Marbled White

Melanargia galathea - Ragpits, Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire, 24/07/2012

Chalkhill Blue

Male, Lysandra coridon - Radnage, Buckinghamshire, 12/08/2012

The flowery slopes overlooking Radnage Church were glittering with hundreds of Chalkhill Blues Lysandra coridon throughout the first half of August. Radnage is one of my favourite places, an archetypal Chilterns chalk downland decorated with Knapweeds, Thyme and Scabious and alive with butterflies.

Mating Pair, Lysandra coridon - Radnage, Buckinghamshire, 12/08/2012

 Mating Pair, Lysandra coridon - Radnage, Buckinghamshire, 12/08/2012

Mating Pair, Lysandra coridon - Radnage, Buckinghamshire, 12/08/2012

Marbled White

The Summer is drifting past and Marbled Whites are already coming to end of their brief fragile lives. This very ragged butterfly,fading to silvery and brown, looked strangely beautiful in the evening sun as it nectared on one of the last Pyramidal Orchids at Ragpits. It always feel slightly melancholic as the butterflies slowly fade away marking the passing of another summer. I hate to think that I will not see many of them until Summer comes around again.

Marbled White, Melanargia galathea on Pyramidal Orchid - Ragpits, Buckinghamshire, 05/08/2012

Silver-washed Fritillary

I found this stunning Silver-washed Fritillary Argynnis paphia basking in the early morning sun at Finmere Woods, near Aylesbury. The females are darker and more heavily spotted than the bright orange males and tend to be less conspicuous, often keeping to shadier areas of a wood as they search for clumps of Common Dog-violets growing at the base of Oak trees. The eggs are laid in crevices in the tree-bark, where the caterpillars hibernate before emerging the following year to feed on the Violets. 

 Female Silver-washed Fritillary Argynnis paphia - Finmere Wood, Buckinghamshire, 21/07/2012

Chalkhill Blue

It's turned out to be a great year for one of my favourite Butterflies the Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon. Last week, bathed in sunshine, Ivinghoe Beacon was glittering with hundreds of these beautiful little Butterflies.

Male Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

Male Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

 Female Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

Male Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

Male Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

Male Chalkhill Blue Lysandra coridon - Ivinghoe Beacon, 27/07/2012

Purple Emperor

On hot, humid mornings Purple Emperors can usually be relied on to disgrace themselves in front of the cameras! This stunning male was photographed feeding on something unspeakable, at Bernwood, in Oxfordshire.

Purple Emperor Apatura iris - Bernwood, Oxfordshire,  22/07/2012

Meadow Brown

Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina -  Bernwood Meadows, Oxfordshire, 22/07/2012

It's been heartening to witness so many Butterflies on the wing as they make the most of the much needed hot weather of the last few days. Last weekend we went down to Bernwood, near Thame, land were thrilled to see the flower meadow positively shimmering with Marbled Whites, Ringlets and an astonishing number of Meadow Browns. I suppose the terrible weather in June and early July has meant that instead of coming out over an extended period, the mid-summer Nymphalidae have all hatched at once. I know that they are one of our commoner butterflies but I can't remember seeing so many Meadow Browns before. Sadly Tortoiseshells, Peacocks, Commas and Red Admirals seem to have been hit very badly by the weather and I haven't seen a Common Blue since May. These are worrying times for some of our hard pressed Butterflies.

Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina -  Ragpits, Buckinghamshireshire, 24/07/2012

 Meadow Brown Maniola jurtina -  Ivinghoe Beacon, Oxfordshire, 08/07/2012

Dark Green Fritillary

Arriving back at Gatwick Airport after a week in Bulgaria, a beautiful, unspoilt country simply alive with Butterflies, I was depressed, but I suppose not that surprised, to find the weather at home as terrible as ever, with barely a Butterfly to be seen all week. Sunday turned out to be that rare thing this Summer, a sunny pleasant day, and I decided to head for the hills where I was immensely cheered to find good numbers of Dark Green Fritillaries, Meadow Browns and Marbled Whites racing around the breezy slopes of Ivinghoe Beacon enjoying the warm weather. 

Dark Green Fritillary Argynnis aglaja, Ivinghoe Beacon, (15/07/2012)

Dark Green Fritillary Argynnis aglaja, Ivinghoe Beacon, (15/07/2012)

Marbled White  Melanargia galathea, Ivinghoe Beacon, (15/07/2012)

Small Heath

Small Heath Coenonympha pamphilus, Pitstone, Buckinghamshire (27/05/2012)

Small Heath Coenonympha pamphilus, Pitstone, Buckinghamshire (27/05/2012)

Small Blue

Several days of hot weather have brought Small Blues Cupido minimus out in amazing munbers. I spent a couple of hours today, photographing these tiny, active butterflies at Pitstone and simply lost count of how many I saw, but there must have been hundreds. Dingy and Grizzled Skippers along with good numbers of Small Heaths and Common Blues make for a great mornings Butterflying.

Small Blue  Cupido minimus, Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, (27/05/2012)

 Small Blue  Cupido minimus, Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, (27/05/2012)

Small Blue  Cupido minimus, Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, (27/05/2012)

Butterflies At Last

After weeks of relentlessly grim weather Saturday dawned bright and sunny, and I decided that it would be a good day to look for butterflies. I started out at College Lake but a cold breeze was whipping across the lake and there was not a butterfly to be seen. My initial excitement started to wane, but a couple of Cuckoos calling in the distance and a hunting Hobby cheered me up, so I headed for Pitstone, where a little cutting at the base of a sunny chalk bank, once part of a quarry, always proves good for butterflies in Spring. The site was warm and sheltered and as I had hoped, full of activity. Dingy Skippers were all over the place, chasing each other over the short grass, and with a little searching I found a beautiful pristine Grizzly Skipper nectaring on a Buttercup. I stumbled across a Green Hairstreak, quietly resting on a leaf and watched fascinated as a small but ambitious spider lassoed one of its legs with silk and made a hopeless attempt to drag it away. This little scene kept me amused for a while until the Hairstreak grew weary of being pestered and flew away.

Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi, being lassoed by a spider, Pitstone (12/05/12)

I was leaving I bumped into some friends and decided to spend some time at Pitstone Fen, helping them with a butterfly survey. Wandering slowly round the fen we found a Small Blue, more Dingy Skippers and a few Green Hairstreaks. After this pleasant little interlude I headed to Ivinghoe Beacon to hunt for Duke of Burgundies and soon found a few of these beautiful little jewels in their usual sheltered gully. After so many days of terrible weather it was really heartening to feel the heat of the sun on the back of my neck and be surrounded by butterflies again.

Duke of Burgundy Hamearis lucina, Ivinghoe Beacon (13/05/12)

Female Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines, Ivinghoe Beacon (12/05/12)

Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi, Pitstone (12/05/12)

Dingy Skipper Erynnis tages, Pitstone (12/05/12)

Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae, Pitstone (12/05/12)

Spring....At Last!

Small Tortiseshell Aglais urticae

The Butterfly season is well under way thanks to the spell of warm, dry weather that we have been enjoying for the last week.
Whilst working today, I spotted several Brimstones making the most of the sunshine, along with a Small Tortoiseshell, a Peacock and my first Holly Blue of the year. Orange-tips and Commas were also been reported locally at the weekend. Today Wilstone Reservoir hosted a flock of 20 beautiful Little Gulls and with small numbers of Sand Martin, Wheatear and Chiffchaff all arriving in the last few days it feels as if Spring really is here at last.

The First Brimstone

Brimstone Gonepteryx ramni (21/09/2008)

Amazingly, only an hour or so after writing the previous post, in which I was looking forward, more in hope than expectation to the first butterfly of the year, I came across a beautiful male Brimstone in a little patch of sunlight at the edge of a forest clearing near Wendover. I was surprised to see a butterfly as the day did not feel that warm, in fact the temperature reading in my car on the way home only read 9 degrees Celsius. What an nice surprise!

Early Butterfies

Small Tortoiseshell Aglais urticae

I'm getting fed up with winter now and eagerly looking forward to Spring. The air smells different, the woods are full of birdsong, daffodils, crocuses and aconites are in bloom and surely it's only a matter of time before I see the first Brimstone.

To look forward you sometimes need to look back, so here are a few Butterfly photos taken over the last few years, although obviously not all in Spring. It is possible to see all these beauties in March if the weather is warm enough.

Brimstone Gonepterx rhamni

Orange-tip Anthocharis cardamines

Comma Polygonia c-album

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta

Brown Hairstreak

Brown Hairstreak Thecla betulae - Whitecross Woods (30/07/2011)

The Brown Hairstreak is an elusive butterfly that I have struggled to photograph for years, that is until this July when at last I struck gold at Whitecross Woods in Oxfordshire. On two previous visits a couple of males had stayed resolutely at the top of a large Ash 'master tree' feeding on aphid honeydew and waiting for females, so I was not feeling very confident. Wandering slowly down one of the flowery rides enjoying the sun, I was surprised to bump into a couple of birding friends whom I had not seen for some time. After catching up on news they told me about a spot where a Brown Hairstreak had apparently been seen earlier that morning. They had spent a fruitless hour searching the area and had just given up. After parting company I hurried down the ride to the place they had described and instantly found a beautiful fresh male nectaring on a Knapweed flower. I couldn't believe my luck! The butterfly was incredibly obliging and at one point I encouraged it to walk on to my finger and so that I could reposition it on a better flower head. After a while it flew into a nearby Salix to rest and I realised guiltily that I should try to tell my friends, and not having their phone numbers hurried off to catch them up, only to find that they had already left. After mating females descend to lay eggs but male Brown Hairstreaks rarely descend to feed so I felt especially privileged to spent so much time with such an obliging and pretty little butterfly. Without doubt one of my wildlife 'moments' of the year!

Brown Hairstreak Thecla betulae - Whitecross Woods (30/07/2011)

Late Butterflies and Dragonflies

The butterfly and dragonfly season just seems to go and on. On Sunday morning with the weather unseasonably warm, and we decided to take a long walk in the Chilterns, the plan being to end up at one of our favourite pubs. It felt more like a spring day and I was not surprised to see a few Red Admirals, a couple of Peacocks and a Brimstone out enjoying the mellow sun. Red Admirals are immigrants from Southern Europe and North Africa but there is now evidence that they are successfully overwintering in Britain. I recently saw a photograph of a Red Admiral resting on a snowdrop, taken in January! I was much more surprised to see a male Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum out and about. The flight period for this familiar little dragonfly is from late June to late October, making this a very late individual. Only a few days ago I came across a Migrant Hawker patrolling a pond in a garden I was working in - another late dragonfly. 

A Red Admiral was out in the late afternoon sun today, probably my latest ever butterfly record and possibly not my last sighting of the year as there are few more mild days to come. It certainly makes the Winter seem shorter!

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum - male

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum - female

Red Admiral

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (5/7/2008)

This morning I found a beautiful Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta, basking lazily on a clump of flowering ivy in the mellow late Autumn sun. It has been a good year for these elegant butterflies and there are still plenty on the wing in Gardens and Orchards taking advantage of the mild October weather. Sadly, it looks as if the butterfly year is about to end with the weather forecast to turn cold, windy and wet next week. It will be a long wait until Spring when the first Brimstones are on the wing again!

 Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (5/7/2008)

Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (19/7/2006)