Getting to grips with new gear.

At long last I finally decided it was time to upgrade from my trusty Canon 450D that has served me well for many years to something with a great deal more fire power and also add a macro lens to my tool box.

So earlier this week I paid an early morning visit to the lower chalk downland slopes at Juniper Bottom together with my new 80D and a 100mm f2.8L Macro lens in anticipation of finding some 'flutters' to photograph.

Whilst the temperature was a reasonable 19 deg.C there was a blustery wind and nothing appeared to be on the wing until I spotted a lonely male Marbled White hunkered down in the grass.

Over the following twenty minutes it constantly flitted around the hillside rarely stopping to perch for a second or two but finally came to rest long enough to test the new set up.

As the morning wore on I found a few other species.

A male Common Blue.

And fairly close by was a female Common Blue (below).

When the sun disappeared behind the clouds I turned my attention to the varied selection of wild flowers scattered over the grassland.

Attaching an extension tube to the macro lens gave me an opportunity to test its use with some close-ups of Knapweed bracts (below).

A male Small Skipper.

A chance find was this Silver-Spotted Skipper hiding close to my feet and I only managed one shot before it flew away never to be seen again!

There were plenty of Six-spot Burnets all over the grassland.

 

One species I was hopeful of seeing was the Dark Green Fritillary (below). I followed several up and down the slope for what seemed ages before getting just one shot of this individual as it perched briefly.

Having reviewed all the images taken during this test excursion I am very pleased with the outcome and performance of the new gear ... just need to get used to the different button layout on the 80D and maybe read the instruction manual. FAB.

Recent Forays on Ashtead Common.

During the past week I have made three separate forays onto different parts of Ashtead Common and on each occasion whilst the temperature was more or less favourable the strong breezes and cloudy skies have conspired against me seeing and getting photos of some of the expected species. Nevertheless here are images of some of the species seen.

Large Skipper (Ochlodes venata). Of the three Skipper species this one is the easiest to find and identify and has been the most common on my transect walks from late June to date.

However the Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris) has so far been less obvious than the same period last year and I have yet to find and clearly identify its close relative the Essex Skipper on my transect visits.

This mating pair of Small Skipper were spotted during a walk that I led for the local branch of Butterfly Conservation on Thursday when a total of 17 species was recorded including many Purple Hairstreak and Purple Emperor (c20) flying high above the Oak canopies. One Purple Emperor tantalisingly fluttered around a few of us at head height for a few minutes but failed to land!

Small White (Pieris rapae).

Comma (Polygonia c-album).

Red Admiral(Vanessa atalanta).

The most numerous species both on my woodland transect and other walks on the common at the moment is the Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) which is happy to fly providing there is a little warmth even on the dullest of days.

The BC walk on Thursday also provided my first local sighting of a fresh male Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus).

Finally this Beautiful Demoiselle (Calopteryx virgo) below was seen as I wandered alongside the stream on my return to the car and was certainly aware of my presence.

Butterfly Forays.

A visit at the end of June, albeit on a slightly overcast and windy morning, to Juniper Bottom enabled me to catch up with a few more butterfly species on the chalk downland slopes.

The most obvious flutter on the wing when the sun chose to briefly show itself was the Marbled White (Melanargia galathea ) often stopping to nectar for a few moments on the wild privet.

It is quite common to find Marbled Whites with red parasitic mites clinging to the thorax, head or abdomen. Studies indicate that these mites Trombidium breei are harmless to the butterfly, and have no detectable effect on the flight performance, orientation ability or lifespan. The same species of mite parasitises several other grassland butterflies including Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Chalkhill Blue, Adonis Blue and Small Skipper.

The images above and below are the female Marbled White.

After a little searching I finally located a pair mating (see below) deep down in the grasses.

This view shows the distinctive difference between the sexes by comparing the dark peppered patterns on the under wings; a neutral grey colour on the male, while in the female they are a warm grey brown.

Small Skipper(Thymelicus sylvestris).

Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae).

Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja).

Today I co-led a walk on Epsom Common where Large Skipper, Large White, Brimstone, Marbled White, Small Tortoiseshell, Comma, Red Admiral, White Admiral, Silver-washed Fritillary, Purple Hairstreak, Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, and Ringlet were seen. 

 Comma (Polygonia c-album).

However I suspect the star species for most of the 27 participants was the Purple Emperor. Whilst we had two sightings of males flying fairly high during our walk the bonus was a male fluttering around us at head height at the end of the walk. It then decided to rest at our feet for over 45 minutes. Just a pity it didn't open its wings!

Purple Emperor (Apatura iris).

Next Thursday I have agreed to lead a walk on Ashtead Common so providing the weather obliges we should have more sightings of Purple Emperor and I might get the opportunity to grab some images of Purple Hairstreak, White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary. FAB.

