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.

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."