March 2021

[David M]

After a spectacular end to February, fingers crossed that we don't get another icy blast.

Meantime, let's hope March provides plenty more sightings....

[Greenie]

Third species of the year for Hayes Common . Peacock enjoying the watery sunshine this lunchtime .

[Deborah]

2 male Brimstones, a Peacock and, for the first time ever (I think) I found myself chasing a Cabbage White!
No photos yet...

[Deborah]

Just realised that I posted this in February
First photo of Peacock on Daphne odora. The Brimstones are still not staying still.

[Vince Massimo]

A glorious day yesterday, 9th March, took me out to the Red Admiral hot-spot in Tilgate Park, Crawley, where I saw another four Red Admirals on the Daphne plants and heather beds.

Red Admiral - Crawley, Sussex 9-March-2021

Red Admiral - Crawley, Sussex 9-March-2021

Also, the Nature Centre staff chasing an escaped Meerkat through the grounds.

Later, on the way home I disturbed a Comma.

Comma - Crawley, Sussex 9-March-2021

Vince

[David M]

Been a dearth of activity since March began, so nice to see a bit of colour again, Vince. Hopefully this cool and windy spell will ease soon.

[Greenie]

A female Brimstone seen yesterday in a garden in Beckenham , Kent . Nothing unusual about that , but although it was in bright sunshine , the wind was cold and the ground was covered with hail , deposited a few minutes earlier . Can only think the hailstorm disturbed her from hibernation , and after a short flight she returned back into the dense shrubbery .

[Stevieb]

5 Small Tortoiseshells this afternoon including both males & females. Sandridge Common, Wiltshire

16th March

16th March

16th March

16th March

[Deborah]

A Peacock 2 days ago. And today a male Brimstone who settled obligingly for about a minute - long enough for the photo! Also, a glimpse of something small, quick and brown... no idea what. This day last year I saw a Large Tortoiseshell; it would be nice if history would repeat itself.

[Steve Kirtley]

Comma seen yesterday at West Park LNR, Darlington. Also saw (very active) male Brimstone but no chance to photograph

[David M]

Good to see a few more sightings after a miserable couple of weeks.

Had my first March butterfly today with a fly-by Small Tortoiseshell. If only the sun could penetrate this stubborn cloud!

[David M]

Incredibly frustrating to be sitting under a large area of high pressure with almost constant cloud! Today, it cleared for an hour or so in the early afternoon and I was able to find only my 2nd butterfly this month; a Comma flying in Oystermouth Cemetery near Mumbles:

All it will take is one sunny, mild day with light winds and there will be a butterfly bonanza. We live in hope.

[PhilBJohnson]

Butterfly Forecasting & Where have all the butterflies gone?
General Statistics.

It was thought that this year’s March count of hibernated butterflies might be lower than a seasonal average over the last 5 years, in contrast with 2020 that seamed high.

Reasons for this?

It’s still quite early and for butterflies to emerge from hibernation slightly later, in timing with their larval food plant growth, could be seen as quite a good thing, generally.
 We knew that general sunny temperatures of about 5ºC warmer in mid teens, will trigger many more to be seen. I looked in a WW2 bunker this year, to find one Peacock, compared with two Peacocks and a Small Tortoiseshell last year. I don’t know if that is representative of a bigger picture, but I guess it might be, if generally, butterflies were adults for longer before entering hibernation last late summer.
In 2020 after a very hot, dry May, in Lincolnshire, many species were apparently recorded as seasonally early.

Not wanting to steel BC's thunder, or "jump the gun" with a false start, my views this year are seasonally early, almost independent, but with a knowledge of data shared last year and the sightings here this year, so far.
Kind regards


[aeshna5]

2 male Brimstones yesterday afternoon in the Northolt & Greenford Country Park. No new species added for the year, but good to see them.

Tree Bumblebee new for year visiting sallow flowers.

[Greenie]

Another two male Brimstone at lunchtime today on Hayes Common .

[Chris L]

Day after day in South Derbyshire throughout March, the skies that might otherwise be blue, have been grey. Sometimes light grey, sometimes dark grey. The weather forecast for today from the BBC was more grey. I have lost count of the number of inept BBC weather forecasts in the last year. Today proved to be another. There was patchy sunshine for a not inconsiderable part of the day.

I wandered around the countryside for a few miles and saw nothing. It was fairly grim and desolate. I wandered home dejectedly. I was wondering if the cluster of snowfalls had killed off most of the hibernators.

For the third time in 2021 I returned home to find butterflies in my garden, having seen nothing in the countryside ! Here we have a pair of courting Small Tortoiseshell. They only had eyes for each other and didn't mind my company. I assume that what I witnessed here was the male drumming of the antennae on the back of the female that I have read about. It was also apparent how much larger the female was than the male.

[David M]

Lovely pair of courting Tortoiseshells, Otep. Has fair brightened my day!

Like you, I'm fed up of all this cloud. We get more sunshine when we're in between Atlantic weather fronts!! I can't recall being under such prolonged leaden skies whilst high pressure sits over the country. Let's hope it changes soon.

[bugboy]

No shortage of butterflies in north east London today under mostly uninterrupted blue sky, 23 individuals of 5 species

[zigzag_wanderer]

I'm doing spectacularly poorly at spotting any butterflies. Just a single Peacock on March 1st for me so far.

Heard my first calling chiffchaff of the year today though - so Spring has definitely sprung.

I put my hand up for redundo at my old place and am currently temping at a local nursery (bedding plants rather than nippers). Ironically, although it's much more the kind of outdoorsy thing I was after, I'm mainly in large polytunnels all day, so bar a good number of bees and an adventurous robin who likes to pop in through a hole in the polythene and sing its heart out, I'm probably seeing less nature than my de-stress lunchtime walk when WFH in my old job !

[David M]

I'm doing spectacularly poorly at spotting any butterflies. Just a single Peacock on March 1st for me so far.

Not doing much better myself, ZZW - just 4 butterflies in the whole of March thus far!

One decent sunny day is all it will take. I'm sure all the adult hibernators will respond extremely quickly.