Going on an egg hunt

Early January doesn’t have a lot of butterflies or moths flying around, well not many that can be easily found so when I saw a plea for help from the Warwickshire branch of Butterfly Conservation to count some eggs of the Brown hairstreak I thought I’d lend a hand.

The egg hunt was organised by the Brown Hairstreak Champion for the area: my wife asked how they pick a champion – “Is it the person who finds the most eggs?”. I like to think that that may be the way it’s done but I suspect volunteering and getting picked by a committee might be somewhat closer to the truth.

The hunt took place at Ryton Pools Country Park, a Warwickshire council park that is reasonably near my house. This is the only place in Warwickshire that there is a record of a colony of this butterfly, it’s pretty scarce in this county.  I’d not been to the park before so it was nice to see another local attraction and hopefully some eggs too– I’ll definitely be back.

How do you find a Brown Hairstreak egg? Imagine the proverbial needle in a haystack. Well your fairly close, it may well be harder – you need to find something the size of a pin head in a 100 acre country park! Luckily you can narrow that down to Blackthorn as that’s where the females lay the eggs. Once you find the Blackthorn you’ve got a chance of finding the eggs.

The butterfly places the eggs on relatively young growth on the blackthorn, it seems to like suckers and places the eggs at the junction of new growth, see picture (not one of mine sadly). You have to examine the blackthorn from bottom to about head height, checking both sides and hopefully you’ll find some. To give you some idea of how scarce they are I spent five hours doing this and didn’t find any!

Luckily I got to see some I was shown what to do by some much more experienced people who do this regularly. They showed me some they had found earlier and they found another eight or so eggs whilst I was there. No beginners luck for me this time.

In case you are wondering… the person who found the most eggs was the current West Midlands Champion, maybe my wife was right!

Hickling Broad September

For a last summer trip I went with my family and my in-laws to Norfolk. the weather was good to us, but would the butterflies be? I’d done some reading on the internet and it looked like Hickling Broad was the place to go to see Swallowtails. Straight off there were two disapointments in the visitor centre. Firstly my membership card for the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust was not valid here, valid at 2000 odd reserves but not this one! Secondly there was a second brood of Swallowtails this year but they did not survive very long due to the poor weather in August. However there were loads of dragonflies to see and a few Red Admirals and Small Tortoiseshells to see too.
There were a few surpises too. We managed to see a common lizard on one of the jetties onto the broad and a Peacock met us at the visitor centre on the way out. Not a butterfly Peacock but the feathered variety. Overall a good morning out and worth the money I begrudgingly had to pay.

Back to Oakley Woods again!

Once again I cajoled the family into traipsing round Oakley Woods in order to find a few more butterflies.

The aim was to find some different species, needless to say that didn’t happen but we enjoyed chasing after the usual suspects (Commas, Speckled Woods, Red Admirals and Green Veined Whites). The Commas in particular were out in force. You can see the “comma” on the hind wing of the comma on the left.

The Red Admirals pictured below were found on some Holly bushes. I particularly like the black and white banding on their antennae.

I’m sure I saw a more unusual butterfly flying higher up in the canopy but it didn’t come down to allow for an identification. It’ll keep me coming back to the wood to identify it though.

I found a caterpillar of the Elephant Hawk Moth, pretending to be a snake, when i got home. It pulls its head into its body to take on the appearance of a cartoon snake. How clever!

Wandering in Wappenbury Woods

We visited the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's Wappenbury Woods today hoping to see some more butterflies and we certainly did: we saw a Silver Washed Fritillary, Speckled Woods, Peacocks, Large Whites galore, Small Skippers, Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns and a Red Admiral.
We started off at Old Nun Wood but found the path to be a bit overgrown for us (that's because the baby was in his carrier back pack, passable without that) there were some impressive seven foot high nettles towering over me. We retreated and went on the the main woods.
We didn’t see too much at the start of our walk, there were a couple of Speckled Woods initially but we were in a fairly dark part of the woods working our way past (and through) the brambles. But after we reached the far side and worked our way back there were many coppiced areas in which the butterflies were active. The Silver washed fritillary had a damaged wing but seemed able to fly fairly easily, I enjoy seeing them particularly as I don’t see them in the back garden.
  We saw two or three small skippers in one of the coppiced areas, and numerous dragonflies (or similar creatures). We even spotted a large moth in one of the darker bits of the woods. I thought it might have been a yellow butterfly but was sadly disappointed.
 

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What's in the garden today?

 On Saturday I had a bit of time to myself as my wife and child were attending a birthday party. I fancied some time to myself so stayed at home and popped into the garden shortly before the thunderstorms started.

