IN THE MEADOW

I spent an hour in a  nature reserve near Lambourn this morning looking for  meadow butterflies on this area of chalk grassland. Lambourn is very much the home of racehorses and as well as seeing half a dozen riders, I saw  signs for an Equine hospital, home for injured jockeys and some very posh stables! 

It was  forecast a hot day so I got there fairly early (9.30am)  and already the reserve was alive with butterflies. I was hoping for chalk hill blues but saw no blues at all; however I was pleased to find a single Painted Lady, first for the year and unseen by me in 2020. I also found one small copper - another first for the year - but it   flew off before I could obtain a record photo. 

There were large numbers of marbled whites and meadow browns, as well as small heath, small and large skipper, one small tortoiseshell and a ringlet. 

ringlet

painted lady

small skipper

small tortoiseshell

marbled white

BACK DOWN TO THE WOODS

 

I went back to Ravensroost woods today during a brief spell of sunshine at midday today. Surprisingly the car park was empty on my arrival. I saw two purple hairstreaks and two white admirals together with many ringlets and meadow browns and  good numbers of silver washed fritillaries. The first hairstreak flew across the carpark as I arrived and settled in a bush on the opposite side. Unlike my last visit, no silver washed fritillaries were nectaring today, but I was able to take some photos of a white admiral which was on a bramble flower.

I also saw a four spotted chaser, brown hawker and lots of common blue damselflies. 

I keep hoping that I might find a white letter hairstreak; none have been reported this year so far and I didn't see any there last year either, despite having seen   one or two on a particular patch of vegetation for the previous three or four years. 

above and below  purple hairstreak

car park at Ravensroost the purple hairstreak settled in the bush to the right of the photo

white admiral

comma

ENCOUNTERS WITH H.I.M.

 

The weather forecast seemed perfect for looking for Purple Emperors this morning so I headed over to Bernwood Forest which seems the best local site for finding them. Several have been seen this week so I made the hour's trip over there and arrived at 9 20. The sun was just beginning to break through the clouds as I arrived in the car park which had a few spaces left. As I got out of my car and opened the boot, the occupant of the next car did the same, and took out his insect repellant spray as I did too!! 

He was obviously looking for butterflies too, and engaging in conversation with him, he told me he had had a Purple emperor land on his camera earlier in the week. When he told me that, I immediately recognised him as the author of a blog/website which I regularly refer to as he records all his bird, butterfly and dragonfly sightings daily. 

We both headed for the main track which is favoured by the PEs and gazed up in the treetops. After a while I thought I saw a large dark butterfly flying around the top but as it didn't settle in sight I couldn't positively identify it. A smaller species was also flying about which I took to be a purple hairstreak but it didn't come lower. 

As we were both looking, a lady who we'd spoken to earlier came rushing back up the track towards us and said she'd thought she'd found one but, not being an expert, wanted someone to help her identify it. She said it was sitting  down in the grass which seemed unusual but we followed her onto another narrow path and were shown it, it was in fact a purple emperor!  It wasn't moving that much and we wondered if it was freshly emerged. My earlier companion encouraged it onto his hand for us to take photos as it had been partly concealed by grass stems. He tried to transfer it to my finger so he could get a photo but the butterfly evidently decided it was time to fly off!

Returning to the main track I  saw a couple more purple emperors flying high up but then we saw a couple of people who said they'd found a white admiral, not so common in this wood. We located it in on some leaves then it  flew down to the ground.. not a white admiral but another purple emperor!  It proceeded to feed on some dog  poo before flying around us  several times and landing on.... the dog poo bin!!  It did this several times, each time landing on the bin,  then eventually on the ground in front of it where it posed for us for several minutes before  flying back into the trees,

At this point I decided I would return to the car as I wanted to fit in a trip to the nature  reserve at Aston Rowant, twenty minutes away to look for dark green hairstreaks which are said to be abundant there at the moment.  Once I had parked there I decided to take the higher route along the top of the embankment and I soon found  what I was looking for, together with large numbers of marbled whites, also meadow browns, skippers and small heaths. The dark green fritillaries were not settling very often, but eventually I managed to find one fairly close at hand for a couple of record shots. 

