April Butterflies

[Simon C]

I can't be the only one to think that the Speckled Wood is a very beatiful and much overlooked butterfly? I'm as guilty as anyone for thinking "Oh, it's only another Speckled Wood"...but looking at that image has made me stop and think.

I find most butterflies reward a careful look - most, because for some reason I can't make myself like Small Heaths. I seem to have a natural aversion to them, and my heart sinks when I see them. I hope that having admitted to this, I don't find that my membership of this forum is cancelled. I promise to try harder to enjoy them this year

Simon C

[Perseus]

My trip was to see if I could spit the first Small Heaths of the year, which I found by accident for the last two or three years. Iwas also looking for Speckled Woods which I did not find either.

I have not got a least favourite, but my best favourites are Chalkhill Blues.

[Perseus]

Hello,

11 April 2008
On a breezy afternoon, a cycle ride to Anchor Bottom, Upper Beeding, and back along the Downs Link Cyclepath to Old Shoreham, failed to discover a single butterfly or anything of interest. Nearer to home, a Peacock Butterfly basked on the Waterworks Road with another one on footpath that runs along the south of Frampton's Field to The Street, with a pristine Small Tortoiseshell on Stinging Nettles, from which it may have just emerged after winter hibernation.

First Adur Butterfly Dates 2003 to 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/ButterfliesFFT.htm

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/

View and upload your Sussex Wildlife Images to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sussexwildlife/

[Denise]

A slightly warmer, less windy and dry day in Bristol this morning gave me several Speckled Woods and another female Orange-Tip, which also headed straight for the Aubretia in my garden. Also a brief view of a Small White.

Denise

[Perseus]

Hello,

13 April 2008
There were three other butterfly enthusiasts on the lower slopes of Mill Hill in the afternoon, chasing around the Grizzled Skippers until they stopped for a photograph. I saw three of them, but Andrew Burns reported at least ten different ones (ignoring possible doubles, twenty sightings in total) along the whole of the lower slopes below the path. Both males and females were reported. Other butterflies on the lower slopes were just the one Peacock and a Small Tortoiseshell. There was another Peacock Butterfly in the scrub to the north-west.

Adur Skipppers
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Skippers.html


Earlier in the afternoon, another Peacock Butterfly and two Brimstone Butterflies fluttered over the verges of the Waterworks Road (footpath section).

First Adur Butterfly Dates 2003 to 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/ButterfliesFFT.htm

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/

View and upload your Sussex Wildlife Images to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sussexwildlife/

[eccles]

Is this a first? I caught a brimstone male nectaring rather awkwardly from a bluebell yesterday. This is quite a heavy crop so it's a bit short on detail.

2008_04_14_brimstone.jpg (108.76 KiB) Viewed 1673 times

[Martin]

Eccles,
I saw this last year...I thought it was normal behavior

Martin.

[Lynn]

Patrick Fleet saw two Grizzled Skippers and a Green Hairstreak at Magdalen Hill Down, Butterfly Conservation's reserve at Winchester yesterday.We think are these are the first of the season so a bit exciting. Grizzled Skippers on are on the up and up here largely due we think to the good effects of cattle grazing producing bare ground and hoof prints.

Commiserations to George in Derbyshire & I hope by now he has seen a butterfly. However being a native of that county I know how sparse it can be!

[Charles Nicol]

Les speckleds sont arrivés !!



in exactly the same spot as last year

charles

[Jack Harrison]

A negative report but probably just as informative.

Waterford Heath (near Hertford) 15th April in warm (11°C) sunshine - nil Grizzled Skippers so doubtless too early here.

Jack

[Susie]

I went for a walk today at Steers Field, Denbies Hillside, nr Dorking, Surrey, to see if anything was flying yet but there were no butterflies to be seen apart from a Brimstone on the journey up there.

Closer to home near Horsham there were more Brimstones, an Orange Tip and a couple of Peacocks.

[George]

Still no butterflies in Derbyshire!! Global warming - what about global cooling!!

[George]

Still no butterflies in Derbyshire!! Global warming - what about global cooling!!

[jfish]

Bit grim up north still, not spotted anything in east yorkshire, but was working on the River Trent, adjacent to the M1, last thursday and spotted my first peacock of the year sunning itself on bed of nettles.

Hopefully the warmer weather will spread oop north soon.

jfish

[Perseus]

Hello,

I suspect that a lot of the Peacocks are immigrants on the Sussex coast?

A few observations of Peacock Butterflies on the beach and nearby.

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/

View and upload your Sussex Wildlife Images to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sussexwildlife/

[eccles]

Eccles,
I saw this last year...I thought it was normal behavior

Martin.

Maybe it is. I just haven't seen it before.

[Susie]

The peacock from yesterday feeding on Blackthorn blossom. My arms weren't long enough to shoot the upperside.

[Neil Hulme]

Hi all,
Following an Email from a BC Sussex member, I took a walk along Ferring Rife (a small stream at its seaward end) in West Sussex yesterday afternoon. I counted sixteen Small Tortoiseshells spread along about 1/4 mile of bankside path - more than I've seen in one place for many a year. Whether the demise of this once common butterfly is down to the Sturmia bella fly or not, it's sad that we see so few in Sussex these days. Yesterday's tally evoked happy childhood memories, when I could guarantee to find them fluttering against the windows of the garden shed or the garage - I always helped them out of course!
Neil

[Perseus]

Hello,

Two Small Whites in the breeze today.

I think rife may be a word for a small river only used in Sussex?

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

[Perseus]

Hello,

20 April 2008
The first Large White Butterflies and the first Orange-tip Butterflies of the year are seen in the Shoreham area and the first Green-veined White Butterfly and Speckled Wood Butterflies were seen on Mill Hill. Frequent Peacock Butterflies were the most numerous and with Small Whites, Brimstone Butterflies, Grizzled Skippers and a Small Tortoiseshell, this makes four firsts for Shoreham and about 42 butterflies of nine species seen on a tepid (>16.9 °C) sunny day.
On the lower slopes of Mill Hill, the first Horseshoe Vetch, Hippocrepis comosa, was seen in flower with the accompanying pollen beetles. The first Pyrausta nigrata pyralid moth of 2008 was also spotted.

Adur Butterfly Flight Times
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterflies1X2007.htm

First Adur Butterfly Dates 2003 to 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/ButterfliesFFT.htm

Adur Butterfly & Large Moth List
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Butterfly-list2008.html

Cheers

Andy Horton
glaucus@hotmail.com
Adur Valley Nature Notes
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2007.html
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Adur2008.html
Adur Valley Nature Notes: April 2008
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/April2008.html

Adur Valley & Downs Gallery
http://www.flickr.com/groups/adur/pool/