Painted Ladies

I have been hanging on to this blog with the intention of adding a Clouded Yellow, as a way to finish off the butterflies for the year. Sadly they don't seem to be arriving in the usual numbers. I have only seen one and that was on turbo power disappearing into the distance.

The pictures are now starting to look a little dated with most of the insects coming to the end of their flight periods. So published now with, hopefully, a Clouded Yellow still to come.

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Common Blue

Common Blue

Small Copper

Keeled Skimmer

Migrant Hawker

Broad-bodied Chaser

Black Darter

There are still a few Butterflies and Dragonflies around but this is really the end of another season. Time seems to go by ever more quickly.

Four-spotted Chaser

I have spent a couple of days and have walked a good few miles of river bank already this year looking for the more unusual dragonflies and in particular the Club-tailed Dragonfly. There have been a couple of sightings on the Arun and I know where to look for them, or at least I thought I did, but so far nothing. There have been a few possibles at a distance but nothing that I could photograph or really be certain about.

Instead I have had to fall back on some of the more common and more easily photographed species. In particular the Broad-bodied and Four-spotted Chasers. At least they put down occasionally and allow you to get a bit closer.

Four-spotted Chaser

Broad-bodied Chaser

I am hoping that it is just everything being a bit late this year. The eastern side of the country has been cold and very windy for a couple of weeks now but with the sun coming out and the temperatures going up, things should start to improve. It is odd though, that the much smaller and weaker flying Damselflies seem to be about in good numbers.

Common Blue Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly

Blue-tailed Damselfly in teneral state just after emerging

Azure Damselfly

Common Blue Damselfly

Common Blue in mating heart

I am not sure on the one below. I think it is probably a Common Blue female.

Dragonfly hunting has been a bit disappointing so far and with spring seeming to be squeezed into shorter timescales this year I am running out of time to see all my targets.

Brown Hawker

There was not much doing on the birding scene today so we went to have a look for Brown Hairstreaks at Tillets Lane Fields. There were lots of the usual browns about and a good number of Purple Hairstreaks that were staying up in the trees, but no sign of the Brown Hairstreaks. Tillets Lane Fields themselves were looking a little overgrown and unloved, except by the dog walkers that is.

Looking for an Essex Skipper but this one is a Small

Slightly faded female Silver-washed Fritillary

With nothing very exciting on show at Tillets Fields we decided to look in at New Bridge near Billingshurst, a new site for us.  It looks promising, we saw Banded Demoiselles, Brown Hawkers, Darters, and a Migrant Hawker.

Banded Demoiselle

There were a few Brown Hawkers about and for once they were landing although only for a few seconds at a time.

Slightly out of focus Brown Hawker

and below the same Brown Hawker with a female but they flew before I could get a clear shot.

Brown Hawkers

We saw the Dragonfly below up in a tree. It was too small to be a Southern or Common Hawker which only really leaves a Migrant Hawker but I would really have liked a clearer picture of it.

Migrant Hawker

Next stop was Lords Piece. Dave had picked up an Emerald Damselfly there a couple of days ago but we could not find any sign of them today.

I spent a long time trying to get a decent picture of the Black-tailed Skimmers but, as is their way, they were all putting down on the mud where it was hard to get a clear shot of them.

Black-tailed Skimmer

There were still a good number of Broad-bodied Chasers about and some of them were still in good condition.

Broad-bodied Chasers

Broad-bodied Chaser

and this pair of Common Darters seemed oblivious of the camera gradually getting closer.

Common Darters

Common Darters

Common Darter

I was hoping that one of these would be a Ruddy Darter but they all show the yellow stripes on the leg which are diagnostic of the Common.

Common Darter

An interesting day out and a couple of decent pictures but in general the numbers all seem to be a bit down this year. Even the decent birds that are about seem to be boycotting Sussex.

Marbled White

We had a tour around a few of the local sites today looking for photo opportunities with Birds, Butterflies and Dragonflies, with Dave also keeping an eye open for any unusual orchids. It made a change to spend some time on a few of the more usual species rather than focusing on life or year ticks.

First stop was Pagham Harbour where a summer plumage Spotted Redshank was to be found on the Ferry Pool. It was a great bird to see but it stayed just out of range of the cameras. This seems to be the norm on the Ferry Pool these days. As I  remember it, in the past we would get birds closer to the road giving much better views. Perhaps it's just the volume of traffic that you now get on the Selsey Road.

The harbour at Church Norton looked really picturesque in the early morning sun but there were very few birds about. We had hoped to get improved shots of the Hudsonian Whimbrel but if it was still there it was tucked into one of the creeks out of sight.

Next stop was the meadow at Whiteways roundabout on the A29. With the morning warming up there were plenty of butterflies on the wing but the real bonus was freshly emerged Marbled Whites. Not only were they in pristine condition but they are a lot easier to photograph when they are perched out drying out their wings.

Freshly emerged Marbled White

All the above shots are males. The females have a shorter body, golden brown markings on the underside (instead of black), and a golden brown leading edge to the upper wings.

Female - Golden brown leading edge to upper wing

Female on the left - picture from June 2014

Other butterflies seen at Whiteways meadow were Ringlets, Small Heath, and Small Skippers.

Ringlet

Small Heath

Next stop on our tour was Lords Piece. If anything there were too many Dragonflies and Damselflies there. The constant movement meant that nothing had time to settle and the insects rarely stayed on a perch for more than a few seconds. This is really a better site for early morning or late afternoon visits but we did get a few shots.

Ovipositing female Emperor 

Broad-bodied Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser

Four-spotted Chaser
- this one has additional dark markings at the wing tips so is probably of the form praenubila

Another unusual sight were these two Blue-tailed Damselflies. Females come in a variety of colours but this one is an andromorph having the colour of a male. I thought the idea was that she would not be recognised as a female and so avoid harassment by the males. She would then change to a green colour when she reached sexual maturity. The strategy does not seem to have worked in this case.

Mateing pair with andromorph female

We stopped off at Pulborough Brooks as I needed to stock up on bird food. We had intended to walk down to the Black Pool to look for more dragonflies but with the time moving on and the temperature rising we decided to skip this and move on to Woods Mill.

There is a reasonably showy Water Rail with a couple of chicks that we wanted to photograph at Woods Mill. Unfortunately I think we left it a little too long and the chicks are now juveniles. We got good views of one but the mother did not show.

Juvenile Water Rail

Dave staked out a tree where we could hear a Turtle Dove purring. Having already photographed it I went off in search of Demoiselles which I had managed to miss so far this year.

Beautiful Demoiselle (male)

Beautiful Demoiselle (female)

Despite lots of purring the Turtle Dove did not show in the open but there were at least more dragonfly opportunities around the pool whilst we waited.

Four-spotted Chaser

I came home with about 400 shots in the camera. My usual keeper rate is about two in a hundred but with the pristine specimens of Marbled White it rose to about twenty five percent today. What do you do with about sixty almost identical pictures of a Marbled White?