Category Archives: Insects

Summer Colours

July 26, 2014 by Words | 6 Comments

I’m cautiously prepared to say that we do indeed have a summer this year. It’s still hovering in the upper 70°sF and I counted no more than about 10 drops of rain today. Even the storms have given up bothering us. The landscape is feeling the heat, but showing some fine summer gold.

wheat field

Wheat field providing a touch of gold in the South Downs National Park

Single stalk of wheat

Single stalk of wheat.

There are butterflies everywhere, with a sudden influx of the brightly coloured peacock butterfly. A small swarm of them have been occupying the garden for the past two or three days, enjoying the sunshine and buddleia.

Peacock butterfly on buddleia

Peacock butterfly on buddleia

Pair of peacock butterflies on the fence

Pair of peacock butterflies on the fence

Back in the fields, a pair of meadow browns were busy making more meadow browns.

meadow brown butterflies mating

Meadow brown butterflies mating

And at home today, a small tortoiseshell joined the peacocks at the far end of the garden.

Small tortoiseshell and peacock butterfly

Small tortoiseshell with a peacock butterfly to the right.

To complete the recent set of butterfly photos, here’s a red admiral from this afternoon.

Red Admiral

Red Admiral (the buddleia’s common name is Butterfly Bush)

The other striking garden invasion has been small swarms of migrant hawker dragonflies. For the past few evenings we’ve watched 20 or more flying over the garden. They are really difficult to photograph in flight, but I did manage this shot.

Migrant hawker dragonfly

Migrant hawker dragonfly

Plus a ‘proper’ photo when one briefly took a breather on the hawthorn.

Migrant Hawker dragonfly

Migrant Hawker dragonfly

Any post about summer colour really needs a sunset, and I’m not going to disappoint. This was taken this evening.

Sunset

Sunset over distant hill

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D. Wheat field, small tortoiseshell and red admiral, and the sunset taken with the EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens; Peacock butterflies and dragonflies taken with the EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens; and the meadow browns with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Also posted in Butterfly, dragonfly, Farming, Landscape, South Downs National Park Tagged , , , |

Falmer Butterflies

July 21, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

With the launch of the annual ‘Big Butterfly Count‘ this week I’ve an excuse to post some more photos of butterflies. These were all seen as I walked around the edge of the University of Brighton Falmer campus today, in glorious sunshine. I’ll start with the very pretty (and very numerous) common blues.

Common blue butterflies

Common blue butterflies

Counting them would be tricky. They are very small and emerged like dust from the path as I walked along.

Easier to count (perhaps), although they are rarely stationary for more than a moment, are the marbled whites. They tend to keep to the long grass which makes photographing them a little bit hit and miss. This is a relative hit.

Marbled white butterfly

There were also peacock butterflies, the ever-present meadow browns, and this (less common) ringlet butterfly.

Ringlet butterfly

The other very common species is the cinnabar. Actually a moth, and in this case in the caterpillar stage. They were very easy to spot on the forest of ragwort in the fields beyond the campus fringe.

Cinnabar caterpillars on ragwort

The closing photo was taken towards the end of the walk, as I was heading back down from the hills. To the right you can see the curved roof of the Amex Stadium (Brighton and Hove Albion’s home), the University of Brighton campus (and my office) is just to the left of it; and in the distance is the University of Sussex. Everything beyond is part of the South Downs National Park.

The Amex Stadium, the University of Brighton Falmer campus

Camera note: most of the photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. The cinnabars and the landscape were taken with the EF 24-105 F4L IS USM lens.

Also posted in Amex Community Stadium, Butterfly, caterpillar, Landscape, South Downs National Park Tagged , , , |

Castle Hill Butterflies

July 14, 2014 by Words | 4 Comments

I made the most of the afternoon sun and headed over to Castle Hill nature reserve, a local downland site which is a haven for butterflies. There were numerous species in evidence, including peacock butterflies, gatekeepers, common blues, innumerable meadow browns. Plus the ones that I actually got around to photographing.

Marbled whites were everywhere, dusting the long grasses with their delicately laced wings. The first photo shows one alongside some six-spot burnet moths (one of our few day-flying species of moth).

Marbled white butterfly and six-spot burnet moths,

And a couple of close-ups of a marbled white.

Marbled White butterfly

Butterfly

I noticed plenty of ragwort as I walked the paths. Ragwort is generally seen as invasive and can be toxic to some animals (horses, in particular). It’s often cleared, but it’s native and is a primary food-source for the cinnabar caterpillar. Several can be seen here in various stages of development.

Cinnabar caterpillars on ragwort

Now for one that I am struggling to identify. I think it may be one of the many varieties of fritillary (please correct me if I’m wrong).

Fritillary (possibly)

The next photo isn’t perfect, but I am fairly sure it’s a chalkhill blue.

Chalkhill blue butterfly

And this one I do know. It’s a small skipper, with its tongue tightly curled.

Small skipper

Camera note: Chalkhill blue and first of the three marbled white photos taken with the Canon 7D and EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens. Everything else was with the EF 100mm f/2.8L macro IS USM lens.

Also posted in Butterfly, moth Tagged , |