SLEEPING MARBLES

Yesterday morning I went out early, just after 4am and the temperature already up to 16°, to see if I could find some roosting butterflies in the hope that if I did find some they would be coated in dew.

It didn't take long to locate a few roosting Marbled Whites Melanargia galathea ...and yes, they did have a coating of dew, although not as much as I would have liked given that after a short walk through the long grass my boots and my trousers were already soaked through.

I also found some male Chalk Hill Blue Butterflies Lysandra coridon  they seemed to be early risers and were already on the way to 'drying out'.
 

  
By 7.15am the temperature was rising (20°) in the warm sunshine and the butterflies were already taking to the wing and only briefly stopping to spread their wings and gain that little extra bit of warmth. 

 I also saw this roosting moth  Sulpher Pearl  Sitochroa palealis.
 

Not a bad few of hours, I got some reasonable images, a thorough soaking...and was back home in time for breakfast.


AND.......


....I also managed to get a fat hand!....I guess it's bound to happen If you go crawling about in in the long grass early in the morning, some sleepy insect is going to take offence at being woken up and is going to...BITE YOU!

Since I took these photos this morning my hand has gotten a little fatter and my forearm is now joining it, I can't fully close my hand and the 'blister' has started to weep...apart from a slight itching there isn't any pain, all I've got to remember is...DON'T SCRATCH IT! ...[;o)

WHITE AND BLACK

One day last week I decided to go out and see if I could find one of the UK’s rarer butterflies…the WOOD WHITE (Leptidea sinapis)..a UK priority species, as this extract taken from the UK Butterflies website explains.
Despite relatively short-term increases, the long-term view is that this butterfly is in decline and is therefore a priority species for conservation efforts. This butterfly has suffered due to a change in woodland management and, in particular, the reduction in coppicing that allows new woodland clearings to develop that provides the conditions suitable for this species. Even improvements in habitat management will not guarantee that the species will reappear from areas where it has been lost, since it is not a very mobile species and may not, therefore, be able to recolonise naturally.
I knew that some had been seen in a wood in the south of Northamptonshire, about an hours drive from home.

A weak sun in a hazy blue sky was doing it’s best to live up to the weather forecasters promise of a sunny and warm day as I set of from home at just after 7am. I was a little worried that my journey was going to be in vain as when I arrived the sun had been replaced by grey clouds and a decidedly chilly breeze, not good conditions for butterfly hunting!

As I’d made the effort I decided to have a wonder anyway and see what I could find and, to my amazement, less than 200yards from the car park I saw my first butterfly…and it was a Wood White!



After taking a few photographs, and feeling rather chuffed at finding my target species in such a short time, I decided to carry on along the track, it looked like good bug hunting territory!, to see what I could find. After about a mile and 2 hours of slow progress (lots of bug photos!) I saw two more of my target butterflies.



Nearly 4 hours had elapsed by the time I arrived back at the car and by now the clouds had disappeared and it was a sunny and warm 20°. After a drink and a quick bite to eat I went ‘exploring’ along another track that led off in the opposite direction and within minutes I’d hit a Wood White hotspot, I walked along the track for about 3/4 of a mile and stopped counting them when I got to 30, they seemed to be everywhere, slowly flitting along the track edge and occasionally having a little aerobatic tussle with a rival, or two!
I was also lucky to see a pair start to engage in a courtship display, unfortunately they where ‘bombed’ by another rival and all three flew off in different directions.
Again taken from the UK Butterflies website…The courtship of this butterfly is an amazing spectacle. Male and female face each other with wings closed and intermittently flash open their wings. At the same time, the male waves his proboscis and white-tipped antennae either side of the female's head. If the female is receptive to these signals, the female bends her abdomen toward the male and the pair mate, staying coupled for around 30 minutes.



Despite missing out on the full courtship display it turned out to be a very successful day, the ironic thing is that about thirteen years ago I actually lived about ten minutes walk from this site and during my regular walks and mountain bike rides around the area I never knowingly saw one of these butterflies!


A couple of days later I went in search of my second target species, this time a day flying moth called the CHIMNEY SWEEPER (Odezia atrata). It was dull, overcast and windy for most of the day  but at around 2.30pm the clouds parted and the sun began to shine and I made a spur of the moment decision to go out and see if I could find any. It was a thirty minute drive to the site where I’d seen them last year and when I arrived it was sunny and 19°.  Again my luck was in as I soon spotted a couple perched low down in the grass, unfortunately it was still quite windy and they were staying well down and only occasionally making short, low flights. After a few failed attempts  I managed to get a few decent images…





It turned out to be not a bad week in the end!

Butterflies

A couple of days ago I was driving past a site that, from previous years, I knew was a good place to spot some ‘early’ butterflies. It was sunny and the temperature was good, although there was quite a stiff wind blowing, so I thought that if I could find a sheltered spot I might just be lucky.
I’d only walked a few yards from the car park when I was rewarded by seeing my first butterflies, a dozen or so Green Hairstreaks ‘fighting’ over their territory around a Hawthorn bush.

