The Beautiful Beautiful Demoiselle.

With a sea mist forming yesterday the temperature was not as good as inland. I wasn't quite sure where to go so I decided to stay local and pay a visit to the River Cuckmere to see if the Beautiful Demoiselles had started to appear yet. Things are a little later this year so I wasn't expecting too much and it was several minutes before I spotted the first Demoiselle. Following this things improved enormously and I ended up having one of my best ever photo sessions. So much so that some of the session is going to be on my next post. It wasn't just the Demoiselles either as there were several other really interesting things to see. It will not be long before the other great Demoiselle appears, the Banded Demoiselle. I hope to have as much enjoyment when these are on the wing.

Male Beautiful Demoiselle.

Female Beautiful Demoiselle.

The Pupa RIP.

It became clear last week that the Wall Brown pupa that I found a couple of weeks ago had died. This became my 3rd pupa that had died out of 3 in the last 4 years. It just goes to show how fragile the natural World can be!! In desperation I decided to have another good look for another one, for as I had found 14 larva in the one day one assumed that there must be lots of pupa around. However, finding the pupa is so hard.

The good thing about looking really hard for something it is amazing how many other things that are found and seen. Several Marbled White larva were found and they have grown quite a bit now. Wall Brown adults are also growing in numbers with several seen over the last few days. 2 more Glow-worm larva also seen. An enormous Oak Eggar moth larva was one of the highlights as were 3 lovely Brown Argus butterflies.

Peacock.

Peacock underside.

Oak Eggar larva.

Male Wall Brown.

Brown Argus underside.

Male Brown Argus.

Eventually after an hour or so of searching I spotted what I was looking for in the edge of a bush, hanging from some dead grass. Another Wall Brown pupa. Just visible in the centre of the picture.

Wall Brown pupa.

A Duke Meets a Duchess.

With nearly all my photographs taken within walking distance of home it sometimes becomes necessary for the odd trip further afield. With two of Britains most endangered butterflies on the wing at the same time I do like to make the trip to West Sussex for the Duke of Burgundy and into Surrey for the Wood White. It also makes for a nice round trip which, with an early start, is easily possible on the same day.

I had 2 days last week where this was possible, but as always the weather had other ideas, so with a slightly improved day, Thursday was the day. On arrival at the site the clouds were heavy and a cool breeze was blowing and thoughts of 'waste of time' came to mind. However, within 40 minutes the clouds thinned and it warmed up. Very quickly the first Dukes were up and about and became immediately very active. Soon a dark marked male settled nearby and with a slow steady approach the first picture was in the bag. Several males became involved in dog fights, as this species is well known for, with aerial battles going on for territory rights. Most of the butterflies were in pretty good condition, a few with small nicks out of their wings but some were extremely fresh.

A Darker Marked Male Duke of Burgundy.

An Immaculate Male Duke of Burgundy.

After a while I noticed a fresh butterfly that appeared to be slightly unsteady in flight, so I thought it had probably just emerged. This one also appeared to be a female, showing a shorter and thicker abdomen. After a quick photo she flew off out of sight. Whilst I was moving around the bushes looking for other fresh individuals 2 butterflies flew past which didn't seem to be fighting. They both landed on the top of a small Hazel bush and it became obvious that it was a pair involved in courtship. The male flapped its wings several times before moving alongside the female. He then bent his abdomen around and quickly became attached to the female. They then stayed paired together for the next 20 minutes, moving just a couple of times from their original bush. As I then left them in peace they may have remained connected for a while longer. Whether this was the female I had seen shortly before I'm not too sure. The pictures do show quite clearly the differences with the male and female legs. Although, of course, all insects have 6 legs, the male Duke only uses 4 with its front 2 being tiny and tucked out of the way under its head. However, the female has full use of all 6 legs, perhaps she uses all of them for kicking the male out of the way!!

The Duchess.

The Duke and the Duchess get together.

Mating commences.

The female above with her 6 legs showing.

