Pennsylvania butterflies

Why a blog post on butterflies in Pennsylvania, given I live an Atlantic Ocean away from there? Here's the story ...

A very dear friend of mine lives on a farm in Pennsylvania. A keen gardener, she maintains extensive gardens on her grounds. We're in frequent contact via WhatsApp and email and of course I told her about my new love for butterflies. It didn't take long for her to get hooked, and soon pictures of butterflies she saw in her garden came my way ...

For instance, monarchs are very common in her garden ...

She has four species of swallowtails (jealous!!); this is an eastern tiger swallowtail ...

And plenty more! This is a variegated fritillary ...

I could go on, but I won't; you get the picture!

Her bullmastiff Jaimie is also very mindful of butterflies. As she told me, "He’s gotten so good at knowing when to stop and wait and not spook one nectaring that I’m looking at. I just say wait and he hangs back!"

Given that I was getting more and more pictures of the butterflies in her gardens, sometimes asking me what I thought the species was, I really needed a good field guide. She had already gotten a copy of this Butterflies of Pennsylvania and thought it was excellent. So I ordered my own copy.

In a way, I'm now 'butterflying' on two continents!

Butterfly / dog picture credit: Riannon Walsh

Itchen Valley Nature Reserve

It's been a few years since we last walked in Itchen Valley Nature Reserve; we used to live closeby. 

It was a rather gloomy day, and we left just as the rain started to fall. Hardly optimal for butterflies, and we indeed saw very few: a green-veined white and a few small whites.

At one point, near the water, we saw what looked like a very strange butterfly with dark wings fluttering along the vegetation. As it came closer, it was clear it wasn't a butterfly at all; it was a male banded demoiselle, a species of damselfly! Not seen a demoiselle before, so that was nice.

Back to butterflies, you probably don't need the table, but let's remain consistent.

Steyning Downland

Our main reason for going to Steyning Downland was to try and see brown hairstreaks. The site was mentioned as one of the best for this species, and late August was the optimal time. But brown hairstreaks are one of those 'tree top' species, so success was far from guaranteed.

Brown hairstreaks come down from the tree tops to lay their eggs on blackthorn. We scoured every blackthorn bush we could see in the hope of seeing one or more ovipositing females, but no luck ...

The eight species we did see are shown in the table (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Keyhaven to Lymington coast path

Another walk we've down several times, mostly to look at birds. Never looked at butterflies, but this coast path is mentioned as one of the best places in the county to see wall brown. I've seen these many years ago in France and Spain, but never in Britain; my wife has never seen them at all.

Weather was far from ideal for butterflies: heavy clouds and a strong and blustery wind. Not surprisingly, we only saw two butterflies: a single small white and a single wall brown. Yes, we did see one, just as it was blown away by a gust of wind! Not very good, but enough for a positive id.

The customary table:

Winchester - water meadows & St Catherine's Hill

From Winchester city centre, through the water meadows, and then up St Catherine's Hill is a walk we did almost exactly a year ago, but then we didn't pay any attention to butterflies ...

Fewer butterflies on the water meadows than I expected; just a green-veined white and a few small whites.

St Catherine's Hill featured more or less what we expected: lots of meadow browns, a few small heaths, plus chalk hill blues, common blues, a brown argus ...

... and an adonis blue!

Ten species in total, as shown in the table (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).

Telegraph Hill, New Forest

The wind today at Telegraph Hill was very strong and blustery. Perfect for getting any cobwebs blown away, but less perfect for butterflies ...

We actually saw a grand total of two butterflies, which is two more than I had expected. One small heath and one grayling. The grayling was a new species for my wife, but not for me, as I had seen its disappearance act before, years ago in the Netherlands. Grayling was new for Britain for me, though.

What's that disappearance act, you might ask? Flush a grayling from the heather, and it will fly a short distance away, land, and then immediately fold its wings together. Because of the colours on the underside of the wings, unless you saw exactly where it landed, it's incredibly hard to find. In this particular case, I had seen where it landed, and managed to crawl to it to take the picture. It took a long time for my wife to see it, even though I pointed out where it was and she was less than half a metre away from it .... 

Hardly need a table for today, but here it is anyway.

Magdalen Hill Down

Magdalen Hill Down is a small nature reserve squeezed between several roads, just outside Winchester. It's maintained mostly as a poor grassland habitat. It was a sunny day, but with a similarly blustery wind to yesterday.

Probably not surprisingly, given the habitat similarity, the species we saw were a subset of those we saw yesterday: chalk hill blue, common blue, brown argus, small heath. The only species we saw today that we didn't see yesterday was a holly blue

Eight species in total; here's the table (one  = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+).