July 2015

[P.J.Underwood]

This one came down today,but light poor.
P.J.U.

[Alexc]

3 or 4 purple emperors about at Fermyn woods this weekend, along with purple hairstreaks, white admirals and silver-washed fritillaries. Also at Monk's wood in Cambs, black hairstreak still showing and plenty of silver-washed fritillary again too.

Rgds, Alex

[Mark Senior]

Southwater woods near Horsham today , 15 species seen though no Marbled White , Peacock or Purple Hairstreak ( latter seen by others ) .
Highlight was 5 Purple Emperors buzzing around at the top of the master trees . One individual had a dogfight with 2 others drove them off over the pine tree and returned to see off a 4th .
Good numbers of Silver Washed Frits but White Admirals not numerous in my view though there was plenty of Honeysuckle to lay eggs on .

[Testudo Man]

2 new butterfly species for my "garden list" added this last Sunday (5/7/15). Total butterfly species for my garden now, stands at 24

The 1st one being a Ringlet...it was flying around the top of my driveway, then up over the roof of my house, where it continued to fly low around my back garden. It then flew over next doors garden, then back over the fence into my garden, then off it went. I was very pleased with this, but the best was yet to come

The 2nd new garden species was a White Admiral!!!!!!!!!!!!!
At approx 5.30pm, i looked out the window, to see a brown and white large butterfly flying in such a manner(a manner that i knew, but couldnt quite believe) down in the corner of my garden. I quickly went out into the garden to investigate said butterfly, thinking, surely this cant be what i think it is??? Sure enough, it was a WA, and it had landed on my lawn. I shouted for my son to grab/fetch my camera, not taking my eye of this beauty. The WA flew around the garden, landing on the lawn, on the trampoline, under the trampoline, over next doors fence, up over my roof...then it returned to my garden, and flew back under the trampoline, where it landed for a few moments.
It then flew over my fence, and spent some time nectaring on the Bramble bush.

It showed some wing damage, so Im guessing that it may have sustained the damage in a recent local storm we had? maybe the rain storm/winds blew it off course? either way, its the 1st sighting of a WA in my garden.

Most of the photos were poor, not the best light, high ISO's, long distance...but i did capture a couple of images.

Location - my garden, in Kent.

An unusual WA photo then, cheers Paul.

This photo is quite a large crop, the WA landed underneath the trampoline, upside down on the netting. Notice all the bright small spots on the butterfly, these are the sun spots/light, shining through the netting!

[Testudo Man]

The skipper is for sure a Essex skipper

Thanks John, for confirming the Skipper I.D.

Cheers Paul.

[millerd]

New broods seen today on my local patch near Heathrow:
Peacock
Holly Blue
Brown Argus

Dave

[Philzoid]

Brooklands nr. weybridge surrey late afternoon Sunday 5th:-

Meadow Brown; Ringlet; Gatekeeper and small Skipper . No Surrey five-spot Burnets .

In my Garden; gatekeeper; Large White; Meadow brown and Comma, 4 in one day , none seen the whole of June

[badgerbob]

A Monarch in the Brighton Pavilion Gardens today. Seen yesterday flying in off the sea apparently.

Monarch in Brighton.

More on my blog.

http://bobsbutterflies.blogspot.co.uk

[IainLeach]

nice shot of the Monarch

[Hoggers]

A lovely radiata at Dungeness today

I've posted more photos in my diary

Best wishes

Hoggers

[selbypaul]

I've spent the week in North Wales, so here are a couple of quick reports.

Great Orme - Friday 3rd July
Hot, humid and sunny. A profusion of Silver Studded Blue on the slopes of the West Shore Orme path. I actually only walked 200 metres, and only scanned perhaps 5 metres either side of the path, and a rough count would be around 500 Silver Studded Blues. A couple of Grayling also, a Red Admiral, a Large Skipper, Small Tortoishell, lots of Meadow Brown, and a Brown Argus.

Moelfre, Anglesey - Saturday 4th July
Warm, sunny, but windy. Meadow Brown in profusion along most verges and field margins. A couple of Large Skipper, a single Ringlet, a Painted Lady, Red Admiral, a couple of Small Tortoishell, and a Large White. Also lots of Speckled Wood.

North Stack, Anglesey - Tuesday 7th July
Very windy, cool, but sunny. A couple of Meadow Brown, a few Speckled Wood, a Painted Lady, two Small Tortoishell, a Small White, and a single Silver Studded Blue.

Red Wharf Bay, Anglesey - Wednesday 8th July
Cool, windy at times, but sunny. A profusion of Speckled Wood, Meadow Brown, and Ringlet. The Ringlet and most Speckled Wood in particular all looked very fresh, as if they had just emerged. Also a few Small White, Small Tortoishell, Red Admiral, and Large Skipper

Penmon Point, Anglesey - Thursday 9th July
Warm sunshine and light cool winds. Lots of Ringlet and Meadow Brown again. A couple of Speckled Wood and Small White, and a single Red Admiral

[Hugh Middleton]

Purple Emperor at Chambers Farm Wood (Lincs) today. Some were introduced last year. Don't know if these are their offspring or another batch dropped off!

Hugh

[selbypaul]

Purple Emperor at Chambers Farm Wood (Lincs) today. Some were introduced last year. Don't know if these are their offspring or another batch dropped off!

PURPLE EMPEROR.2.jpg

PURPLE EMPEROR.1.jpg

PURPLE EMPEROR.jpg

Hugh

Hi Hugh
Fascinating! Were they introduced as part of a controlled release, or illegally?
Paul

[Hugh Middleton]

Certainly not a controlled release!

[bugboy]

That must be as about far north as you can see them in the UK!

[Pete Eeles]

A lovely radiata at Dungeness today

IMG_9832.JPG

I've posted more photos in my diary

Best wishes

Hoggers

Fantastic find! Well done!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Ian Pratt]

One of the more outstanding day-flying moths seen today- the cinnabar moth. Fascinating reading about the moth at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnabar_moth

[selbypaul]

Certainly not a controlled release!

Oh dear, not another one. What do you think the chances are of a population becoming established?

[bugboy]

Well nearly 3 hours looking slightly dodgy loitering in a car park in Bookham Common and not a sniff of the Big Purple One, a little Purple One toyed with us though, flitting around in the Oaks. On the plus side the Chalkhills have started to emerge at Denbies

[Greenie]

Went to High Elms LNR yesterday morning on another recce for next weekend's visit by Kent BC .
15+ Silver-washed Fritillary seen , including 3 females and a courting pair .
Still no positive White-letter Hairstreak sightings .
Whilst searching a pristine male Purple Emperor dropped onto the path beside me and started searching for minerals .
He was very mobile up and down the path and finally spooked by a dog walker .
10/15 minutes later , a second male floated into the glade , this one carrying combat damage , with large chunks of
both hindwings missing . He stayed longer , but was eventually spooked by dog walkers too . These were only the 2nd.
and 3rd. sightings of the species in 20+years of monitoring the site .
When I got home , I phoned fellow enthusiast Keith , who went up in the afternoon and got two sightings in the same
glade , but neither came to ground .
Would be great if they showed up next weekend , along with the Scarce Tortoiseshell seen a couple of weeks ago .
Got the usual on the ground shots of both , but also managed , with luck , to get a couple of more unusual shots .
This glade was also the one where I managed to photograph the gynandromorph Silver-washed Fritillary last year .