picky about where to leave an egg. Birds-foot Trefoil seemed to be her plant of choice (Rock-rose was also investigated) but nothing seemed to be good enough for her precious load. I looked for more Dukes but where I saw doubles figures 11 days ago there were now none. Trundling back, I was quite surprised to see what I first thought was a small Dog bounding along towards me. Before today the only view I’d ever had of a Hare was of a fluffy bum vanishing across a field. This one really didn’t seem phased by me, I’d ducked down to hide my shape and he just sat there, had a bit of spit and polish of his face and then wandered about a bit before casually sauntering back along the path and off into the grass out of sight. I'd had a few standard Brimstone encounters already but I found this female tangled up in a spiderweb. A passing male gallantly decided to come to 'rescue' her . When she did escape after a bit of flapping, rather amusingly, the male, in attempting to follow her, then became temporarily caught up in the web himself, allowing her to escape his attentions. I think that’s called ‘butterfly karma’ . The return journey produced very much similar numbers of Brown Argus, Small Heath and Common Blues and I found another, very patient Green Hairstreak. Back at Aldbury Nowers I had a good search for Orange-tip caterpillars and found much less than a week before. Many may well have gone off to pupate but I did find this recently moulted 4th instar. The dark mark near his bum is a bit of old skin that hasn’t sloughed off properly. I did find a couple of newly hatched caterpillars as well and it seemed quite feasible that every stage was present today ie: egg, larvae 1st – 4th instar, pupae and adult. Finally, lurking in the undergrowth I also found this longhorn beetle Stenocorus meridianus. According to the forecast this was the last decent day for a while…. Just in time for my weekend trip to find Swallowtails…
Thanks David & Pauline, I'm glad I'm still keeping peoples attention after all this time
Thanks Sonam, I'm very much enjoying your posts as well, nice to have something different to look at
9/6/16 Chiltons
I wanted to see if there were any Dukes still hanging on at my usual site. The forecast promised sunny intervals to start with but as usual they got it wrong, on the plus side it was a different wrong this time, wall to wall blue sky from the moment I got off the train.
Aldbury Nowers Nature Reserve seems to be having a severe case of ‘june gap’ at the moment with, apart from Speckled Woods, singles of Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small White, Small Copper and Small Blue. I spent a bit of time on my knees looking through Kidney Vetch flowers for Small Blue eggs, something I tried and failed to find last year. Today I was successful and found 6 on 3 flower heads. The eggs of Britain’s smallest butterfly, probably the smallest thing I’ve tried to photograph. There was also a Large Skipper who was much more well behaved than yesterday’s one! Moving onto the hillsides that separate the nature reserve from Ivinghoe beacon, butterflies became more plentiful, in particular, Brown Argus seem to have had a recent mass emergence with many looking quite stunning! It’s not too surprising at the amount of them since the entire slope is carpeted in flowering Rock-rose Common Blues were also out in numbers as were Small Heath An hour later I arrived at the Beacon and set about seeing if any Dukes were still active. I found one male behind the car park who looked to be in reasonable condition but more searching proved fruitless. Oh, in case anyone is curious as to why I go out at every available opportunity, you don’t get scenery like this in London! Moving on to the gully I was surprised to have an Orange-tip flyby. A male who settled deep in a Bramble thicket but as far as I could tell he looked really very fresh. At the gully there were no Dukes but there was a very fresh and very beautiful male Small Blue who unfortunately refused to bask properly for me. He was a decent size and did look very blue in flight, blue enough for me to think it was a female Common Blue until he landed. Further on I spent some time watching a female Green Hairstreak be extremely picky about where to leave an egg. Birds-foot Trefoil seemed to be her plant of choice (Rock-rose was also investigated) but nothing seemed to be good enough for her precious load. I looked for more Dukes but where I saw doubles figures 11 days ago there were now none. Trundling back, I was quite surprised to see what I first thought was a small Dog bounding along towards me. Before today the only view I’d ever had of a Hare was of a fluffy bum vanishing across a field. This one really didn’t seem phased by me, I’d ducked down to hide my shape and he just sat there, had a bit of spit and polish of his face and then wandered about a bit before casually sauntering back along the path and off into the grass out of sight. I'd had a few standard Brimstone encounters already but I found this female tangled up in a spiderweb. A passing male gallantly decided to come to 'rescue' her . When she did escape after a bit of flapping, rather amusingly, the male, in attempting to follow her, then became temporarily caught up in the web himself, allowing her to escape his attentions. I think that’s called ‘butterfly karma’ . The return journey produced very much similar numbers of Brown Argus, Small Heath and Common Blues and I found another, very patient Green Hairstreak. Back at Aldbury Nowers I had a good search for Orange-tip caterpillars and found much less than a week before. Many may well have gone off to pupate but I did find this recently moulted 4th instar. The dark mark near his bum is a bit of old skin that hasn’t sloughed off properly. I did find a couple of newly hatched caterpillars as well and it seemed quite feasible that every stage was present today ie: egg, larvae 1st – 4th instar, pupae and adult. Finally, lurking in the undergrowth I also found this longhorn beetle Stenocorus meridianus. According to the forecast this was the last decent day for a while…. Just in time for my weekend trip to find Swallowtails…