Butterfly Diary
- field notes by Adrian Hoskins
my earliest
sightings of each brood are highlighted in bold type
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Sightings
policy - details of certain sites where visitor pressure
or trampling may pose a threat to butterflies or alienate
landowners are excluded from these pages.
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2009
Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Jun
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Jly
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Aug
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Sep
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
September
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Tuesday 29th September
At lunch time today I had the pleasure of seeing what was
almost certainly a Pale Clouded Yellow at
Waterlooville, Hampshire. The
helice
form of the Clouded Yellow, which I saw at Beachy Head at
the weekend, appears creamy-grey or whitish when seen in
flight, but the insect which flew past me today was a
beautiful pure primrose colour. The Pale Clouded Yellow is
of course much rarer than
helice,
and without a photograph I can't claim a definite sighting,
but I'm nevertheless confident enough to record this as a
98% certain male Pale Clouded Yellow.
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Sunday 27th September
After yesterday's excitement a trip to Crab Wood this
morning seemed a little tame, producing just 1 Speckled
Wood, 1 Peacock, and 6 Commas ( including 2 nectaring
at ivy flowers high up in an oak ).
In the afternoon I
visited nearby Stockbridge Down which seemed equally quiet,
but a careful search produced counts of 3
Small Heaths, 51 Meadow Browns, 1 Speckled Wood, 2 Commas, 1
Red Admiral, 2 Large Whites, 1 Small White, 2
Brimstones ( 1m, 1f ) and 21 Small Coppers.
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Clouded Yellow, male, Beachy Head, East Sussex |
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Saturday 26th September
What an amazing finale to the season ! 2009 has been a
fantastic year for butterflies, but I'm rapidly running out
of superlatives, having seen about 300 Clouded Yellows in
hay fields near Beachy Head in Sussex today. At least 40 of
these were pristine females, several of which were still
drying their wings after emergence. The remaining females
and most of the males were showing slight signs of wear, and
appeared to be about a week old. Some however were in a very
faded and weather-beaten state, and may have been migrants.
Among the females I saw 2 f.
helice.
Better still, I saw a deep orange male
( unnamed aberration ), and no less than 8 copulated pairs !
At about 4.30pm the butterflies began to go to roost. Some
elected to spend the night under bramble leaves or among
tall grasses, but most just settled on the ground in the
middle of the field where they tucked themselves away among
tussocks of short grass. Often it was possible to see a
dozen or more settled within an area of a few square metres,
and it was common to find little groups of 2 or 3 adults
huddled together in the grass.
In the same fields I saw about a dozen Painted Ladies,
mostly in immaculate condition, plus 3 Common Blues, 3 Small
Coppers, 1 Small Heath, 3 Large Whites and 4 Small Whites.
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Clouded Yellow, female nectaring at knapweed, Beachy Head, East
Sussex |
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Clouded Yellows at roost, Beachy Head, East Sussex |
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Friday 25th September
This afternoon at
Cissbury Ring there were plenty of butterflies enjoying the
warm September sunshine including about 20 Meadow Browns, 2
Speckled Woods, 2 Large Whites, 3 Small Whites, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Peacocks,
1 Painted Lady, 1 Holly Blue and 2 female Common Blues.
Small Coppers were still flying in good numbers, with at
least 35 seen, including a mating pair. I was particularly
delighted to also see a beautiful Hummingbird Hawkmoth
gently whirring from flower to flower, hovering over each
bloom for a second or two while probing for nectar with its
long proboscis.
The reason for my trip however was to see Clouded Yellows -
and I wasn't disappointed ! There were several present,
including a f.
helice,
but they were all extremely active and unapproachable in the
hot sunshine. Then at 4.00pm I spotted something yellow on the
ground, and as I got closer I realised that it was a very
fresh mating pair. Unfortunately they had chosen to settle
right next to a wasp's nest !
Perhaps unwisely I decided to risk getting stung - I crept
close, laid down on my belly, and managed to take a couple
of photos, but then a wasp landed on my face, causing me to
flinch. The mating Clouded Yellows reacted instantly by
flying up to settle high in a nearby ash tree. Amazingly, a
moment later I found another mating pair settled on a
bramble bush ! At about 5pm the temperature began to
drop, and the Clouded Yellows began to look for roosting
sites. One by one they settled, some on bramble leaves, and
others on small privet bushes. In one small corner of the
site I found a "hot spot", where I found 7 Clouded Yellows
and 23 Small Coppers enjoying the last rays of the sinking
sun. Heaven !
