13th June - Martin Down NNR & Shatterford, Hampshire - Part Two: Butterflies

So to Part Two of the day out at Martin Down and Shatterford, the scene was set in Part One with views across the beautiful reserve of Martin Down and details of the orchids and birds seen, but as the day warmed up it became very much about the butterflies and quality ones at that which deserved their own post  As we walked early morning we debated which would be the first to emerge, Meadow Brown or Small Heath.  I had a feeling it might be the Small Heath but in fact it turned out to be the Meadow Brown.  Never mind the Small Heath was the first to provide the first photograph opportunity.

With the temperature still to rise to an acceptable level they were spending the time deep in the grass.

We walked the length of the ditch with no other butterflies seen, but we did come across two of this day flying Moth, the Chimney Sweeper, it clearly gets its name from the sooty black appearance and the white tips to the wings

This distinctive moth could have been mistaken for a Small Blue butterfly. It rarely varies in colour but may become browner with wear. This moth is usually very active by day, especially in sunshine.  It is restricted to chalk downland, limestone grassland, woodland edges and hedgerows in southern Britain.

On reaching the top car park it was noticeably warmer and the clouds were spreading a little providing some welcome sunshine.  We crossed the road and walked up the bridleway, after just a short distance Ian found the butterfly we were hoping for, a Marbled White.  We pursued this individual until it settled in the grass.  Either the wing is damaged or it hasn't yet finished emerging properly.

The top of the path reaches woodland to the right and scrub to the left, we turned left and pursued several more Marbled Whites.  They did not travel far before settling in the grass to warm up.

The Marbled White is unlikely to be mistaken for any other butterfly, however it is not a "white" butterfly but a member of the "brown family.  Early morning is a good time to see this butterfly, as it warms up with wings held open absorbing the sun's rays. 

They are found mostly on unimproved grassland with tall sward. The strongest populations are found on chalk or limestone grasslands but other habitats such as; woodland rides and clearings, coastal grassland, road verges and railway embankments are also used.

Our reason for taking this direction was to see if there were any Turtle Doves present like last year, unfortunately there wasn't any sign of them.  We turned back and crossed the original bridleway and followed the path alongside the south facing side of the wood.  The are here was a mixture of bracken and bramble, the bramble well into flower, perfect conditions for the butterflies.

Our next butterfly was a new one for the year, a Small Skipper.

Small Skippers are insects of high summer. Although they spend much of their time basking or resting among vegetation, they are marvellous flyers, manoeuvring expertly through tall grass stems. It is these darting flights, wings glinting golden-brown in the sunlight, that normally alert you to their presence. Closer examination will reveal many more individuals nectaring or basking with their wings held in the half-open posture distinctive of skipper butterflies. 

They have bright orange-brown wings held with forewings angled above the hind wings. The males have a thin black line through the centre of fore-wing. Essex Skipper is very similar but has black tips to the antenna and shorter scent brand which runs parallel to forewing edge rather than angled.

More Marbled Whites were seen resting in the grass.

Here you can see the droplets of water still on the grass stems.

Then flying strongly past us, an orange butterfly, one we had seen a couple of weeks ago at Stockbridge, the Dark Green Butterfly, today though it was a little earlier in the day and definitely not so hot.  The butterfly was more interested in warming up on the bramble leaves.

They would fly around but did not travel too far, settling in the grass to take in the warming sunshine.

Meadow Browns could be seen around the bramble flowers.

While standing still and watching revealed a Large Skipper.  The presence of a faint chequered pattern on both sides of the wings distinguishes this butterfly from the similar Small and Essex Skippers, which are flying at the same time.

Watching the bramble the Dark Green Fritillaries arrived to nectar on the Bramble flowers.  There were two initially then another orange butterfly appeared, three?

We followed the nectaring Dark Green Fritillaries as they moved around the bramble flowers

We moved to another and suddenly something was different, yes it was orange and black, but a completely different shape.

This was a Silver-washed Fritillary, the first of the year and a big surprise, but looking around probably not with woodland and plenty of bramble.

