Female holly blue Our hopes are high. The date is right and a warm and humid morning with blue sky and bright cloud should favour butterflies. Days of unsettled weather and intermittent showers see flowers tall and fresh. Here is a window of opportunity, with rain to return later in the day. There is rain all night and the next morning is wet and windy so butterflies will be unable to fly and feed. For a few fine hours they dance on the fringe of sunlit woodland glades, flickering against shadows. And seeking nectar from drifts of hemp agrimony and knapweed.
We bide our time and enjoy the essence of a summer woodland, the way sunlight falls through the canopy down to woodland glades with greater willow herb, purple loosestrife, yellow loosestrife and ripening hazel nuts. We see the advance of the season. Ten days ago there were white flowers on brambles low to the ground. Stone bramble, dewberry, a variation on a theme of bramble. Today, the flowers fade and fruit is setting with drupes ripening from green to black with a bloom upon them.
Umbellifers are alive with insects, with wasps, bees and hoverflies. We glimpse different butterflies further off, close to the trees. Speckled wood are abroad with meadow brown and ringlet. We begin to see silver washed fritillary and some settle to nectar on flowers. It's their peak-flight time and they outnumber other species today. A male has a torn wing and is rather faded. Sunlight is strong and when butterflies settle on tall flowers of hemp agrimony close to the trees the colour is leached from them. Seeing the large, orange silver washed fritillary against the foil of woodland shadow is the perfect setting for this butterfly that breeds in the woods. Ripening rowan berries glow in the shadows. The silver washed fritillary is a fast-flying butterfly and doesn't settle for long so there's rarely time to compose an image. One of my pictures shows a butterfly taking flight and it's an odd shape and blurred, but I like the detail it catches, the ginger hairs on the body, black spots on an orange wing and a hint of androconial streaks.
On butterfly watch, we are alert to a play of sunlight and cloud-shadow over the woodland glades.The moment the sun is lost behind a passing cloud the butterflies vanish. Their response is instant. There are lacunae, interludes without butterflies. We stroll through gusts of warm air and herbal fragrance, and when the sun returns so do the butterflies.
Last time we were here we heard a family of sparrowhawk in the canopy and today there are four birds circling above us and calling to each other. The sun blazes about them as they learn how to find prey and to hunt.
On butterfly watch, we are alert to a play of sunlight and cloud-shadow over the woodland glades.The moment the sun is lost behind a passing cloud the butterflies vanish. Their response is instant. There are lacunae, interludes without butterflies. We stroll through gusts of warm air and herbal fragrance, and when the sun returns so do the butterflies.
Last time we were here we heard a family of sparrowhawk in the canopy and today there are four birds circling above us and calling to each other. The sun blazes about them as they learn how to find prey and to hunt.
Being in the moment is my credo. But in places you know and love you exist in a spectrum of time, other years, other seasons. This time last summer we found brimstone and comma here, but not today. A small and delicate butterfly of pastel shades settles to nectar on hemp agrimony, wings closed. The translucent underwing seems to absorb colour from its surroundings. It's a female holly blue, summer brood. I looked for them in early spring but did not find them and for some while I've hoped for a photograph. Early August is peak flight-time for this second brood. So there may another opportunity, you never know.
'The first brood which start to emerge in April lay their eggs on Holly. Then the second brood lay on Ivy. I wonder if certain chemicals are found in these plants which the caterpillar needs for its development?'
Jell Holmes' comment about the choice of holly in spring and ivy in summer for the caterpillar food plant makes you think. He has not seen good numbers of any butterfly species this summer. He's expert and dedicated- if they're around he'll find them. He confirms my own observation.
'The first brood which start to emerge in April lay their eggs on Holly. Then the second brood lay on Ivy. I wonder if certain chemicals are found in these plants which the caterpillar needs for its development?'
Jell Holmes' comment about the choice of holly in spring and ivy in summer for the caterpillar food plant makes you think. He has not seen good numbers of any butterfly species this summer. He's expert and dedicated- if they're around he'll find them. He confirms my own observation.
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