Mr and Mrs Orange-tip.

 Orange-tip butterflies have always seemed much more numerous in West Sussex, than East Sussex. This is probably down to the mowing culture of the different councils, as well as the West being more wooded. Certainly, when Lisa and I visited Ebernoe Common, it was very evident how many more Orange-tips were flying there, so with me visiting West Sussex more this year, I was hoping to actually get more photos than usual of them.

Strangely though, all of my better shots this year of Orange-tips have come from East Sussex. I have always wanted to get shots of the male and female together, and that opportunity came a couple of weeks ago on a cold breezy day. Not ideal for photographing butterflies, accept that when they are asleep they do at least keep still. With the light being so poor I did take quite a few shots to make sure I had some without wind shake and hopefully good focus. In the end I managed around 6 acceptable images that I was really pleased with. Just before the 2nd shot below, the sun almost came out, and that was enough to wake the male up enough for him to show a hint of orange.

Orange-tip pair. (female on left).

A few days later, and I was meeting Nigel in Abbotts Wood. It was only a few days earlier that we had been chatting about how unusual it was to see some types of butterflies mating, and how good it would be to see Orange-tips mating. I can only remember seeing it once, and that was in France!! Nigel too, had only seen it once, several years ago. Anyway, there I was walking to the area where we were meeting, I had already stopped and listened, and seen Nightingales, so I was feeling good about life. I then spotted 2 'white' butterflies about 50 metres ahead of me around a patch of Bluebells. They then descended together and I wondered if it was a pair of Green-veined White or Orange-tip possibly going to mate. By the time I had got to them and seen that they were indeed Orange-tips, they were already attached, sitting in a very nice position on top of a Bluebell. I now just hoped Nigel would hurry up and arrive. Moments later, my phone rang, and it was Nigel saying he was on his way. When I explained what I was looking at, he told me he had just had a mating pair near where he had parked his car!! Anyway, he was then able to see my pair as well, so he had seen 2 mating pairs in around 10 minutes!!

We both took many photos of my pair, and also from both sides. I actually prefer the ones looking into the sun as it really shows off the orange tips to the males' wings.

Mating Orange-tips on Bluebell.

The same pair looking into the light.

Another male Orange-tip hoping to get into the action.

A few more days later and I get lucky again with another male Orange-tip. This time on my local patch, and this time on Garlic Mustard, that this year has been growing in enormous quantities. It was a dullish day, but warm and muggy. The butterfly was awake, but with only a little bit of occasional sun, it wasn't too active. I had taken a few images, when it suddenly showed some of its forewing and a lovely flash of orange.

Male Orange-tip on Garlic Mustard.

Butterflies Lift My Spirits!!

 Yet another week has just passed with very little warmth, sunshine or calm conditions. In fact many days felt like winter had returned.

Rather than complaining though, I decided to have a long walk through Friston Forest to see if I could find any roosting butterflies. Not an easy task, but rewarding when successful.

What has been very noticeable in the past couple of weeks is the mass of Garlic Mustard, which has obviously taken advantage of the damp cool spring. Garlic Mustard is also one of the main larval foodplants of both the Orange-tip and Green-veined White. Hopefully with all this food for the larvae the butterfly will have a good year and there will be plenty of both these species next year flying.

The slight downside of all this Garlic Mustard is that looking for the roosting butterflies is more challenging, as they can be more spread out. However, I wasn't far into my walk when I saw a very fresh female Orange-tip roosting on the top of a Garlic Mustard flower. 

The light all day was very poor, so I took lots of photos of all my subjects today to hopefully mean I got a few sharp shots. In fact it ended up the most photos I had taken in a single day for a mighty long time!! It was certainly worth it though as I ended up with several pleasing shots.

Female Orange-tip on Garlic Mustard.

After spending some time with this lovely butterfly I moved on seeing very little in the form of butterflies. The temperature was below double figures, so there was absolutely nothing flying, apart from large numbers of Adela reaumerella, a tiny moth with extremely long antennae, so it was just a case of wandering about hoping something would catch my eye. I did take a couple of shots of the female, that has a shorter antenna, as they are quite a nice looking micro moth.

