There are a few Mature Elms at Selsdon Park Golf Course, and dotted around the area so the White-Letter Hairstreaks are around these, we are lucky to have 4 of the 5 hairstreaks in good numbers now. New Addington if you include Hutchinsons Bank as part of it has 40 species of butterfly, so not bad f...

A look back at 2019 Autumn…. Autumn 2019 will be mainly remembered for a feast of Painted Ladies and precious few Brown Hairstreaks. I have been visiting the main Welsh site for betulae in Pembrokeshire since 2010, and this year was the worst ever in terms of adult sightings. Having only seen one d...

The well studied Glanville Web at Hutchinsons Bank has produced some interesting pictures the last 2 days, todays one is really useful. Tuesday 18th Feb The larvae were out Sunning themselves on the sunroof of their adapted recenty winter shelter web. DSC07656s.JPG They have fixed guide silk strands...

have people worked out the overwintering of S. bella, if its as a fly or pupa, or if inside an overwintering larva where it would be much easier. Red Admiral is becoming a more likely candidate for the overwintering, but has anybody had an S. bella out of a Red Admiral larva. If the peacock Bella ra...

Peacock larvae always seem to be at the same size, so all go through together, where you see Small Tortoiseshell larvae they seem to vary greatly in size, so are more at risk of losses from drought and parasites. the wasps and flies only have a short window to attack the Peacock larvae before they g...

A count at the City Commons Spring Park site produced 45 eggs, it was interesting that the Blackthorn is on a 4 year cycle, 34 of the eggs were on 2 year growth, 10 on one year and 1 on the edge of 4 year growth. This number of eggs in a bad year is probably a second Kent colony. There was another 5...

The New Naturalist "Insect Migration" NN No36 although writted many years ago gives details of butterfy movements North and South sometimes only a few days appart, at the turn of the season. The migration species chart on page 151 is still valid today, it gives species that often migrate h...

With Greenie today i walked the route from New Addington to Nash, looking at the Blackthorn Hedges, and confirmed that all suitable hedgerows have eggs on them in low numbers, all the locations are suitable for colonies to form in the future, but it looks like females are flying through laying the o...

It was a similar scene at Hutchinsons Bank, clouds of them. of the 6587 seen in the Uk on transects we had 1417 of those. It was by far the most numerous species on the reserve, how many places can say that, Marbled White was 2nd here are a few shots

I Would go helice, as the black seen through the underside forewing is very wide, and has white spots inside it.

I checked Hutchinsons Bank this morning and to my surprise the Glanville Fritillary larvae were awake and sunning themselves on the hibernation web, its at least 3 weeks early. I also saw a female Comma at the end of the cutting.

Here is the map of the Kent Brown Hairstreak in the Croydon/Bromley border areas. Green Squares are Hutchinsons Bank in Surrey/Croydon and Blue Squares in Kent/Bromley. considering that 4 years ago there were no Brown Hairstreaks in Kent, its good that the spread has occured so quickly. im sure it i...

It seems that the Glanville, Heath and Marsh Frits did all produce small Second Broods this summer, probably due to the weather in February, July and warm spells inbetween.

I visited both of the sites where this species has been introduced - Wrecclesham and Hutchinsons Bank (though at the latter it might technically speaking be a re-introduction...). I saw just the one at Hutchinsons Bank, down along the bottom path that runs parallel to Featherbed Lane. This is a spo...

My picture is from the masses at Chapel Bank in the Fritillary clearing, 123 were seen in 2019 on the site transect.

We were lucky at Hutchinsons Bank this year, had a pair in the cutting in early July, and plenty of Offspring around into late October. here are a few EU migrant pictures in the Brexit season. Clouded Yellow.JPG DSC06843cs.JPG 46b CY & LTB on Small Scabious, Hutchinson's Bank, Oct; Martin Wills ...

Unlike some other well known sites for Brown Hairstreak, we had good numbers this year, including seeing 6 adults at the same time. The New Kent Colonies have also been seen, and i found Brown Hairstreaks on hedges in Kent between Hutchinsons Bank and the Nash site, we hope to do some egg counts in ...

Yes things are on the Move, the Wall is beleived to have died out in the 1980s practically overnight on some Surrey Sites, trying to fit in a 3rd brood, but couldnt at the time. It probably has been able to for a decade but there are none left to try. Our Glanville Fritillaries have produced a 2nd B...

The flower in the top picture is Lantana camera, which isnt as hardy as L. montividensis which we have in White and Pink.

Only one entry this year, taken at the Spring Brood at Denbies, the Second Brood was very weak.