Encouraged, I moved further on into the site and soon encountered more Green Hairstreaks, and in good numbers too, many more than I’d seen here in previous years. It wasn’t long before I started to see some of the other species that inhabit this site. In the end I spent over four, very enjoyable, butterfly filled hours there.


Green Hairstreak (calophrys rubi)….
Has a wingspan of 27-34mm. and both sexes are alike, except that the male has a pale oval sexual mark on the upper forewings. The upper wings are brown with a golden tinge, while the underside is an unmistakable green and carries a very fine somewhat broken white line - the 'hairstreak'. The back edge of the hindwing has some white fringing and a slightly scalloped appearance, with vestigial tail.  It’s flight period is from mid April to the end of July.








This pair wasted no time in getting down to business!

Duke of Burgundy (hamearis lucina)….
The sexes are roughly similar, the male a shade smaller with a wingspan of about 29mm. The male has a dark brown and black ground colour with 3 irregular tawny bands on the forewing, the outer containing 5 black spots near the margins. The hindwings are dark brown with 5 small oval tawny slashes and a broad dark border. Both wings have a white fringe intercrossed by black vein markings. On the underside, the forewing is dappled with black, orange, brown and white flashes with some small black centres in the outer tawny edge and, again, white fringing intersected by black vein marks.The hindwing has two white bands across and then a marginal band of orange crescents each containing black spots and finishing with the white blackcrossed fringe. The female has similar markings but they are altogether lighter and more open.  The flight period is from the end of April to mid June.


Male


Female




Female underwing.

Dingy Skipper (erynnis tages)….
As its name suggests this small, moth like, butterfly has an overall dark sombre appearance, but close inspection shows an attractive, if plain, even patterning of dark and light blotches with a pale curved band across the forewings and a row of light dots around the wing edges and an outer pale fringe. The insect is about 29mm across when the wings are spread.  The flight period is short..from early May to late June.





Grizzled Skipper (pyrgus malvae)….
The Grizzled Skipper is easily identified when it is settled: on the wing it is rather a blur. It is a small butterfly (27mm across the spread wings) and unmistakeably chequered black and white - the black being the dominant colour - and ornamented with numerous white square patches. The edging fringe is also black and white. Both sexes are similar but the male carries the sexual scent gland in a fold in the edge of the forewing. The underside of the wings are lighter, a grey-green colour with more obvious white patches.  Flight period from late April till the end of June.


There were not many of these around…I only managed to get this one image.

And to finish off some images of the other butterflies that I’ve taken over the last few weeks…


A beautiful backlit Brimstone (gonepteryx rhamni)


The gardeners best friend…the Cabbage White or, to give it it’s proper name, the Small White (pieris rapae)


A female Orange Tip (anthocharis cardamines)


A Holly Blue (celastrina argiolus) getting well stuck into a Buttercup.



n.b. all the information and descriptions are courtesy of Bird Guides/British Butterflies.

A WEEK IN THE HOT SUN......PART TWO

In this second part of my account of  'a week in the hot sun'  I was 'buzzed' by a strange flying machine before, once again, finding my target species...encountered not one but two Emperors...and whilst on a picnic, got up close and personal with some dragons!!...

Day four... Incombe Hole in Buckinghamshire.

Once again a warm and sunny day, with the temperature rising to 26c, and it was back to Incombe Hole and it's surrounds  in search of the Chalk-hill Blue Butterfly.

As normal progress was slow as I stopped to take photographs of the many wild flowers that were out in bloom along the sides of the pathways...

Small Scabious

Common Bird's-foot-trefoil.  It's name is derived from the shape of the seed pods which are long and slender and splayed apart when ripe, resembling a bird's foot. The leaves have five 'leaflets' but with the lower pair at the stalk base it appears to be trifoliate. It is also known as 'bacon and eggs' from the colour of the flowers which start of as red buds and slowly turn through orange to yellow.

Spear Thistle

Selfheal

 

The area I was walking in lies directly under the flight path into London Luton Airport and on most days this is not a problem as the planes are not too low at this point and maybe fly over at about one every fifteen to twenty minutes, but this was the day before the Olympic opening ceremony and the time between planes was down to about five minutes. This was not really a problem and was soon ignored until  I was suddenly aware of a noise that I can only describe as sounding like a dozen or so out of tune lawnmowers being thrashed to within an inch of their lives...a quick search of the sky overhead and a few hasty shots with the camera (no time for setting adjustments) and this was the result!

I'll leave you to work it out but to me it looks like something that has been put together from all the bits that were left over from previous projects!

I googled the identification letters and it's an Italian designed and built!  Piaggio P-180 Avanti!!

I also came across this rather tatty, lone Dark Green Fritillary.

 

I finally arrived at the spot where, in previous years,  I'd seen quite large numbers of Chalk-hill Blues but today I could only find four males, and one female, who seemed to be hiding low down in the grass, I wonder why??

 

When you  go out looking for a specific species of bird or butterfly it's by no means certain that you'll find it, this time I was lucky I found  what I was looking for quite easily, although in smaller numbers than I'd expected. The day before a local eminent birder had recorded seeing over seventy in the same area!...maybe he's got better eyesight than me!!

                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Day five... King's Wood in Bedfordshire....and a 'royal encounter'!