Female Adela reaumerella.

After several miles and little else to see I was pleased to spot a Glow-worm larva crossing the path. I have seen several of these over the past couple of weeks, so hopefully there will be lots of little lights on the Downs in a couple of months time!!

Glow-worm larva.

I was by now halfway back to the car, when I spotted the lovely macro moth, Pretty Chalk Carpet, resting on a leaf in the verge of the forest track. At first I took it as a bird dropping, but after a double take I realised it was a moth. I have only seen a handful of this species before, so was very pleased to find it.

Pretty Chalk Carpet.

A short distance further down the ride I then found a Green-veined White on another clump of Garlic Mustard. Surprisingly, this one wasn't asleep, but nectaring on the flower. It also moved a couple of times giving me other photo opportunities.

Green-veined White on Garlic Mustard.

Green-veined White on young Bluebell.

By now, it was mid afternoon, and it seemed that the weather was not going to improve. I was by now nearly back to where the female Orange-tip had been and I was thinking how good it would be to see a roosting male, when I suddenly spotted one. Although he wasn't as fresh as the female had been, it was still brilliant to see. 

Male Orange-tip on Dandelion clock.

Amazingly by now the sky had cleared a little, but not enough to have woken the female up, and she was still happy on her Garlic Mustard flower. However, when I reached the top of the hill I saw a Green-veined White that had decided to risk a short flight. It very soon landed again though on the edge of a Bramble bush. This gave me my last photos of the day.

Green-veined White.

2 days later and the weather was still miserable, so after enjoying Friston Forest so much I decided to repeat the trip. It was slightly better, with hazy sunshine, but now with an even colder and stronger wind. On the walk I did see several Green-veined White, but no Orange-tips at all. The highlights were 4 Scarlet Tiger moth larvae as well as a couple of moths that I don't catch in my moth trap. A Green-silver Lines and a White-pinioned Spotted. At the furthest end of the walk there were also a superb display of Early Purple Orchids.

Scarlet Tiger larva.

Green-silver Lines.

White-pinioned Spotted.

Early Purple Orchids.

I also had a lovely encounter with a Stoat in the forest. Two days that I wasn't really expecting to see much, turned out to be 2 very worthwhile and rewarding days. However, it really would be nice to get some proper spring weather soon, please!!

Early Spider Orchid fools a Bee.

 It was time for my annual Early Spider Orchid fix, and after getting a call from David, telling me that he and Gary were going to a favourite site of mine, I decided to join them. We also invited Pete to join us, so it was quite a party when we all met up. Once again, the cold breeze that seems to have been with us for so long, was still there, and along the top of the downland it was pretty exposed.

It is quite a long walk to the hillside where the orchids are, so there was plenty of time for a bit of banter, and finding out where everyone had been recently. Japan was the furthest any of us had travelled, and that wasn't me!!

The orchids this year seem to be mainly quite small, which was a bit of a surprise to me with all the wet weather we have been having. It was actually quite hard finding any of the orchids that were in a good position for photography, as most were tucked into the grasses where they were so short. At last though, one of them did stand out as it was a little taller and also at an angle where the background would be blurred out.

Early Spider Orchid.

We had a wander across the area finding many orchids, with many more still to come. As we slowly made our way back Gary and I both saw a small bee drop down onto one of the flowers. Fortunately, we were able to get some quick grab shots of the bee on the flower, as this is how the orchid gets pollinated. The orchid actually has a scent which mimics the pheromone of the female bee, so when a male detects this scent he tries to mount the flower to mate, with what he believes is the female bee. In doing so he is likely to get the sticky pollen sacs attached to him. The idea then is that he will eventually try the same thing on another orchid if he gets fooled again, and pollination will take place. It is only the solitary bee, Andrena nigroaena, the Buffish Mining Bee, that the orchid attracts. I have never seen this behaviour before, and there are not that many pictures of the event either, so we were really lucky to witness this happening in front of us. It was also very quick. I only managed to shoot off 3 photos before the male bee realised he had been fooled, and off he went in a huff.

Buffish Mining Bee (Andrena nigroaena) on Early Spider Orchid.

