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Lovely to see your Copper's Hogger's but the Clouded Yellow is a good find as well Goldie

Wow! That spot truly is a playground for butterflies, Hoggers.

I wish I had a site like it near to where I live.

With the dramatic reduction in Small Copper numbers at Dungeness that I've noticed since 20th October I had little expectation of finding any there today, despite the warm and sunny conditions.

I think that the five day stretch of damp and dull days that began on 21st October killed most of them off ( including dear Methuselah) even though there wasn't a frost.

Most were killed off, but not all!

I first came across the female that I've noted since 25th October Only this time I found that she'd moved further around The Moat But then I found a male that I'd recorded there on 20th October Holding exactly the same territory ( 11 days ) and still able to fly even with the wing damage you see in the photo.

These two were the only Coppers I came across today.

But an NCCFO caught my eye Probably the same male I first saw in The Moat on 20th Handsome chap!

Any LTB's in Kent Hoggers Goldie

Hi Goldie, I must admit that I haven't looked!

If it's not Copper coloured it doesn't seem to register on my Butterfly Radar !!!

But I seem to remember someone spotting one at Dungeness a few weeks ago ( I think I was counting Coppers at the time....!! )

Not to worry : I think Small Coppers are much more exciting !!

Best wishes,

Hoggers.

I must say I love your attitude Hoggers, whats more important than the Butterfly you love to photograph Goldie PS if you find any more please post them

I don't suppose I'll see a Small Copper again until next April Five months without my favourite butterfly! But they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder! As anyone who has been kind enough to read my diary will know, I have devoted my every butterflying hour ( and a good many hours that I was supposed to be doing other things!) to watching the Small Coppers of Dungeness I made 58 visits to Dungeness between April and October, each of about 3 hours' duration. I loved every minute It has been my most rewarding involvement with the natural world During the SCOffS (Small Copper Off Season) I thought I'd collect together some of my observations For my first post I decided to say something about the Small Copper population at Dungeness 2015 and so for the first time since I was at school ( many years ago!) I drew up a graph of all my "Copper Head Counts" Rough though it undoubtedly is I think you can see a number of things:

- Highest numbers in early May (254) and July (873)
- A pattern of sharp rises and very sharp falls in numbers
- A definite break between the first and second broods but thereafter a continuous, healthy presence right up until the end of the year

In all I counted 2029 Small Coppers at Dungeness They are very widespread. I made a conscious effort to explore not only the well known "hot spots" ( such as the Moat) but also the whole of the "Desert", Dengemarsh and also land adjoining the Dungeness estate itself - and I found Small Coppers They move around the site like tea leaves in a tea pot And as for aberrations, there are plenty of Blue Badgers (mostly in the latter brood), extensa,obliterata and most excitingly, I discovered that radiata is a feature of the Dungeness Small Copper population (I found three this year).

So overall, a happy picture of a very healthy Small Copper population at Dungeness Are there any sites to rival it? My main interest is in how Small Coppers behave. That's what I spent most of my time observing. I saw some remarkable things! And that's what I will cover next time! All the best,

Hoggers

Looking forward to your next posts. I'm sure our collective heads will be able to come up with many theories to any questions your observations throw up

It's lovely how data becomes crystal clear by making a graph from it! 3 clear broods and a small 4th from the looks of things

Some great stats there, Hoggers, and I never tire of seeing that radiata.

Hogger's, you've just brightened an other wise miserable day with some fantastic shots, I'll make it a must when I come down to Kent next yearGoldie

Thank you so much for your kind comments - much appreciated!

One thing I did know before embarking on this year's study of Small Coppers was that the males are territorial. I'd seen it in action for myself many times: the male launching aerial interceptions from a favoured perch ( at Dungeness this is usually a pebble), having a punch-up and then returning to the same perch or another close by.

My plan for learning about Small Coppers was simple: find a male and watch him!

(Not the most sophisticated method in scientific history but one simple enough for me to conduct!)

And so I visited Dungeness, located a male and sat down to watch what he got up to Up until that day all I'd ever done was find a butterfly, try to get a photo and then move on, so this was the first time in my life that I had set out to actually watch a butterfly for more than a few moments and try to learn about its life and habits.

I had no idea on that first day that when I sat down to watch I'd see something that would not only fill me with delight but also cause me months of puzzlement!

To begin with, I noticed that my male Copper did not perch on plants but rather on the pebbles. Dungeness has quite a few pebbles! They soak up the heat (you have only to put your hand down to feel how warm they get). Dungeness is also a breezy place as well as being rather bare. So I suppose the pebbles provide a warm, calm and stable place to perch, with excellent all round visibility. I watched my male make frequent fast flights,criss-crossing his Patch then returning to his perch. I would suppose these to be reccy flights, and that he's checking on what's about.

But then, instead of doing a reccy, my male Copper flew to a near-by grass, alighted at the top and then walked down the stem, head first, until he got close to the bottom, when he then flew to another grass a few feet away and repeated this procedure. And he did so again, then again, visiting a mix of grass and Sorrel plants dotted around his Patch before finally flying back to his favoured perch.

I did my best to follow him and I noticed that as he walked down the plant he was very quickly tapping his feet against the surface. He was not simply walking down the stem, he was tap dancing! Sometimes leading to confusion! I later discovered that this Tap Dancing behaviour was not a one off. I've seen it duplicated by many male Small Coppers. It is in fact a set part of the male's behavioural routine.

I have yet to see a female act in this way.

