Blues

I spent an afternoon over at Knepp looking for Purple Emperors. Plenty seen, up in the trees, but none coming down to the ground. Perhaps it is just too dry for them to get the minerals they need although there were plenty of fresh animal droppings around.

Best shot of the day, a massive crop of an Emperor high in the tree taken on a 100mm Macro lens. I think a return visit is called for.

Purple Emperor

Most noticeable at Knepp and at other sites has been the shortage of blue butterflies this year. They are about but don't seem to be in the numbers I have seen in previous years. It maybe that I have just not been looking or perhaps we are in a lull between the first and second broods. The next couple of weeks should show an improvement with Chalkhill Blues starting to emerge and second broods of most blue butterflies due. It will be interesting to see if the dry hot weather has any effect on the numbers.

Looking back over the last couple of weeks, numbers may be down but there have been a couple of good picture opportunities with the blues.

Adonis Blues at Anchor Bottom and Silver-studded Blues at Iping Common.

Adonis Blue - coupled pair

Adonis Blues

Adonis Blue

Common Blue

Silver-studded Blue

Silver-studded Blue

and a butterfly that seems to be doing well this year - the Large White. It makes a change to be able to get close enough for a picture.

Lots of Dragonflies about at the moment but I am finding it difficult to get enthusiastic over the usual Broad-bodies and Four-spots. A couple of hours stalking Brown Hawkers at various sites gave lots of views but didn't give me a single picture. The only shot of interest so far was this Black Darter on Iping Common.

Shouldn't complain though, at least there are still a few insects around for me to see!

Glanville Fritillary

The Glanville Fritillary is named after Eleanor Glanville, an ecentric 17th and 18th century English butterfly enthuisiast - a very unusual occupation for a woman at that time. She was the first to capture British specimens in Lincolnshire during the 1690s. A contemporary wrote:-

This fly is named for Eleanor Glanvil, whose memory had like to have suffered for her curiosity. Some relations that was disappointed by her Will, attempted to let it aside by Acts of Lunacy, for they suggested that none but those who were deprived of their senses, would go in pursuit of butterflies.           Moses Harris 1776

Wikipedia        

The population has shrunk a little since those days. Now the only reliable place to see them is on the south coast of the Isle of Wight. There have been small colonies reported on the mainland at Hurst Castle, Wrecclesham in Surrey, and in the Avon Gorge but I have not seen any reports of these so far this year. That leaves Hutchinson's Bank near Croydon as the only reported sightings on the mainland. These are probably the result of a relocated population by a member of the public from the Wrecclesham site.

Hutchinson's Bank is certainly a promising butterflying location with 29 reported species. I searched it for a couple of hours today but only managed to come up with one Glanville and I only had that for about 30 seconds. I was momentarily distracted by a Jay flying through and when I turned back it was gone never to be found again. The second I took my eyes off it I knew I had made a mistake but it was too late. Fortunately the 30 seconds was long enough to get a couple of record shots.

Glanville Fritillary (Female)

Glanville Fritillary

Strange to think that if I could only find this one butterfly it may well have been the only one of its kind flying in mainland UK today.

Hutchinson's bank also yielded a number of Common Blue and Speckled Wood, two Small Heath, two Dingy Skippers, one Small Blue, one Peacock, and dozens of Brimstones. There seems to be large numbers of Brimstones at every site I visit.

Brimstone

Common Blue

Common Blue

Speckled Wood

I also stopped off at Mill Hill NR to look for the Adonis Blue. The photographs never seem to reproduce the vivid colours you see on the Adonis in the field.

Adonis Blue

Adonis Blue female

Green Hairstreak

Small Heath

Still no sign of the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary in Sussex

Dartford Warblers and Others

The birding is proving to be hard work at the moment. The end of June through to early August is always slow. There is no migration movement, there is plenty of cover for the birds to hide in, and the birds are not displaying for territory or mates as they were a month ago. This summer seems worse than ever and my own experience would seem to suggest that a lot of the birds have simply not arrived this year.

I commented in a previous post on how I had only seen two Stonechats so far this year. Like buses the next time I went out I saw at least eight in the same location on Iping Common.

Male Stonechat

Juvenile Stonechat

Hoping for a repeat performance - I have only seen one Redstart and have not seen a Spotted Flycatcher at all. If I could also add Turtle Dove to that list I could be a happy man after my next trip out.

I would have added Dartford Warbler to that list but I did manage to catch up with a pair on one of the commons. I had caught a couple of fleeting glimpses at the same location but did not feel that it was good enough for my year tick particularly as on both occasions the birds did not reappear. Fortunately on a recent early evening visit I was able to watch the pair gathering food for about half an hour. I kept my distance and with poor lighting the picture opportunities were limited. The shot below rescued by heavy cropping and from strong back lighting was the best I could manage.

Another almost picture - One in the bush and one flying

I also visited Warnham LNR. There was nothing unusual about in the way of avian life but I had some really weird lighting conditions. All my pictures appeared to have a colour cast but when you look at them they have both green and magenta in the same picture. This cannot happen as they are opposite ends of the spectrum (as far as Photoshop is concerned) and anyway the whites look clean. Even when desaturated as in the second picture the colours look wrong. Marvellous things the eyes, the scenes all looked perfectly normal to me on the day.

Great Crested Grebe

Young Grey Heron

This young Grey Heron looks like a nice friendly bird, not like the older version below, a true predator.

Grey Heron - Pagham North Wall

Also at the North Wall a Common Tern but not much else.

Common Tern

I did walk down to the lagoon to see the Female Scaup that had been reported there but I seem to have picked the one day when there were no sightings.

Actually there was one other sighting. The local police checking out the north wall, the lagoon, and the spit, and challenging one suspicious individual out on the mud. Given the recent vandalism to the spit hide this can only be seen as positive.

Patrolling the Harbour

Do this every day and he is going to have an impressive year list in his note book.

When the birding has been slow I have been adding to my collection of Butterfly and Dragonfly pictures although it is only in the last couple of weeks that the butterflies have started to appear in any numbers.

Another Four Spotted Chaser

Silver-studded Blue

Speckled Wood

Small Tortoiseshell

Adonis Blue

There have been some missed shots as well. An Emperor Dragonfly, a truly impressive species, that did not land in all the time I watched it. I took about fifty shots of it in flight but there is not a single decent shot amongst them. Also  a Green Hairstreak, searched for but not found. Next time perhaps.