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.

Purple Emperor

I paid a visit to the Knepp estate today. I am not sure if I am a fan of the wilding project or not. To start with it is not really wild. It has more footpaths, tracks  and signposts than any area of countryside that I know and I cannot help feeling that it is a manufactured environment to attract wildlife. Still, that is not necessarily a bad thing and they do need to generate an income to support the project they are working on.


In the end I went because it is now the premier site in the country for Purple Emperors. Counts of 140+ and 130 + have been reported there over the past couple of weeks. I had tried a few of my traditional sites for the Emperors but my only sightings were high in the trees with nothing coming down to the ground, so I decided to give Knepp a go.


I didn't see 140 but my count did get into double figures, just, I saw ten. Most were in the tops of the trees with only one coming down and then only for a few seconds.

Purple Emperor

Perhaps more impressive were the numbers of Purple Hairstreaks. Record shots like the one below were easy to come by but what I really wanted was an open wing shot of a male Purple Hairstreak. It has been close to the top of my butterfly wish list for a long time. I didn't get one, despite hours of waiting for them to come down out of the trees, but my thanks to the guy that showed me his perfect picture. I really appreciated that. It even convinced me to waste another hour standing in the hot sun waiting for my chance to come along.

Plenty of other butterflies about particularly if you like Meadow Browns.

White Admiral

Large Skipper

Marbled White

Small Skipper

There were also a number of Silver-washed Fritillary about but they weren't stopping to have their pictures taken.


The free roaming animals often come as a surprise. This piglet following me down the path before disappearing into the undergrowth.

There were also some interesting Dragonflies. My first Southern Hawker of the year. I could have done with a cleaner background but still worth recording.

Southern Hawker

There were also White-legged Damselflies, again my first of the year. I was surprised to see them so far from a river where they are usually seen. However, checking it does appear that they move away from the rivers during the maturation period.

White-legged Damselfly - immature female lactea phase

White-legged Damselfly - male

another immature female

I did have one heart stopping moment. White Stork in the distance but then I realised there were a pair of them in a very well protected compound.

I couldn't find any reference to them on the web. I assume this is part of a re-introduction program but it would be nice to know if it is purely a Knepp initiative or is part of a national program.  If they breed there is a good chance that the chicks will return to nest in the same area once they mature. Look out for nesting platforms going up over the next few years.

Note July26th  -  Statement from the Knepp Estate on their part in a White Stork rewilding project,   (knepp.co.uk/white-storks). It is good to get an understanding of what is happening and an explanation for the White Stork Sightings around the area. Lets hope the project is a great success.

I should also apologise for straying off the public footpaths. My excuse - perhaps not quite enough of the signposting that I commented on above.

Meadow Brown Aberration

A trip up to Tillets Lane Fields on Monday gave me Purple Hairstreaks and Essex Skippers taking me over my target of forty species for the year. I am a couple of days behind my butterflying buddy Dave but catching up fast. We are now thinking of a final year total more in the range of forty five to forty eight.

The butterflying this year has been great fun and helps occupy those summer days when the birding is slow. I was wondering what to do once I had seen all the British butterflies - or at least all of those within easy reach of Sussex. I now have the answer - aberrations. We came across this Meadow Brown aberration in Tillets Fields.

Meadow Brown aberration  Albino - See note at end of blog

Reading up on aberrations there are about twenty six recognised aberrations for the Meadow Brown alone. We thought initially that this was ab. Cinerea but on further investigation it looks more like a cross between ab. cinerea and ab. radiata. Anyway next summer I will be out hunting aberrations, it looks far more challenging than plain ordinary butterflies.

Having said that we did not have much luck with the Purple Hairstreaks. We could see them flying at the top of the tree but they were not coming down. This, along with the White-letter Hairstreaks, now gives us two butterflies that we have seen but have been unable to get record shots for. On the positive side I did see my first Essex Skippers and a first Gatekeeper for the year at the Tillets Lane site.

Gatekeeper

Silver-washed Fritillary

and the site also has a number of moths

Swallow-tailed Moth

Tuesday and we decided on a visit to Botany Bay Wood to look for the Purple Emperors. As we arrived at the triangle there was one on the ground with a couple of people taking photographs. The Emerors seem indifferent to people being close to them but to me it brings back all the negative feelings of a twitch. Too many people and not enough connection to the nature you came to see. However, that did not stop me grabbing a couple of pictures before we moved on looking for our "own" butterfly.

We eventually saw three or possibly four Purple Emperors on the ground. None of my shots contain that purple sheen that you are always looking for. In fact looked at in isolation they look more like the duller brown colouring of the female. However, it is very unlikely that the female would be down on the ground so we must have just been unlucky with the lighting.

It was nice to meet up with Colin Baker. Its good to talk to the experts, you learn a lot from them. Have a look at his website  "Lepi-photos".

