Veldgids dagvlinders

When googling for butterfly guides, I stumbled across this Veldgids Dagvlinders ('Field Guide Day-Butterflies'), published in Dutch in the Netherlands. Now it so happens that Dutch is my mother tongue ...

It covers northwestern Europe: Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, northern France and the British Isles. Having different guides is never a bad thing, as they often complement each other. Plus I like to see the bigger picture.

But what made me decide to order this guide is that it has identification keys to all species groups, and that's something I've not seen in any other butterfly guide. So a welcome addition to my small but growing butterfly library.

Stokes Bay

Today turned out to have an unexpected butterfly dimension .... One of our other hobbies is sport kite pair-flying and team-flying, and we were at Stokes Bay, Gosport, flying with the other members of our L-katz team, something we quite often do on Sundays (check out our web-site if you want to know more about our pair- and team-flying).

During a break for coffee, I noticed some movement from the corner of my eye ...

... a clouded yellow flew across the field! Aided by the wind, it flew too fast for me to get my camera, but it was unmistakable. New species for my wife, new for Britain for me (I'd seen them in the south of Europe many years ago). Here's the customary table:

Hillier Gardens take 2

Today looked to be beautiful day, so we decided to go back to Hillier Gardens, this time with the focus on dragonflies. And we were prepared this time: my dragonfly guide arrived! Britain's Dragonflies is really bursting with relevant information, and I especially like the tables comparing similar species.

There are a few larger and smaller ponds at Hillier Gardens, and we went round them a few times.

Common darters were definitely the most common species, at larger and smaller ponds, and at the largest pond we saw a few emperor dragonflies as well as several migrant hawkers (a new species for us!). I read on a web-site somewhere that the best way to 'do' dragonflies in the field is to let them come towards you. And that really proved to be true today. Whereas with an unknown butterfly you can sometimes chase after it, hoping it will settle, chasing a dragonfly is a complete waste of time and energy; they're way too fast for that. So, indeed, sit or stand at a good spot and wait.

Of course, the large pond also had its resident metal dragonfly sculpture ...

While checking out Centenary Border for butterflies, we saw several migrant hawkers and a single emperor dragonfly hunting; they're clearly not tightly bound to the water.

Despite similar weather conditions to those on our visit almost a month ago, we saw far fewer butterflies (four species compared to ten last time). The end of the butterfly season really is approaching fast .... Here are the tables for both butterflies and dragonflies (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Crockford Bottom, New Forest

We decided to pretend I've still got annual leave, so off we went walking again, this time to Crockford Bottom in the New Forest.

This was also the first time we were specifically looking for dragonflies, even though the field guide I ordered hadn't yet arrived. So we were 'flying blind' so to speak, especially as internet signal in the New Forest can be very patchy. 

First dragonfly we saw stumped us, as it didn't look like any of the pictures I'd seen before setting out. Took a photo to see if we could figure it out at home (sorry for the bad quality; phone camera had trouble focusing), but that didn't get us very far either ... Common darter???

The aea was rather boggy, with various larger and smaller ponds. Some other ponds had mostly dried up.

We saw common darters at several ponds, and the final pond had a single female emperor dragonfly ovipositing. So two dragonfly species today, both new to us!

In terms of butterflies we didn't see many species, but it was nice to see a few more graylings disappearing. Two tables this time (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Update 7/9/2020: I joined the British Dragonflies and Damselflies Facebook group upon coming home, and posted the photo of the 'mystery dragonfly' there. The verdict was that it was an old female keeled skimmer, and that means we saw three new species; I've updated the table.

Getting 'into' dragonflies?

When we visited Itchen Valley Nature Reserve last month, we saw a banded demoiselle. And that made me ask myself which damselfly and dragonfly species I'd actually seen before in my life?

I definitely remember seeing blue and red damselflies in the past, and some years ago, when we were having lunch near a stream in the New Forest, we saw what we later could identify as a southern hawker. 

But definitely the most memorable encounter with a dragonfly was almost exactly three years ago at Stoney Cross Plain in the New Forest: this golden-ringed dragonfly landed on our bag. It was clearly at the end of its life, as it allowed me to pick it off our bag and let it crawl onto my hand.

Isn't it a gorgeous beast?

So that's a grand total of four damsel/dragonflies .... And that again made me think 'why not combine looking for damselflies and dragonflies with looking for butterflies'?

Unlike with butterflies, where I was already familiar with the ten or so common and 'showy' species, we'd be starting from almost complete scratch with damselflies and dragonflies. 

Field guide duly ordered!

Pamber Forest

The final butterfly trip of my annual leave, and another mature woodland: Pamber Forest

It really was a lovely day, with a decent amount of sunshine, but we saw very few butterflies.

Even though the speckled woods were still going strong, it really feels like the end of butterfly season .... (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Kingley Vale

Our annual leave butterfly trips are nearing the end. Kingley Vale today.

Lovely walk through mostly mature forest. Many meadow browns on the more open pastures, and many speckled woods in the more closed forest. The woodland looks like it would be good for species like white admiral and purple hairstreak, but that's for next year maybe.

Not butterfly-related, but the gnarly ancient yew trees are just fantastic ...

The more open parts also look like they will have a good selection of grassland butterflies (blues, etc), but very few plants were still flowering, so, again, that's for a future visit.

The customary list of the butterfly species we saw (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).