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Sunday
20th September
Butterfly numbers are diminishing rapidly as autumn
approaches, but today in overcast conditions at Old
Winchester Hill there were still singletons of Adonis Blue,
Chalkhill Blue and Silver-spotted Skipper flying, although
all were in very faded condition. I also saw about 35 Meadow
Browns, 18 fresh Small Heaths, 2 Speckled Woods, 1 Small
White, 1 Large White, 3 Common Blues, 4 freshly emerged
Small Coppers, 1 Red Admiral, 2 fresh Commas and a pristine
and extremely alert Painted Lady.
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Saturday
19th September
I revisited the
schmidtii
site today ( see 12th Sept ) and can report that the
butterfly is alive and well. This time there were a minimum
of 4 Small Coppers present - the male
schmidtii,
2 normal males and a very damaged female. I saw one of the
normal males "trying it on" with the female, but she did the
usual "bum-wiggling, wing-fluttering, walk down the stems"
rejection routine.
The other male was periodically intercepted by the
schmidtii,
which despite now being a fortnight old ( geriatric in
Small Copper terms ) still had an amazing amount of energy.
Each encounter resulted in a frenetic high speed chase in
which the duo rocketed across the glade, constantly
spiralling around each other and then shooting up into the
oaks, disappearing out of sight. Predictably however within
a few seconds the
schmidtii
always returned to the exact spot ( usually a fleabane
seed-head or an oak leaf on the ground ) from which the
chase started, to reclaim his territory.
Later I paid a mid-afternoon visit to Steyning. I failed to
see any Brown Hairstreaks this time, but was pleased to find
2 Painted Ladies nectaring at ivy blossom, 2 Red Admirals, 1
Peacock, 1 male Comma, 1 Small Tortoiseshell, 2 Small
Heaths, 1 Small Copper, 2 Speckled Woods and 3 Meadow
Browns.
Finally I visited the spoil heaps at Ouse Estuary reserve
hoping to see Clouded Yellows, but by the time I arrived the
weather had become overcast and it was difficult to find
anything at all. Persistence paid off however, with
sightings of 3 very fresh 3rd brood male Wall Browns,
1 Painted Lady, 1 Peacock, 2 Meadow Browns, 1 Green-veined
White and 4 freshly emerged Small Whites, including
a mating pair. |
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3rd brood Wall Brown, male, Ouse Estuary, East Sussex |
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Sunday
13th September
Cloudy weather minimised any chances of seeing butterflies
today so instead I spent a couple of hours at Tidworth
Ranges searching for eggs and larvae. I found 28 Brown
Hairstreak eggs. All were laid on young blackthorn shoots,
while older lichen-encrusted growth was ignored by the
ovipositing females. The vast majority of eggs were laid on
east or south facing woodland edge blackthorns, often quite
a long distance away from the ash trees where the adults
meet and copulate. There were definite "hot-spots" favoured
by the females, where up to half a dozen eggs could be found
close together along a one metre stretch of blackthorn. The
only adult butterflies seen were a Red Admiral, a Comma, 2
or 3 Meadow Browns and 4 Speckled Woods. I did however
manage to find a few larvae, including those of Dot moth,
Yellow-tail and Vapourer. The latter normally flies in late
July and August, when the wingless females lay their eggs in
large batches on tree trunks. Vapourers always overwinter in
the egg stage, so the appearance of a half grown larva in
mid September is puzzling.
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Brown Hairstreak egg on blackthorn twig, Tidworth Ranges |
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Comma on fleabane, Tidworth Ranges |
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Saturday
12th September
This morning, after receiving a tip-off from a friend (
thanks Colin ) I visited a flowery woodland track at a site
I cannot name, where an aberrant Small Copper had been seen earlier in the
week. Within a minute of my arrival, the
exquisite gem pictured below appeared. Its behaviour was
very predictable and almost ritualised : When the sun was
shining it undertook periodic flights, zipping about
erratically for a few seconds before settling with wings
closed at the tip of a grass flower. Immediately afterwards
it walked down the tall grass stem until it was at about
knee height, and then opened its wings to bask. This
behaviour was repeated at least 30 times on different grass
plants.
When cloud obscured the sun
it flew down and settled on a stone or bare earth and closed
its wings. After a few seconds it opened them to
bask.
The usual brilliant copper on the upperside was replaced by
an almost luminous silvery white, overlaid at the base of
the wings with metallic green. I got down on my hands and
knees and begged it to please please please settle on a nice
yellow fleabane flower and open its gorgeous wings. I had to
wait nearly an hour, but my patience was finally rewarded
with the image reproduced below. No photo however can do
justice to the silvery sheen of this butterfly, or the
gorgeous metallic greenish iridescence at the base of its
wings.