It has been a successful couple of days butterfly spotting; my next challenge will be the white letter hairstreak but there have been few reports so far.

SILVER WASHED FRITILLARIES

 I managed to squeeze in a quick visit to Ravensroost Woods early this afternoon in between an electrician's visit and a meet- up with friends. The sun came out just as I arrived which made me hopeful of seeing the largest of the fritillaries, the silver washed fritillary. 

I walked fairly briskly down the main track, which had plenty of ringlets and meadow browns fluttering each side, crossed over another track, through a gate and round three bends to arrive at an area adjacent to a pond, where there is  a small clearing and an area of brambles. which is always a popular place for butterflies. Within a few minutes I had found a couple of silver washed fritillaries ( new) which were nectaring on the thistle-like flowers. At the pond, there were male and female emperor dragonflies, broad bodied chaser, brown hawker, large red damselfly, common blue damselfly. 

As I was speaking to the man who does the butterfly transect for the wood, a small purplish-grey butterfly passed us and fluttered up into a tree.  I couldn't see where it landed but he found it in his binoculars and confirmed it was a purple hairstreak ( new).  He told me that he had seen 2 white admirals and more silver washed fritillaries further along the track so I followed it but   only saw SWF but no white admirals.  

I retraced my steps to the pond, where a couple of people said that they'd just been watching a white admiral posing in front of them but it had now gone! I waited and eventually saw 3 white admirals but none was near enough for a photo. Other butterflies seen on my visit were red admiral, small skipper, speckled wood and comma. I would like to have remained longer in the wood but my time was limited and I had to leave. Hopefully I will be able to fit in another visit before the month is over. 

HERE AND THERE

I visited a couple of sites south of Swindon today to see what butterflies were about. At Barbury Castle the most noticeable species was small tortoiseshells which seemed to be everywhere. I saw  some meadow browns,  large skippers and small heaths, just a couple of common blues and a single marbled white. I also had some good views of a skylark on a fence post. 

From there I visited Martinsell hillfort where I found more marbled whites, meadow browns and small heaths, and saw ringlets ( too active for photographs today)  and a small skipper, the latter two species being  my  first  of the year.

small tortoiseshell

large skipper

skylark

marbled white

small skipper

LARGE BLUE

I paid a visit to Daneway banks near Cirencester this morning to see if I could tick off large blue butterfly for the year.  The forecast had originally predicted sun and cloud but there was no sun at all by the time I reached the reserve, however it was quite warm and barely a breath of wind. 

Having walked up the steep hill to the entrance I saw a scattering of people  with cameras;  that would  certainly make it easier to locate any butterflies as it would be obvious if they were all staring at a particular spot! 

I followed the path to where I expected to find some large blues and started speaking to someone who said that  about 4 had been seen that morning. He then said that if I quickly followed the path a bit further, there was a butterfly with open wings which I might be able to see. As I passed a tall bush I could see a handful of people with cameras  and made my way over to them. As I had been told,  a large blue was perched on a leaf with open wings and I found a vantage point which enabled a few photos.  However after a minute or so it closed its wings again and remained in that pose for the rest of the time I was there!  A few people came up behind and took photos of the closed wings and decided to wait to see if it would open its wings again, however, any early brightness had gone and it didn't look as if the sun would reappear anytime soon.

I got chatting to a lady  who said that she had travelled down from Stafford by herself using public transport ( 3 trains and a bus) to see the large blues! However, she had joined the group of photographers just after the butterfly had shut its wings! She did have another couple of hours before her bus was due, so I hope the sun came out sufficiently for her to see the open wings. She also told me she had just found her first small blue, again with closed wings.  

Despite wandering back through the reserve, I couldn't find any more large blues or people that had seen any so decided to return to the car, at least I had managed a couple of photos even if I only saw one individual large blue.