Great stuff, Peter. Do you intend to keep an eye on them to see how they develop? Thanks for your kind comment, David. I certainly will keep an eye on the eggs and the larvae. All being well, adults should emerge in September. I'll have to be careful when I next mow the lawn, which I haven't done s...

Following on from my discovery of Small Copper eggs in my garden on 5 August, I looked around for larvae this morning. At least half the eggs now have hatched so I was hopeful. I found one larva under one sorrel leaf constructing a 'groove' - transparent from above as the first photo below shows. AT...

Thank you, Mike.

I had forgotten all about the Quick-menu function button. In fact, I don't think I have ever used it since the first day I acquired the camera .

ATB

Peter

I have a problem with my Lumix FZ200 camera. The rear wheel button does not work when being pushed in to change aperture to exposure setting. Trying to photograph bright or white objects is difficult when I would normally adjust the exposure setting lower. Has anyone here experienced this problem an...

After seeing my first ever Small Copper in my back garden on 3 Aug, I was pleased to see another one (or same individual) apparently egg-laying yesterday at around 11 am. I have found 4 eggs so far on Sorrel, 3 of which were laid on the upper surface of the leaves.

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Peter

I've noticed how small male Meadow Browns have been this year locally - the size of Gatekeepers but generally females appear to be of normal size. Perhaps the males emerged prematurely? I actually saw 2 males on 31 May. Things picked up very quickly after the cold start to spring delaying emergence ...

While walking one of my Knebworth transects today I spotted a slightly pale Small Skipper which is probably an aberration.

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Peter

Lovely Gatekeeper, Wolfson. It looks like I have a Common Blue colony in my garden, having seen 3 different specimens (2 males & 1 female) in the last two evenings. I planted some Bird's-foot Trefoil in the spring which must have helped :) . Anyway, while finding loads of Purple Hairstreaks low ...

When I saw those wonderful images of the White-letters I knew immediately who you were/are :) . Anyway, welcome to the forum. As you may gather I live in Stevenage, only a couple of miles away. Regarding the buckthorn, I bought a Purging Buckthorn sapling from an online website (Beechwood Nurseries ...

While searching for Small Blues on a chalky bank in Stevenage without success, I found my first Marbled Whites and Ringlets of the year.

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Peter

Well done, Dave, on finding the White Admirals at Bookham Common. I'd better start looking for them on my local patch :) . Numbers of Meadow Brown are picking up now but nearly all of them when settled have their wings folded even in cloudy conditions although I have been observing them in the early...

A White-letter Hairstreak was seen in the Greenford area yesterday (31 May) which is incredibly early.

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Peter

Sadly, the clip on Monday's edition of Springwatch was short, probably less than 5 minutes at the very end.

Will there be further news about the re-introduction in future episodes?

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Peter

Pauline wrote:Great find Peter Not something I've seen (yet) in the wild

Thanks Pauline. Fingers crossed for a successful change to a pupa in the near future

Good to see that you're back on the forum. I always enjoy reading your posts.

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Peter

I found a 4th instar White-letter Hairstreak larva after half an hour's searching on the elms at Six Hills Common yesterday morning. It was underneath a leaf 1-2 feet above ground and 3 yards away from a younger larva I saw 2 weeks ago. Hopefully it will pupate at the same spot .

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Peter

Dave,

Well done on finding the Marsh Fritillary at Bentley Wood - I thought they had disappeared from the site . As Wurzel said, they might have been there all along.

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Peter

Following on from Vince's and Paul's updates I can reveal what occurred on my sites in the Stevenage area: Knebworth Park and Fairlands Valley Park. Despite frequent visits to these sites in the last two or three months I have not see any adult Red Admirals. There is a report of a sighting in the ar...

On Monday (14th) I discovered that in my garden one of the Orange-tip eggs laid on Garlic Mustard, had just hatched and the tiny larva had eaten away most of the egg shell. Alas, a couple of hours later it was nowhere to be seen. Also on the same plant was another egg, white in colour. I presume it ...

Hello Peter , I,m not certain but think your caterpillar may be Mottled Umber (Erannis Defoloria ),I posted one similar on May 21st 2015 , on the identifications page ,id,d for me by Tony Moore . Regards Allan.W. Thanks for checking, Allan. Someone on another website thinks it might be Mottled Umbe...

Not a great day yesterday (13 May) weather-wise until very late on so I spent some time searching for the smaller immature stages. I visited Six Hills Common at about 9 am to look for White-letter Hairstreak larvae especially around the area of elms where I found an egg in the winter. After over hal...