Thanks all. It wasn't so much the weather on the day I was referring to, more the weather between now and then and the influence, (if any) that has.

I feel like I'm on the countdown to my Mull and Glasdrum trip now we've hit May. However, I am a little concerned re. the weather. Being fairly new to butterflies I have a noddy question. How influential is the weather in a run up to a flight period in terms of sun and temperature, or is everything ...

Mike, I am planning to visit around the date you are suggesting. Can anyone please refresh re. the directions - where to park and the route up etc? Just wondering how I'll know if I'm in the right spot. My sense of direction is shocking.

Thanks.

Scott, that would tie in perfectly. I'm on Mull 23-26th and catching the morning ferry on the 26th and heading for Glasdrum. Are you able to provide specific details re. time and meeting point etc?

Thanks

Steve

On the schedule I'm on, I can't really head further north. How reliable is Glasdrum?

Thanks.

Still planning to try for CS around 26th May. if Glasdrum draws a blank, are there any other reliable sites as I head south?

Thanks

Steve

I'm now planning to hit Glasdrum Wood around the 24th May, and take the risk that I'll be late on the Corncrakes for good photography - it's probably an obvious statement but presumably this date gives me far more scope for success with Chequered Skipper?

Thanks

Steve

Thanks all for your replies. It is looking like two trips.

The only thing that made me hopeful were the dates on the UK butterfly monitoring site. I did a trawl of the last ten years and often there were numbers of CS for week 1 of May.

Hi I'm planning a trip to Mull next year. I wanted to go in the first week of May to be able to photograph Corncrake before they all disappear into the grass. I was hoping to combine the trip with seeing Chequered Skipper at either Glasdrum or Glen Loy. Will I be too early for them defo being out? T...

FAO MikeOxon - Thanks for the dragonfly ID, Mike. I don't think I've seen so many as I did yesterday (and there was no sign of any ponds/streams) FAO Lawts - When you go into Aston Rowant from the car park on the NORTH side of the M40, you'll emerge onto the hill after you've negotiated a 50 yard s...

Left Finemere Wood about 1.30pm and was at Aston Rowant 40 minutes later. It was quite blustery on the exposed hill and I feared I may not see any Silver Spotted Skippers as after quarter of an hour there was no sign of any. There were quite a few Chalk Hill Blues fluttering about, along with the o...

Please can anyone confirm the optimum date to visit the site for Silver=spotted Skipper, and what's the general consensus on whether this will be a "normal" year?

Thanks.

Mon 11/7 warm & sunny. After a morning gardening I visited nearby Ringstead downs 7 walked up & down the Elms for 1.5hrs, no sign of WLH's seen there last year. !00's of Ringlet though several meadow browns 2 red admiral & 6 Comma. Tues 12/7, having taken the forecast literally I headed...

I was at Copeland Island yesterday (about 18 miles away from Scotland or so) and there is three Islands, Copeland Island, Mew Island and Lighthouse Island (Mew Island has the lighthouse since they moved it from the Lighthouse Island since it wasn't a good place to be seen) the lighthouse is the bri...

I saw a strange WA at Snitterfield Bushes near Stratford this week - the upperwings appeared to have the white markings along the base, but they seemed to be closer to the wing edge than normal, and the remainder of the wing appeared the usual dark brown - is this "obliterate" Quite strik...

I saw a strange WA at Snitterfield Bushes near Stratford this week - the upperwings appeared to have the white markings along the base, but they seemed to be closer to the wing edge than normal, and the remainder of the wing appeared the usual dark brown - is this "obliterate" Quite striki...

A couple of snippets of info. that I picked up from Birdguides recently:- Large Tortioseshell in Cornwall in recent days Camberwell Beauty in Norfolk over the weekend Also mini influx of Hummingbird Hawkmoths along the Yorkshire coast c.20 between Spurn and Easington, (only a few miles) over the wee...

I went to the Wyre Forest at the end of April. I parked at the bottom of Dry Mill Lane at SO773764 and followed the path along Dowles Brooke. This area was good for SPBF and a apparently PBF a few weeks earlier. The booklet '30 Butterfly Walks in the West Midlands' also gives this route for SWF. Li...

Lawts - that might have been me who had been seaching all day with no luck, I did not see anyone else there all day. If you flagged down the wardens LR & got the glade info from him, I had just told him in the cp where the young researcher who I kept meeting all day told me the glade was the pl...

Made the most of a rare day off of work - shot across to Howell Hill where I met up with my first Marbled Whites, Gatekeepers and Essex Skippers of the year along with a couple of smart-looking Small Blues. Then picked Sami up from her workplace and trotted across to Jubilee Woods (which is possibl...