28 Sep 24 - Garden Comma

I was pleased to see this Comma in the garden today when I had the chance to get a decent underwing & upperwing shot. They are my favourite UK Butterfly.

Comma: They get their name from the white comma on the underwing

12 Sep 24 - Autumnal Garden Butterflies

I returned from a visit to Brands Bay, to find a pristine Comma had joined the recently emerged Red Admirals in my Swanage garden.

Red Admiral: One of the two pristine individuals

Comma: They must have the best wing shape of any of the UK Butterflies

Comma: Showing the white comma, which is how they got their name

8 Apr 20 - Finally Some Butterflies #BWKM0

Normally, I see my first individuals from the study on the flowers in my neighbour's garden when there is a small suntrap. But those flowers went over & their gardener tidied them, before I saw any Butterflies. In some years, I see the first individuals in late Feb or Mar, but typically the first individuals are seen in early Apr. So, this year was fairly normal. From early Apr, I was seeing Butterflies flying past, but not stopping. I failed to confirm their identification, but suspect they were Commas. Finally, on 7 Apr, I saw my first identified Butterflies: Comma & Large White.

Comma: Alner's Gorse (27 Jul 14)

Large White: Swanage (12 Aug 14)

Finally, I had two Butterflies on the #BWKM0 List, but this increased to five by the end of 8 Apr as the temperatures had finally started rising.

Brimstone: A male seen flying past from the study was great as they aren't annual. Fontmell Down (30 Jul 14)

Peacock: A look at the garden at lunchtime produced the first Peacock. St Aldhelms (20 Jul 14)

Holly Blue: There were no surprises when I saw the first Holly Blue as this is one of my commoner species given, I have allowed the amount of Ivy to increase significantly since I moved in. This was photographed in the garden (6 May 15)

Check tomorrow to see what the B in #BWKM0 stands for, in the next day's wildlife sighting when I will be confined at #BWKM0.

2 July 17 - Summer Doldrums

Since the late spring, the local Birding has been very quiet, apart from the excitement over the Elegant Tern. I've been cracking on with dull jobs around the house & garden, especially gardening. With the prospect of another day of gardening this weekend, I decided it was about time to head out to look for White Admirals locally. Soon after moving to Dorset, I started a ten miles from the house list. Not because it was another list to keep, but primarily as it would encourage me to spend more time Birding & looking at wildlife on my doorstep. White Admirals are one of few Butterflies that occurs locally that I've not managed to see. The easiest place to see them is on Brownsea, but usually summer apathy has meant I've not got around to going over to Brownsea at the right time of year.

Silver-washed Fritillary: A pity about the knackered forewing

Silver-washed Fritillary: Hopefully this will help maintain the next generation

A recent tweet indicated that a White Admiral had been recently seen on the nature trail at Littlesea. So with the prospect of them flying on the Studland patch, the gardening plans were shelved. Not knowing exactly where to look meant I was going to have to walk around & around hoping to bump into one. After 90 minutes of searching, I hadn't found any, although I had seen a number of Silver-washed Fritillaries, Commas, Ringlets, Speckled Woods, Meadow Browns, Red Admirals & Large Skippers.

Comma: There were quite a few flying, but all looked a bit beyond their best. Whereas, the ones I've seen in my garden this weekend, look a lot fresher

Comma: Showing how it got its name

Then I bumped into three other locals who had seen a White Admiral earlier that afternoon, as well as, a more showy individual elsewhere on the nature trail about a week ago. I was invited to tag along with them to check out the site of the showy individual, but after 20 minutes of looking, it was a no show. Back to Plan B to return to the site of their earlier sighting this afternoon, while they headed off to check out another historical location. No sooner than I had arrived at their site, which I had briefly looked at earlier that afternoon, then one flew down & started nectaring. It didn't stay long, but was good to finally see one locally. I was joined by the others after about ten minutes. Over the next hour or so, we all had repeated sightings of at least three White Admirals coming down to nectar for a few minutes, before disappearing back into the trees.

White Admiral: Finally on the patch list

White Admiral: This one stayed around long enough to try with the SX60

26 Aug 14 - What Came First: The Caterpillar Or The Butterfly?

The usual way this big philosophical question is put is 'What came first: the Chicken or the Egg', rather than the title of this post. The answer is easy & it is the same: single cell organisms, followed by evolution. Not that difficult to answer really, when you think about it at a distance. Having solved the big philosophical question, I can now move on to some photos. I've generally concentrated on photos of adult insects as they are the easiest age to find in most groups. But I've been lucky to see Commas of various ages recently. They are really good in the younger phases & worthy of closer examination.

Comma: Caterpillar. These spines look quite imposing. After about 5 weeks as caterpillars, they will pupate. Swanage (8 Aug 14)

Comma: Caterpillar. Surprisingly, well camouflaged, when you look at the other bits of dead Nettles. Swanage (8 Aug 14) 

Comma: Pupa. After a couple of weeks as a pupa, the adult will emerge. Swanage (16 Aug 14)

Comma: Adult. Commas are double brooded with adults start flying in late June/early July & flying again in late August onwards. The second brood overwinter as adults, before emerging from hibernation in the Spring to breed (9 July 14)

Comma: Adult. The wing shape alone is diagnostic in the UK. Alner's Gorse (27 July 14)

Comma. Adult. They get their name from the white comma on the underside of the hind wing. Swanage (12 Aug 14)