There were lots of white butterflies flitting around but the main ones that caught my eye were a Gatekeeper, a Red Admiral and a Large white dive bombing my veggie patch.

Sunday Butterflies at Newbold Comyn

 Still being keen to find more species of butterflies I headed back to Newbold Comyn to visit the Leam Valley Nature Reserve. I had checked out the results on the Big Butterfly Count website to determine if there were any places nearby that might have something interesting to see. Newbold Comyn was the place to go for Common Blues and I was not let down. I managed to get pictures of both a male and a female.

Wandering along at the side of the River Leam we saw Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Green-veined Whites, Peacocks, Red Admirals and Speckled Woods. We also saw a green woodpecker but it was too quick to get a photo. Plenty of dragonflies too but I have no idea how to go about photographing them, much too fast. We'd brought the pram instead of the backpack for the boy, poor choice as the ground was a bit too rough for the pram. We had to head back early as it was too hard going. We'll be sure to head back soon.

We did spot one butterfly which we couldn't identify. Please let me know if you know what this is.

Unidentified butterfly

 

Peacocks

 

 

 Speckled Wood in the trees

 Gatekeeper

Oakley Woods - Overly Friendly Peacocks!

On Saturday morning we ventured out into the nearby Oakley Woods to do a bit of butterfly spotting. I'd been reading up on where might be a good place to find species that I had not yet spotted, the garden was full of small tortoiseshells, gatekeepers and the speedy whites that I can never quite get a photo of. I wanted to see some new butterflies so off to the woodlands we went. the book recommended oak woods but I'd make do with pine today, though the amount of ferns that there were gave it the feeling of a jungle, well that combined with the rather warm temperatures. Accompanying me today were the boy and my wife (who turns out to an excellent butterfly attractor)

Late afternoon Warwickshire butterfly walk

 After a bright and sunny morning I persuaded my wife to join the boy and I on a walk around the fields near our house. I'd seen some butterflies flitting about in the back garden so knew that there should be plenty around: we weren't disappointed.

One of the most frequently observed butterflies of the day was the Ringlet (see right and below). We must have saw dozens of them over the course of our two hour walk.
 

We took a route along farm tracks that took us past lots of patches of brambles, they were rather popular with the butterflies. My wife enjoyed watching me chasing after the butterflies trying to take pictures before they sped off into the wind. I caught sight of a few white butterflies but couldn't get near enough to photograph or identify them.

 We also saw plenty or Small Tortoiseshells (right) as well as a smaller number Red Admirals (below). I kept mixing them up and my wife had to keep me right. I'm not sure why I mix them up, must be all the black, white and orange or red on them, I'm a bit colour blind. I'm glad the butterfly book that I have lists them in the same section, makes me feel slightly better.

 We saw a few splashes of orange around too being  Commas. These seemed happier to pose for pictures in easily accessible places.

We left the farm track to cross onto a right of way back across the fields towards our house. we started to see a few more types of butterflies. Below roght is what i think is a Meadow Brown. It looks a bit drab compared to it's more colourful colleagues but I guess that's why its categorised as a brown!

A butterfly that can't be accused of being drab is the Gatekeeper. We only saw one of these, I don't think that I've ever saw one of these before.

We didn't spot any other types of butterflies for the rest of the walk though we did see a few groups of caterpillars in webs. There were also larger ones next to these, I think that they might be Peacock caterpillars though I'm not entirely sure (see below).

After seeing the caterpillars it was clear that there was some poor weather on the horizon. I assured my wife that it was heading away from us. Luckily we just made it home seconds before the heavens opened. It was very lucky for me as I don't think my wife would be too keen to join me on any more trips out.

Six butterfly species! Seven if you count the caterpillar.

What's in the garden this week?

 Now that I've got my identification book there's nothing to stop me getting out and doing some identifying and there's nowhere easier to get to than my back garden (there's sadly no butterflies in the house). I saw a butterfly flitting around next to my trellis that my blackberries are growing up and snapped it in flight from distance. Not a great photo but it allowed me to ID it as a small tortoiseshell. If anyone knows why thy are called tortoiseshells please let me know.

Next up was a Comma sitting on a nettle. Luckily it was happy to pose for me. Luckily not keeping on top of the weeding kept this little fellow happy. Took me a while to figure out what it was in the book, i thought it was one of the fritillarys.















Finally I thought I would put up a typical photo of the most common species in the garden, the lesser focused butterfly. Auto-focus seems to prefer the stationary plants to the quick moving critters. I could still make it out as being a Ringlet though for the distinctive rings on the underside of its wings. Any tips welcomed please for photographs.

Not bad evening though three species just outside my back door!

