Cheers, Ben - I'm glad I'm not alone in wanting to cut through some of the misinformation we come across. :) A broader factual view of the whole of this spring across the UK is at the end of this link: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/about-us/news-and-media/media-centre/weather-and-climate-news/2024/wa...

Interesting that we should visit the same site on the same day, overlapping a bit, yet not see the same selection of species. You found some Grizzlies and Green Hairsteaks - which I didn't. Whereas I'd seen Glanvilles and Dukes earlier in the day. :) We did both see that lovely dark fresh female Sma...

That was a great day, Wurzel - it may have lacked Fritillaries, but made up for it in other stuff, especially Green Hairstreaks! Great shots of the Walls too - you did far better than me on that score!

Cheers,

Dave

After almost a surfeit of Marsh Fritillaries (though in reality it is impossible to have too many... :) I returned to the car - but then remembered to first have a look at the bit of path (probably a piece of old road before the roundabout was built) next to the pull-in. This was like stepping back ...

As we go into June, and comments are made about the weather so far this year, I thought a look at the actual figures for May would be interesting (those for my local patch near Heathrow anyway). The average daily maximum temperature for May 2024 was 19.6 degrees . This is over a degree above the 199...

Was in clackmannanshire today... ...Seen my first painted lady butterfly of the year. Bert. That's a good sighting, Bert - they've been few and far between everywhere this year... After my first male Meadow Browns yesterday, I followed up today with the first female on my local patch. MB1 030624.JP...

Cotley Hill, 25th May: Marsh Fritillaries. It was very hard to sort through choose between the hundreds of shots of this species. I get to see them so rarely that when presented with a hillside boasting a good number of this attractive and variable species, it's difficult to hold back... :) I also b...

25th May , and my second visit of the season to Cotley Hill in Wiltshire. The main target for the day was Marsh Fritillaries, and this time I was not in any way disappointed. They were easy to find, and some were pretty fresh as well. The weather mix of sunshine and cloud made things easier by maki...

With almost perfect timing at the start of meteorological summer, I saw my first Meadow Browns of 2024 today - firstly at Denbies......and then later on my home patch near Heathrow.There was plenty of other butterfly activity at both spots - to follow in my PD.

Dave

Some lovely, Specklies, David, and that vibrant Common Blue too! Curiously, the Speckled Woods are now between broods where I am... I wonder if you are ahead of me on the other side of London (or t'other way about...).

Cheers,

Dave

A mislabelling of a file has meant I missed out a day. 25th May was not blank at all, and was the outing I had strangely filed away as 27th May. Is this what they call a "senior moment"? :) 25th May - Back to Cotley Hill - coming up soon - starring Marsh Fritillaries and a varied supportin...

Cheers, Wurzel - it was a good day yesterday, despite the weather collapse mid-morning! :) Another "blank" day followed on 25th, and though 26th May was better, I didn't get to see much on my usual local walk. The Brown Argus were all fresh, and showed subtle differences. The first one spo...

The rest of what was seen locally on May 24th was more typical spring fare (though without Brimstones and Orange Tips). Most of my Large White sightings are of butterflies relatively high up and only settling almost out of reach - like these two. LW1 240524.JPG LW2 240524.JPG At least GVW are more a...

...those in context shots. Any tips. Do you use any special settings ? The particular technique I use only really works if the butterfly is well-settled (that last Orange Tip was down for the night and the Small Copper a few posts back had found a favourite spot and was staying there!). I get the c...

In the end, 20th May notched up over 12 hours of sunshine, and 22 degrees was reached locally. My afternoon walk therefore saw lots of butterfly activity to add to my morning excursions on the chalk of the Chilterns. I counted a respectable 60 butterflies from 13 different species: Holly Blue 18 Sma...

Cheers, Wurzel - it has been a bit of a Blues Festival in these recent posts, but fresh ones are hard to resist... :) Thanks for the orchid ID - I thought that's what they were, but I'm rarely sure about this subject. However, I found some bee orchids on my local patch the other day (I recognised th...

That was rather a splendid Grizzly, Wurzel - it rather made up for the rest of the day. :) I'm convinced clouds follow me around sometimes too. I often seem to suffer from "cloud streets" where a continuous line of the fluffy white buggers is aimed precisely at the sun, and half a mile to ...

20th May , Pitstone continued: female Small Blues. As mentioned earlier, females of the species were easy to find today, and most seemed quite fresh. They are very dark, uniformly almost black (unlike any other UK butterfly I can think of). They also display an iridescent sheen at certain angles to...

Thank you, Katrina - with so many Holly Blues to play with, it's good to see the more experimental shots coming off and being appreciated. :) Monday 20th May promised more sunshine, so I chose to head north this time and once again the early low cloud did indeed dissipate (though it took longer than...

After returning from Denbies on 19th, there was a bit of time in the long May afternoon to have a quick look locally again. For some reason it turned into a bit of a Holly Blue bonanza, but there were a handful of other things too... Comma1 190524.JPG RA1 190524.JPG ...including a handsome new male ...