May 2020

[Stevieb]

Went out in search of Wall Brown this morning. Duly noted along with a nice little selection of others.

Wall Brown 30th May

Marsh Fritillary 30th May

Green Hairstreak 30th May

Small Tortoiseshell 30th May

Large Skipper 30th May

Large Skipper 30th May

Small Heath 30th May

Adonis Blue 30th May

Adonis Blue 30th May

Meadow Brown 30th May

[David M]

Went out in search of Wall Brown this morning. Duly noted along with a nice little selection of others.

That is indeed a fine selection, Stevie. Nice to see a Wall Brown image. Not been too many on here so far this year. I guess being largely coastal that people haven't been visiting these sites like they would normally.

[Medard]

Shapwick National nature reserve.

On my morning walk along the Sweet track the numbers of Large Skippers had increased by three, by 10-00 all had disappeared, to hot ?

Large Skipper

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

[millerd]

There have been a few reports of Painted Ladies from here and there recently, and as ever it would be terrific to have another big year for them. 2019 was pretty good and it's unusual to have strong migrations two years on the trot. However, on a late afternoon walk down at Staines Moor, I saw at least three individuals flying in close proximity. They hung around a sheltered spot for a while and basked (as well as squabbling amongst themselves) before heading off generally northwestwards with the wind. Here they are.

a more distant shot, this one looks unblemished

a distinct nick in the RH forewing distinguishes this one

a more generally worn one missing bits of both RH forewing and RH hindwing

Hopefully this is the start of something bigger...

Cheers,

Dave

[Medard]

On my morning walk along the Sweet track the numbers of Large Skippers had increased by three, by 10-00 all had disappeared, to hot ?

Large Skipper

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

[Bertl]

Managed at last to add the chequered skipper to my sightings list today

[David M]

Very nice, Bertl. Yours may be the only image of this species we get on here this year.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Left the fields behind our local pub for a wander to Wolstonbury with my son yesterday.

If anyone in the mid Sussex area hasn't seen a Small Blue, get yourself to Wolsty - they're out in very good numbers at Base Camp level.

[David M]

Thursday 28th May - saw my first Large Skippers of the year on the Swansea coast:

[Testudo Man]

May has been a pretty good month for me.
Yesterday(an Friday) late afternoon/early evening, was spent at Queensdown Warren, Gillingham, Kent.
Whilst its clear(for me) that Common Blue numbers are below average this season/year, ive found several fantastic female variants. Perhaps, because there are not many male Common Blues pestering the females?? that's why ive found such perfect fresh examples. Normally, the males would have grabbed these females, an mated them. Who knows?
Once again, over both visits, very low male numbers seen(less than 5).

A couple of Female Common Blue images to end May, cheers Paul. None of these images have been cropped.

Friday evening stunner.

Saturday evening stunner. The low sunlight really made this "blue type" pop!

[David M]

Good range of species at Crymlyn Burrows on the Swansea coast this morning, although they aren't flying in great overall numbers.

Amongst the 13 species in total were 4 Dark Green Fritillaries, which I don't think I've ever seen before June:

[Pauline]

Very nice (second) shot of the DGF - a species I ALWAYS struggle with!

[Allan.W.]

Not much ,butterfly-wise for the last few days of May ,when I have been able to get out its been too hot ! So instead
I,v been experimenting with a Clearwing (moth) VES lure ,and after several non starters ,in what I reckoned to be excellent habitat ,I finally struck gold ,with 3 Yellow Legged Clearwings arriving at the lure ,within about 2 minutes .

While i was waiting for a few Clearwings to appear ,I noticed a swift flying ,pale coloured Bee zipping about ,something that I have seen before
Close to this site ,and pretty Scarce ,a Long horned Bee .

I also stumbled upon a small Spider ,one of the jumping spiders i believe.

Lastly ,one for the moth--ers ,an Aberrant Treble lines (Charanyca trigrammica ) the forewings of this species is generally the same ground colour
as the pale top section of this one ,never caught one like this before ,but dozens of normal specimens ,I believe it is AB; Semifuscans.

Regards Allan.W.

[Chris L]

Fantastic photos everyone, a real joy to look at and extemely educational for this novice. Interesting to note that I may see a Painted Lady before too long in South Derbyshire.

Quite a few extremely colourful, crisp, pristine and lively Small Tortoiseshells appeared here on Saturday.

[Buchan Boy]

Look at that,squeezed some Silver-studded Blues into May, todays count at Iping Common,Sussex.15 males 1 female,next weekend should be good,go for the open wing shots then at about 5.30 AM hehe

Iping Common Male Silver-studded Blue

Iping Common Female Silver-studded Blue x 1

Lovely

Thanks

Dave

[David M]

I,v been experimenting with a Clearwing (moth) VES lure ,and after several non starters ,in what I reckoned to be excellent habitat ,I finally struck gold ,with 3 Yellow Legged Clearwings arriving at the lure ,within about 2 minutes

Great effort, Allan. Makes you wonder where they're ekeing out their days if they can be attracted like that so quickly?

[David M]

Very nice (second) shot of the DGF - a species I ALWAYS struggle with!

That always surprises me, Pauline. Patience is all it takes and you've got a diploma in that!

[Allan.W.]

Hello David ,
I,m quite new to this Clearwing luring myself ,and this was probably my sixth "go" before I got lucky ,I,ve seen several since ,but only from the same rough area , I saw a message from a chap on another site who,d been trying unsuccessfully for 10 years !( Hope he,s still not using the same lure !)and a friend of mine on the edge of Romney Marsh (Kent ) has had 6 (maybe 7 ) of the British species in his garden !
They,re interesting little moths ,and yes ,they are very difficult to find without lures ,some will visit Bramble flowers and suchlike ,and the Currant Clearwing visits cultivated Currant bushes ……………………… but these I lured are the only ones I,ve ever seen.
Regards Allan.W.

[David M]

They certainly are interesting, Allan, possibly because they are so rarely seen. I've only ever seen one myself and that was thanks to a guy at Alner's Gorse who'd caught one himself in a lure.

[PhilBJohnson]

Amongst the 13 species in total were 4 Dark Green Fritillaries, which I don't think I've ever seen before June:

Hello David,
It was once thought that it was a good idea to record & submit early seasonal sightings to Butterfly Conservation, as they might hold the biggest database of butterfly sightings that helped give one a bigger picture with regard to Climate Change.
Woodland Butterflies
Good Climate Change indicator species might also include the White Admiral and Silver-washed Fritillary (SWF, a bit bigger than the Dark green Fritillary) which will be first seen in numbers in the first half of June this year.
As you might know, both WA and SWF emerged at about the same seasonal time, generally before the larger Purple Emperor.

Kind Regards