An Assortment of Butter

An Assortment of Butter

Let's end July with some butterflies, eh? Overall, the weather hasn't been great for them, but on the odd occasion I've found a few have been kicking about here and there.

I was particularly pleased to find this Pained Lady a few weeks back down the local Stoke's Field. Its a migrant species, and after it has a very good influx year in 2009, 2010 was arguably one of the worst years for the species, with very few people lucky enough to see one. Perhaps we can hope for a few more in August.

These little butterflies have been arriving en masse to the garden, Gatekeeper...

I photographed this one back in June, but haven't found the right time to post it, so here it is in all its glory. A Purple Hairstreak...

And finishing off with something that I don't really take any notice of when I'm out and about... a plant. This one is a Pyramidal Orchid, but I take no credit for identifying it, looks like a pink Dandelion to me. Unfortunatly, this wasn't in the garden, but at the chalk downland site Norbury Park.

It also happens to be the Big Butterfly Count at the moment, in which you simply note down any butterfly you see at a particular place, and send in your findings to this website. If you haven't already done it, have a go... or I'll get Big Daddy Attenborough on you, and he won't be happy.

Cheers Italy

Cheers Italy

Whilst I re-consider the title of this blog to 'Bill's Mothing'- judging by the fact that I haven't done a bird post in two months- here is a rare moth which I caught at Norbury Park the other week. Its so rare that it was once considered endemic to Italy, but a few have started to turn up on the south coast of Britain in the past 10 years, confirming a tiny breeding population. Its called Metalampra italica...

Now if only we had Italy's weather at the moment, instead of their bloody moths.

The Only Way is Essex

The Only Way is Essex...

One of the two butterflies below is an Essex Skipper, and the other is a Small Skipper, but can you tell which is which?

Very similar aren't they? And from most angles, it is very hard to seperate these two species.

I photographed both of them at the beginning of last week, at a newly discovered hot spot for these small butterflies on my local urban fringe site, Stoke's Field. Grasses, wildflowers, south facing slope- all the main ingredients for perfect Skippers habitat. If there was such thing as a heaven for Skippers, this is probably what it would look like...

Essex Skippers are the more localised version of the Small Skipper, the latter of which can be found just about anywhere, but how do you know when your Skipper is from Essex? Apart from the estury accent and the 'simple' fashion sense, the best way is to look head on at the tips of the antennae. From this view, there is no mistaking the two, with Essex Skipper having all black antennae tips...

And the Small Skipper with its orangey, browny, not-black antennae tips (don't mind the poor focusing, was taken in gale force winds on top of a hill, whilst lying down in mud)...

All Black antennae tips- Essex...

Orange antennae tips- Small...

Another 'orange' Skipper, the Large Skipper, is also flying about at this time of the year in large numbers, but can fairly easily be told apart from the above two by the slight chequered markings on the wings, and, of course, the larger size...

Well now I've got that sorted out, there should be no excuses for anyone to mix up these two species ever again.

The author of this blog takes no responsibility for any mis-identifications of Essex or Small Skipper caused by reading this highly erroneous post.

Getting Horny with Clearwings

Getting Horny With Clearwings...

Back in January, I decided to buy some moth pheromones. These are naturally emitted from wild female moths to attract a mate, and can be bought from various weird entomological websites on the internet as an alternative way to attract those species which don't readily come to moth traps.

Clearwings are one such group of moths which have pheromone lures tailor-made for them. These moths are unique amongst British moths in that they don't look like moths at all, with wings that look completely clear.

Each species of this spectacular family is nationally rare, day-flying, secretive and specific to a unique habitat, making them a nightmare to record. Since they were invented some 10 years ago, pheromones have become the main method of recording the presence of the males, which are attracted to the scent, believing a virgin female is nearby.

The lure- consisting of a tube impregnated with pheromones, and a small cotton bag...

Each species (there are 15 in Britain) has its own lure specifically made for them, and based on local habitat, I decided to go for a lure that attracts Yellow-legged Clearwing and Orange-tailed Clearwing- the former being found around old oak trees, and the latter on chalk downland. I had it all planned out. Once the time was right, in mid-June, I would take the lure down to Richmond Park, which is full of old Oak trees, to see if I could find a Yellow-legged Clearwing. I would then take the lure to Denbies Hillside, a chalk downland site, with plenty of chalk, to quickly scoop up Orange-tailed Clearwing, before coming home and writing about my findings to you on this blog. In reality, neither species was seen at either site, and hopes of finding these mysterious moths were low.

A few weeks back, on a sunny afternoon with a light breeze (perfect conditions for Clearwings), I optimistically took the lure out into the garden for a laugh (yes, I am easily amused), on the off chance that either species might have been hiding right in front of me all along. I wasn't expecting anything much, but almost as soon as I hung the lure up in the flower border, an Orange-tailed Clearwing appeared, followed 5 minutes later by a Yellow-legged Clearwing. Within 15 minutes, it had turned into a full on social gathering for the moths, which was a bit of a suprise considering the garden's lack of suitable habitat for both species; especially the Orange-tailed Clearwing, which very rarely strays from chalk soils.

Orange-tailed Clearwing...

An idea of size...

Yellow-legged Clearwing- a wasp mimic...

That distinctive clear-wing...

The lure in action...

With load of pumped up, hormonal male Clearwings about, I figured it was best to break things up before it all got out of control, so in the lures came, and as quickly as they appeared, the secretive little moths disappeared off into the undergrowth, to carry on their secretive lives.