www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

That is a lovely looking female Blue - I still haven't seen a female this year but then actually I've hardly seen any butterfly species in numbers

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Love the Small Skipper on the flower Buggy Goldie

Just catching up on your Norfolk trip. Superb series of Swallowtail photos, different to the usual poses and so much more interesting

Cheers,

Neil.

That is a lovely blue female Common Blue, Buggy. When fresh like that they look like little jewels in the grass. And I haven't seen a Small Skipper yet...

Dave

Hi Wurzel, I'm starting to put 2016 down as a bit of a non event washout as far as butterflies are concerned. I'm doing ok with my yearly tally but as far as individual numbers are concerned it's a very worrying low, especially noticeable with the 'common' species !

Thanks Goldie, I followed him around for quite a bit through long grass to get a few clear shots of him

Thanks Neil, I think when we get to the end of the year that one encounter will remain my highlight. It will take something pretty spectacular to top it that's for sure!

Thanks Millerd, I'm sure as soon as our monsoon season ends they'll be out... hopefully!

23/6/16 a failed day...

Today started off not good and really didn't improve much. I woke up with a leaky ceiling. Turned out some blocked guttering was to blame and water was coming into the flat above. A man with a long ladder resolved the issue but having already called in to work I was now left with a surprise day off.

Black Hairstreaks are on my hit list this year and with their short flight period I threw caution to the wind and set off to see how easy/hard it is to get to Monks Wood by public transport! Easier than I thought it turns out. It was a grey muggy day but I was hoping the temperature would be enough to wake the odd one up. On the outskirts of the wood I saw my first Ringlet of the year and a few speckled Woods were active. What I didn't bargain on was the levels of blood suckers I would have to deal with. Stand still for a nanosecond and you're instantly surrounded by packs of Mosquito's (at Monks Wood I can confirm they definitely hunt in packs), with many of them riding in on Horseflies!

I ended up walking to the main path they are said to inhabit, following Rosalyns advice, and without stopping walking back. At least I know the way now, the wood is very well sign posted. It stayed dull and grey and very muggy and I suspect the recent monsoon season the south east is currently experiencing has a lot to do with mozzie numbers. Basically if you're planning a visit in the coming days, invest in some decent repellent, I shall be bathing in it before my next visit!

Just the one picture today, before the first wave of mozzies arrived to feast on me I found a Magpie Moth caterpillar. Are they unique in having the same colour scheme as the adult moth?

24th June, Work

I took my camera into work today to record some of what I’m seeing on my transects to fluff out my end of year report I do for the bosses. I’m actually doing two this year, the main site and an extra one walking round our car park (only a 10 minute stroll), the borders of which in recent years has been deliberately left to grow wild. Since the border to the car park is in itself surrounded on three sides by main roads I wasn’t expecting to find much here.

Up until a couple weeks ago a few Speckled Woods, Holly Blues, Whites and Orange-tips have turned up but the last two transects Large Skippers seem to have had an explosive emergence with twenty seen on my most recent one. Now if I was in the middle of the countryside I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at this but in the centre of London on a patch of grass in spitting distance of several main roads I think it’s worth noting. They have all been freshly emerged and with their naturally long flight period we would seem to have a rather healthy population here. Time will tell whether other grassland species have settled in although Meadow Browns have also started to emerge here, one of which had a very reduced forewing ocelli, couldn’t get the best angle to show this and he never opened his wings but it’s clearly just a black dot. The final pleasant surprise was a patch of nettle littered with fully grown Peacock larvae.

25th June, Daneway Bank (part 1)

My last weekend off, two weeks ago, I was lurking in the eastern part of the country after Swallowtails, today I took a day trip out west searching for a butterfly I’ve only seen once before, about fifteen years ago.

Logistically, Daneway Bank was the only Large Blue site I could get to under my own steam, a train a bus and a short walk and I found myself at a new site for me. Again logistically I wasn’t able to get there until about 1pm and with the weather forecast promising a good old mixture I was taking a bit of a punt! But it was either today or next year for them and waiting for good weather to fall on my day off this year seems like fantasy land at the moment.

My eyes were glued to the sky all the way and the forecast seemed to be spot on but I got lucky on arrival with a good patch of sun. I arrived at the same time as a couple who told me they had been here several times in previous years looking for the Blues and had never seen one, 5 minutes later I was able to point one out to them as a female flew past and settled on some Thyme. It was having a few issues and was probably regretting an addiction to Orchid nectar! I came across a second one a little while later, it seemed quite fresh from the way it was flying and when it opened its wings it would seem I had an ab on my hands, the reduced blue on the forewings certainly didn’t seem to be due to wear and tear. I spent some time with this one as the sun flirted with clouds whilst off in the distance thunder rumbled

Large skippers and Marbled Whites, my first of the year of the latter, were both out in numbers with a healthy smattering of Meadow Browns, Ringlet and Small Heath also on the wing and the grassland has a healthy Orchid population with lots of Spotted and Pyramidal dotted around. They’ve also done some impressive work to rest the weary traveller, this bench engraved with the complete lifecycle of the Large Blue . As the rumbling sky grew louder and a particularly dark cloud drifted closer I decided it would be a good idea to check out The Daneway Pub, stopping briefly when I disturbed a lovely fresh Small Tortoiseshell. If only other sites could be as civilised as to have this kind of accommodation to save us from the British weather. I sampled the hospitality and wares for over an hour as the weather alternated between torrential and biblical downpours… thankfully I still had a few hours before I needed to make a move to catch my train home.

