www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Just kicking off on the Dorset heaths.

Great photo Zonda, I visited Acres Down on Tuesday and decided I must have missed them as the heather flowers have gone over and there were hardly any about

Bill

I agree, lovely photo Zonda

Lee

Any emergence at Silchester Common yet? I missed them last year by being too late, so don't want to repeat that mistake!
Mike

MikeOxon wrote:Any emergence at Silchester Common yet? I missed them last year by being too late, so don't want to repeat that mistake!
Mike

Yes - they've been out a couple of weeks now.

Cheers,

- Pete

Anybody know how the Prees Heath population handled their traveller incursion?

I really must get out and see these before it is too late this year.

Thanks for the info., Pete.

I headed to Silchester this afternoon and found them in abundance! I was lucky to get plenty of photos in good sunshine before the rain clouds moved in!
I'm obviously behind the times as I still think of these as July butterflies - clearly a lot of flight-time graphs are going to need updating soon.
Mike

ps pleased to see Susie looking feminine again!

Gibster wrote:Anybody know how the Prees Heath population handled their traveller incursion?

the ranger e-mailed me yesterday, they have only just started emerging but in small numbers, so they wernt on the wing when the travellers were on the site.

i will take a look on monday , weather permitting!

phil

GOLDENORFE wrote: Gibster wrote:Anybody know how the Prees Heath population handled their traveller incursion?




the ranger e-mailed me yesterday, they have only just started emerging but in small numbers, so they wernt on the wing when the travellers were on the site.

i will take a look on monday , weather permitting!

phil

Good stuff. Thanks for the update Phil,

Gibster.

Hey Mike, I've been checking all my local Silver-studs for aberrations and none of them are as boldly marked as yours is! Nice one

Gibster.

Just been catching up with this thread. Nice ab, Mike!

Hello,

I went to Westleton Heath near Dunwich in Suffolk on Saturday June 18th and saw a couple of Silver-studded blues, a male and a female. There should be more as its a good site but weather wasn't ideal. Beautiful butterflies

Leo

There were a dozen or earlier in the week at Buxton Heath, Norfolk. Providing they haven't all drown in the rain today I am hoping for higher numbers this weekend.

Angie

East Ruston Common, Norfolk had 80 today.

at prees heath this morning , silvers emerging in large numbers, probably 500 + on site now. way below last years numbers at this time though!
plenty of pairs on the ground as they are emerging from the very flat areas either side of main path to left side of runway
phil

Plenty of SSBs at Broxhead Common, Hants yesterday. Looking at my photos, they have far less obvious silver studs than the ones shown here.

dilettante wrote:Looking at my photos, they have far less obvious silver studs than the ones shown here.

Exactly what I found when looking at my older photos from Silchester Common. So, this year, I concentrated on finding good studs (!) and found the strongly marked individual shown earlier in this thread. It does point out that we all tend to be selective in our photos, so the most striking individuals are probably over-represented. Thus, studless blues may be common but are, perhaps, avoided by many photographers.
Mike