Brown Argus

It will be interesting to see what this years Big Butterfly Count comes up with. My own experience is that the butterflies are there, but they are in much lower numbers than I have seen before. Some, such as Tortoiseshells and Commas, have been few and far between this year.

Two weeks ago I was walking through meadows and on chalk hillsides covered in wild flowers and I was having difficulty finding any butterflies. Then in the past week or so, things have started to improve. We had a good emergence of Chalkhill Blues, then, in the last few days, Brimstone, Peacock, Painted Lady, and Red Admirals all in good condition and in good numbers.

One walk along a ride in Houghton Forest really raised my spirits. There were hundreds of these freshly emerged butterflies and even a good number of slightly worn Silver-washed Fritillaries. It was just like old times again.

With this years butterfly season drawing to a close I am just keeping my fingers crossed for a recovery in numbers next year.

Brown Argus - Newtimber Hill

A quick trip back to Newtimber Hill gave me a few good finds. This Brown Argus took a bit of chasing but I eventually got the pictures I wanted.

Brown Argus - Newtimber Hill

It is always easier to get the pictures when the butterflies are otherwise engaged and this pair of mating Silver-spotted Skippers was no exception.

Mating Pair Silver-spotted Skippers - Newtimber Hill

Another unusual sight was this pair of Painted Ladies. I have only ever seen them as singletons before. I assume they are male and female. They were sticking very close together but I did not get any action shots. I also noticed that the top one has an extra white spot in the wing tip. Possibly an aberration.

Painted Ladies  - Newtimber Hill

Peacock   -  nice but it looked much more vivid in real life.

Wall - Newtimber Hill

Brimstone - Houghton Forest

Brimstone  -  Houghton Forest

Another great butterfly. A blue version of the normally brown female of the Common Blue butterfly. You might need to read that twice!

Common Blue Female

Common Blue Female

A walk around Tillets Fields gave us plenty of Purple Hairstreaks but as with my previous visit they stayed mostly in the tops of the trees. Fortunately one did drop out of the skies at our feet. It was a bit tatty but still worth recording.

Purple Hairstreak  - Tillets Fields

Dave also spotted a Brown Haistreak at Tillets but unfortunately it was gone by the time I got there.

Red Admiral  -  Houghton Forest

Red Admiral -  Houghton Forest

Speckled Wood  -  Madgeland Woods

Houghton Forest also had the largest number of Dragonflies that I have seen in one small location. I reckon around 40 in the area where we park the car although they weren't exactly lining up to be counted. They looked like Darters and Hawkers but none were landing to enable a definite identification. We also saw large numbers of Southern Hawkers at Madgeland Woods and these were a bit more obliging.

Southern Hawker

Southern Hawker

I am missing a few of my usual butterflies this year, White Admiral, Purple Emperor, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, White Hairstreak, plus all the northern species but overall it has been a good year. There is also still a chance of connecting with Brown Hairstreaks and Clouded Yellows before the month is out and maybe even a late Long-tailed Blue so I need to keep looking.

Silver-spotted Skipper

The search for the Silver-spotted Skipper has been on for nearly a week now. I saw one on Newtimber Hill last Tuesday but could not get a picture of it. Sunday I went back and had a possible sighting of one but again no picture. Monday Dave went for a look and reported around fifty seen and today, Tuesday, we went back and found two hundred plus.

Newtimber has an amazing range of wild flowers and grasses and there were thousands of butterflies on the wing. Admittedly most of them were well worn Meadow Browns but we also saw Chalkhill Blues, probably in the hundreds, Commas, Peacock, Small Copper, Tortoiseshell, Ringlets, Marbled White, Small Heath, and a large variety of Moths.

I also caught a brief flash of yellow as a butterfly disappeared behind a bush. I only need a Clouded Yellow to catch Dave up on the number of species seen this year. Its not a race but it still had me sprinting up a forty five degree slope to get a better view, much to Dave's amusement, when I had to tell him that it was only a Brimstone.

Mint Moth  Pyrausta aurata

Small Tortoiseshell

Mating pair Chalkhill Blues

Female Chalkhill blue with at least fifteen larvae of the Trombidium breei  parasitic mites

We have seen infestations by the Trombidium breei  larvae on a range of different butterfly species although it is probably most evident on the Marbled Whites. The mites live on the blood of the butterfly but they do not appear to cause the butterfly any significant problems. This makes sense, after all there is no point in killing off your host and food supply. However, most of the infested butterflies carry two or three of the mites, fifteen looks a bit excessive and I wonder how this female will cope. If you want more information click on the link below.