This butterfly is our largest fritillary and gets its name from the beautiful streaks of silver found on the underside of the wings. The bright orange male is quite distinctive as it flies powerfully along woodland rides, pausing only briefly to feed or investigate anything with an orange hue that could be a potential mate, in this case the Dark Greens and the bramble flowers.  The male has four distinctive black veins on its forewings that contain special "androconial" scales that are used in courtship. These veins are known as "sex brands". The female is paler than the male, has rounder wings and more-prominent spots.

As it was nectaring it wrapped its wings over the bramble flower as if cloaking to protect it, but it was more likely to ensure it was not disturbed by the wind as the Dark Green Fritillary was doing exactly the same.

We then lost the Silver-washed as it flew off into the woodland behind the bramble.  We returned to the Dark Greens in an attempt to get some more distinctive and arty photographs.

Here a stunning black background

A view of the underside, they were not sitting up due probably to the breeze knocking them about, so this was a brief view.

We moved on after the fritillaries flew off after fueling up.  A Red Admiral passed by settling at distance.  We walked to the end of the track, here more bramble was attracting more Dark Greens.  There was also several flowering Valerian.  On one flower head a female Dark Green settled.  This wings up pose shows why they are called Dark Green with a lovely flush of green on the underside

This is a female as she appears a lot more faded than the males.

Here a male on a valerian flower head with the grasses in the background.

We took the path to return to the road and then back into the main reserve.  However we soon stopped for several Marbled Whites settled in the grasses, and again the valerian flower heads.

It was possible to get in really close to be able to take in the detail of this exquisite butterfly, the hairs on the back and the curled proboscis.

Then a smaller butterfly on the valerian distracted us, an unexpected Small Copper, maybe a second brood emerger?

Blues had been conspicuous by their complete absence so fa this morning, but we finally found a male Common Blue close to the road, it was looking a little worse for ware.

After crossing the road and stopping for the Lesser Whitethroat we made our way parallel to the road, Marbled Whites were still about along with a few Dark Green Fritillaries, but the standout in this area was a Five Spot Burnet on a grass stem.  Further investigation though means that I think this is a Narrow bordered Five-Spot Burnet.

The Narrow-bordered is very similar to and sometimes difficult to distinguish from the Five-spot Burnet. In general, the forewing of the Narrow-bordered Five-spot Burnet is longer and more pointed, the upper angle of the hindwing is more pointed and the black border of the hindwing is narrower than those of the Five-spot Burnet.  Comparing photographs this has a very narrow border on the hind wing.

We passed through the car park once again and then headed towards the ditch.  Coming past the rifle ranges we can across a couple of Dark Green Fritillaries once more competing over the flower head of a Knapweed.

A collection of orange wings.

Both of the sexes are avid nectar feeders and typically feed in early morning or late afternoon, when they will constantly fly from flower head to flower head staying at each flower for only a few seconds. This behaviour makes them very difficult to observe and it is sometimes easier to find a favourite flower and sit still and wait, they will then come to you.

Here another view of the lovely green wash on the underside of the wings

The Knapweed was not just an attraction to the fritillaries we were also joined by a Small Tortoiseshell nectaring on the knapweed.

The Small Tortoiseshell is one of our most-familiar butterflies, appearing in gardens throughout the British Isles. Unfortunately, this butterfly has suffered a worrying decline, especially in the south, over the last few years. This butterfly has always fluctuated in numbers, but the cause of a recent decline is not yet known, although various theories have been proposed. One is the increasing presence of a particular parasitic fly, Sturmia bella, due to global warming - this species being common on the continent. The fly lays its eggs on leaves of the foodplant, close to where larvae are feeding. The tiny eggs are then eaten whole by the larvae and the grubs that emerge feed on the insides of their host, avoiding the vital organs. A fly grub eventually kills its host and emerges from either the fully-grown larva or pupa before itself pupating. Although the fly attacks related species, such as the Peacock and Red Admiral, it is believed that the lifecycle of the Small Tortoiseshell is better-synchronised with that of the fly and it is therefore more prone to parasitism.  On e positive for this year though, I have seen more of these delightful butterflies in 2020 than in the last few previous years.