Looky look I got a book - Butterfly books

After my previous attempt at spotting butterflies, which was pretty enjoyable, my mind turned back to the books that I had saw in the Brandon Marsh bookshop. If I was going to find butterflies I had better learn something about them, or I'd (a) never find them and (b) never know what it was I had found. I also got a little bit excited and thought that I could write a book about my experiences finding the butterflies. I'd been inspired by books like Can't Swim, Can't Bike, Can't run and thought it might make for an interesting topic. Luckily me writing habits didn't have to get exposed (as lacking) as a bit of searching the web showed that someone had already written about finding all of the British butterflies in one summer: www.amazon.co.uk/Butterfly-Isles-Patrick-Barkham

So with one search of the web for books complete I started another for a book to help me identify and find the butterflies. There were quite a few available but one line in a review from a chap called Mathor caught my eye:

This book by Jeremy Thomas is an updated version of the one frequently referred to by the writer/journalist Patrick Barkham in his recent book "The Butterfly Isles"

This was a comment for the most recent edition of the Philips Guide to Butterflies of Britain & Ireland. If it was good enough to help out the guy who wrote the book (which I'll have to get round to buying sometime) then it will be good enough for me.

Once more Amazon cleverly extracted a few more quid from my bank account as if I spent three pound and two pence more then i would get free postage. Animal Music was purchased for the boy.
 

I'm pretty pleased with the book (as I've received it and used it). I'll hopefully now be able to identify the butterflies that I find. I have been out again but that's for the next blog update.

And so it begins (well slowly)

Weekend mornings involve me often pushing the pram round the streets of Leamington entertaining the boy with a song or a whistle or hoping that he just goes to sleep for an hour or so. On this morning the plan was to get the boy in the pram after being fed and take him into town in order that I could buy my wife's birthday present. On the way into town I can go through Newbold Comyn ( a large park with woodlands, open grassy areas, playing fields and the River Leam) seems as good a place as any. I loaded up the boy into the pram, grabbed my camera and set off.

My little one enjoys to spot things and often points out birds and planes as they go past. He especially likes pointing at pigeons in the fields behind our house. So I wasn't too surprised when he pointed into the air as we were about five minutes away from the house. What did surprise me was that he had spotted two World War 2 era planes heading off to a show somewhere. Well spotted from the boy, hopefully the bodes well for the rest of the day.

 After we make it into the park it's only a few moments before we catch sight of our first butterfly (see right). It's then that I realised just how tricky its going to be to get a photo of the butterflies while pushing a pram. I don't really want to leave the boy alone too far away from me in the park so i can only really chase after the butterflies short distances away. Luckily this one dropped into the grass and showed off it's wings. An easy identification for most people but I wasn't really sure if it was a Peacock, a Red Admiral or a Tortoiseshell. (I'm planning on working on this).

I took the path following the riverbank and saw quite a few butterflies just that bit too far away to take a picture, they are surprisingly fast and I'm struggling to get my camera to focus on them as they go by. (Any tips are very welcome please). I did however manage to get a picture of this little fellow on the left. But I have no idea what this is or even if it's actually a moth. I'd really appreciate if anyone can identify this for me.



In my efforts to find more butterflies I took a few paths that I've not been down before in the park. It was great to find a few more places, there was a lovely arch in a tree to walk through and a few quiet spots for the local anglers. I do a bit of running every now and again and I'll hopefully be able to run through here again soon. I didn't manage to take any more pictures but did see a few white butterflies in the grassy areas. A fairly pleasant morning, started well with the planes but I didn't really know what sort of planes they were (Hurricanes?) and neither did I know my butterflies.

 

An idea forms

Being a new dad my priorities have shifted somewhat and hobbies that I used to pursue perhaps take up a bit too much time. Activities that involve the boy are a bit more important, or at least things i enjoy that I can drag him along to too. That being said I've been a member of the RSPB for a number of years but hadn't really been to many of their reserves, except for trips to Loch Garten when on holiday up in the Cairngorms, Link to Loch Garten live webcam. So the plan is to take the boy out on walks to nature reserves to see what there is to see.

Our first trip out was to the Warwickshire Wildlife Trusts Brandon Marsh Reserve . We had a fun afternoon going between the hides seeing what birds were out on the water and wrestling the pram between them. not being in the swing of visiting these sorts of places for a while I forgot to take both my camera and my binoculars, so there won't be many photos on this first blog post! however it was the books in the giftshop that sparked my interest.

Row upon row of the field guide to this or the British book of that. Dragonflies, spiders, bumblebees, birds, moths butterflies: lots of choice. I've picked butterflies and the plan is to see them all, well the British ones anyway.

If you've got any tips on good places to find them in Warwickshire then let me know.