Purple Emperor

Closed wing shot

Purple Emperor

Looks so much nicer against the green background

Ringlets are everywhere at the moment but this couple in particular seemed worth recording

Ringlets mating

and this Comma recorded a couple of days ago seemed worth adding to the blog. The paler orange suggest that this is of the form hutchinsoni the result of long periods of sunlight on the caterpillars from the spring hatchings.

Comma hutchinsoni

The sun is shinning outside. Do I do a few jobs around the house, do I go out birding, or do I go out butterflying. Difficult decisions to be made, that is between at least two of the options.


Note

Subsequent information (extracts below) from Colin Pratt, County Recorder suggests that the Meadow Brown is probably an albino rather than an abberation. and as such is probably even rarer. Can't be bad!

"Have consulted the leading man on butterfly varieties (Rupert Barrington) and your Meadow Brown is probably an albino (not a cinerea)."

"I wouldn't call it "only" an albino! The variation within your particular butterfly is far rarer than a cinerea."

Purple Emperor

With it still looking very quiet on the birding front we were out looking for Butterflies and Dragonflies again today. First stop was Hollingbury Park in Brighton for another go at the White-letter Hairtreaks. The result was similar to Tuesday in Preston Park. We could see the Hairstreaks at the top of the tree but they were not coming down to have their photographs taken.

You can tell I was getting a bit bored as I ended up taking pictures of Hoverflies.

Hoverfly - Chrysotoxum bicinctum 

We gave it a couple of hours and then moved on to Woods Mill to have a look for Dragonflies. Eight species were reported as having been seen earlier in the week but we could not find them. We saw Beautiful Demoiselles, an Empereor over the middle of the lake, and a couple of Blue Damselflies but nothing to get exited about. The pond has been cleaned up but I am not sure that it has done anything for the Damsel and Dragonfly populations. There were a lot more around before the pond was cleaned.

Nor did we see any of the reported White Admirals so once again I resorted to insects.

Dark Bush Cricket - Pholidoptera griseoptera

With it starting to look a bit like a wasted day we headed off to Madgeland Woods to have another go at the White Admirals. We had seen lots there on the Monday but they were very active and I had been unable to get a decent picture. Today was no different the White Admirals are very fast flying and very mobile. I stalked a number of them along the rides but could not get anywhere near them. Then I got one that settled for a few seconds. Its not exactly in prime condition but its a start.

White Admiral - with juvenile Alien hanging under leaf.

The real find of the day was made by Dave when he came across a Purple Emperor down on the ride. Again it was not in perfect condition but as it was my first ever Purple Emperor I am not complaining. It stayed for about half an hour probing the earth for the salts and minerals that it needs and taking very little notice as we took our pictures.

Purple Emperor

Using yellow probiscus to probe for salts and minerals

Pity about the damaged rear right wing

Still you can always effect a repair in Photoshop!

Other butterflies around included Skippers, Commas, Meadow Browns, Ringlets, and Silver-washed Fritillaries.

Silver-washed Fritillary

Small Skipper

Large Skipper

Meadow Brown

So a slow start to a day that was eventually rescued by a special butterfly. I have seen it, I have the record shot, but as with the White Admiral I now need that perfect shot of a freshly emerged specimen.

Emperors and Hairstreaks

Well I don't have much for the blog. I have been out with Dave over the past couple of days. We have seen a lot but I haven't really got the quality of pictures that I would like to support our sightings. Monday was spent looking in various woods at the back of Southwater in an attempt to find a Purple Emperor butterfly. We found a couple of master trees and had a fleeting glimpse of what could have been a Purple Emperor at the top of one of those trees, but nothing more. I also managed to see more White Admirals in one day than I think I have seen in the whole of my life and I don't have a single good picture to show for it. The best of the record shots is shown below:-

White Admiral

Tuesday we spent sitting under the Preston Park Elm trees. We could see White-letter Hairstreaks high up in the tree when we arrived and as the morning wore on they gradually came lower. Then around eleven o'clock it all went quiet. I was lucky to be able to grab a couple of quick record shots of the butterflies up in the trees, as we saw nothing but a few distant flashes for the rest of the day. It was a nice relaxing day sitting in the sun but a bit disappointing having to come home without a decent picture.

White-letter Hairstreak - heavy crop to give me a record shot

The best of the rest were a shot of a Small Skipper

Small Skipper

A mating pair of Marbled Whites

Marbled Whites - bronze female and grey male

and a couple of Dragonfly shots.

The first a newly emerged immature. I am not entirely sure of its identity as the colours and markings are not fully developed but I think it is a Southern Hawker. I also took a picture of the exuvia it left lower down on the reed.

Immature Southern Hawker - I think

Unfortunately this dragonfly is not going far. Its right rear wing has failed to open and this will severely limit its flying ability.

Exuvia

The other Dragonfly was a male Emperor. This was spotted in the flower beds at Preston Park.

Male Emperor Dragonfly

So an interesting couple of days but we are going to have to put a lot more effort into the Purple Emperors and White-letter Hairstreaks if we are to get the pictures we are looking for.