After this fabulous encounter it was then onto Surrey where around 10 Wood White were seen flying along the woodland rides. The best opportunity for a picture came when one landed on a fern leaf. Although this was far from my best Wood White picture it was still nice to get one posing quite well. A superb view of a Nightingale was an extra bonus for the day and as we returned to the car for a welcome cuppa another Wood White was flying around the car-park.

Wood White.

Immature Stages.

On Wednesday it was very windy with heavy showers predicted. We decided to travel to the Kent border where Nigel had found a tiny White Admiral larva feeding on Honeysuckle in his woodland. It was not much more than 1cm. long but extremely difficult to photograph in the dark wood with the breeze still blowing!!

White Admiral Larva.

Further in the wood there were lots of Brimstone eggs on Buckthorn.

Brimstone ova.

Weather Good, Butterflies Poor!!

A Bank Holiday morning and the sun was shining. Perfect to check out the local butterfly hotspots. The Comp is normally very good by now for Speckled Wood, so it was disappointing to only see 4 along the whole length of about a mile. The positive was that at least 2 were very fresh so hopefully there are still plenty to come yet. It was then onto Greenway Bank, the first place in Sussex for Green Hairstreak last year. Not a single one though today and to the best of my knowledge, none have been seen here this year yet. Only one Dingy Skipper seen but around double figures of Small Copper lifted the spirits a bit. Apart from that just a few Peacock were flying. 

Male Speckled Wood.

A very fresh micro moth Pyrausta nigrata was very nice to see as well as a near fully grown Drinker moth larva.

Pyrausta nigrata

Drinker larva.

Dock-leaf Bug.

Herb Robert (Also known as 'Stinking Bob')!!

Hairy Frustrations!!

On Friday, despite the cold, cloudy and windy conditions I ventured out to do a butterfly survey for Butterfly Conservation. At the time it was tempting to just stay at home but having postponed it once already I thought the effort had to happen. Arriving in just 10 degrees of warmth/cold I didn't even see a butterfly for well over an hour. It was a great relief to see a smart Red Admiral suddenly fly up. Soon a bit of blue sky appeared and the hopes went up a little. I was quite surprised when a Small Heath flew up as there are not many of these showing anywhere yet. There were certainly plenty of the micro moth Adela reaumurella flying and a female posed quite nicely for me. A little later another micro moth, the beautifully marked Pyrausta purpuralis settled on the ground near me. This very fresh individual allowed a close approach for a picture.

Female Adela reaumurella

Pyrausta purpuralis.

A little later I saw a Hairy Dragonfly in flight. Due to the cool conditions it wasn't flying far and it soon settled and I thought I was in for a chance of a photo of this lovely dragonfly. Unfortunately and very frustratingly it was trying to keep warm by vibrating its wings which meant that the photo is disappointing as the wings are not sharp. However, it was a nice end to the 4 hours of not seeing much else!! Just 5 butterflies in total.

Hairy Dragonfly.

Grizzlies and Greenies.

On Wednesday the weather was cold and with a promise of rain it was a risk even thinking of going out. However, the rain held off long enough to see my first Pearl-bordered Fritillaries of the year with at least 2 seen in the brief brighter patches. I did find a large cluster of partially hatched eggs which my learned friend, Nigel, informed me were eggs of the Vapourer Moth.

Vapourer Moth egg cluster.

Yesterday it was back to being local checking out the Grizzled Skippers and Green Hairstreaks. Although it was sunny it was pretty chilly in the stiff breeze and the butterflies were only showing in the sheltered areas. One surprise was a freshly emerged Brown Argus flying, my 20th species this year. I called back again later to look for roosting Skippers and to check out the Wall Brown pupa. I had just about given up on finding a roosting butterfly when I spotted a Grizzled Skipper asleep on the top of a bush. One Marbled White larva also found.

Grizzled Skipper.

Green Hairstreak.

Brown Argus.

Wall Brown pupa, one week after being found.

Roosting Grizzled Skipper.