Just in time for the 'Hurricane' most of the crysalises are darkening and just showing colour.

Thanks Vince for the advice - I'd forgotten about the ivy!. Its a bit of a relief to know that they may, given a good winter, manage to hibernate on their fat reserves because at the moment the weather is completly dismal. But from your timings of 12 days as pupa ( from your brilliant life cycle rep...

Some weeks ago I saw a very late batch of newly hatched Tortoishell caterpillars and I thought I would try rearing a few (5). When it got colder 3 weeks ago I brought them into the warmer conservatory and they have overtaken their wild siblings (of whom some at least are still caterpillars) and pupa...

Red Admirals have been in short supply until the last couple of days. Today there were 6+ about, some very large and most very fresh looking, all feeding up on Mtchaelmas daisies - much to the annoyance of the Small Coppers who have far less company until today brought out lots of Tortoishells, Comm...

Back in the 60s when I was a child my friend's grandad used to pay a happenny for every squashed White delivered to him. I vaguely remember my dad trying to point out the differences between whites to them but to no avail. Female Orange Tips and GVWs must have been among the casualties as any White ...

I am fairly bursting with pride at the success of Small Coppers in my garden this year. Usually I would only see a the odd one in the garden. Down this way they seem to have had a good year but I am hoping that their relative abundance near my new wildlife patch is due to the Sorrel I planted about ...

I too saw very noticably high numbers of Peacock, Tortoishell, Large and Small White. With the others I'm not experienced enough to have an opinion (until the yearly statistics come in!). I addition to all the things already mentioned I was hoping that all the new agricultural wild life initiatives ...

A belated 'thanks' Mike! My pessimistic outlook of 12 months ago has been grandly overturned and the butterflies have somehow thrived. My massed array of juicy Bird's-foot Trefoil has attracted at least one C.Blue female. I noticed one hovering around and when she'd gone I went to see if I could spo...

From what I've seen and from this forum, it seems to have been a good year for butterflies. I was wondering if anyone has any particular ideas as to what has contributed towards making this a 'good' year? I know the weather is supposed to be one of the most important factors but much of the last 18 ...

So many butterflies in the garden (and everywhere) that I thought I must add to this Diary. Huge numbers of small whites (well ...about 40+) - before mid-day they mass on the Lavender and are a spellbinding sight that I cannot capture with a photo. A good sprinkling of Green Veined Whites among them...

There have been many S.Tortishell caterpillar nests on almost every patch of suitable nettle this July, in a continuous stream with even now as some of the early ones are emerginging as adults (I think a few pupated in the polytunnel which would speed things up) there are a few nests of only a few d...

Hello Mike, it is interesting about the L. and Sm.Whites laying eggs on peas (but it looks like you're committed to having your pea crop ruined!). I've also seen a lot of whites about, particularly L. Whites, and although they are a beautiful, I find myself imagining the state of some neighbour's ca...

A long overdue update, prompted by the unexpected (by me) and very uplifting amount of butterflies around. Earlier in the year the Orange Tips seemed to be around in two bouts, seperated by some dismal weather. The first lot layed exclusively on Honesty probably as there was not a lot of flowering s...

DSC_0378.JPG Saw my first Orange Tip of the year yesterday - nearly exactly a month later than 2011 and 2012. Despite a cold wind and only 10.5 C temperature, he was very active in the sunshine, flying low over the vegetation. Hope he found somewhere safe to spend today which was like winter. Black...

DSC_0238.JPG Spring at last, I had to shed a blanket last night! At least wild Primroses have benefitted from the weather - best ever since childhood memories of over 40 years ago. In the last week I've seen the first butterflies of the year in my garden: Totoiseshell, Peacock, Brimstone and Small ...

In the past, when Tortoishells were more plentiful, there was often a sad sight in one of our outbuildings - wings strewn on the floor below a suitable perching spot. The building was an 'attic' which was accessed via a large cattle shed. In keeping with the above observations, it seems they entered...

On Wednesday (13th November) I attended another meeting of the Wildland Advisory Group on Sir Charlie Burrell's Knepp Castle Estate (http://www.knepp.co.uk), where a ground-breaking rewilding scheme has been running since 2001. These meetings are always very interesting, particularly as they involv...

Must be great seeing all those in such a big city. Maybe in somewhere as exotic as India there is no need to plant foriegn exotic plants as their native plants can't be out-'exotic'd' by imports so there are still larval food plants?

I didn't know about the Hazel, Elm or Sallow! With all that choice I wonder they are not the most common butterfly.

End of year 2012 mostly sad summary; Brown Argus - only one brief sighting. Doves foot cranesbill and rockrose growing well but probably untouched. Common blue - ditto. Birdsfoot Trefil and black Medick doing well but no female C.Blue seen! Holly Blue - not as well as last two years Small Copper - v...