11th September was another very warm and mostly sunny day, reaching 27 degrees locally. My usual walk revealed 13 different species and a respectable overall total of around 80 butterflies (though Small Whites accounted for 30 of these - there appeared to have been a sizeable emergence round here)....

Haven't seen a single Clouded Yellow in England this year, normally see several. Painted Ladies, another migrant species, low numbers-maybe 15 for the year. Peacocks had a bumper emergence in July & I had record numbers in my garden. Red Admirals have been as abundant as any year I can remember...

Cheers, Wurzel - one day I may actually get a close in-focus open-wing Small Heath. A nice fresh one, of course... :) There are more LTBs to come - a few posts ahead, though. They are getting closer to you these days - they've been seen in Hampshire this year. :) On 10th September , I ventured down ...

That's quite a haul from Alner's Gorse, Wurzel. Anywhere with three types of hairstreak queuing up to be photographed and where you can pretty well guarantee a valesina SWF has to be a bit special... :) :mrgreen: :mrgreen: Tis a pity it's really tricky to get to from up here with it being tucked awa...

Hi Roland - welcome to UKB! All the images you'll see on the site are under 5MB - they will have been cropped or resized (or both) before uploading. There are a number of free photo-manipulation apps you can download that will do this (and carry out other "tweaking" to improve shots if you...

9th September turned out to be the hottest day of the year (and also the warmest 9th September on record), reaching over 33 degrees. The series of hot days and very warm nights had made things uncomfortable indoors at home, so in the end I ventured out onto my local patch again. Curiously I found m...

In order to make the most of what was likely to be the last real summery day of the year, I spent a few hours on my local patch again in glorious warm sunshine. I managed to see eleven species today, including the first Painted Lady of the month. They haven't been exactly numerous here in 2023, but ...

Cheers, Trevor. :) It does make a good souvenir! Very natural, with no one posing for the shot. If you zoom right in, it is even possible to make out the grey blur that is those two butterflies... :lol: Anyway, back to the timeline of my diary, stuck about a month behind on 6th September . It was wa...

Excellent LTB images, Dave. :mrgreen: Thank you, David. I am pretty certain that many (if not all) the others down there came away with better images than I did - Trevor has posted some already! :) It was well worth the trip: glorious weather, excellent company and Long-tailed Blues. :) Back home t...

Good to see you today Dave. That was quite a party! Some exceptional butterflies and a friendly group of people. Good to see you too, Trevor, and everyone else as well. Here's a shot which sums up very well what an enjoyable outing it was! :) Lancing LTB group.JPG I'll get round to a full post abou...

She was a splendid butterfly, Wurzel - I do have a soft spot for female blues... :) (And I thought you'd like that Small White, especially now you know what a real Southern one looks like! :) ) It's true that the south coast is currently blessed with good numbers of LTB, David, but I'm still waiting...

Today there was more evidence of a Red Admiral reverse migration. This time I was at Lancing on the Sussex coast... Vince Along with a number of others, I was just inland from you at Lancing Ring, Vince. Though we were mostly devoting attention to the Long-tailed Blues, you couldn't help noticing t...

Eleven species seen locally this morning, as a confused Brimstone added another to yesterday's list. It was cruising up and down the hedgerows as if it were spring and came nowhere near being photographed. A couple of female Brown Argus joined the males today, and one had clearly done exactly that a...

It sounds like almost any patch of nectar-rich flowers along the Sussex coast is worth a look at the moment! :) A great garden sighting, Vince. :mrgreen: I treat my local patch as if it were a garden in some ways, as even a brief bit of sun can tempt me out for a look. There was a fair bit of sunshi...

Cheers, Wurzel - GVWs are a very attractive and underrated butterfly, with marked differences between the main two broods, and a whole lot of other variation. That sounds like a wormhole worth exploring (unless you have to get Captain Cisko's permission first... :) ). On 3rd September the increasing...

Railway cuttings/embankments can make fine nature reserves and habitat corridors, Jack! They may have played a role in the relatively rapid spread to Scotland of the Comma - you never know! :) Another sunny morning today (4th) on my local patch and after about ten o'clock it warmed up quite rapidly....

Today's sunshine (following two largely cloudy but very warm days) brought out over 50 butterflies on my local patch, with nine species being represented. The third brood of Holly Blues is starting to appear, attempting to share the ivy with all the Red Admirals. HB3 031023.JPG A single Comma was th...

Hello Dave , Concerning the Wood sculpture i mentioned ie; "The Lady in the woods " I,ll post a couple of my sons shots ,if you don,t mind me posting on your diary .............goes without saying to delete them,if you want,once you,ve had a look . Regards Allan W. Hi Allan - if you send ...

I agree with David, Sarah. Going by the that dark patch on the top edge of the hindwing, I'd say that is not a Small White. The overall wing shape looks wrong for Green-veined, and though it is very heavily marked, the dark scaling doesn't look right to me for for this species either. Without anythi...

29th August was a similar kind of day, but all I concentrated on were the Commas. One appeared to be a venerable and very faded example of a hutchinsoni individual: very late in the summer to still be seeing them. Comma3 290823.JPG The others were all new examples of the standard hibernating versio...