Further thoughts Well my logic isn't toatally sound. Some butterflies migrate large distances, some are intercontinental. Some can get blown off course and maybe, if they get too high up in the atmosphere, get dragged by the jet-stream. Europe, Africa and Asia are all actually connected landmasses a...

Max Thank you SO much for your post. So much info packed into such a small space! Firstly I was amazed at the species that sways while it rolls. That'll be something to keep me awake at nights thinking about. A 'Rockin and Rollin' Butterfly! But more than this - your world-wide experiences made me t...

Same time and place as yesterday. This time I looked for the Brostreaks on the ground rather than in the trees and guess what I found... A Meadow Brown and a Gatekeeper! Where were those two Brostreaks from yesterday? Yes - you guessed it - up in the trees! Just to fool me I suppose. And they didn't...

So there I was craning my neck up at the treetops at Noar Hill hoping to see Brown Hairstreaks. Not a sausage. And no Brostreaks either! A couple of Meadow Browns were flitting about round my feet but I didn't pay them much heed. There was a nice Red Kite flying over my head and a Goldfinch perched ...

Folly Hill today for the Grayling. Every year I visit here, especially one spot which I call their lek because there are always males jousting here. There is a pine tree on a hillock and around this tree congregate a few individuals itching for a fight. There is always one who commands the high grou...

Silver-studded Blue annual survey of Broxhead Common Lek Well they are not over completely at this site but nearly so. I have enough data from regular counts to indicate the flight-period curve this year so it's time to compare results from previous years. Not too much to say this year except that m...

Wurzel, David

You never get tired of them. Even at a distance when you see them up in the tree canopy against the sky.

Alice Holt Woods (again) Well if I didn't think so before - I have finally proved it to myself. I'm an idiot! I was banging on yesterday about seeing almost every species that Alice Holt had to offer for this time of year except the Small Copper. I had forgotten all about Peacock and Holly Blue hadn...

Alice Holt Woods: Bentley Station Butterfly Reserve Well it seemed I nice sunny day today so I decided to go to a place I had not visited for over a decade despite it being only 7 miles away from my house. The reason I avoided this location is because I found other locations in Alice Holt Woods that...

I am no expert but I support your view. I have had many cats and dogs as pets in my time and they all had different characters, all showed emotions and all had dreams! Now regarding butterflies, I did a quick look-up on Wikipedia to discover... 1: A butterfly has cerebral ganglia, Wikipedia says... ...

Alice Holt - The Straits I was only there for little over an hour and saw... Too many M Browns to count 43 SW Frits! 15 L Skips 10 W Ads 7 S Skips (But I know there was a lot more but cannot be totally sure of numbers) 6 Ringlet 3 Comma 2 L White 2 Red Ad 1 S White 1 PStreak 1 Purple Emperor 1 Pereg...

Matsukaze Thanks for those vids. I am always keen to get as many examples as I can of this behavior and these are VERY fine examples! Phil I am always drawn to enigmas and love to try and puzzle them out. Not only butterfly behaviors but just about anything that is a mystery. And this one certainly ...

Dave I read diary entries of people from time to time - not as frequently as I once did I have to admit, but I have been scanning through your recent ones and of course the Swallowtails are a delight. Now call me odd if you want to but the photo I found the most fascinating of those Swallowtail shot...

Alice Holt for an hour today Nice and sunny which brought out the butterflies just right. 12 SW Frit 9 W Ad Loads of M Brown 3 Ringlet 1 L White 3 Comma 2 S Skip 5 L Skip 2 Red Ad 1 Cinnabar Moth The White Admirals in particular were in force. I saw all 12 within 30 minutes of my visit (one way - I ...

Noar Hill Other people have been seeing DG Frits so I went to see if I could find any and yes, I counted 5 here. No pics as when I went it was already 24 degrees and warning up even more so they were zooming around like maniacs. It hit 30 degrees today at 3 pm! Complete record for today... 5 DG Frit...

Trevor The news is getting better still. Went to Broxhead again today. Now the count in and around the 'lek' is 78 male SSBs and 11 females of which one mated pair while I was there. In fact the numbers are currently increasing linearly at a rate not seen since 2018, which was a bumper year. While I...

It's been a year since I posted on this but I think it's an observation worthwhile recording here. Today I visited Broxhead for the Silver-studded Blues and found a pair of which the male only was wing-rolling. As he was doing it the female hardly budged. I believe he may have been agitated by the p...

Broxhead A spate of fine weather just at the right time for the Silver-studded Blues here. It's only been two days since I visited but already numbers have almost doubled. 53 males and 8 females of which I found two mated pairs. Much better than last year and we are still pretty early in their flyin...

Wurzel

You are right. It was an early female. If I had been at this location and saw her when she was fresh it would have been my earliest ever female I would think.

David

I visited the site again today and I breathed a sigh of relief. Numbers are growing well!

My annual survey of the Silver-Studded Blues at the Broxhead Reserve started today (a bit late, but better late than never). I only check-out the lek area even though they crop up almost anywhere on the reserve. I do this because from my accumulated data over the years I have been able to predict to...