Wild and Wonderful: blue butterflies

Showing posts with label blue butterflies. Show all posts

Wednesday, 18 May 2022

Green Hairstreak and Other Sightings

Green Hairstreak, one of three seen at Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 14 May 2022

There is something intriguing about a green butterfly, probably because the Green Hairstreak is the only green (as opposed to green-veined) species of butterfly we are likely to encounter here in the UK. It was a thrill to see three of these beautiful iridescent insects last Saturday afternoon in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. You can read a bit about the nanoscale structures on the wings of a Green Hairstreak here.

We also saw:

Small White
Peacock
Common Blue
Speckled Wood
Orange Tip.

We thought we might have seen a Brown Argus, but I'm not convinced as the outer wing markings of the blue butterflies I photographed seem to match those of the Common Blue. I often return to this website for guidance.

I may not have been posting on this blog for a while, but I have been keeping my eyes and ears open for seasonal changes in the garden and on our walks. We heard our first Cuckoo on 1 May, the day we saw our first House Martins and Swallows. We saw our first damselflies of 2022 on Saturday (14th).

My Butterfly Conservation 'Garden Butterfly Survey' list for 2022 currently includes the following sightings in no particular order:

Small White
Large White
Holly Blue
Speckled Wood
Peacock
Red Admiral (today)
Comma
Orange Tip

On our little excursions beyond the garden we have also seen Small Coppers, (and as mentioned above) Common Blues and Green Hairstreaks.

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P.S. On the rather different subject of birds, you can click here to see my Redwing photograph on the cover of Neil Leadbeater's latest poetry collection, The Gloucester Fragments, a wonderful and inventive collection published by Littoral Press.

Sunday, 20 September 2020

Landguard: Blue Butterflies on a Blustery Afternoon

I see we are fast moving towards the autumn equinox, and perhaps this had something to do with the force of the waves on Saturday afternoon. I know other places have experienced dreadful storms and floods. The beach at Landguard shelves steeply as you may be able to tell from the photo.

As ever, I enjoyed seeing what was on the sand around my feet. I need to get my pebble book out and gen up on my stones. I spent my teenage years in East Anglia and used to know my carnelian from my quartz!

As you can see, this far end of the beach was once again pretty unpopulated. There were three windsurfers quite a way out, braving the breakers.

We spotted a bird on the groyne, this time clearly a Turnstone.

You can see the wing markings in the photo below. I nearly missed its take-off!

Up on the reserve we managed to find several Common Blue butterflies in the sheltered spots.

Most had hunkered down to avoid the wind.

There were also a couple of tiny Brown Argus.

I think this butterfly had seen better days.

Another Common Blue...

... and another, this time on the Tamarisk.

I wonder how many more we will see this season. For any who may not know it, here's a link to Robert Frost's beautiful 'Blue-Butterfly Day' poem, though as you will see, it doesn't exactly fit with our UK season right now!

Saturday, 18 July 2020

Big Butterfly Count (and a new homepatch species)

I had a tip-off that these beautiful butterflies were on the wing in our area, but it came as a surprise when we found one in our garden yesterday. I have not seen many Brown Argus butterflies in my life, and the few I have spotted have all been in Cambridgeshire at NT Wicken Fen. We have only knowingly had one Common Blue, a male, in our garden so far this year, but I wondered at first if the new sighting could be a female. I checked this website and came to the conclusion that this was unlikely on account of the marked dark spot on the wing and the markings on the outer hindwing, but since four kind folk have now agreed with my Brown Argus ID, I think this is probably what it is (but do feel free to say otherwise - with explanation, please!).

Yesterday marked the start of the Big Butterfly Count, organised by Butterfly Conservation. This citizen-science survey made the national BBC News here in England so I hope there will be a good response, particularly since many species are in decline. David and I did two fifteen minute counts this afternoon on a quiet lane bordered by fields and hedges, now that my 'government shielding' advice allows for time beyond the garden in the company of another adult.

Meanwhile, I continue to count butterflies in the garden for the Garden Butterfly Survey.

Oh, and on another note entirely, the BATS were back in the garden last night. It is only the second time we have seen them this year. I saw two, both too large for Pipistrelles, and David saw more at the front of the house. I wonder what they are...

Saturday, 2 May 2020

First Month of Butterfly Counting

I began the Butterfly Conservation Garden Butterfly Survey at the end of March, so I have just completed my first month. Habitat, of course, is very important in terms of attracting wildlife. Our Suffolk garden faces east (meaning a fair bit of shadow in the second half of the day) and has sandy soil. It is probably 'average+' in terms of size for a suburban plot. We grow wild flowers from seed (poppy and cornflower). We also sow nasturtium seeds. We have a silver birch tree, a holly, two small hawthorns, a couple of acers and a conifer. Shrubs around the edge include buddleia, laurel, weigela, hydrangea, viburnham and spirea. We have left almost all the grass unmown (I have a little labyrinthine path through it, but otherwise it is as nature intended), and we allow nettles and a bit of bramble.

