www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Happy hunting everyone!

Felix

Well, my first significant butterfly sighting of August is a first for my garden.
Whilst stood at the kitchen sink (yeah - I know!) I saw a Frit in the garden. It was flying very strangely, and was certainly not a Comma or Wall (confusion species). My first guess was a Silver Washed as they are in local woods only a mile or so away. However, one had never yet made it to my garden.
I dashed outside, and to my utter surprise, saw a male Dark Green missing a hind wing, and having battle scars on the other wings - hence the "odd" flight.
I have never seen a DGF closer than 8 miles from home, and can't honestly think of any where suitable.
I reckon a bit of pouring over Google Earth in an easterly direction from my house (wind from the west) is on the cards.
Tick

I spent a few hours at the fields at Glamorgan Canal Local Nature Reserve again today, and despite the cloudy, breezy weather, there was quite a bit of butterfly activity. On the Hairstreak front, I saw 4 White-letter and 1 Purple. The White-letters are starting to look a bit ragged now. Also seen was a very nice female Holly Blue. All 3 Whites seemed a bit more numerous today and I was able to get to grips with my first approachable female Large White of the year. Common Blue in very good numbers.
Yesterday, I visited the old open-cast mine workings at Llanilid, near Bridgend, Glamorgan. I was pleased to find excellent numbers of Grayling, with 40+ being seen across the site. Also 30+ Small Heath, and Common Blue in ridiculous numbers.

Jon, you have got the pic I've always craved - a wings open female Holly Blue. I saw one myself today in Swansea Vale, along with twelve other species (the usual suspects), but it settled with wings firmly shut.

The curtain of thick cloud once again let in little sunlight (it's getting ridiculous now), meaning that there was barely a butterfly to be seen on the hundreds of sheltered buddleia growing on the old railway line. If we ever do get another sunny, warm day in Swansea, I bet these bushes will be replete with butterflies.

I make this posting purely so that I get on the e-mail advisories for August.

But I wasn’t entirely idle on the first day of the month. See my diary:
viewtopic.php?t=4056&start=1000#p35689

Jack

David M wrote:Jon, you have got the pic I've always craved - a wings open female Holly Blue.

There were several females basking on the brambles today- must be something in the air.

I read that they only open their wings in sunlight, yet you said today was overcast?

Plenty of Silver Spotted Skippers and Chalkhill blues at Aston Rowant and two Brown Hairstreaks and a white admiral at Whitecross Green Woods.

Mark

On an overcast late afternoon visit to Bonchurch Down I set myself a target of 5 species- I succeeded with one common blue roosting, one chalkhill blue roosting, several meadow browns, 3 small whites and a passing peacock. Not bad in the circumstances. No second brood adonis blues yet.

David M wrote:I read that they only open their wings in sunlight, yet you said today was overcast?

Yes, I was surprised as well. The conditions were quite murky at the time with only the briefest of sunny spells. It was also the first time I've seen that many females on the brambles.

Silver Washed have been making presence felt in Suffolk this year. Apparently they have been spreading, possibly from an introduction/ re-introduction in Essex a couple of years ago. They are now turning up much farther afield, even as far as Dunwich and possibly Beccles. Certainly one male was still showing well last week.
Julian

Sunday with my Girls: ...with the Painted Lady they spotted... and the RA that kept "bombing" us... How could I fail with such sweet little helpers?

Don't be fooled Nick...that seems quite a headlock the toy cat is in!

Cheers

Lee

Oh, it's a toy cat. Phew...!

Lee Hurrell wrote:....quite a headlock the toy cat is in!
Cheers
Lee

Well, when it belongs to one ..... and the other wants to hold it.....

( Felix: Sorry, but a real cat would be preferable - bird-murdering little #*£*&**'s..)

NickB wrote:( Felix: Sorry, but a real cat would be preferable - bird-murdering little #*£*&**'s..)

Hey! A kindred spirit...!!!

Felix wrote:

NickB wrote:( Felix: Sorry, but a real cat would be preferable - bird-murdering little #*£*&**'s..)

Hey! A kindred spirit...!!!

Indeed Felix - My son Patrick, a warden for the Nature Trusts, made his girlfriend, who wanted a cat, watch as the next-door's feline systematically slaughtered a nest full of baby Blue Tits in his garden.
She didn't still see them as cute little things after that; far from it:
Blood on their Paws....
N
(My grandfather, a keen gardner, used to keep a catapult (sic!) and bag of ball-bearings by his bedroom window. Woebetied any cat that tried to s*** in HIS garden He was an exceptional shot, I remember; must be all the practice he got....
All this must be in the family genes..... )

An extract from an interesting article I read a while ago-

We studied predation by approximately 70 domestic cats (Felis catus L.) in the Bedfordshire village of Felmersham over a one-year period. All the prey items brought home by virtually all the cats in the village were recorded and, where possible, identified. A total of 1090 prey items (535 mammals, 297 birds and 258 unidentified animals) were taken, an average of about 14 per cat per year

If this is interpolated across the 50 million or so cats in this country it is a devestating effect on wildlife.
If Mrs Muggins next door says
"My little Tiddles wouldn't do anything as nasty as that!"
She is wrong.
The moment it leaves the warmth of her lap, and no matter how well fed it is on some ludicrously expensive cat food, it becomes a KILLER.
Indiscriminate and effective.
My ex had a cat.
Over a one year period the little b****r bought in countless little presents for us including slow worms, grass snakes, frogs, lizards, a grey squirrel, loads of voles, shrews and mice (most unidentifiable) at least 9 species of bird and, on one memorable occasion, a live Long-eared Bat!.
The so and so even had a bell around it's neck, and was a bright cream colour offering no camouflage whatsoever.
Admirable hunting skills, but it left me with a dilema.
Keeping it indoors I saw as cruel, and letting it out was harmful to wildlife.
Luckily we got divorced before any decision had to be made.

Hello,

1 August 2010
Even when the sun found a gap in the clouds not many more than a hundred Chalkhill Blues were disturbed on the one acre transect on the lower slopes of Mill Hill. As there was not even spread over the steeper slopes this extrapolated to mere 350 on Mill Hill. This is a very low figure for the peak period.
In excess of 700 Common Blue Butterflies fluttered around and mated in the one half acre meadow (north of the upper car park) on Mill Hill. This extrapolated to over 1500 on Mill Hill, possibly many more. Other noteworthy observations were eight Wall Browns on Mill Hill and the mating of many Brown Argus Butterflies. Fourteen species of butterfly were noted.

Full reports on
Mill Hill Reports 2010
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/MillHill2010.html

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2010.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2010.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: August 2010
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/August2010.html
Sussex Downs Facebook Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111843132181316

Rogerdodge wrote:.......
My ex had a cat.
........Luckily we got divorced before any decision had to be made.

Indeed, Roger!
..tho' I would not recommend all members of this forum to solve their cat ownership issues in such a dramatic way....
(...I seem to remember a book called, "101 Uses for a dead cat"..... )