Butterflies on a sunny day

[Chrissy]

Well I think yesterday was summer! In the absence of managing to get to a good bird site for some time, yesterday I did the next best thing and sat (or crawled around, as you do)on a disused runway, in amongst the grasses and took lots of photo's of insects!
These are the results

http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q...t=0cc703b7.pbw

Not sure that the slideshow will work...but worth a try..*crosses fingers*

I also have a few things that I would appreciate thoughts on:



Any idea's what this is with the Painted lady?



I saw this one up in the trees. it was a different flight pattern, so kind of caught my eye. When it landed, it was too far for my eye to see, so I took a couple of images. I am wondering what butterfly is this colour brown with an eye clearly marked at the back. At first I thought ringlet, but they don't have orange antennae?

Oh and I spotted this moth


I think it is a blood veined? Sorry about the grass, I asked him to pose a bit better but, he wasn't having none!

Sorry for the lack of smilies, I seem to have reached my image capacity in this post *winks*

[Caz Clay]

Hi Chrissy,
I know absolutely nothing at all about moths so I can't help you there I'm afraid. As for the second picture, I think its a purple hairstreak butterfly. The hairstreaks are usually found high up in trees so it would make sense. Very nice find and picture!

[clydebirder]

Originally Posted by Caz Clay

Hi Chrissy,
I know absolutely nothing at all about moths so I can't help you there I'm afraid. As for the second picture, I think its a purple hairstreak butterfly. The hairstreaks are usually found high up in trees so it would make sense. Very nice find and picture!

The second is a Purple Hairstreak and the last one is a blood vein and think the one with the Painted Lady may be a Silver-Y as you can see part of the wing markings for that species

cheers, John

[Twitcheruth]

Lovely images Chrissy.....Sunday certainly was the day for them wasn't it!
This is another Silver Y which might help with your ID?

[Little Sparrow]

Great photo's, Chrissy! I agree with you and Ruth, Sunday was a lovely day! Let's hope we get a few more days like it!

[Chrissy]

I do hope we will get some more nice days..
Thanks for all the comments and the helpful ID's Rather nice and I have not seen one before.
Oh and Hello to Caz Clay
I will have a look through and see if I can find a more helpful image for that moth on the flower, I am sure I have others...
The nicest thing was that I had time to really study the Common blues with there being so many. What you don't get from photo's is the size. I am not sure whether I was looking at two different species tbh. The females are all smaller than the males but I observed some that seemed very tiny compared to the others.
There was also quite a variation in some of the markings. It was amazing to sit amongst loads of them spiralling into the air. Some sites say that females are more shy than the males. I noticed the males were much more bold and sitting on the top of the flowers in higher grass. The females all kept much closer to the ground, in shorter foliage which makes them much more difficult to spot. If they went too high, they seemed to get plagued by all the males
I can think of worse days than sitting among the butterflies

[Twitcheruth]

Originally Posted by Chrissy

I can think of worse days than sitting among the butterflies

That sounded heavenly Chrissy.....lets hope summer soon returns so that we can all get a chance to sit with the butterflies.

[Chrissy]

I didn't get a single shot with the wings closed so it would have been hard to identify

But John and Ruth are spot on with the Silver-Y
Am I surprised...no
Hehe, well done all

[Chrissy]

I thought I would provide some feedback on the Purple hairstreak. After Caz Clay and John identified this one, I took and extra special look when I went to the same place yesterday. As they live in oak trees, I cast my eyes over it and was amazed to see a female flying quite low down. She was flying a lot like a moth and is surprisingly small, quite easy to miss.

I have put an image in my gallery, I took quite a lot but she was hard to get a good one of, she flew in and out of the oak leaves and unlike some butterflies was happy to rest out of the sun. I did manage to get one with the wings open but she had gone higher up at that point and there is a leaf obscuring part of her. Interestingly she has a bright blue body with a dusting of purple towards it. A first

In the woods I came across one or two nuthatches, I could hear a GS woodpecker but with all the foliage now, it is almost impossible to grab a shot. More than anything because it is so dark underneath it. I noticed there were lost of finches ( I think ) bobbing backwards and forwards into the field that has just been harvested. The buzzard was extremely vocal yesterday and his high pitched notes were heard all afternoon!

[Twitcheruth]

Interesting post (& a good pic in your album) about the Purple Hairstreak Chrissy,they are reknown for their habits of flying high in the tree tops......we have them at our local nature reserve tho I've never managed to spot one....yet!

I heard a mewing Buzzard too yesterday afternoon.....a great sound isn't it!