January 2023

[David M]

Last January saw quite a few butterflies on the wing. How many Red Admirals are still left after the recent cold snap? Bound to be one or two tempted to fly if temperatures reach 9 or 10c and the sun shines.

[Matsukaze]

The first bird I saw in 2023 was a Red Kite - still a rarity around here - a good start to the year!

[aeshna5]

Both Red Admiral & Painted Lady reported from Ferrybridge, Dorset yesterday, with a photo of the latter on the Portland Bird Observatory web-site. New arrival for the latter perhaps?

Red Kite now an everyday bird for me but always enjoy them.

[David M]

Amazing sighting for early January, aeshna.

Red Admiral is surprising enough, but Painted Lady.....

[David M]

Took a walk round Kilvey Hill on 2nd, given the pleasant weather (8c, sunny with very light winds).

It wouldn't have surprised me to see a butterfly (there have been a handful reported on the S Wales Facebook group page), but I didn't come across one, although there were quite a few flies on the wing as well as a bumble bee. The gorse is flowering strongly too meaning that the environment looked anything but like what you would expect at New Year:

[millerd]

Both Red Admiral & Painted Lady reported from Ferrybridge, Dorset yesterday, with a photo of the latter on the Portland Bird Observatory web-site. New arrival for the latter perhaps?

Strangely, it's not unheard of for Painted Ladies to appear in January, particularly in the southwest of England. The winds have certainly been favourable for nearly a fortnight now, as have the temperatures.

I'm finding it very tricky to follow individual Red Admiral caterpillars locally, as the nettle bed where they are living never seems to look the same two days running! However, they are definitely still to be found.

caterpillar - 1st

tents - 1st

tent - 2nd

tent - 4th

On 2nd, I also found a few honeybees out nectaring.

Further warm sunshine today (4th) came too late in the day really, but enhanced a couple of winter views, including a bit of typical aerial activity.

A Happy New Year to all!

Dave

[millerd]

Some more rather hazy sunshine today (5th) and temperatures up to 14 degrees round my way had enticed this Red Admiral caterpillar out into the open - where I assume it would soon set about creating a new shelter.

I'm guessing this individual is in its third instar.

Dave

[millerd]

Today (9th January) turned out sunny again, but with a bit of a chilly breeze and temperatures locally probably only scraped up to 9 degrees at best. However, down in the shelter of the nettle patch it was clearly much warmer in the sunshine. I located three occupied caterpillar tents, and then close to the largest of these three...

...I spotted another caterpillar under the topmost leaves of a nettle. This was the largest I've seen for some time, a good three centimetres long and therefore likely to be in its final instar and not far off pupation.

As the species often pupates in a tent variation created from the uppermost leaves of a suitable nettle plant (without necessarily wandering off any where), I shall do my best to relocate this one later this week.

Whilst scouring the nettles for further caterpillars and possibly eggs, I spotted something that may have had exactly the same idea.

This tiny wasp (very likely a parasitoid species) was not something I expected to find in mid-January. I suppose that if it does use Red Admirals as a host, and if the latter manages to make it through the winter here these days it is likely the wasp has adapted to do so as well. Not a topic I know much about, and if anyone can identify the wasp that would be great. It was very small - maybe 5mm long at most.

The "closed" season continues to provide interest! (And I'm reminding myself that in 2022 I saw the first butterfly on 29th January... One can but hope. )

Cheers,

Dave

[Deborah]

I came across this whilst walking in the forest yesterday and once I’d realised it was a moth, rather than a piece of fallen lichen, I thought it might be of interest here. I have never seen anything like this before.
A moth parasitised by a Cordyceps fungus.

[David M]

Beautiful yet macabre at the same time, Deborah. Don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Not a butterfly, and nowhere near in focus, but this thing landed in front of me and was gone in the space of 5 seconds !

[Stevieb]

Amazing record of a Speckled Wood on Portland yesterday

http://www.portlandbirdobs.com/search

"The biggest surprise of the day was this Speckled Wood basking in the sun at Reap Lane - we have no previous island records for the months of December, January or February © Martin Cade:"

[Testudo Man]

A lucky lunchtime garden sighting for me today!

Brilliant sunshine, still quite cold in my (Kent) back garden, but warm enough to coax out a beautiful Red Admiral
I wasnt planning on using a camera this time of the year, so when i spotted the Red Admiral, i had to run in the house, grab a camera, attach a 500D close up lens...then spent the next 15 minutes capturing some nice images of this beauty.

1st time out with a new (2ndhand) Panny FZ1000, so i was quite pleased at the results. Left my Panny FZ300 on my car roof rack in late 2021, made it 7 miles home, but took a roundabout at speed, an watched the camera smash all over the road!!
Some pics then, as usual no cropping to these images, just downsized. Minimal editing, jpegs, handheld. Cheers Paul.
PS. Happy New Year...Im unexpectedly off the mark!...However, i have seen Red Admirals in January before...but not in my garden.

[David M]

A lucky lunchtime garden sighting for me today!

That's fair warmed my heart, seeing that, TM.

Looks like it'll stay mild for the rest of January so perhaps there'll be a few more.

[Testudo Man]

A lucky lunchtime garden sighting for me today!

That's fair warmed my heart, seeing that, TM.

Looks like it'll stay mild for the rest of January so perhaps there'll be a few more.

Thanks for that David, weve had a freezing cold week down here in Kent (which has meant no work for me) so i was at home, otherwise i would have missed this beauty, normally i would have been at work! With ice/frost still in a lot of areas in the garden, i was pretty much shocked when i saw this butterfly. I have an old shed (flatpacked) leaning up against my fence, an a good amount of sunshine shines down on this part of the garden, for a couple of hours+ per day. I guess the hibernating Red Admiral came out from behind the shed, to bask some! The butterfly looks to be in quite good condition, so i may well get to see it again. Cheers Paul.

[David M]

It sure is in good condition, Paul. Remarkable really, as is the story of the random good fortune that caused you to be there to see it.

[David M]

Amazing record of a Speckled Wood on Portland yesterday

http://www.portlandbirdobs.com/search

"The biggest surprise of the day was this Speckled Wood basking in the sun at Reap Lane - we have no previous island records for the months of December, January or February © Martin Cade:"

Seems to be an annual event that somewhere either a Speckled Wood or a Small White will turn up in January.

Only yesterday a report came in from south Wales BC Facebook page of this being found in Cardiff:

[Vince Massimo]

Off the mark today with a Red Admiral at a local hot-spot in Tilgate Park, Crawley. It appeared at 11.50 and was still basking and nectaring on Daphne when I left the site at 12.25.

Red Admiral - Crawley, Sussex 21-Jan-2023

The air temperature at the time was only 5C, but the sun had been shining all morning and the wind was light.

On 16th January I checked the Red Admiral eggs at Ifield meadows. Of the original 21 counted on 26th December, only 9 could be relocated, but another 12 were found when I expanded the search area. None showed any signs of development or hatching and 3 were starting to yellow, which is a sign that they are dying. Two leaf shelters were also found, but left undisturbed.

Red Admiral egg - Crawley, Sussex 16-Jan-2023

Vince

[David M]

...The air temperature at the time was only 5C, but the sun had been shining all morning and the wind was light.

Nice work, Vince.

Similar conditions near me on 20th, and although I didn't see any butterflies, I stopped my car when I spotted these daffodils in flower at the side of the road:

[zigzag_wanderer]

Hopefully that's a sign of things to come, David.

(ouch)