It was such a great experience that 3 days later I tried again, this time with Lisa. Needless to say we didn't see this happen again, although it was good to see that a few more orchids had appeared. I only took a very small number of shots, but once again, one orchid did look particularly worthy of a couple of photos.

Early Spider Orchid.

Orange and Red.

 Lisa has just had a couple of weeks off from her dancing work, which has given us a few chances to get out and about in nature.

During the first week we had an early Green Hairstreak on my patch, this was equal the earliest date I have seen this species. We saw it in a brief sunnier spell and unfortunately the butterfly flew deep into the bushes pretty much as soon as we saw it. However, it was great to get one of these beauties so early. Fingers crossed for many more sightings in the next few weeks.

This past weekend was spent over in West Sussex. The Friday was spent covering 3 sites hoping for Green Hairstreak and Orange-tip. Before we went to the main sites for these we paid a visit to a site for Green-winged Orchids. Although quite early in their season we did find a few nice specimens coming through, and one in particular was worthy of some photos. We also had a very nice male Emperor Moth which gave Lisa her best photo of this species to date.

Green-winged Orchid.

Male Emperor Moth.

The Hairstreak site was very windy and we only saw a single one. However, throughout the day we did see Orange-tips at all the other 3 sites, with many seen in a small wooded section we walked through. At one point I even had 2 male Orange-tips nectaring together. In the same area I also had my first ever sighting of the small plant, Moschatel. This is a lovely little plant that has the nickname Town Hall Clock' as it has 4 sides on the flower with each side looking a little like a clock!!

Two Male Orange-tips.

Moschatel.

On the Saturday we had a full day at one of the Sussex Wildlife Trust reserves at Ebernoe Common. Here we had many more Orange-tips, both male and female. Some interesting observations were also had of the species, with seeing a little bit of egg laying, female rejecting the advances of a male, a female roosting on Cuckoo-flower as soon as the sun went in, and another female choosing to roost high up a tree.

Female Orange-tip resting during egg laying.

Female Orange-tip rejecting the advances of a male.

Female Orange-tip roosting on Cuckoo-flower.

At this site we also heard several Nightingales and our first Cuckoo of the year. Bluebells were looking fabulous, and Early Purple Orchids growing amongst the Bluebells were also good to see. 

We also had our first odonata of the year with a large emergence of Large Red Damselflies. Another damselfly we saw was probably an Azure Damselfly.

Large Red Damselfly.

On Sunday morning we headed to Pulborough Brooks RSPB. Although it was quite busy here we did have a pretty good morning. Once again Nightingales and a Cuckoo were heard. 2 Adders were seen basking in the sun together, and we also had excellent views of a very vocal Sedge Warbler. At this site too there were plenty of Large Red Damselflies emerging.

Sedge Warbler singing away.

Large Red Damselfly.

Butterfly Season Warming Up.

 With the wind howling again outside it doesn't seem possible that April is here along with several species of butterfly.

A really good walk yesterday along the patch produced 8 different species of butterfly. The day started with my year list on 8 and after the walk, despite seeing 8 species, it was still on 8. However, just after arriving home and the weather was good enough for having lunch in the garden, the list for both the day, and year went up a notch to 9 when a Large White flew across the garden.

Below are some of the photos of butterflies, and other creatures I've seen so far in 2024.

Red Admiral.

Comma

Small Tortoiseshell

Brimstone

Rove Beetle.

Scarlet Tiger larva

Comma

Male Emperor Moth

Orange Ladybird

Common Toad.

The Circle of Life Starts Again.

 One of the earlier moths to appear each year is the wonderful Small Eggar. My patch happens to hold the only known colonies of this moth on the whole of the South Downs National Park.

It is more a moth of the western counties and East Anglia, and was thought to be nearly extinct in Sussex until this local colony appeared in 2017. It very quickly became a very strong colony with around 50 larval webs found in 2020, although numbers have now dropped back a bit from that.