Obviously I am not out butterfly-spotting in the garden 24/7, but I would have hoped to have seen a Red Admiral by now. We rarely see Small Tortoiseshells here, but it is always a joy when they visit. I wonder what butterflies you are seeing, and what new species I will be able to list in May. It's certainly an enjoyable lockdown activity, not only because the arrival of each butterfly is a cause for celebration, but because everyone's records in this particular survey will help Butterfly Conservation with their invaluable work to ensure that butterflies are a feature of the nation's gardens for years to come.

P.S. Please join me on my new lockdown poetry venture here. I would love to receive your Peacock butterfly-inspired five-liners whether you are an experienced poet or simply prepared to have a go at something new! This first submission window closes on 13th May.

Monday, 7 March 2016

Tree Following - February and early March 2016

Welcome to my Tree Following post for February and early March 2016.

These tree posts form part of a wider project initiated by Lucy Corrander from the Loose and Leafy blog and continued by Pat at The Squirrelbasket.

I am based in Suffolk, UK, where I have been keeping an eye on an Acer negundo (aka a Box-leaf Maple) and watching a Silver birch, B. pendula. I really enjoy following the Silver Birch, but have not found the Acer negundo such a rewarding tree to follow. I shall keep the Silver Birch but am swapping the Maple for a small Cherry sapling for my second tree.

You will find the other Tree Follower links by clicking the Mr Linky link here (or here) ... so do take the chance to have a look at these new posts!

The Silver birch is awash with catkins (see photo above), but I am still waiting for the first bits of greenery to break through. It has been a mild winter here with a reasonable amount of rain, so it should not be long now. I have seen small shoots of green on the Hawthorns in my area.

No sign of any green yet ...

The small Cherry, Prunus avium Sylvia, has two 'trunks' at present. These are really 'thin stems', and I have a feeling I should probably remove the newer one. The original trunk (which is more like a twig) has some fine buds on it, which I will keep an eye on over the next four weeks. This little tree began life with us in a pot, but we planted it in the garden last year, and it seems to have weathered the winter.

Prunus avium Sylvia ... bursting buds to watch

This is an odd-numbered month, so I will keep the update on my total tally of species seen around the Silver Birch or Cherry for April. I will, however, give a list of species seen since my last TF post:

Robin (and another Robin) - busy collecting leaves under the Silver Birch
Blue tits, a large cluster, often feeding on the fat-balls
Great tits, again a good number of these
Long-tailed tits, always in a small group, chittering as they fly
Dunnocks, a pair under the Silver Birch
Wren, in the undergrowth around the Silver Birch
Starlings, every so often
Blackbird, around the tree, rather than on it
Magpies, quite a few
Wood pigeons, the usual suspects
Carrion Crows, noisy ones at dusk!
Great Spotted Woodpecker - a male and a female
Grey Heron, flying quite low over the Silver Birch
Sparrowhawk, which perched on the fence
Goldfinches, a charm. These birds come and go
Chaffinch, along the fence from the Cherry

We have had a couple of icy mornings this last month and one or two rather beautiful spells of stormy light at dusk. During yesterday's stormy sunset I noticed the fall of light on some tree trunks in the distance, way beyond my garden boundary (see photo below). I had seen the trees many times but had not realised until then that some of them were also Silver Birch.

Speaking of which, I also discovered that Silver Birch (Betula pendula) trees were encroaching on a nearby SSSI with sandy soil, noted for its population of Silver-studded Blue butterflies (Plebejus argus - which sometimes appears in print as Plebeius argus). These butterflies - and I would love to see one - need a spread of heather, meaning that an increase in the amount of Silver Birch trees in this particular context is apparently not good news.

Sadly I have no new mammal sightings to report. The Grey Squirrel continues to visit the Silver Birch, in its attempt to carry off the coconut and berry feeders before the birds have a look in! I have now seen my first (active) 7-spot Ladybirds of the season, but they were not in the vicinity of either of my Tree Following trees.

And finally, a little more about the small Cherry. It flowered for the first time the year before last when it was in a pot. It seemed to be growing very slowly and we thought it was probably pot-bound, so we planted it next to the Acer negundo. It has certainly grown significantly and survived the winter, but we hope to have the chance to ask a garden expert about it soon. I would love to think that there will be more blossom this year!

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