We were not intending to walk the whole length of the ditch back, deciding to tak the track back to the car park from the path around the conifer trees.  Here we found a very docile Common Blue, the clouds now beginning to beat out the sunshine.

Ian then found a pair of Marbled Whites coupled on a Knapweed flower head.

The butterflies were completely oblivious of us and even allowed us to carefully remove grass that were obscuring a complete view of the Marbled Whites.  Here you can see the difference between the two sexes, the female with the brown under parts and the male with the black.

The outcome of this coupling will be the female laying eggs, however the white spherical egg is laid in a curious manner - the female does not lay on the foodplant, but simply drops the egg while perched on a grass stem or while flying in suitable habitat. The egg stage lasts around 3 weeks. 

The larva enters hibernation without further feeding, tucked away deep down in a grass clump. The larva emerges in the spring and early instars rest head down on a grass stem during the day, occasionally nibbling at the leaf. More mature larvae typically spend the day hidden away, head down, at the base of the stem, feeding only at night. The larva has two colour forms - being either a light green or a light brown. Prior to pupation, the larva will descend to the base of the stems.

Leaving the pair we headed down the path towards the car park.  With no sunshine it was quite cool now and we came across another Marbled White settled on a Knapweed.  

When the weather is dull, and at night, the adults will rest on grass stems, as well as the flowerheads of any of their nectar sources, such as and in this case, Knapweed.  This though gave me the opportunity to get in close to appreciate the beauty of the butterfly's markings.

After lunch we set off for Shatterford.  On arriving we found the car park closed and eventually had to park the cars on the road side.  We were here for the Silver-studded Blue and didn't have to walk to far before we cam across a couple, flushed from some very sparse heather dotted amongst the grass.

The Silver-studded Blue gets its name from the light blue reflective scales found on the underside of most adults and which are quite visible when light reflects off them. In this photograph they can just be seen as little white dots on the brown spots on the hindwing

We walked across the grazing land past the cattle that watched us carefully as we passed.  The main track towards Denny Wood goes through Shatterford Bottom which is an area of damp bog.  There was still some water about but everywhere seemed very dry based on previous visits and as mentioned in Part One there was no sign of any dragonflies.

We managed to find a few Silver-studded in amongst the heather, but it was very dry with hardly any of the pink Bell Heather flowers they like.  Those we did find would not fly too far settling almost immediately on the sprig of heather.

In these two photographs you can once again see the small silver "studs" on the hind wings.

This butterfly is highly variable in appearance across the country, here you can see the dark marginal border, this is wide in the New Forest, but much thinner in those butterflies found in Devon.

This lovely butterfly is found in close-knit colonies, with individuals rarely flying any distance. Most colonies contain less than a thousand adults. However, a few colonies are huge, with the number of adults measured in tens of thousands, providing an amazing spectacle. Most colonies of this species are found in southern England, although there are several other notable colonies in the east of England and Wales.

On previous visits here there were hundreds of them flying over the heather but today it was a struggle to see ten.  Maybe this was due to the very dry conditions and the lack of the Bell heather flowers.  When we came out of Denny Wood and walked along the main track we came across a lot more, although not in the hundreds.  The ground here was a lot damper and there were a lot more flowers present.

Here again you can see the broad dark marginal band

Another variation in the appearance of the butterfly is in the underside.  In parts of Suffolk this found to be a silvery grey, while here in the New Forest it is more of a dull grey appearance

Here, finally a good view of the "silver studs" of the delightful butterfly

We had one or two more as we made our way back to the cars along the track that runs parallel with the railway line, but with the weather closing in it wasn't a surprise that there were not many more butterflies about.

It was one of those wonderful days in the summer when the butterflies just keep coming at you.  Some amazing opportunities for photography with some great results, even if I do say so myself