Susie

[Vince Massimo]

Yes Susie, you are right. I mistakenly thought 2 of your photos were the same male, but in fact you do have 4 different males there. I am embarrassed and impressed in equal measure

The forcast looks promising for tomorrow and I have put a nice fresh data card in the camera.

Vince.

[Susie]

Saturday morning I kicked off early with a moffing breakfast and then moved on to Southwater Woods for an hour as the day was already hot. There were quite a few people out looking for Purple Emperor but I wanted to photograph something a bit different (and I'm getting a bit bored of SWF abs ). There were good numbers of purple hairstreaks around but getting them to land low enough for me to reach proved very tricky. They really set out to tease me, posing for the perfect symetrical photo if only I was eight feet tall!

Alas this is all I managed to get.

By pulling down the branch with the aid of an upside down tripod (I knew it would come in useful for something one day ) I managed to get a shaky photo of another one which didn't seem to be bothered by my watching him eating.

I spend all day at home today as we were having a bit of a party but very little in the way of butterflies passed through the garden despite some of the buddleias being out.

[Susie]

OMG, it's raining! Not a statement I would usually use an exclamation mark for but we haven't had anything other than the odd rain drop for three or four weeks now and all the predicted showers have passed us over. The garden's going to love this.

Yesterday it was overcast but I went to Denbies Hillside anyway to see if I could find any chalkhill blues - and I did. There were a good number of marbled white around some sitting very obligingly on flower heads. Many of them (virtually all I saw anyway) were affected by parasitic mites and some of the skippers had them too. I don't know how badly this affects them but it can't be a good thing. It seemed a day for parasites and predators, some of the burnet moth papery cocoons were infested with myriad tiny cocoons which I assume are a parasitoid wasp or fly. A crab spider was sitting prettily on scabious awaiting the unwary. Possibly worst of all were some of the yellow meadow ant mounds appeared to have been dug into. Initially I thought this must be badger or some other kind of critter but later on I noticed that the excavations have distinctly straight and square sides so I wonder if they were shovel marks. I hope not but I fear someone has been after the butterflies.

The chalkhills were everywhere but look as I might I couldn't find a pile of dog or fox poo anywhere so the mass of chalkhill blues I had hoped to photograph in one place as in previous years didn't happen. Dog owners must be getting more responsible about clearing up their dogs' mess, I just wish they were better at controlling their animals. Twice I was nearly knocked over by people's over enthusiastic dogs and as much as I love dogs I am getting really fed up with their owners.

Seen yesterday: Marbled white, ringlet, meadow brown, small heath, large and small skippers, chalkhill blue, large white, small white, brimstone, white admiral.

Marbled white with parasites

Chalkhill blue

[Susie]

crab spider

burnet parasitoids

My mind has been turning more towards brown hairstreaks lately. I cut the blackthorn hedge in the garden yesterday so it'll be ready for them and had a look over the playing field this morning for any sign but there was nothing, mind you it was drizzling so there was no butterfly of any type to be seen.

[Susie]

I went back to Denbies on Tuesday. More of the same plus very fresh common blues and brown argus.

I have seen a couple of flashes of orange in the garden but I think they are probably herald moths.

[Susie]

I wont continue to whinge about the lack of butterflies here at the moment, rather I'll list the few I've seen flying through or over the garden this weekend:- large white, small white, holly blue, gatekeeper and one tatty and very pregnant purple hairstreak who dropped in for a drink of water.

[Susie]

I wasn't sure if I could be bothered to get changed to go out butterflying this afternoon but I made the effort and was glad I did. A brief visit to Denbies Hillside threw up a real suprise, a white letter hairstreak. I've never even seen elm here and certainly didn't know there was WLH in the area.

[Susie]

I had a very pleasant day out at Longstock yesterday among the butterflies and buddlieas and had a chance to take a few snaps with my new camera. For some reason I am a bit nervous about using it but I am sure that will wear off as I get used to it.

The UK Butterflies team were doing sterling work on their stall and Pete brought along some swallowtail cats to entertain the public. They really are impressive looking critters.

[Gruditch]

Nice to see you there Susie, I managed to sneak one of the cats out for a few pics, when Pete wasn't looking.

Regards Gruditch

[Michaeljf]

I guess those are European Swallowtail caterpillars because they're feeding on Fennel?

[Pete Eeles]

Nope - they're ssp. britannicus, which will take Fennel in captivity.

Cheers,

- Pete

[Jack Harrison]

Pete:

....will take Fennel in captivity....

And also ordinary carrot foliage.