Linking to:
Saturday's Critters

Small and Essex Skippers.

Small Skipper (Male)

All transect walkers have been requested to make more effort in distinguishing between two very similar species, the Small and Essex Skippers, based on the following slightly different field marks.

Small Skipper: Undersides of the tips of the antennae are orange-brown. The male has a slightly curved, conspicuous sex brand on each of its upper fore-wings. both sexes are very similar.

Essex Skipper: Undersides of the tip of the antennae are black. The male has short, straight, inconspicuous sex brands.

Plus the females of both species are plain orange and the under-wings of both sexes are very similar.

So for me this is certainly not an easy task unless any individual is perched with its wings open and even then you may need a magnifying glass or a good view of the underside of the antennae through close focusing binoculars, which I don't yet posses. So wherever possible I often resort to grabbing a shot or two to review on the laptop later but even this approach doesn't always provide conclusive evidence.

The first three images are all of a male Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris).

My identification of the next image, based on the underside colour of the antennae, is a female Small Skipper.

And finally just by way of comparison the last, somewhat grainy image is a male Essex Skipper (Thymelicus lineola) with a small, straight sex brand on the wing.

Both species should still be on the wing during August and I'm sure I'll have a few more tricky encounters to unravel their true identities! [All images shot handheld using 70-300mm lens with 1.4x converter]

Linking to:

Macro Monday 2

Nature Notes hosted by Michelle; 

Through My Lens, a new meme hosted by Mersad.

Friday Flutters.

With the prospect of a little more sunshine and much reduced winds I decided to carry out my weekly transect recording session on Ashtead Common late this morning but by the time I arrived on site the clouds had already started to drift over and the temperature dropped dramatically.

Since the rides were mowed just over two weeks ago the number of recorded sightings of any Skipper species has dropped dramatically. Today I logged just one, probably a female Small Skipper, hanging on to a swaying stem of dried grass.

The sun made an occasional reappearance enabling me to snap this nectaring Ringlet (above) while overhead a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (below) made a noisy appearance before promptly flying away.

During an hour and a half I recorded 10 species and a total of 44 individual butterflies including Small Skipper (1), Brimstone (5), Large White (4), Small White (1), Holly Blue (1), Red Admiral (1), Speckled Wood (5), Gatekeeper (13), Meadow Brown (7) and Ringlet (6).

One of the most conspicuous species today was the Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) with several sulphur-yellow males feeding on thistles, their favourite nectar source.

Linking to: 

Saturday's Critters

Friday Flutters - Transect Update.

Speckled Wood.

Throughout the first nine weeks (mid April to mid May) of recording butterfly sightings during my fixed transect walks on Ashtead Common N.N.R. this northern part of the ancient oak woodland had produced just ten different species with the most abundant being Brimstone (14) and Speckled Wood (21).

On many visits the total number of species logged were in low single figures mainly due to the lower temperatures and gusty winds.  Fortunately there were other distractions such as watching and listening to singing Chiffchaff, Wren, Blackcap and Garden Warblers.

During these periods of flutter inactivity I gathered a few images of some of the wild flowers encountered along my route including Garlic Mustard, Hawthorn, Stitchwort, Speedwell and Primrose.

My walk earlier this week was again under a grey sky with the sun almost permanently obscured but the species and numbers logged contrasted dramatically to all my previous visits.

My first sighting in a small sunlit clearing was a resting male Large Skipper (Ochlodes sylvanus).

 

Apart from a couple of flying Speckled Wood I didn't spot anything else throughout the first three heavily shaded sections of the transect. As I entered one of the the main open wooded pasture glades I spotted a distant flying Meadow Brown but got briefly distracted by this Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis).  

Walking across the open grassy glade towards the King Oak produced 17 Meadow Browns (Maniola jurina) and several more were logged in two subsequent sections.

 

While stepping gingerly through the ferns to photograph the Meadow Browns I spotted a Ladybird and took a quick record shot without paying much attention to its probable identity but later realised that it was one of the European invaders, a Harlequin (Harmonia axyridis).

The other Skipper species logged that was relatively easy to identify by the long thin curved sex brand was a number of Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris).

The Small (T. sylvestris) and Essex (T. lineola) Skippers are often encountered in the same grassland habitat and notoriously difficult to distinguish between unless you can confirm the underside colour of the antenna-tip so I'll reserve judgement on this final image (below).

The final tally for this walk was 31 butterflies but only four species. Hopefully the coming weeks will produce some more interesting sightings.  FAB.

For some views of 'Sunbathing Reptiles' check out my most recent post on FABirding.

Linking to Saturday's Critters, Macro Monday 2 and Nature Notes.