 

I again met up with Keith, this time in the car park at Stockgrove Country Park ( now renamed Rushmere country park Stockgrove) which straddles the  borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Our quest, to find the Silver Washed Fritillary Butterfly.

The day started off overcast and humid as we made our way into the part of the park known as King's Wood, a woodland with records going back for over a thousand years and now a National Nature Reserve.

At first it appeared to be rather devoid of any bird or butterfly life but as the sun started to break through and the temperature started to rise, eventually topping 26c, out came the butterflies...

Gatekeeper

Large White

Large Skipper

Meadow Brown

Hoverflies and Damselflies were also busy feeding on the wildflowers...

episyrphus balteatus

Common Blue Damselfly (female)

Ruddy Darter Dragonflies were also putting in an appearance..

a female

And then, in what was the start of a very exciting and memorable royal experience, a beautiful male Emperor Dragonfly settled in the long grass right in front of us..

We eventually achieved our goal off the day when a couple (or the same one doing a circuit!) of Silver Washed Fritillaries did a quick fly by before disappearing into the trees.

 

The day, however,  was  unexpectedly set to turn into a super day with the arrival of 'royalty'...

After about four hours of butterfly watching we decided to call it a day and, as we turned to head home, there on the path in front of us was royalty himself....a male Purple Emperor.

 

Creeping up ever so slowly we managed to get close enough to take some decent photographs. This beautiful butterfly normally spends most of its time way up and out of sight in the canopies of its favoured Oak trees only occasionally coming down to ground level to indulge in the, rather un-royal!, habit of extracting moister and minerals from animal droppings and carrion.

Unfortunately for much of the five or so minutes that we were allowed to invade its space it's wings were held closed tightly together  only occasionally flicking them open and allowing us to see that beautiful purple sheen from where it gets its name.

 

After it was spooked by a humble fly our audience with royalty was at an end and 'his eminence' disappeared back into the treetops.

We left feeling rather privileged to have had the rare chance to see, up close, one of Britain's rare and beautiful butterflies.

 

I suppose when you have reached the heights of meeting royalty things have to return to normal and as we made our way back through the woods we were met by an overpowering stench of rotting flesh and there standing proud in the leaf litter was...phallus impudicus

otherwise known as..Stinkhorn!

                                                          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Day Six... Picnic time...as the weather starts to break!

As the warm and sunny weather had been predicted to last for some time it had been pre-arranged, earlier in the week, that we would be joined by Mother-in-law to go on a picnic!

So, the destination was chosen, Marston Vale Country Park in Bedfordshire, mainly for the fact that it has toilets!!  Unfortunately the weather didn't seem to be in picnic mood , and although sunny and warm at times, dark clouds were looming, accompanied by a chilly breeze.  The planners have been thoughtful and have provided a nice grass covered area (overflow car park!) just right for picnics.

After driving around in ever decreasing circles looking for a suitable spot to 'settle' (we were the only ones there!!) the tables and chairs were set up, the food and hot drinks put out, coats and a blanket (to keep the knees warm!) put on and the banquet began.

Now, this could only be England!..imagine the scene...a large grassy field, one car, three people, folding chairs and tables, daintily cut sandwiches, hot tea from a thermos flask and coats off when the sun shone and back on when it didn't......brilliant!!

Sorry, I've digressed...I left the ladies to chat! and set off to see what I could find.

First I made my way to a nearby patch of Brambles and soon located Gatekeeper Butterflies and Common Blue Damselflies, but as I was lining up to take a photograph of a butterfly I noticed something moving deep down in the long grass...tiny frogs, about an inch long!..lots of them!...everywhere!  and I was standing right in amongst them!  carefully and  trying not to stand on too many (sorry froglets !) I backed off and left them in peace. In their short lives they must have travelled some distance because the nearest water, a pond in the flower gardens, is at least 400 yards away!

There were not many butterflies around and even fewer birds, a few Mute Swans and Common Terns  on the main lake and a couple of overflying Cormorants was about it.

Wild flowers were out in abundance though...

Hedge Bindweed

Field Bindweed

And there were lots of flowering Wild Teasels...hopefully, they'll provide lots of food for the smaller birds later in the year.

There was lots of activity going on lower down in the grass...time to get the knees dirty...and wet!!

Caterpillars of the Cinnabar Moth feeding on Ragwort

Female Meadow Grasshopper

Rufous Grasshopper (?)

 

And finally to an area where I knew that I was almost certain to find Dragonflies resting on the handrails of a boardwalk...and I wasn't to be disappointed...

Common Darter

Ruddy Darter

These two Dragonflies can sometimes look quite similar, a quick way to separate them is that the Common Darter has a Yellow stripe running along the outside of the legs and the Ruddy Darter has completely Black legs.

 

I arrived back at the car park...er... picnic site, the ladies had finished putting the world to rights!, just in time to pack everything back into the car before a brief rain shower put an end to my  'WEEK IN THE HOT SUN'.

Sorry for the lengthy!! posts and thanks for sticking with it..I hope you found them interesting and I promise in future I'll try and make them a little shorter!!...[;o)