A Painted Lady and a 2-Spot Ladybird along the River Exe at Powerham in Devon yesterday (20th August) afternoon. I also saw a couple of others in flight near Exeter Bridges.

Ansteys Cove, Torquay Friday 19th August Holly Blue, Speckled Wood, at least three large butterflies that looked liked Silver-washed Fritillaries patrolling, two small brown butterflies seen fluttering around brambles not close enough to get an id possible Brown Hairstreak (Ansteys Cove is given as ...

Orley Common near Newton Abbot Devon

Visted there yesterday afternoon 2nd August plenty of Gatekeepers. Meadon Browns and Brown Arguses, also saw one Brown Haistreak female but she was set upon by a Gatekeeper before I could get a photo

Just wondering if anyone knows of any Chalkhill Blue sites within 5 to 10 miles of taunton?

Thanks

Painted Lady at Powderham in Devon this evening, looks like a female, it was patrolling one area of the River Exe path and kept returning to almost exactly the same spot.

I needed to do a double take on this photo of a very battered Peacock doing a quite passable Comma impression 0n Walls Hill at Torquay today.

Had my first chance to go hunting for butterflies yesterday afternoon, and happily had my first sightings of the year. Walking along Ashlawn Cutting I saw about 8 x Peacocks, 6 x Commas and 4 x Small Tortoiseshells. There were a number of butterflies on the wing, but they were probably the same thr...

Saw a Large White near Exeter Quays today.

Small White in the royal terrace gardens (rock wall) at Torquay this afternoon.

Nice warm afternoon here, this fellow was sunning itself on Wall Hill at Torquay this afternoon.

My pics of the Small Tortoiseshell seem at Starcross on 19th Feb are not really up to standard as I could not get close enough, but I notice that this fellow was feeding, Not sure what the flower was.

I do have a suspicion that some of our "native" species may be more dependant upon immigration and less succesfull at hibernation than might be the common perception. It was interesting how quickly the Small Tortoiseshell population recovered its numbers a couple of years back. Also late s...

Matsukaze wrote: Is anyone else noticing a shortage of lesser celandine in flower?

I've seen plenty in flower around Torbay.

There were at least 4 Small Torts in Hollicombe Gardens near Paighton yesterday afternoon. Also a Buff-tailed Bumble Bee.

Also took this shot of a Great Tit singing the odds nearby.

thx lee not many round this part cheshire but think they re movin in now, lotta garden centres so they may have alder buckthorn/buckthorn shrubs there :D They were rare in the Crewe & Nantwich area of South Cheshire until the 1990s when they seemed to move in in a big way, a favourite location ...

They are astonishing. They must have flown (with some wind assistance) all the way from southern Spain at least. Dave Unless they are breeding in some sheltered spot near to the French coast, it only needs calm warm/mild conditions (which there have been) and 15 hours of persistant flight for them ...

A Comma and a Small Tortoiseshell at Starcross, Devon at 1 PM today.

Back in south Cheshire/north Shopshire my first sightings were usually of Small Tortoiseshells around the 20th of February, with regular sighting on any warm and sunny day from around the 10th March.

My first sighting of a Peacock butterfly, was back in 1956 when I was 4 years old, I also remember seeing Small Coppers and thinking that they were baby butterflies until my mother explained about the caterpillar being the growing stage of their lives

The temperature in Torquay did not rise much abov zero today but a south facing stone wall on Braddons Hill was absorbing enough heat to warm up enough for several flies to venture out and sun themselves and to visit flowers.