Late summer butterflies

by Simon Knight

I have recently enjoyed a couple of early mornings in the reserve with my macro lens, and as I have said before, I really enjoy macro photography and hunting for the smaller in habitants of the reserve, especially on dewy, bright mornings. 

Early morning is the easiest time of day to photograph butterflies as they have not yet had chance to warm up and get energised by the sun, meaning they spend a while stationary. The rising sun also makes for the best light to photograph the butterflies and any wildlife. 

There aren’t large numbers of butterflies around, but there are a few common blues which can usually be found high up on the seed heads of the grasses first thing in the morning as they await the first warm rays of the morning sun.

There are a few wasp spiders out now. Their numbers are down slightly this year and I would guess one factor could be how wet the winter was. In a small area of Lambrok Meadow last year I counted 20 females during one survey. This year, the same area has only yielded five females so far. The area was heavily flooded at the time when any spiderlings would have hatched from their eggs, but they still would have been inside their egg sacs, and they would have definitely spent a considerable amount of time submerged, possibly drowning.

Wetter winters are likely to be on the increase over the coming years, so maybe we need to take a more careful look at how some areas of the reserve are managed. I know I am only talking about one species here, but with how the reserve is managed and factoring in wetter winters, I wouldn’t be surprised if wasp spider numbers decrease, as their habitat and main food source is currently restricted to small pockets of the reserve. I will continue to monitor the wasp spiders and hopefully I will find that I am wrong and it’s just that they are peaking later this year. Time will tell.