27 July 14 - Nearly A Hat Trick

It is now that time of year when Dorset people who are interested in Butterflies start talking in excited, almost reverent, tones about Alner's Gorse. This is a Butterfly Conservation reserve in North Dorset which is home to 3 of the 4 species of Hairstreak Butterfly that occur in Dorset. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the Spring flying Green Hairstreak occurs as well. Even better, if you time it right you might see all 3 of the Autumn Hairstreaks on the same day. These 3 Hairstreaks are small, easily overlooked, species which often spend a fair bit of time in the treetops of the respective favourite trees, but will come down to nectar or sit on lower vegetation. At this point, they should be easy to see & photograph, but as they can sit still for relatively long periods of time, they are easily overlooked until they fly back up high again. Still it would be boring if all Butterflies were as easy to see as Gatekeepers. A couple of visits this time last year resulted in me adding all 3 species to my Dorset Butterfly list. However, I only managed to photograph 2 of the 3 species. So I was keen to go back again this year to try for Brown Hairstreak photos, as well as hopefully see the other 2 species again.

Alner's Gorse: Great looking habitat for Hairstreaks

Alner's Gorse is a good sized reserve and somewhere it would be possible to spend most of a day exploring. However, I had plans for the rest of the day, so had decided to try & limit my time there on this visit. I had heard that people had recently seen a Brown Hairstreak around the small car park, so I wasn't in a hurry to head off to explore the reserve. After spending about 10 or 15 minutes chatting with a couple in the car park, I suddenly spotted a female Brown Hairstreak only a couple of metres off the ground. She had probably been happily sitting there for longer than I had been looking. There was a quick dash back to the cars for cameras, before the chance for enough photography to impress a paparazzi photographer (except for the lack of a flashgun). But we had a real celebrity who knew how to pose for the cameras, rather than the self inflated pretend celebs the paparazzi seem to focus on.

Brown Hairstreak: Female. Females are a lot brighter than the males & have a larger orange patch on the upper forewing (not that I've ever seen the upperwings). I like the black & white banding on the feet and the bright yellow tips to the antenna (details I never notice in the field, but are very apparent on the photos)

Purple Hairstreak: Female. Looks like this one has been around for a while

Purple Hairstreak: Female. The purple is restricted to the base of the upper forewing, it would cover nearly all the upper forewing in a male

Purple Hairstreak: Alner's Grove (13 July 13). On its favourite Oak tree. Note, while the underside of the hind wing has a letter W where the white almost lines up with the white on the upperwing

Unfortunately, no sign of any White-letter Hairstreaks while I was there, but I a couple of tatty individuals had been seen before I arrived. So here is the White-letter Hairstreak from last year (taken with my little Lumix camera).

White-letter Hairstreak: Alner's Grove (4 Aug 13). Note, the underside is superficially similar to Purple Hairstreaks, but the letter W has the left side of the W sharply angled back towards the head

There are plenty of other Butterfly species present at Alner's Grove. I've seen 21 species without making too much effort over 3 visits at this time of year in 2013 & 2014 and there are a number of other fairly common species which occur at the site that I've not seen. Generally my visits have been focused around seeing Hairstreaks & I've not spent as much time as I should have exploring the wider reserve. Two of the other good species here are White Admirals & Silver-washed Fritillaries.

Peacock

Comma

Ringlet

Gatekeeper

Speckled Wood

Having seen & photographed a Brown Hairstreak & had some bonus photos of Purple Hairstreak, I was keen to push on to the second part of my plan for the day: to look for a new Dragonfly on the Somerset Levels. You will have to wait for the next post to find out which species this was & how I got on.

Common Darter: The new Dragonfly is more exciting than this species

9 July 14 - An interesting Silver-washed Fritillary

Off to the woods today to look for Butterflies. It was a great day out & there were plenty of good Butterflies on the wing, enjoying the sunny conditions. This was a site I hadn't visited before. It seems to be managed for Pheasant & Deer shooting, but this management has opened up the area, which had benefited a good selection of Butterflies.

There were plenty of wild flowers in this glade

Also plenty of coppicing to open up the forest

Opening up the woodland has created plenty of habitat for Silver-washed Fritillaries. This is the largest UK Fritillary & is a woodland species. It is a fairly common species in Dorset & great to see they are doing well.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Male. Easy to tell on the upperwing, by these 4 dark bars along the forewing. They are known as sex brands which are special scales used in courtship

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. The upperwing has spotty & wavy patterns, but no dark bars 

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. Sexed by upperwing markings before it closed it's wings

There is also a greenish form of females called Valesina where the orange-brown is replaced with olive-green. Apparently, this is most prevalent in the Southern English colonies. But I'm not sure what causes it or why is only seems to only occur in females.

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female.This one sparked some debate today as it wasn't thought to be a Valesina, but a scarcer variant. Note, the mauve wash to the hind wing. I didn't find this. I would have overlooked this as a Valesina so well done to Mike for spotting it

Silver-washed Fritillary: Female. Another view of the same individual, showing a bit of the under wing 

Silver-washed Fritillary: Valesina Female. Here is a normal Valesina from Alner's Gorse last year (20 July 13)

There were a number of other Butterfly species present including White Admirals, Peacocks, Red Admirals, Commas, Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers & Large Skippers.

Comma: The poor mans Fritillary. I wonder how many of these get mistaken for Fritillaries on brief views

Gatekeeper: The biggest sign of late Summer & early Autumn is here for me

I was a bit surprised to see this Slowworm crossing the main track. This looks like a small golden Snake, but it is a harmless legless Lizard. It is my favourite UK Repile.

Slowworm

Slowworm: A close up of the head

Black and Yellow Longhorn Beetle: I think this is Rutpela maculata