Jack

[Susie]

And suddenly there are butterflies in my garden. Large and small white, holly and common blue, gatekeeper, meadow brown, comma, red admiral and small copper. More than there has been for ages.

I took a walk up to the end of the road to look for brown hairstreak but no sign yet but there was a very tatty silver washed fritillary.

[Susie]

the boys are back in town!!

A brief walk up to the field at the end of the road today gave me my first brown hairstreak of the season. He was on the ground briefly and then flew up into an ash tree. For a while i only got glimpses and then the sun came out and he flew around and settled to bask with wings open. Sadly he was too high up for a picture but it was great to see him anyway. The purples were far more obliging and came down to feed on the brambles.

[Susie]

I've just come back from holiday and I've been wondering while I've been away how the brown hairstreaks have been getting on. I briefly glimpsed one a couple of weeks ago before I went away so I knew they were out.

Today I saw two feeding on brambles by the master tree and when I came back there was one in the garden in pristine condition feeding on hemp agrimony.

Later a second one came along and stayed all day, in fact it is probably still out there! It had a couple of nicks out of the wings and was a lot tattier than the first, which I think was a female. It was so approachable that at one stage it flew onto my arm and opened it's wings to show me the brown upper side

I am so glad to be home. The garden was full of interesting things this morning (bees, flies, hoverflies, butterflies, beetles - so much to see!!!). There were more butterflies in the garden today than I have seen all year. All I saw in nasty old Spain was geranium bronze, a Lang's short tailed blue, a glimpse of a swallowtail and a hummingbird hawk moth. Pah! Here there were all sorts of whites, holly and common blue, small copper, speckled wood, gatekeeper,meadow brown, comma, silver washed fritillary (must have been a very venerable old age and very tatty to prove it) and, of course, my favourite brown hairstreaks. I love England!

[Lee Hurrell]

Welcome back Susie, I thought you'd been quiet!

I'm off to Spain in a few weeks and will probably see much the same as you...

Cheers

Lee

[Susie]

Hi Lee, thanks, and have a lovely holiday too. There was probably much more to see than I managed, but as I was stuck with the family and not able to explore I didn't do very well.

[Susie]

Well, what a cracking day and it's not often I get to say that recently!

I joined the Sussex BC walk at Steyning this morning led by none other than our own Kipper. He'd arranged the weather so it was a gloriously sunny morning after a couple of weeks of cold, wet, gloomy grot so the butterflies would be on top form and indeed they were to delight the large turn out of people who attended. It is always nice to chat to other butterfly addicts ... I mean enthusiasts ... and it was a pleasure to meet Tom Ottley briefly this morning before he and his companion went off looking for BH elsewhere.

I've not been to Steyning rifle range before but the site is excellent and I can see why the butterflies like it. I will definitely be back at other times of the year. The work which has been put in by the management to date is already paying off.

I won't go into too much detail because I am sure Neil will do that in his diary entry but I saw my second ever Wall butterflies which I was very pleased about and we found a first for the site; one of the other members spotted something interesting in a patch of chalkland flowers on a steep slope. Neil was about to lead the group off to see further delights but must have spotted our excitement and called out to us regarding what we had found to which I shouted "Adonis!". Not this time a reference to the gorgeous Kipper but instead a reference to the beautiful blue butterfly before us. I fairly skipped down the slope back to the brown hairstreak reserve I was so full of the joy of butterflying.

Species for the morning at Steyning: Brown hairstreak, meadow brown, speckled wood, brimstone, small white, large white, green veined white, holly blue, common blue, adonis blue, brown argus, small copper, small heath, wall, peacock.

It was also a cracking place for dragonflies with some lovely hawkers. It was nice to see a big group of swallows and martins flying around over head and a couple of buzzards calling.

Late this afternoon I thought that I had better check the potted blackthorn in the back garden for eggs. I had left the pots which I used to raise the rescued brown hairstreak eggs on last year next to the hemp agrimony in the back garden and lo and behold there were four eggs on one pot and five on the other. Then I thought I would have a look in the front garden too and there are more eggs on the blackthorn in the hedge. Hopefully there will be more eggs appearing over the next week or so. How good is that?!

[Jack Harrison]

Susie:

...Not this time a reference to the gorgeous Kipper but instead...

Well Neil, sounds like Susie is the founder member of a Fan Club. You might be a damn good naturalist but I would not have expected anyone to think of you in those terms.

Jack – a distinguished elderly gentleman.

[Susie]

Jack you are lucky that when time is added men become distinguished, women just go downhill.