This very rare and beautiful form of the Small Copper is known
as "ab.
schmidtii".
On the same patch of ground there was also a freshly emerged
"normal" female. Unfortunately she stayed in the area for no more
than a couple of minutes and did not cross paths with the
aberrant male during the hour that I was present - a great
shame as it would have been fascinating to observe
interaction between these 2 spectacularly different versions
of the same species.
Other species seen along the same stretch of track included
a Large White, a Green-veined White, a Small White, a Comma,
a Red Admiral, 2 Common Blues, 3 Meadow Browns and 2
Speckled Woods.
In the late afternoon I spent an hour at Stockbridge Down.
Butterflies were generally very scarce, but there were 2
female Brimstones and a Large White nectaring at a Buddleia
bush in the car park, and on the tall grasses along the
roadside I found several roosting butterflies including a
Common Blue, 3 Chalkhill Blues, 8 Small Coppers, a Small
White, 10 Meadow Browns and 11 Small Heaths. Altogether an
extremely pleasing and productive day, and thanks to my good
friend Colin Baker, a lifetime first sighting of the
enchanting
Small Copper ab. schmidtii
! My thanks also to Steve Meredith for driving me to
this and other sites during the past few weeks while I've
been without a vehicle of my own.
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Small Copper, ab. schmidtii,
male nectaring at fleabane |
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Small Copper, normal form, Stockbridge Down, Hampshire |
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Sunday
6th September
Today has been generally overcast, but during a brief sunny
spell this morning I was pleased to see a fresh male Holly Blue
fly across my small garden in Havant, joining the 4 resident Speckled Woods, and the
occasional passing Small Whites and Large
Whites.
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Saturday
5th September
There is no doubt that the gale force winds and lashing rain
which swept across Britain mid-week have seriously depleted
butterfly populations, but warm sunny conditions this
morning at Old Winchester Hill nevertheless enabled me to
see 12 Speckled Woods, about 150 Meadow Browns, 15 Small
Heaths, 10 Chalkhill Blues, 2 Common Blues, 1 male Adonis
Blue, 1 Brown Argus, 14 fresh Commas feeding at fermenting
blackberries, 1 pristine Red Admiral, 20 Painted Ladies, 2
Small Whites, 3 Large Whites, 2 Brimstones and about 15
Silver-spotted Skippers.
In the afternoon I travelled with a friend to investigate a
private woodland near Plaistow in Sussex. By the time we
arrived the weather had become cool and very overcast, so
butterflies were quite difficult to find, just a handful of
Speckled Woods and 3 or 4 Commas on the brambles. However I
noticed that there were some fine clumps of dead garlic
mustard along the edge of the ride, and decided to make a
brief search for Orange tip pupae. I spotted the first pupa
almost instantly, and within about 3 minutes we had found no
less than five. Four of these were the normal pale brown
form, and the other was the pretty pale green variety. All
were found on garlic mustard plants, about halfway up the
stems. One had been nibbled by a small mammal ( probably a
pigmy shrew ), another had been parasitised, and the
remaining 3 were healthy.
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Orange tip
pupa on garlic mustard |
Orange tip
pupa, green form |
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Tuesday 1st September
Yesterday I revisited Steyning for another look at the Brown
Hairstreaks. Numbers were lower than on Saturday, due
largely to the strong breeze which kept the butterflies
clinging tightly to their roosting places high in the trees.
The first female descended from an ash tree at 11.15am and
settled for a few moments on a sprig of dog rose, but a gust
of wind swept her off and it was another half hour before
the next sighting. In total 4 or 5 females were seen, mostly
slightly worn specimens. Other species included 3 Commas, 2
Wall Browns, 4 Common Blues and 10 Small Heaths.
In the afternoon I visited nearby Cissbury Ring, where I saw
about 25 Common Blues, 1 Brown Argus, 6 very worn Chalkhill
Blues, 2 fresh male Adonis Blues,
2 Red Admirals, an ovipositing Painted Lady, about 30 Large
Whites, 6 Small Whites, 12 Speckled Woods, 5 Gatekeepers,
100+ Meadow Browns, and about 20 Small Heaths including a
mating pair.
There were also at least 40 Small Coppers at Cissbury. It
was amusing to watch an incident when a male attempted to
get friendly with a female that had settled on a ragwort
flower. She decided to play "hard to get" by running down
the stem, fluttering her wings rapidly as if to tease him.
The male at this point decided that there were plenty of
other fish in the sea, and flew off in search of a more
willing partner !
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Comma, Steyning, West Sussex |
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Small Heath, Cissbury Ring, West Sussex |
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