Butterflies at last!

The wet summer has not been great for the UK's butterflies, so it was pleasing to see so many this afternoon, especially as we had friends who'd been helped in coppicing in Sweep Wood visiting to see the wildlife benefits of their work! Some of them lived nearby, others were from Rother Guardians.

Here's one of the old favourites, a Peacock:

The Buddleja it's settled on has self-seeded at the top of Sweep Wood - we have quite a few garden escapees up there, and while I wouldn't have planted this one in a woodland, as it's arrived by itself I'm quite happy to leave it - and the butterflies are delighted I'm sure!

Just as a reminder, Sweep Wood used to look like this:

Then we got busy coppicing and it looked like this:

And just a year or two later it looks like this:

The hill in Sweep wood had lots of other butterflies present, especially Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers:

There were also various White butterflies, but I didn't get photos of them. Lots of dragonflies too - remember none of these insects were to be seen here before we did the coppicing:

Heading further into the woods we saw several Speckled Wood butterflies:

White Admirals:

and a beetle too...

In the wayleave were Comma butterflies and more dragonflies; I got a rare opportunity to photograph two together:

We also saw this wasp feeding on Common Figwort - apparently they're a good pollinator for them:

Great to see all of these creatures around again!

Mike

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Even more butterflies

Yesterday we were up at the wood for some friends visiting, and while we were waiting we did a bit of trimming of the vegetation at the side of the track in the wayleave:Along the way we saw dozens of butterflies - I think this year is much better for them than last year! Here's some pictures of them.

Meadow Brown's were abundant (you can identify them by the single white spot inside the black spot on their wings):
A butterfly that can look superficially similar with its wings shut is the Gatekeeper, but it has two white spots inside the black spot. With it's wings open it is quite different though - here's the first good photos I've had of one:
and I was especially pleased to get this picture of one taking off:
Another butterfly I got in flight was this Large White:
I got these photos of butterflies in flight by chance, but I'm trying to come up with a way of getting them deliberately... more to come if it works out!

And finally, this year's invasion of Painted Ladies continues unabated:
That's all for now.
Mike

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Shelter complete!

The shelter is now done! :-) Here's some pictures of it, and also of various bits of wildlife, including a mouse.

First, Tracy cut the ropes on the old shelter and I dragged the tarpaulin off:
Then I set about making pegs to fasten the tarpaulin down on the new shelter, while Tracy began moving stuff over.
Before long we had the cover staked down, and all the stuff organised into it:
The old shelter is just waiting for dismantling now. The bolts are all stainless steel, so hopefully I'll be able to reuse them, and the poles are birch so after a year standing up should be nice and dry for firewood!
The shelter doesn't seem to be too obtrusive, looking from either end of the coup we cut last winter, and certainly can't be seen from any public footpath:
The guys had been busy processing the oak offcuts into firewood:
There's only one oak log left to be converted now:
While we were out in the wayleave we heard a snapping sound every 20 seconds or so. A dim and distant memory from the garden of a house I lived in many years ago led me to the nearby Broom bush:
So what was making the noise? Here's a seed pod with the seeds still in it:
and here's a seed pod after the heat of the sun has made it go "snap", flinging the seeds away from the plant to start a new life somewhere nearby:
Also out in the wayleave were a Gatekeeper and a dragonfly:
Finally we went over to the pond for Tracy to dump some willow in it to soak, so she can try making a basket in a couple of weeks:
One the way back to the car, something small ran across the ride in front of us. It was a mouse! It hid between some logs and pretended we couldn't see it:
But then it did a runner:
after which it was kind enough to sit still while I took a couple more pictures:

We're hoping to go badger watching again tonight, depending on the weather.

Mike

UPDATE: links to posts on building the shelter:
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-building-and-nuthatch.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-shelter-building.html
http://peplers.blogspot.com/2008/07/shelter-frame-finished.html

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