In 2022 I found the earliest stage when I came across the egg batch that had been laid on a small Blackthorn sapling. The egg batch is very distinctive, although hard to find, as it is covered in the body hairs of the female moth, which in her final act before dying of the cold, she somehow plucks her hairs and sticks them on the eggs to protect them from the cold and presumably predation.

The county Moth Recorder thinks my photos of the egg batch were the first photos taken of this in Sussex. I was then able to photograph them through their growth in that egg batch and 2 others that I managed to find. A 4th batch were actually predated, almost certainly from a pair of Long-tailed Tits that were nest building in the next bush. I guess they thought the fur would add something to the nest. If they also ate the larvae after hatching it could be the first time Long-tailed Tits have had a takeaway dinner!!

Last year I failed to find any egg batches, and this year after several searches over the past couple of weeks I was fearing I was going to miss out again. However, a couple of days ago I once again went in search of them. After searching nearly every Blackthorn bush over a couple of miles, I was on the point of accepting defeat, when I suddenly spotted what I was after. At last, I'm not sure if I had walked past it a few times in the previous searches or whether it had only been laid over the past couple of nights, maybe time will tell if it remains there. Unfortunately, there is actually a pair of Long-tailed Tits currently nest building here too, it may even be the same pair, as they were very close to that batch from 2 years ago!!

Small Eggar egg batch on Blackthorn.

Earlier in the walk I had spotted a Wall Brown larva away from my usual area for seeing these. I also managed to get a photo of it feeding, possibly one of the best photos I've taken of this larva, as it's not easy getting them feeding. Normally they sense that something is wrong and they descend away from the area they are feeding on.

Wall Brown larva feeding.

Also on the walk a rather nice Bloody-nosed Beetle posed well for me.

Bloody-nosed Beetle.

All this on a day when the weather was not looking at all promising.

For an update, today, 3 days after finding the eggs, I re-visited the Small Eggar egg batch and unfortunately they have been predated. Whether it is by the Long-tailed Tits or another type of bird that fancied them I do not know. No eggs were left, just a very small amount of the fur.

Another Adder Day.

 With the Adders performing so well for myself and Graham last week, Lisa and I decided to have a go at the weekend to see if they would be as photogenic.

The Bog Beacon would also be a new species for her, so there was another reason for making the trip. The only fly in the ointment, was that the weather forecast was not particularly promising, with quite a breeze blowing and only a few sunny intervals. However, as is often the case it seems these days, the forecast was not exactly accurate and there was actually more sunshine than predicted as well as the wind not being as strong as expected.

The Grass Snake unfortunately was not seen, but it wasn't long before we had seen the Bog Beacons. These looked very good in the sunshine, and after getting a few photos last week, I tried shooting more into the light this time, with some pleasing results.

Bog Beacon.

Following this we went to the area that the Adders were found last week. What I assume were the same Adders were once again showing quite well. So as not to disturb the snakes we both used telephoto lenses and it was just great watching the reptiles as they moved about slowly from time to time to get to a sunnier spot as the sun moved round. 

The Melanistic Adder.

Adder Basking.

After spending around an hour with the snakes we checked out the bracken for Lizards, seeing several.

Common Lizard.

There were also lots of Wood Anemone starting to flower. There will soon be a wonderful carpet of these flowers in several woodlands nearby.

Wood Anemone.

We then went around other parts of the woodland looking for insects. As the breeze was really quite cold we failed to see any butterflies, which was a bit of a surprise, as in some sheltered areas it seemed warm enough. We did see a few Dark-edged Bee-flies though and Lisa spotted a very early Green Tiger Beetle, which was a bit of a surprise.

We then headed back to the Adders for a final few minutes with them before the sun left the area for the day. The normal coloured Adder was now wrapped around a Bracken stem, which was quite good to see. We were only just in time for seeing this one again, as after just a few minutes the sun had gone from this little patch, however the melanistic Adder was still showing well. At this point I thought I would try to get a head shot. Putting on a 1.4x converter gave me the small increase in power that was enough for this, after a bit of a larger crop too. 

Adder wrapped around the Bracken.

Close-up of the melanistic Adder.

At this point we left the black Adder to sun itself for the remaining time the sun was shining in its favoured area. Another wonderful day with several good sightings.