Orange Tips

Sorry to be a bit repetitive, but I have been having fun photographing my favourite butterfly! The weather has been cool and cloudy with occasional sunny spells, which is makes photographing Orange Tips so much easier!

The pattern on the underside of their wings blends in beautifully with the flowers of one of their favourite food plants - Garlic Mustard.

I have shown pictures of eggs, caterpillars and a chrysalis of the Orange Tip in a previous post.

The start of the butterfly season

I chose a good week to take off work last week! The weather was sunny and although not particularly warm, it was enough to tempt a few butterflies out of hibernation and cause a few others to venture out of their chrysalises! I made the most of the weather and took the dogs out for walks several times each day as an excuse to look for butterflies!
Quite a number of the hedges around the fields here are Blackthorn, Prunus spinosa. They have white flowers at this time of year, but I have never seen them flower so profusely.

The black berries are used to flavour Sloe Gin, so it looks like we should have a good crop later in the year!
The Cherry trees are also flowering well this year.

Spring wouldn't be spring without Primroses, Primula vulgaris. They have been flowering for a few weeks now, so are a little past their best.

I came across a fair bit of wildlife while I was out and about. Brown Hares are not as common as they were a few years ago, but I bumped into quite a few last week. Luckily they spotted us before the dogs spotted them and they slipped off safely. I was very surprised to come almost face to face with a Fox on a local shooting estate. This was the first Fox I have seen around here, as they have been almost eradicated to protect the Pheasants. This Roe Deer was one of a group of four I spotted while looking for butterflies. They didn't see me for quite some time, but I think this one heard my camera and they ran off shortly after I took the picture!

The flowers are alive with insects.  This lovely Carder Bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum, was on a Cuckoo Flower, Cardamine pratensis, in a meadow near where we live.

The three usual butterflies were all out in force. The Peacock, Aglais io, the Small Tortoiseshell, Aglais urticae, and the Comma, Polygonia c-album, all over-winter as adults, hibernating in wood piles, hollow trees and in sheds. They start to appear in March on warm days and by April they are regularly seen.

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

Comma

My favourite local butterfly is the Orange Tip, Anthocharis cardamines. Not only do I love their colours, but for me they signify the start of the butterfly season. As with the other three white species found here, they spend the winter as a chrysalis. However, unlike the other three species of whites, they only have one generation a year, so are only seen for about six weeks.

I have real problems getting good pictures of them, and I am never satisfied. They are very fickle and will only fly or open their wings when the sun is shining. The white areas on their wings reflect the sunlight causing quite a glare. Almost as soon as the sun goes behind a cloud, they will close their wings. I have found that the best option is to find one feeding and wait for the sun to go behind a cloud, and quickly get a picture before they close their wings! This isn't easy as the males tend to fly up and down paths and river banks looking for females.

When their wings are closed they are very well camouflaged.

The female Orange Tip lacks the orange tips!

I am sorry to have put on so many pictures, but I can't resist these butterflies! 

This week the weather has returned to grey and cloudy, so unusually I took my leave on the right week!

All the right signs

The weather here has been a little disappointing recently. Nothing unusual, but I am always impatient at this time of year, because as soon as it warms up I know we will see more butterflies.
The Butterfly Transect Surveys are meant to start the first week of April, but we haven't had good enough weather here yet to make a start. Today I walked my transect route, just in case there were any butterflies there, but I didn't hold out any hope as it was quite cloudy and there was a cold wind at lunch time when I could get out of the office to do it.
Things started off reasonably well with bumble bees feeding in the willow trees. I think this one is a Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

A little later I saw my first Red-tailed Bumblebee of the year.

The clouds kept breaking, revealing large blue patches of sky. As I reached the river I saw a flash of blue as a Kingfisher flew past me. A little further upstream a Heron was looking splendid with its plumage blowing in the wind.

Ladybirds seem to have survived the mild winter in great numbers. The foliage next to the river was littered in them.

As I climbed the fence into a meadow a Peacock butterfly, Aglais io, flew up in front of me. These butterflies over-winter as adults, hibernating in sheds or log piles.  This one seems to have come through the winter in lovely condition.

I noticed some Sand Martins flying over the river. They have spent the winter in Africa, but they spend the summer over here, breeding in sandy river banks. Their arrival is always a sign that the weather is about to improve. As I watched them flying low over the river, catching flies, I noticed that there was a Swallow amongst them. It briefly stopped on a dead tree for a rest.

While I was watching them I heard the squawk of a buzzard and I looked up to see it flying overhead.

Shortly afterwards some grey clouds blew over and I thought that I had no chance of seeing any more butterflies. However, all the signs are there that the weather is about to improve and I shouldn't have too long to wait.

As it turned out, I only had to wait about ten minutes! On my way back to the office I saw a white butterfly flying along the edge of the meadow. I followed it for a while until it stopped, allowing me to identify it. It was a Green-veined White, Pieris napi. The first one I have seen this year. It would have spent the winter as a chrysalis and probably only emerged today.

There were plenty of signs that the weather may be about to improve, so I hope it won't be long until I see several more new species of butterflies for the year.

Moth Trap

I was recently contacted by a moth enthusiast who told me that Butterfly Conservation is undertaking a project to produce an Atlas of moth distribution. They have produced an excellent Butterfly Atlas, which incorporates records from enthusiasts around the UK, and this will follow a similar format. I have therefore been lent this moth trap so that I can help with records from this area.