Conradt, L., Corbet, S.A., Roper, T.J., and Bedworth, E.J. (2002), Parasitism by the mite Trombidium breei on four U.K. butterfly species. Ecological Entomology, 27:651-659. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2311.2002.00461.x

Small Copper

Moth - but I have not had time to identify it yet.
Now identified as Pyrausta nigrata. See message from Tom below.

I just have to keep my fingers crossed on the arrival of the Clouded Yellows from across the channel.

Grayling

Butterflying has one big advantage over birding, if you do your research and get your timing right the butterflies will be there. That doesn't always happen with the birds. I think our only real failure this year has been in searching for Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries in Sussex where three trips to Park Corner Heath have left me without a result.

Monday saw us out again, this time at Windover Hill looking for Grayling. I didn't really know what to expect. I had never seen a Grayling before and their cryptic camouflage is supposed to make them difficult to find. That was the case when we first arrived on the hill. We found Marbled Whites, Wall, and Small Coppers, along with the usual suspects but no Grayling.

Rather tatty Wall on a cow pat 

This one in better condition but not giving open wing shots

Whilst searching for the Grayling we also found a few moths including a freshly emerged Oak Egger and a Yellow Pearl mecyna flavalis. The latter is a rarity in Sussex although it seems quiet common on Windover Hill where there is reported to be a colony of them.

Oak Egger - freshly emerges and still blowing up its wings

Oak Egger

Yellow Pearl mecyna flavalis

This was our first visit to Windover Hill. It looks to be a great site for butterflies but we were beginning to think that we had come a week too early. Fortunately Dave had wandered off in pursuit of a Small Copper and I was soon chasing after him when he found our first Grayling of the day. There was the usual scramble to make sure we both had a record shot but then when we looked around it was clear that there were a good number flying. We counted five in the air at the same time but that was just in the one small location. Over the side of the hill there must have been at least twenty.

Grayling showing cryptic camouflage

 The Grayling tended to land on bare earth and broken rock where the camouflage was very effective but this did not make for a good picture. In fact it proved very difficult to get any distance between the Grayling and its background. An out of focus plain green background would have shown the detail much more effectively but I guess you can't have everything - at least not this time.

The eye pops up as a defence response

They nearly always settle with the wings closed

Then just as we were starting to get a bit bored we came across a mating pair and a few more pictures were taken.

Mating pair

Tuesday and we were hoping to repeat our success by finding a Silver-spotted Skipper. This was another new location, Newtimber Hill, and for me another new butterfly. The search was a partial success. Dave found the skipper and managed to take a photograph. I did get to see it but just as I pressed the shutter button for my record shot it took off. It moved with surprising speed for a Skipper, we didn't see it go and we could not relocate it despite a couple of hours of looking. So if you want to see a picture of the Silver-spotted Skipper you will have to look at Dave's blog site.                                                                          

We had regular visits from a Small Copper whilst we were looking. This was showing blue spots on its rear wings and is of the form caeruleopunctata  or should it be referred to as an ab. caeruleopunctata?   The books do not seem to be clear on the difference between an aberration (ab) and a "form". At the moment I am taking it that they are both caused by the same triggers but an aberration is a variation that is a rarity whilst a form is a variation that is consistent and common.   If you are interested read more about it here.                                                                                                                    

                                                                     

Small Copper ab. caeruleopunctata

Small Copper

Peacock

We made a quick trip to Chantry Hill in the afternoon. There were a lot of Dark Green Fritillaries  on the track between the car park and the hill but most of these were in poor condition. There were also a good number of Marbled Whites and these looked surprisingly fresh.

It was a hot day and I was beginning to feel tired but then I spotted a pair of mating Dark Green Fritillaries. I only managed one quick shot before they took off and disappeared down the hill.

Mating Dark Green Fritillaries

There was clearly a good shot to be had here and I was quickly off in pursuit. I did manage to catch up once about half way down the hill but they were flying again almost as soon as I got to them. By the time I got to the bottom of the hill they had disappeared altogether. It was only then that it dawned on me that I had to climb all the way back up and it's a big hill. Butterflying can be hard work.