I once saw a young male evict an older male from his territory. Once the younger male had sole possession he began doing the tap dance routine around his new patch ( he had not done this before getting rid of the older male).

So what's it all about?!

Why do they do it?

I wish I knew! Small Coppers like to keep their secrets!

Lovely shots Hogger's I hope you find out some day, Goldie

Great report Hoggers and interesting observations. Around my way the males use the more usual positions on flower or grass heads to launch themselves from and return to, often having two or three favourite perches within their territory. I guess that is because we don't have the pebbles that you do down there.
I share your fascination with this species and often just sit and watch their antics. Over the past few years I have seen males do the 'walking down the grass stems' thing a number of times but going by your reports this year you seem to have observed it happening a lot more down there than I have seen around here, possibly because you have seen so many more Small Coppers

Cheers,

Neil.

Great observations, Hoggers. I must similarly pay more attention to my colonies on the Welsh coast. I wonder if they too prefer pebbles?

So far as perch selection is concerned, the Dungeness Small Coppers do, of course,make use plants But mostly take up station on a pebble I remember visiting Methuselah and being surprised that he was not sitting on a pebble (his usual place) but on a bramble leaf. I touched the pebbles and discovered them to be "stone" cold as there had been little sunshine that day.

In relation to their tap dancing, I can put it into the context of the butterflies routine. On 16th June I watched a male from 1013 to 1140. In that time he flew 14 reccy flights around his patch and 4 tap dancing sessions. On 10th October I watched a male from 1039 until 1147: he flew 4 reccys and performed 4 tap dances!

These curious tap dances feature in the male Small Coppers routine throughout the day. They will tap dance down living grasses and other plants as well as on dead and dried woody plants Delightful to watch I believe it to be purposeful behaviour. At first I thought the males might be marking their territories but that now strikes me as unnecessary because they so actively patrol their patches and see off all intruders!

Then I wondered whether they might be trying to detect females, but now I don't really subscribe to that theory either!

They are certainly investigating their immediate environments, perhaps sensing chemicals on the plant surfaces?

It greatly interested me when I saw the recent winner of a territory immediately begin tap dancing on various plants in and around his newly won patch: was he somehow reinforcing his new territory in his mind?

I'm no scientist! I just don't know what to make of it!

To conclude this part of my notes I should say that at Dungeness there are areas where there's little in the way of grass. Small Copper males in these barren places will still do the tap dance, but they do so over leaves (usually Brambles down here), without performing the "head first" downwards acrobatics seen in the photos I've posted.

The tap dancing behaviour does sound like some kind of scent marking in the way you describe it. Do you know whether they go about this behaviour on stems along the outskirts of their territory, which would lead me to think they are marking out the bounderies, or does their choice seem more random?

Alternatively perhaps its akin to some kind of dance to attract a female? Movement making them more obvious to a passing female and the fact that he's moving around in a rather obvious fashion perhaps showing off his virility in the same way as many bird displays?

just thinking out loud

HI Buggy, thank you for taking the time to think about this and for coming up with some ideas. As you know, I've often made general pleas for theories or references in the literature to help explain this behaviour - all contributions most gratefully received!

I haven't noticed them concentrating on the boundaries of their territories, it looks pretty random, but maybe next year I should pay more careful attention to the matter that you raise.

I think the most important aspects of this behaviour are -

1. It is carried out regularly throughout the Copper's day

2. It involves them very quickly tapping plant surfaces with their feet

3. I've never seen a female act in this way

4. I've never seen a male "tap dance" on anything other than a plant, ie, never on a pebble or stone or anything-else. Always a plant, but not always a living plant, ie, I've seen them "tap dance" over dead wood and dried up grass stalks.

If anyone out there can join the dots for me I promise I will spend all Christmas drinking to their health!

Unfortunately I can't join any dots for you Hoggers, and also unfortunately I can only mark your graph as a 1/4 according to the AQA GCSE ISA Markscheme, but on the plus side great shots and some really interesting behavioural observations, I'll keep my eye open for similar behaviours next year.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Dear Wurzel ( or should I say " Sir"...?! ) all I can say in my defence is that I didn't have a ruler to draw my graph and so I had to use a CD case instead.

But I think next time I will ask a 6 year old to help me out...!

I hope you get the chance to watch Small Coppers next season. The more of us that carry out these observations the more we will learn (and the more new questions will arise too!)

Best wishes,

Hoggers ( Form 2C )

One aspect of Small Copper life that interested me was how long the males will hold on to a territory I made a good many visits to Dungeness through the 2015 season and was able to keep an eye on a number of territory holding males I quickly realised that there are two Small Copper Worlds at Dungeness: there's the Moat which has a very high population of Coppers in a relatively small and discrete area; and there's The Desert, a very large, sprawling pebble dune system, where the Coppers are more thinly distributed My longest record for a male holding the same patch in The Moat was 11 days Second longest was 7 days Both of these males were from the third brood, in which Copper numbers are much lower than in the early broods.

In those early broods I recorded males holding territories in the Moat for only 2 to 3 days (competition being so much greater at these times) I only managed to monitor 2 males that were living out in The Desert

One held on to his patch for 5 days The other one, however, turned out to be very special indeed and he ended up blowing all my previous records to smithereens! I found him on 20th September and I visited him thereafter on 26th September, 4th October, 9th October, 10th October, 18th October and finally on 20th October 30 days holding the same territory!

So I named him Methuselah because not only had he shown me how long a male Copper can hold a territory, he'd also shown me how long a male Small Copper can live