Emperors and Admirals

A trip over to the Knepp Estate on Sunday, looking for Purple Emperors, was successful in that I saw plenty of them but also disappointing, in that I did not see any on the ground. As usual they were patrolling territories at the tops of the trees, with just the one, pictured below, venturing about half way down and giving  a few record shot opportunities.

I would think that this is a freshly emerged individual that is just hardening off before he enters the skirmishes above him.

Freshly emerged male Purple Emperor

nearly an upper wing view

White Admirals were also on the wing and like the Emperors they were squabbling over territory. There are a huge number of trees around Knepp but the two I saw both appear to want the same space. Strange enough I saw a couple disputing the same spot last year. There must be something there that they want.

White Admiral

White Admiral

Underwing view

Lots more purple around the trees in the form of Purple Hairstreaks. Again a butterfly of the tree tops where they feed on honeydew secreted by aphids. They do occasionally come down to nectar on flowers but not today. An open wing shot of one of these down low is second only to a pristine Chequered Skipper on my butterfly hit list.

Purple Hairstreak - just a bit too high in the tree

and showing me what an open wing shot looks like if only I could get a bit closer

Lots of other butterflies around including a Small Tortoiseshell. Worth recording as I haven't seen many of these about this year.

Small Tortoiseshell

Plenty of Large Skippers and Marbled Whites

Large Skipper

Marbled White

And my first Small Skippers of the year. I had forgotten how small they are and initially took them to be a cloud of  flies buzzing round a muddy puddle.

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

Small Skipper

The butterfly year list is looking a bit healthier after the past weeks focus and I also added my first Broad-bodied Chaser of the year.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

I've not spent much time butterflying this year but we did go to Park Heath Corner to record the Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. They have always been one of those, must see every year species, although that may fade now that the population at Park Heath is becoming more stable.

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary

They are usually hyperactive and difficult to photograph but we must have got the timing and weather just right this year. Frequent clouds passing over left the butterflies stationary and open winged waiting for the sun to re-appear.

Other butterflies are starting to show after the summer break but some of our favourite spots don't seem to have got going yet. Sunshine and higher temperatures promised over the next week should liven things up

Below a few firsts for the year spotted whilst out looking for Orchids.

Marbled White

Ringlet

Ringlet

Large Skipper

Large Skipper

Common Blue

Perhaps I have not been looking as hard this year but there don't seem to be as many butterflies around as usual.

Large Blue

Last year I made two trips to Collard Hill to see the Large Blues. On the first I dipped completely, not seeing a single butterfly all day. I think I was perhaps a little over eager, going as soon as the first reports came through and then picking a cool overcast day. They were, of course, seen in good numbers the day after I visited.

On my second trip I did at least see a couple of specimens but they were very active and I had difficulty getting a photograph. My record shots were so poor that I didn't even bother to put them on the blog. That left me with a butterfly list this year, with the Swallowtail on top, as my last UK butterfly, and the Large Blue in second place. 

This time I waited. There have been reports of Large Blues around for a couple of weeks but the weather has been cool and overcast and the weather reports containing promises of breaks in the cloud cover, have been unreliable. It's a long trip to make if I called it wrong and dipped again.

I had today pencilled in for a possible visit. I would have preferred a promise of sunshine but at least the temperature looked as though it would be warm enough to get them flying. I couldn't afford to wait any longer, so I picked Dave up and we headed off towards Collard Hill.

It did not look promising when we arrived but we spotted our first butterfly within a few minutes of climbing the hill. It flew a short distance landing in this bush where I managed a quick picture before it disappeared into cover deep in the bush. We staked it out waiting for the sun to come out and for the butterfly to reappear but it didn't happen.

We had an early lunch and with the cloud thinning a bit, the temperature rose and we started to get the occasional sighting of Large Blues. This time the cooler conditions probably helped us. The butterflies were flying but they were not hyperactive. If you could spot where they landed when the temperature dipped, you had a good chance of getting a photograph.

We stayed about three hours and probably had ten sightings in that time. I am sure some were of the same butterflies but this was far better than I had last year.

I was happy to get the pictures but there is still scope for some improvement. Perhaps with a little more sun I could get a better depth of field. I can see that I will be going back next year for another go. Maybe next time a mating pair.


And below some of the supporting cast including my first Marbled White of the year.

Marbled White

Meadow Brown

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?

Chalkhill Blues

Monday, and I picked up two more year ticks. Chalkhill Blue at High and Over and a Small Copper at the gallops above Butchershole car park. We had visited Mill Hill the previous week looking for the Chalkhills but there was nothing showing. This week High and Over had hundreds of them, all freshly emerged.

Female Chalkhill Blue

Male Chalkhill Blue

Male Chalkhill Blue

and although freshly emerged they were not wasting any time

Mating pair

I managed a record shot of the Small Copper but it was not sharp and I also got the shot below of an Essex Skipper. Again not brilliant but at least its evidence that I have seen one this year.

Essex Skipper

We finished off the day at Birling Gap. There were a lot of butterflies around but they were mostly well past their best. There was one female Dark Green Fritillary with unusual colouring but I had only a brief glimpse of it and then had to watch as it disappeared over the road and out of sight.

Tuesday and we were out again, this time at Houghton Forest. It looked promising when we first got there although it was mostly Skippers and Marble Whites that were flying  along with the usual Meadow Browns and Ringlets.

Marbled White

Marbled White

There were a few Silver-washed Fritillaries flying and we had a few brief distractions, such as, when  Turtle Doves were heard and when a Dragonfly, probably a Brown Hawker, flew past, but the day did not really get going. It gradually clouded over and with rain threatening we headed back to the car.

We were photographing Gatekeepers by the car when we spotted an unusual one. There was no time to get a decent picture as the rain hit us hard so we had to sit it out in the car and hope the butterfly would still be around when it finished.

Fortunately it was still there and we managed to get our shots. You can see by comparing the two pictures below that the first one has additional black spots on the upper side of its front wing. Its clearly a Gatekeeper and checking we decided that it was ab. excessa. This is our second aberration in the past couple of weeks. I have no idea if this is a rare version or not but it does have the effect of making you look more closely at all the ordinary butterflies that you would normally be ignoring.

Gatekeeper ab. excessa

Standard Gatekeeper

 We checked out a couple of other sites in the area but with the rain still threatening we called it a day and headed for home.