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!!