A slow warm-up today but by 1 pm the butterflies were up and about with 1 Brimstone and 1 Red Admiral at Hartley Maudit and 2 Peacock, 1 Comma and 1 Brimstone at Empshott Green. P1040590b.JPG The wooded valleys at Empshott Green are known for their Ramsons and while none were in bloom yet the smell ...

Thanks David and Wurzel - it certainly is good to see the spring is starting to get going now.

29th March 2019, 11.15 to 12.45, Kingsley Common, 17 degrees, full sun I had almost forgotten the delight of having a number of different species of butterfly buzzing around me pretty much at the same time. At one point I had a Peacock coming at me from one direction along the path whilst a Comma pa...

Thanks Wurzel. I had pretty much guessed they could sit out a couple of days of bad weather - what amazes me is that my two Brimstones may have sat out almost a month of bad weather after becoming "activated" the first time during that warm February spell we had.

Thanks for your views Bugboy and David I must admit it does seem the most likely scenario. In fact I started to think back to other occasions in the past. For example I seem to remember a time one early Autumn when it appeared the Small Copper population at Broxhead had crashed during a cold spell. ...

I folks, I have a question. This morning there were two Brimstone Butterflies in my back garden. It is 24th March 2019. On 23rd Feb 2019 there were also two Brimstone Butterflies in my back garden. I did not see any Brimstones in my back garden from 27th Feb until now as the weather got very cold an...

The weather forecast suggests we will come out of our February heatwave tomorrow and rain is arriving so today may be the last for Winter butterflies. (I never thought I'd ever use that expression in the UK!) Todays finds are: Alice Holt Woodland - Batt's End = 1 Brim Sleaford Common = 2 Brim Broxhe...

Goldie - We are quite lucky round here for Brimstone, quite a few at the moment - but I have seen no Small Torts or Peacocks. Wurzel - Although overall numbers are good, it appears there are big fluctuations from day to day. I expect it will all go quiet again in the next few days as it cools once a...

26th Feb 2019 Broxhead Reserve: 2 Brimstone and 2 Comma. This time one of the Brimstones settled down for a short while long enough for me to get a close-up pic. P1040547.JPG Also a Dartford Warbler and a Red Kite. P1040537.JPG Kingsley Common – Manor-side: 2 Brimstone. That’s now a total of 33 butt...

… and because of that, my DIY projects languished for another day. This time I explored... Alice Holt Woods = 5 more Brimstones, another Comma and a Red Admiral. P1040492b.jpg Mostly the Brimstones just would not stay still. This was the only one and was a distance shot - blurred due to heavy croppi...

Cheers, guys....

…. and so the "heatwave" continued today. Apparently its the hottest Feb day on record today (over 20 degrees in Wales) and it climbed to 18 degrees at around 3.30pm around here.

24th Feb 2019: Noar Hill and Kingsley Common I am indebted to Dave for suggesting it would be a good idea to get out and about during this warm spell. He had said he had already seen butterflies in double figures this Feb and I wanted to do that too so I took a break from my Winter DIY schedule. I h...

Stunning pics, Neil. You can kind of forget how colourful our springtime butterflies can be (or should that by our wintertime butterflies?)

A Hummingbird Hawkmoth ?!?

Fantastic for Feb.

Its a bit crazy out there at the moment.

… and to round off the day - a Treecreeper visited the Sycamore opposite our house.

Two pics from the bedroom window.

So I went out into my garden and almost immediately two Brimstones flew though it. One circled around my head a couple of times then flew off. There were bees nectaring from the Windflowers and Crocuses while Long-tailed Tits were flitting about in the Beech Trees. All the while the unseasonally hot...

Trevor

Great Stuff. I have only seen two Brimstones so far and they did not hang around to have their photos taken.

And let me add my first butterfly of the year to those of posts from other people over the past couple of days. On 22nd Feb I saw a Brimstone fly past our front window. It was fleeting. Today it was back, this time flying back and forth along the hedge of a neighbour's garden.

No pics yet though.

I recently posted a pic of the closest Supermoon for 70 years (2016 was the year in question). Last year I got a new camera and it has a better zoom on it than my previous one so this Feb's Supermoon came out brilliantly...

Goldie, Wurzel, David

Thanks for your comments re the Tawny Owl I had down my chimney. I have lived at this house for 18 years now and this is the second time I have had one. Looks like its a once per decade event.