Latest Doings

Of course, the weather falls apart as soon as the Duke of Burgundy starts to emerge...  The butterfly will be at peak season at many of its sites in southern England over the Bank Holiday weekend and early next week.  They have had a difficult time with the weather lately, but as yet they haven't had more than they can't cope with inflicted on them, and there will be many more adults to emerge at most sites. News from various places - Noar Hill.  It started here remarkably...

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Sussex In Action Too

This afternoon (18th April) I made a speculative visit to see if the first Duke had emerged at Heyshott Escarpment, believing it to still be a few days too early. Pearls have only just emerged at Rewell Wood, this event usually preceding the appearance of His Grace by a week plus. There was little activity in the chill breeze as I ascended the steep slope and I counted only a couple of Dingy and a single Grizzled Skipper before reaching the plateau. However, sitting waiting for me was a perfect...

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Gloucestershire Kicks Off!

His Grace the Duke of Burgundy appeared in the Cotswolds today, Fri April 18th - a fresh male on Rodborough Common (NT), just east of Stroud.  This was seven days after the first had been recorded nationally - at Noar Hill, Hampshire, on Sat 12th. His appearance in the Cotswolds had doubtless been held up by a sequence of cold nights (a touch of frost most nights this week, and a significant frost early on Wed 16th).  Cold nights really do hold his emergence back...

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DofB on Youtube

Short youtube piece on NT reintroduction in Bradenham Valley, S Chilterns, starring His Grace the Duke of Burgundy   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ7cIBSJ...

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Still Beating Skippers

All followers of His Grace will have enjoyed watching his attacks on Dingy and Grizzled Skippers on many occasions. However, it is far less often that we are afforded the privilege of watching him beat up the Large Skipper; in fact I only recall ever seeing this once before. Yesterday (26th June), while surveying a site on the Downs at Storrington, I was only mildly surprised by the relative abundance of spring skippers still flying, bearing in mind how late this season is still...

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Old Soldier

This afternoon I stopped off at Springhead Hill near Storrington, primarily to see how the Small Blue is faring. Numbers are much better than last year and females are still emerging, with two mating pairs seen. What did surprise me, particularly so late in the day, was this geriatric male Duke, still taking on anything that crossed its airspace. The same individual was photographed a week ago, already looking bleached and well past its sell-by date. I'm pretty sure this is the same male I...

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Farewell To The Duke

Yesterday (8th June) I performed my final 2013 count of Sussex Duke of Burgundy. For the ninth season in succession I have spent a great many hours surveying, monitoring and studying this species and, as in previous years, I would like to think that I have learned a little more about it. With 417 sightings logged, I'm pleased to report that on all Sussex sites His Grace survived the worst that the British weather could throw at him in 2012. Perhaps the best news of all is that the sun has shone brightly for more than two weeks, allowing the females an almost uninterrupted opportunity to lay eggs. 2014 could be a good year for the Du...

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Fantastic Day

Not the best picture in the world I know but representative of the fact that I found Dukes virtually every step of the way today - this is at the top of Butser Hill in Hampshire 270m amsl in a howling gale!  As the season appears to be drawing to a close I thought I would spend a few hours walking all of the likely areas at Butser. When I turned up there was a strong cold north easterly wind blowing and although the sun was out it was cool. I headed down on to little Butser and was soon...

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Making Hay ...

The spell of warm, sunny weather we have enjoyed through late May and early June is fantastic news for some of our rarer spring species. Duke of Burgundy, Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Wood White will all have had the opportunity to spend long periods out egg laying. As long as we don't see a summer drought, I'm optimistic that the numbers of these and other species will bounce back strongly next spring. Although most Duke populations in Sussex peaked a week or more ago, the later sites on cool...

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Sussex from Hampshire

To  compliment Neil's photo of Hampshire from Sussex here is the reverse also taken yesterday, Harting Down is in the centre - Neil might even be there! Taken from Little Butser. Journeyed right across Hampshire yesterday visiting Dean Hill on the Wltshire border, Bentley Wood then some sites around Winchester finishing at Ramsdean Down. Pleased to say that I only failed to see Dukes at Bentley Wood , but plenty of Pearl Bordered Fritillaries  made up for that.  I manged to see...

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