August 2020

[David M]

Looking good for the first day or two....let's hope it lasts.

[Deborah]

Good start over here! European Swallowtail in the garden. It seemed to prefer Verbena bonariensis to anything else, as do lots of others!

[zigzag_wanderer]

Great day for a long walk yesterday.

Started with a good few circuits of my local fields and then carried on down to Wolstonbury as I'd not been there for a while.

Luckily we're in a good area for Brown Hairstreaks, so these fields behind us have decent numbers. I only saw females last year but this was probably because they were a bit easier to spot when egg laying. I saw some in a small hedgerow oak and thought I'd spotted another on the next circuit - but it turned out to be a Purple Hairstreak, so can't complain.

Still waiting to photograph my 30th species in these fields as some sort of legacy before they build all over them. The only stay of execution is that they have to build a tunnel under the railway line before they can start. I'm thinking my best shot for no. 30 is a Clouded Yellow, but whether one would stop for long enough for me to snap anyway is another matter.

I did see a beautiful CY on my way to Wolsty - slowed down close to me but didn't stop. I snapped one on a walk on Thursday evening, but that one was very pale in comparison to yesterday's. Maybe the light was very different.

Lots of Hill Street Blues on Wolsty - also saw my first ever Silver Spotted Skippers. A few Silver Washed and Dark Green fritillaries there too.

Can't be bad !

[Allan.W.]

Late morning ,we decided to go out for a walk ,and ended up back at Temple Ewell ,it was rather late in the day for any photography
but i always take a camera ...............just in case ! As expected there were huge numbers of Chalkhill Blues on the wing ,and Lynne is always on the lookout for ,her favourites ............ Clouded Yellows ,after walking a while Lynne and ,son Liam decided to have a rest and plonked themselves down for a rest .Thought i,d go in search of some Silver Spots ,and after a few super fast fly-byes ,i noticed two keeping tight formation just above the
short turf .

He followed her everywhere and sidled up beside her at every opportunity ,she looked receptive ,and i felt sure that a mating was going to occur,
they moved from site to site ,and he kept trying his luck ,but no joy

They carried on like this for about half an hour ,they flew again ,him in hot pursuit , and the both landed halfway up a tall grass stem ,and i think the male noticed ,at the same time as me ,that another freshly emerged female was right at the bottom of the stem ............and making her Ascent,
He immediately started to take an interest in the "new girl" ...............and his previous love interest ,dissapeared in disgust !!

Regards Allan.W.

[Pete Eeles]

Superb, Allan!

Cheers,

- Pete

[millerd]

Fresh new second brood Adonis Blues flying at Box Hill (Dukes) this morning. Curiously, just across the River Mole at Denbies Hillside there were none...yet.

Good numbers of Silver-spotted Skippers and a few second brood Dingies at both sites amongst flocks of Chalkhill Blues.

Cheers,

Dave

[zigzag_wanderer]

She didn't hang about long - but nice to see a brown in with the yellow this afternoon.

[Allan.W.]

Thanks for that Pete ! Regards Allan.W.

[Allan.W.]

A couple more shots from a recent trip ,looking for Silver -Spotted Skippers.

This afternoon i had a very quick look in my local woodland ,to see what was about ,hoping for a few Common Blues ,but this woodland (Orlestone forest ,Kent) has been very poor this year ,compared to the last two ,there were still a fair few Browns on the wing ,including several Small Heath
which have made a real comeback in Orlestone.

Regards Allan.W.

[Matsukaze]

Watlington Hill, Oxon. I joined the Silver-spotted Skipper club today - there were around 10 flying on the chalky slopes. They were very flighty and nervous, and tricky to approach; even trickier to photograph as they kept firmly to ground level and if I tried to join them there I invariably ended up kneeling on Cirsium acaule, which seemed to be their favourite nectar source. I'm not very often within this species' range at the right time of year and this is the first time I have seen British examples - they appeared smaller than the ones I have seen in southern France in September.