HI Buggy,
Great report from Daneway, those Large Blues are too tempting, but I fear that a
visit this year may not be possible. Still you had a great day and a pint ! .

Great shots Bugboy I think I encountered the ab today but had it down as wear or rain damage?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Trevor, but the day wasn't finished yet... and got even better

Thanks Wurzel, it will be interesting to see your possible ab. when can we expect your report, you don't seem too far behind this year


25th June, Daneway Bank (part 2)

After an hour or so the monsoon seemed to be easing and still with 3 hours to kill it was obvious another stroll across the meadows would be a good use of my time. This time I explored further afield. It was still overcast and nothing much was flying but something caught my eye off to the side of the path. There was nothing for it but to wade through waist high wet grass, putting up several Marbled White with every footfall. The thing I had seen from a distance turned out to be exactly what I hoped it was, a roosting Large Blue, a little more worn around the edges than the last two but its churlish to complain about that! Soaked from the waist down but happy to have bagged a third I explored further up the bank which opened up to what I later found was the main hotspot for them. Despite the occasional bout of drizzle two people were here, a warden wardening (apparently a man with a net had been seen a day or so previously) and another photographer who was on his third visit of the year and still waiting to find his first Blue.

A roosting common Blue provided momentary excitement before I found another Large one. Unfortunately, it flew off before the other photographer got to it and for love nor money we couldn’t re-locate it. It stayed grey and damp but with 2 pairs of eyes working the site I hoped we would find more, especially since 58 had been counted in a survey earlier in the day! Whilst searching I kept noticing these little flies, looking like a cross between a Hoverfly and a Bee Fly. Turns out they are a type of Bee Fly, Villa sp. Whose larvae parasitize caterpillars. Back to the Blues, our hard work paid off and we found a perfect freshly minted one and she did look HUGE, easily the largest Large Blue I’d seen so far. We stood over her as a large area of blue sky inched painfully slowly our way, hoping the sun would still be warm enough to wake her up, I had a feeling this one would be a right stunner if she opened her wings….. she was and also quite possibly my second ab of the day with what looks to me much reduced forewing spotting. We followed her around for quite some time as she fed and went through the motions of ovipositing although no eggs were actually laid as far as I could tell. We were both delighted when she decided to feed on a Common Spotted Orchid. Finally we left her alone and a while later we found another one, or rather one that had been seen earlier, the little nick out of the forewing showing it was the one that had given us the slip earlier. I’d actually ended up staying much longer than intended, my last bus long gone but my new companion had offered me a lift back to Stroud train station and as we left he pointed out a Butterfly Orchid to me, a new species for me. I can see myself getting a bit addicted to Orchid spotting…. I'm very glad I went after originally being in two minds whether to go, what with the current lack of summer and the risk of a long expensive trip to walk around a very wet empty field!

Splendid Large Blues, Buggy! The ones down at Collard Hill on Friday were all very standard - no abs amongst them... Your shots of the one with reduced spotting are excellent.

Dave

Great Large Blues Buggy, I've yet to see them Goldie

Hi Buggy. As you probably know, melanism is the norm for large blues in mountain areas, occurring independently (presumably) in the Alps and the Pyrenees. On average, the darkest individuals occur at the highest altitudes, though it is not a straightforward relationship. Perhaps your individual shows that the propensity is always there, though it isn't selected for at low altitudes.

The most completely melanistic large blue I've found was this one:



Guy

Thanks Millerd and Goldie. Only 5 seen and two of them were abs, not a bad day at all

Thats an impressive melanistic one Guy, had I photographed it I would have needed help with Identifying it! I presume the high altitude melanism is natures way of coping with colder conditions? Whilst the wings are in themselves unable to transfer the heat to the body directly they will heat up faster and create a 'bubble' of warm air around the butterfly giving it a boost to kick start it in the morning or after a cloudy spell. Perhaps our current British stock has tendency towards melanism due to it being of Swedish decent?

Merely speculation of course but I wonder if mine pupated closer to the surface of the ant nest than others, exposing it to our cool spring and triggering a melanistic reaction It's fascinating how these creatures are plastic enough to react in such ways to adapt to climatic variables

bugboy wrote:Thats an impressive melanistic one Guy, had I photographed it I would have needed help with Identifying it! I presume the high altitude melanism is natures way of coping with colder conditions? Whilst the wings are in themselves unable to transfer the heat to the body directly they will heat up faster and create a 'bubble' of warm air around the butterfly giving it a boost to kick start it in the morning or after a cloudy spell.

