Brief Catch Up

I've been so frenetic, in what is proving to be an excellent iris season, that I simply haven't had time to post anything.  Very briefly, recent Doings include:

- Counting over 100 apparent individual iris on three consecutive days in Fermyn Woods early last week.  Please don't think that's an easy, or a sensible, thing to do.

- On those days the butterfly was scarcely going to bed, being up before I entered the woods at 7am and still down on the rides, or flying about, when I left (exhausted) at 9pm. 

- Driving my car safely over a feeding male without disturbing it, on two occasions.  It was feeding in the middle of the track, the wheels passed to either side. 

- Surveying some exceptionally interesting terrain in Sussex with Neil. 


The flight season has now entered it's second half.  Few males will descend to feed on the ride surfaces from now on, so look up rather than down.  He will become more and more of an afternoon butterfly, and more and more territorial.  Look for Herself around the sallow stands, especially during the middle part of the day. 

Here's a superb shot of a female entering a Sussex sallow bush by Richard Roebuck -