February 2019

[Vince Massimo]

I visited Ferring Rife, on the Sussex coast on Sunday 24th and bumped into Neil Hulme there, who advised that the best spots for butterflies are on the eastern bank, between the car park and the first bridge.

Ferring Rife, Sussex 24-Feb-2019

Our combined totals were 2 Small Tortoiseshell, 3 Peacock, 2 Red Admiral, and 1 Brimstone. We then disturbed a small dark butterfly from the grass which flew weakly and landed high on a hedge. This turned out to be a freshly emerged Speckled Wood, but it stayed out of range.

Speckled Wood, Ferring Rife, Sussex 24-Feb-2019

Also some good dollops of frogspawn in the Rife.

Frogspawn - Ferring Rife, Sussex 24-Feb-2019

This was all a big change from Friday on the same stretch of coast.

Lancing seafront 22-Feb-2019

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

Just seen this on the Butterflies UK Facebook group:

Screen Shot 2019-02-25 at 23.00.19.jpg
Thought it might be of interest

At least 2 separate individuals in this post: https://twitter.com/Alexanor56/status/1 ... 5724657665

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

Large tortoiseshells in February and March are very good news! Maybe the tide is turning ...

In our garden in Woodbridge it has been Commafest these last two days. Two new individuals turned up today, one very smart, the other rather tatty:





They defended their territories from late morning until about 15h30, using all sorts of vantage point on our walls, gutters and stacks. The fresher one got first dibbs on all the best spots:







In the countryside near Wickham Market, where I went to walk my sister's dog, peacocks and brimstones were flying.

Guy

[Vince Massimo]

A search of some of my butterfly hot-spots in the Crawley area today produced 22 butterflies.

5 Red Admiral
8 Peacock
5 Comma
4 Brimstone

The best concentration was in Tilgate Park, where all four species were one Daphne shrub at the same time. Unfortunately the camera failed to pick them all out.

Comma - Crawley, Sussex 26-Feb-2019

After seeing Small Tortoiseshells (and a Speckled Wood) on Sunday, this is the first time I have ever seen 6 different species in February.

The temperature today reached 19C locally.

Vince

[David M]

At least 2 separate individuals in this post: https://twitter.com/Alexanor56/status/1 ... 5724657665

Encouraging stuff, though a handful seem to be sighted every year early in the season.

How long will it be before someone finds early stages, proving that this species is breeding here?

[bugboy]

My first peacock of the year seen fluttering around at work today and then on the train on the way home I spied a White fluttering around on the other side of the line. My gut says it was a Small White but whatever it was I'm up to 6 species for the year too now!

[Allan.W.]

In my part of Kent ,I,m just into double figures ,for Brimstone ,saw a single Peacock at the weekend just off the beach
at Samphire Ho (Dover ) ,and today I added a single male Small White flying along the edge of the local cemetary.
At the beginning of the month on the local lake an Egyptian Goose had 8 Goslings on show ,so was sitting eggs in January !!
At Littlestone ,on Romney marsh ,Kent three Swallows were reported some ten days back ,and I believe they are still present .
I,ve also seen somewhere that a Turtle Dove and a Lesser Whitethroat over-wintered in Norfolk .
Strange times ! Regards Allan.W.

[tomlantaff]

Large Tort is interesting - have seen reports of a Camberwell Beauty in Sussex on Facebook, too.

I myself had at least 2 Commas on my lunchtime walk today.

[David M]

Another 40 minute walk around my workplace at lunch time saw 5 Brimstones and a Comma.

Rather irritatingly, given that I had not brought my camera, two of the Brimstones actually settled, the first to nectar on violets, and the second, I think, just for a short rest!

I managed to grab this poor shot with my mobile phone:

[False Apollo]

Lucky enough to get to Tout Quarry this afternoon to see Large Tortoiseshell. It had been seen earlier but had disappeared. It only gave itself up when flushed by a passing fly! It then settled down and sunned itself on a rock where it remained for over 30 minutes. Eventually it twitched a bit and flew off. After studying the photos it appeared there were 2 individuals photographed today. Flight was powerful and yet effortless as it circled and glided off, reminiscent of a Purple Emperor. There seem to be good numbers of Large Tortoiseshells at the moment in the Netherlands and 3 Scarce Tortoiseshells were also reported so maybe there are more to be found having had southerly winds.


Regards
Mike Gibbons

[David M]

Lucky enough to get to Tout Quarry this afternoon to see Large Tortoiseshell...

Excellent, Mike. Well done.

Seeing this species in the UK at any time of year is quite something, let alone in the month of February!!

[peterc]

Historic Comparison

I recall some butterfly literature in the mid 20th century referring to a fantastic spring some 60 years earlier – 1893.

I can’t find any reports to how early that was (in terms of emergences). However, Met Office weather archives show that while February 1893 was miserable, March 1893 was warm, sunny and dry.