Hi Buggy. Speaking as a physicist, I think it makes more sense for the heating effect to be due to direct conduction. Black surfaces in the kind of radiant heat we get at the top of mountains get very hot very quickly. This is especially true when they have a high surface area to mass ratio - they get hot almost instantly. The heat is needed in the thoracic muscles, which, of course, are located precisely at the point of attachment of the wings. Using re-radiated heat to create a local hotspot and then absorbing this heat by conduction from the air would seem to me to be a much less reliable mode of energy transfer, especially given the windy conditions that often prevail at altitude.

I have no data to back up this supposition so I may be quite wrong. Theory is often confounded by reality!

Guy

26th June, A Dark Green day (part 1)

After having fun with Large Blues the previous day I decided to stay a bit closer to home. Last year I found freshly emerged Dark Green Fritillaries flying on the 24th at Box Hill and I thought it would be interesting to see how close this year’s emergence was.

I had a few things to do but managed to get there a little before lunch under a rather chilly grey sky. A few Meadow Browns were flitting around and I disturbed the occasional Banded Domoiselle as I walked through Burford Meadow. I had to wait a while for the sun to appear but when it did suddenly the meadow seemed to come alive. Almost as one clouds of Demoiselles ascended from the grass. In the absence of any fritillaries I chased a few of these but only managed to get a shot of one female I did get close to a deceased male who was currently being scavenged by a Scorpionfly. It was shortly after this that a flash of bright orange shot past me across the field. I followed in its general direction and came across a patch of Red Clover with two intensely orange fritillaries gorging themselves on them. They were so intent on feeding that I didn’t have to stalk them much at all. From the way they were feeding so avidly I think the last time they fed they were caterpillars! I stayed with them for half an hour, snapping away before moving off to see what else was flying More to come

26th June, A Dark Green day (part 2)

Walking up the side of Box Hill Marbled Whites were everywhere, mostly freshly emerged. It would seem they are about to have a very good year. They were mostly rather active and not very approachable but the odd one allowed closer inspection. Along the wooded edges Ringlets flopped along, again mostly freshly emerged. I checked all I could and did find one with the beginnings of an extra ringlet Down at the usual spot by Zigzag road were several aged Small Blues and I stumbled across a mating pair of Marbled White. As I was taking their picture I noticed a frenzy of orange out of the corner of my eye further along the path. It took a while to work out how many I was looking at but two males had found a mating pair and were trying to muscle in creating a writhing mass of twisted abdomens and orange blurred wings. Eventually the unattached males went off to find something else to turn their testosterone fuelled attentions to, leaving me with the happy couple. A few Small Heath were doing their thing but Marbled Whites remained the commonest butterfly of the day, mostly but not all looking fresh, This one far from looking fresh, I’m not even sure how it was still alive but it seemed to be doing its best to pretend nothing was wrong despite missing nearly 50% of his entire being !

26th June, A Dark Green day (part 3)

So whilst not one of my epic day trips my few hours on Box Hill certainly provided a fair bit of action. On the down side, other species I would have expected to see were worryingly absent, just one aged Brown Argus and a couple of Common Blues were seen, hopefully my visit was just between broods.

Anyway on my way back to the station I stopped off at the Red Clover patch to find there were now 3 DGF all still gorging themselves with a single Small Skipper popping by to try and steal the limelight! Dark Green Fritillary, species #34 well and truly ticked off for the year!

Great Dark Greens Bugboy I reckon my Large Blue report might be out by about August time - so I'm flying ahead compared to previous years which is quite a shock to the system

Have a goodun

Wurzel

I think its a shock to everyone Wurzel

28th June, Monks Wood (again)

A second attempt at finding a Black Hairstreak before their short flight period ends for another year started off badly and didn’t improve much. This journey requires a bit more careful planning than most of my trips, making sure I time the train to coincides with the bus I need to get at the other end. Today my train decided to invent its own time table and trundled along without a care that I was going to miss the bus which only run once an hour. All the way the weather looked ok, lots of cloud but no rain and enough sunny spells to keep things active.

To kill time, I did a bit of window shopping whilst muttering away to myself about the state of our public transport system, all the while sunny spells grew rarer and by the time I eventually got to Monks Wood, blue sky was but a distant memory.

It was still relatively warm and there were at least some butterflies active. In the end I spent about 3 hours wandering up and down the main hotspot, noting a large patch of freshly trampled grass to one side. I staked this area out for some time and was finally ‘rewarded’ by the occasional glimpse of a small dark butterfly flitting along the top of the Blackthorns. This was to remain my only glimpse of one but at least I’ve actually seen one (I presume at any rate).

There was a fair bit else active, lurking in the subdued light, the Hogweeds were always a hive of activity As were the brambles Here's a Hoverfly doing what they do best And as I was leaving I found this cute little micro moth with palps like tusks running round in circles Just to rub a good handful of salt in my wound, my train home arrived 10 minutes early

I might just be able to squeeze in a final third visit…if this appalling summer sorts itself out in the next few days… I won’t be holding my breath though !