Hi,welcome to the forum,and to the joys,well,when the sun shines!,of butterflies in general. May they give you many years of pleasure! Essex is not over endowed with butterflies,in terms of species,for a southern county, but Heath Fritillary is one rarity we do have. Although the season varies from ...

Sounds like a great day Wurzel-well done. It looks like i'm going to miss out on Pearls this year,having seen them in good numbers in Cornwall last time round. They are extinct in Essex

Denbies or Botany Bay of course! But down south you have too many choices!

There is always going to be something,but i think Oct-Nov when the butterfly season is finished is the main thing.

Then onto Mill Hill-this is such a great site,it is worth a second look! Adonis and Common Blues were in good nunbers,as were Dingies again. Plenty of Small Heath were present,with Grizzled Skipper,some still in good nick-i first saw them here in mid April. Brimstone,Small Copper,Orange Tip,all seen...

Hi all. On Thursday, we had the pleasure of visiting Denge Wood,Kent. It was already very warm when we arrived,just after 8 AM,on what was in the event the hottest day so far this year. This is a great site for orchids,including some very nice Lady Orchids,which were at their glorious peak. While en...

Things are running much later this year! But last year we went in late may and early june. What did we see? The answer is- lots! Firstly,we have never seen so many Marsh Fritillaries-there were hundreds of them! Then there are the usural chalkland suspects Adonis blue,Brown argus, Dingy and Grizzled...

Sounds like a very nice evening,Wurzel-glad you managed to make the most of a rare spell of good weather. I havn't heard a churring Nightjar for years,they are now extinct in Essex,sadly.

Did you have a chance to look at the Horseshoe vetch at Denbies,Susie? How is it looking this year? At Mill Hill last week it was much better than last year,more flowers.

Yes,well done Mark! I'm pleased the sun came out at last,and you saw a good number of these fantastic little butterflies. It was nice to see you on wednesday,even if it was a bit cold! I only saw two Dukes then,so it shows what a little sunshine can do. Brilliant!

Hi Wurzel,i'm having trouble with Greenstreaks as well. Saw one at Mill Hill mid April-nothing since! Have they stoped emerging? It's been colder and duller than Christmas so far this May in East Anglia.

After lunch,onto Mill Hill,where lots of Dingies,and a few Grizzled Skippers and fresh Adonis Blues were present with single Common Blue and Small Copper. One advantage of the cold,they were relatively easy to photograph.

With at last,something of a break in the weather, on Wednesday 17 May,i headed to West Sussex in search of the Dukes at Heyshott,where i was pleased to find Mark Colvin and Colin Knight as well. It was a cold, cloudy day, with only 10 to 20 per cent sunshine,keeping things down. However,we eventuall...

Where you went last year sounded good,a fairly central location,at least for southerners.

Often,in large populations,a few white flowered plants are present

Well the weather has been so dull and cold, i have hardly seen anything of interest! On sunday,while most of you were (hopefully) enjoying some long overdue reasonable weather,i was at work! However,after work,there was time for a quick trip to the Langdon Hills,near Basildon. With blue skies but a ...

Hi,i would go for Corn Chanomile for the first 3 pics,and Cornflower for the other two. Both are annual,but will self-seed for future years if your soil is not too heavy-simply rake over the soil in March to stimulate germination.

Yes,i will come if i can,i work weekends but should be able to arrange a day off!

Hi Goldie,the weather has been better up there,so emergence may even have been earlier. But this is speculation,i don't know for sure. Good luck.

Those emperor moths are great,Susie! Although i'v seen them on the Cornish coast,i have never managed to photograph one,and i would love to. Maybe breeding them would increase my chances,but i havn't seen them locally,so i don't know if releasing them is the right thing to do here. Great photo.