Also Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Chalkhill Blue, a Marbled White in reasonable nick, an abundance of Common Blue and (in the nearby wood) several freshly emerged Brimstones.

[Charles Nicol]

i stopped off at the Ridgeway on my way back from the coast. It is where there used to be a Youth Hostel just South of Wantage. i walked along it for about a mile & saw plenty of butterflies including this Small Tortoiseshell & Peacock

[Allan.W.]

A very pleasant walk along the cliffs near Dover this morning ,to see what was about ,France was very clear today ,and lots of
activity in the channel ,and a couple of Police ,looking out to sea from the cliffs .
Good numbers of Chalkhill Blues and Common blues on the wing,and around twenty Wall Browns ,and all the usual suspects ,but sadly no Clouded Yellows .

Many Swallows and Martins heading out to sea ,and a couple of Wheatears and three Ravens ,also seen.While looking for some plant s i found
A Small Blue jinking around a patch of Kidney vetch ,the first i,ve seen here .Later in my local woods ,i came across a couple of nicely marked
female Gatekeepers ,one i believe is minor AB;Post Excessa.

Regards Allan.W.

[Old Wolf]

Watlington Hill, Oxon. I joined the Silver-spotted Skipper club today - there were around 10 flying on the chalky slopes. They were very flighty and nervous, and tricky to approach; even trickier to photograph as they kept firmly to ground level and if I tried to join them there I invariably ended up kneeling on Cirsium acaule, which seemed to be their favourite nectar source. I'm not very often within this species' range at the right time of year and this is the first time I have seen British examples - they appeared smaller than the ones I have seen in southern France in September.

Hello Matsukaze, I visited there for the first time myself the day before and like you, I am now a member of the SSB club as it was the first time I had seen one All in all I saw between 30 and 50 but there is no telling how many were ones from earlier as they chased each other and anything else that came near all over the slopes.

Also like you, I knelt on a lovely dwarf thistle too. Not much fun but nowhere near as many as at Aston Rowant where I knelt and sat on many in fact, it was pretty hard to miss them

[Deborah]

Watched the pairing of these two fresh-looking Sooty Coppers yesterday. And a female Swallowtail ignoring most of the vigorous fennel planted just for her and choosing instead to lay her eggs on my extremely pathetic carrots. I may be helping the caterpillars move once they’re hatched.

[David M]

....And a female Swallowtail ignoring most of the vigorous fennel planted just for her and choosing instead to lay her eggs on my extremely pathetic carrots. I may be helping the caterpillars move once they’re hatched.

I've noticed this in the south of France, Deborah. Female Swallowtails often seem to favour the stunted wild carrots rather than the robust fennels. Not sure why this is.

[walpolec]

In case anyone was wondering where all of the Small Tortoiseshells have gone. My Northampton garden on Monday. (Yes I know the fence needs painting!)

Chris

[zigzag_wanderer]

You haven't just stuck lots of paper STs on there just to make me jealous have you Chris ?

It would take me 3 years down here to see that many !

[walpolec]

You haven't just stuck lots of paper STs on there just to make me jealous have you Chris ?

It would take me 3 years down here to see that many !

D'oh! There's no fooling some people. It took me ages to cut all of those out. Where are you, ZW? Shame u don’t get many ST's.

[zigzag_wanderer]

I'm in mid Sussex - about 7 miles north of Brighton.

There's good walking circuits around me that mean I can get on to the South Downs pretty quickly or track streams or go through local woods on the Weald. So I see a decent range of birds and insects on my walks, but for whatever reason we don't get that many Small Tortoiseshells.

I did have a walk a while back where I saw into double figures which was an absolute anomaly ! I had hoped it was the start of something, but sadly not.

As a kid I used to live at the top end of the East Midlands - Messingham (south of Scunny). Like you there were loads of STs around there too.

Must admit I miss 'em !

[zigzag_wanderer]

Probably seen more Small Tortoiseshells than Chaffinches this year though.....