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/c ... ar1893.pdf

So although 2019 isn’t quite an analogue to 1893, there are parallels.

Has anyone any links to butterfly records for 1893?

Jack

Hi Jack,

It may not be exactly what you want but have you considered 'The Entomologist' magazine? As you probably know it was published on a regular basis since the Victorian era so for 1893 you might find something useful in the 1894 issue:

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ite ... 0/mode/1up

There was an exceptionally warm February in 1998 when for example a Small White was reported on the 25th in Hertfordshire.

ATB

Peter

[CallumMac]

Per Twitter, there was an Orange-tip on the wing yesterday at RSPB St Aidans near Leeds. My colleague Andy Suggitt (who writes the Orange-tip report for BC Yorkshire's annual report) reckons this is likely to be the earliest record ever for the county.

https://twitter.com/DarrenStarkey/statu ... 5683916800

[David M]

Per Twitter, there was an Orange-tip on the wing yesterday at RSPB St Aidans near Leeds. My colleague Andy Suggitt (who writes the Orange-tip report for BC Yorkshire's annual report) reckons this is likely to be the earliest record ever for the county.

https://twitter.com/DarrenStarkey/statu ... 5683916800

That's beyond extraordinary, Callum, and I'm quite sure it IS the earliest ever. I'm not even sure Chris Jackson in Marseilles gets to see them in February.

[Matsukaze]

Entomologist's Record for 1893.

https://archive.org/details/entomologis ... t/page/150

[Chris Jackson]

Per Twitter, there was an Orange-tip on the wing yesterday at RSPB St Aidans near Leeds. My colleague Andy Suggitt (who writes the Orange-tip report for BC Yorkshire's annual report) reckons this is likely to be the earliest record ever for the county.

https://twitter.com/DarrenStarkey/statu ... 5683916800

That's beyond extraordinary, Callum, and I'm quite sure it IS the earliest ever. I'm not even sure Chris Jackson in Marseilles gets to see them in February.

Amazing, the earliest I would expect to see Orange Tip near Marseilles would be mid-March, and that would be in an exceptional year.
My earliest sighting was a 17th of March at a midday temperature of 16°C, so this year I may be able to beat that !!
Down here, any emergence of OT should be intimately associated with the appearance of Hairy Rockcress - my scouting mission for the coming weekend.

And, if anyone is interested, I saw my first Swallowtail down here in the south of France this year two days ago on Feb. 26th, and on Feb. 24th I was in Malaga, Spain, and Spanish Festoon was seen in good numbers.

28th Feb., I have just received a report of an OT sighting today at Aix-en Provence (just north of Marseilles).

Chris Jackson in Marseilles

[CallumMac]

We had four separate reports of late-summer Orange-tips last year as well (all reliable sources). As I understand it, OT pupae never fully stop developing over the winter; their rate of development is very slow until they have experienced a winter chill, and then increases markedly. Given that (universally) Lepidopteran growth rate increases with temperature, I wonder whether our OT pupae went into winter at a more advanced stage than they normally would after last year's remarkable summer (with a couple of extreme individuals actually emerging before winter!), and therefore needed less of a push post-chilling in order to emerge (we had several days of snow here ~3 weeks ago), such that one or two have already 'popped' in this week's equally remarkable weather?

[David M]

Took a half day from work on Wednesday 27th purely to revel one last time in May-like temperatures during the latter days of February!!

I visited the lower part of Kilvey Hill in case there were any early Speckled Woods about (insane to be doing this before winter is officially over) but there were none.

Plenty of Brimstones though, including this one displaying excellent camouflage against a backdrop of primrose leaves:

My first of three Commas was waiting for me before I even reached the track, perched on the right hand edge of the entrance sign:

The cemetery itself was a riot of floral colour against a clear blue sky and 16c temperatures:

Just to the left of the above image is a stretch of bergenia, where I found a Small Tortoiseshell sharing a flowerhead with a Comma:

Mindful that from today we'd be back to cool, Atlantic systems, I couldn't resist one final sortie into Oystermouth Cemetery in Mumbles, which again was full of colour with the spring bulbs and celandines:

Two Peacocks were holding territory, with this one spending some while basking on this gravestone:

What a month February 2019 has been!

[downland boy]

Someone tell me, it is still winter isn't it?...at least until tomorrow when meteorological spring starts. Working in my wood (on the East Sussex and Kent border) on Tuesday in shirt sleeves and 20 degrees, watching numerous Brimstones, Commas and Orange Underwing moths on the wing, not to mention a Palmate Newt in the leaf litter, I was pinching myself all day!


http://eastsussexwanderer.blogspot.co.uk

[Mikhail]

A single Cherry Plum in King's Park, Bournemouth, was host to these four species on 25th (Comma) and 27th Feb (the rest). Also seen elsewhere were Brimstone and a single Small Tortoiseshell (only 4 seen all last year).

M.