It is an ingenious home-made device. It is left out over-night. The light attracts the moths and then bounce off it and fall through the funnel-shaped lid. Inside the trap are sections of egg crate and the moths settle down for the night amongst them. In the morning it is just a case of lifting off the lid and checking for moths in the egg crates.

I set the trap up last night for the first time. I wasn't very hopeful, as it was only 5.8 degrees, but this morning I could see one moth through the lid. As I checked through the sections of egg crate I found that I had caught nine moths. They were all Hebrew Characters, Orthosia gothica.

Once identified, I put the moths in a shed, where they would be safe from the garden birds that were showing an interest in what I was doing! 

They may not be as colourful as a butterfly, but I can see that I could get quite hooked on trapping moths. At least it will keep me occupied until the weather warms up enough for the butterflies to start appearing.

First Butterfly of the Year

After a long grey, damp winter we woke up this morning to see white frost on the ground and a lovely blue sky. Although it was colder than it has been for some months, it was lovely to see bright weather for a change.

At lunchtime I went for a walk along the river to an area where I have often seen my first butterfly of the year, but there was nothing there. I told myself that I was being stupid as it was far too cold for a butterfly to awaken.

On my way back to the office I walked along a cold, shady pavement and noticed a little brown triangle out of the corner of my eye. I stopped to take a closer look and saw that it was a Small Tortoiseshell. It was almost certain to perish where it was, as the sun would never reach it and it was likely to be trodden upon.

So, I picked it up and carried it to a sunny spot where I put it on a Marigold. Almost immediately it opened up its wings and I hope it managed to have a feed to give it the energy to survive the remaining cold days of winter.

It was lovely to see a butterfly again. I hope it won't be too long before I see more.

Burnet Moths

The Six Spot Burnet Moth, Zygaena filipendulae, is a day-flying moth that is found on meadows and coastal grassland around Britain. It flies between June and August and can be quite common around the coast here.

As the name implies, the moth has six red spots on the upper side of the fore wing. The hind wing, which is only really visible when it is flying, is red with a black border.

The caterpillars feed on Bird's-foot Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus. They are nicely marked and easy to find in the late spring. 

After hibernating for the winter, the caterpillars emerge in the spring and form a yellow cocoon on vegetation or fence posts. They are very easy to spot.

Last year there was great excitement when someone noticed a Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet moth, Zygaena lonicerae. Further investigation at the site found a lot more and then people noticed them in various areas of coastal grassland in East Lothian. This is a species that occurs in England and Wales, but it now seems to be extending its range northwards. When we started checking our photographs from the last few years we discovered that the Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet moth had been here for some time!!

It is quite strange that they hadn't been noticed before as the cocoon is quite different from the Six-spot Burnet moth.

It just goes to show that we shouldn't become complacent about the wildlife around us and we should always be on the look out for something new or different.

Speckled Wood - Pararge aegeria

The Speckled Wood, Parage aegeria, is a small to medium sized butterfly with a wingspan of about 50mm. As the name suggests it is usually found in wooded areas, choosing sunny sheltered spots, where males tend to take up territories.

Pararge aegeria tircis

It is a butterfly that excites me, as until recently it hadn't been recorded in East Lothian. Over the last few years it has been extending its range in the UK northwards. In 2009 a colleague saw one just inside East Lothian and another one was seen the following year. In 2011 I came across a small colony of Speckled Woods at John Muir Country Park, about ten miles further along the coast.

In only two years since then they have continued to spread through East Lothian and now they are found in many small areas of woodland over about two thirds of the county.

The map on the left above show the distribution of Speckled Woods in 1970. I have marked East Lothian in red. (This map is taken from The Provisional Atlas of the Insects of the British Isles, 1970) The map on the right is taken from the UK Butterflies web site and shows the distribution in 2004. The butterfly has clearly extended its range considerably in those 40 years. It has also continued to spread northwards by about 100 miles since the second map was produced.

The caterpillars feed on a variety of different grasses. In the UK adult butterflies are on the wing from late March to early October in several generations. They can overwinter as a caterpillar or chrysalis. In southern Europe adult butterflies can be seen almost all year round.

Pararge aegeria tircis

The Speckled Wood occurs over most of Europe and there are four subspecies. Pararge aegeria aegeria occurs in northern Africa and south-west Europe to about half way across France. It has orange markings on a brown background.

Pararge aegeria aegeria

Pararge aegeria aegeria

The subspecies that is found in much of the UK is tircis, which occurs in much of north east Europe. This has smaller cream markings instead of orange and a slightly darker background colour.

Pararge aegeria tircis

Pararge aegeria tircis

There are two other subspecies - insula, which occurs on the Isles of Scilly. Its markings are somewhere between cream and orange. The subspecies oblita occurs in north-west Scotland and its markings are said to be closer to white on a dark brown, almost black, background.

When we were in Tenerife last July, I was delighted to find the Canary Speckled Wood, Pararge xiphioides. This looks much like the southern European subspecies. The most obvious difference is the white markings on the underside of the wings.

Pararge xiphioides

Pararge xiphioides

Pararge xiphioides

There is another species of Speckled Wood, Pararge xiphia, which lives on the island of Madeira. I haven't seen it, but that gives me a good excuse to go there on holiday in the future! I wonder if the family agree!!