15th Apr 2022 Noar Hill Nice sunny day I saw everything in 1's in a period of 1 hour today. 1 Brimstone, 1 Peacock, 1 Orange Tip, 1 Holly Blue and 1 Duke of Burgundy. This is a 'Nature Reserve'. Excepting the Duke, only a couple of days ago I had all these in a single day in my own back garden and c...

22nd Feb 2022

I was in the garden clearing up after the recent spate of storms when a Red Admiral hove into view. It flew around me, landed on a laurel, basked in the sun for a bit then said goodbye.

My first butterfly of the year.

Nice.

Hi, folks

Not been on here recently but just thought you might be interested in this.

1st Feb 2022, New Arlesford riverside

A Scarlet Elf Cup! Never seen one of these before and didn't expect to today either. It was one of a small group. Beautiful colour inside.

6th Oct 2021, 3-4 PM, Broxhead, Sunny, 16 degrees

Well the small number of Small Coppers are hanging on at Broxhead. Another 2 today.
Not so much a "Constabulary" of Coppers, more like a "Squad".

Wurzel, David I went to Broxhead one week before my count of two Small Coppers, and there were none there then. I visited Broxhead again today and still there were only two and they were both males. We have some very mixed weather forecast here over the next week or so. It seems unlikely that the nu...

18th Sep 2021, Kingsley Common, weather fine ... and so it goes on. Kingsley Common is adjacent to Broxhead Common and it too has suffered a dramatic decline of the Small Copper this year. In good years, Kingsley can harbour even more Small Coppers than Broxhead but today I found just one. It is all...

17th Sep 2021, Broxhead, Fine weather Last year by this time I had seen 65 separate late-summer brood Small Coppers at this location. This year I have seen only two. This is a devastating blow to this colony. Unlike the Brown Hairstreaks at Noar Hill, whose near extinction there may in part be due t...

Thanks Wurzel, David The Grayling do seem to have a long period at Folly Hill. I looked back through a few of my recent year records - I try to get here at least once a year if I can. This is what I found for this location... In 2020 I saw 5 Grayling on 17th July. In 2019 I saw 7 Grayling on 25th Ju...

7th Sep 2021, Folly Hill - 10-11.30am, 18-25 degrees, Full Sun Today's star performance was given by the Grayling. I love these insects, they are fun to be with and this bunch were having a party! I saw 11 on my walk, but in the lek I found 5. Males were having a right argy-bargy. Flitting this way ...

5th Sep 2021, Noar Hill, 11.00-12.30, 18-22 degrees, mist turning to full sun Question... How close can you get your camera lens in the face of a Small Tort on a warm, sunny day? P1170544.JPG Answer... 2 cm. P1170551.JPG This year I had not made a specific trip to see Brown Hairstreaks and even toda...

Wurzel, David.

Thanks. I was lucky. The numbers of everything were down.

24th Aug 2021 - Old Winchester Hill, 11.00-12.30, mostly sunny, 21 degrees I try to make at least one visit to Ol' Winch at around this time of year. There are always three targets on my list, Silver-spotted Skips, Adonis Blues and Clouded Yellows. Last year was in some ways a disappointment as I di...

Neil

Thanks for the moth trap info - I shall take a look.

Neil

Thanks for that. I looked it up and see you are right. You can tell I am a rookie with moths can't you?

I will definitely have to get myself a moth trap but they can be so expensive.

A couple of days ago I saw this moth on my garage door. I can't quite pin down the species. Looking in my books and on the net I got it down to either the Sloe Pug or the Double-striped Pug. I am tending toward the latter because they have a second flight period in August and quite like ivy I believ...

David - I like that term "extreme butterflying". Started me thinking what other forms it could take.

Wurzel - There are a lot of hills around here to "wobble" on but Beacon Hill is one of the steepest. Probably second only to Butser. Gone are the days I could run up such hills without a second thought! Neil - Beacon Hill is a lovely location but to see SS Skips a lot more easily I suggest...

11th Aug 2021, Beacon Hill (Hampshire one), 10.15 - 11.45 am, 16-18 degrees, part sun/cloud I had never visited this location for Silver-spotted Skippers before so today I rectified this oversight. I saw a fair clutch of species here... Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet, Small, Large and GV White, R...

Wurzel, David

Yes the SS Blue data does not look too good for Broxhead. It did not help that the "management" of the site included scraping clear a number of path edges which once had thriving heather which was a nectaring magnate for them.

6th Aug 2021, Broxhead, 6-6.30pm Sun, 18 degrees Well Butterflyboy's recent comment compelled me to visit this site again. After the rain and wind we have had here I didn't expect to see ANY SSB's at all at this late stage but I was wrong. There was one last female flying about on my normal transect...