I found my oldest bit of pottery at archaeology up on the South Downs three weeks ago, a chunky piece of Middle Bronze Age bowl. That's the Amex Stadium a little to the right of it. You can't help but get a bit reflective when you find something like that. To me it's as if the intervening 3,400 (ish...

Sometimes I regret not taking up a kind offer of a lift back from archaeology, but other times I'm very glad I walked. I'm hoping this slightly worse for wear gorganus individual is a migrant and not yet another escapee from the nearby Middleton Common Farm butterfly house ! Great find Zigzag Congr...

Sometimes I regret not taking up a kind offer of a lift back from archaeology, but other times I'm very glad I walked.

I'm hoping this slightly worse for wear gorganus individual is a migrant and not yet another escapee from the nearby Middleton Common Farm butterfly house !

No butterflies but there were definitely a few funnel clouds trying to become mini-twisters over Brighton on Wednesday morning as I was on my way to archaeology. I don't think any actually made it to the ground, but very interesting to watch them develop... Ominous stuff, ZZW. These things are to b...

Great shots as always Katrina. I love Common Darters, they're fairly ubiquitous, seem tamer in our company than their cousins and go deeper into the year.

Facially they are very interesting, like a Tex Avery cartoon character. There's definitely a bit of Droopy in there !

Here's some screenshots from the video I took.

No butterflies but there were definitely a few funnel clouds trying to become mini-twisters over Brighton on Wednesday morning as I was on my way to archaeology. I don't think any actually made it to the ground, but very interesting to watch them develop. I got quite a good film of one. I was tracki...

Very pleasant surprise whilst working in the back garden today - my first Brown Hairstreak of the year and a very fresh female to boot. She was extremely skittish, moving from shrub to shrub but kindly opened her wings fully on the last occaision before flying next door, sadly not to return (or I mi...

...and a marmalade hoverfly ?

Went to Brighton on Friday in an attempt to finalise a passable wedding outfit for my niece's big day yesterday. I had a smart pair of trousers and shoes already, so the easy bit was M&S for a (non-iron) shirt and tie but then a bit of a trawl for a jacket to either match or contrast (enough) wi...

Yes, I would definitely echo Dave's point re. butterflies out in the sporadic rain yesterday. I was surprised to see Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown, Small White, a golden skipper amd a Marbled White all in action. I also saw a Brimstone moth battling the wind.

Had a female PH visit on Monday.

At work I always scour the netting placed over the last bay of House #4 for trapped insects. It was put there to provide extra shade for our ferns, but from where it overhangs the roof to the points it's pegged to the ground, there are some very effective insect traps. Unfortunately it's not long en...

Just back from a week's holiday staying near Dolgellau. We didn't go anywhere specifically looking for butterflies, but we walked through plenty of likely terrain in much sunnier weather than forecast, but saw very few. Something like 3 Small White, 2 Meadow Brown and a Speckled Wood and that's the ...

Took a very local wander today. Saw my first Large Skipper of the year and c. 15 Meadow Brown. Very few other species, maybe 6 Speckled Wood, 3 Small Heath and a Small White. Plus Peacock in larval form. Lots of vetch about though.

Saw my first Painted Lady of the year on Wednesday, just outside our digging area for archaeology. At work today, a Speckled Wood was taking a leaf out of other insects' books and resting on the fine-gauge green mesh side of House #4, with its wings firmly closed. It's very unusual for me to see a b...

Took a wander down to Wolstonbury again yesterday. No Adonis yet, but at least I got off the mark with Common Blue. Small Heath predominate, followed by Small Blue, but then it was down to small numbers for the other species seen (6-7 Brimstone and Common Blue, 5 Speckled Wood and Dingy Skipper, , 2...

Was another soft day here yesterday (31st May). No butterflies, but I did see another Yellow-barred Long-Horn moth in the garden. A female this time, with much shorter antennea. Like Silver-Y it seems a good year for these little beauties. It may just be that I'm now looking for them. At work last w...

On Friday I stuck to the local Weald rather than venturing up the Downs. No rain but sunshine was at a premium until later in the afternoon. Not many butterflies about: 7-8 each of Speckled Wood, Small White/GVW and Small Heath, circa 5 for Red Admiral and Brimstone, 3 Large White, 2 Holly Blue. No ...

Bertl: You've certainly got some lovely butterflies up there. David: Well done on tracking down your Essex grizzlie ! Also top stuff with your earlier collection of day-flying May moths. I took another wander down to Wolstonbury yesterday. Common Carpet and Brimstone numbers slightly down on the pre...

Few snaps from this week. The Speckled Wood was braving an overcast lunchtime at work, the rest were taken in our garden. The Psyche casta (Common Bagworm) larva was crawling up an old metal fencepost at quite a respectable speed, encased in its house of straw.