May 2023

[Lawts]

Thanks Dave/Neil.

[HarassedDad]

For info, Norfolk Swallowtail now reported from RSPB Strumpshaw and Sutton Fen (I guess I have to specify britannicus these days).

[Charles Nicol]

i saw these beauties at Totternhoe this afternoon

[Vince Massimo]

A couple of hours at Mill Hill, Sussex in the early afternoon produced:
12 Dingy Skipper, 3 Grizzled Skipper, 8 Small White (some may have been Green-veined, but there were no confirmed sightings), 4 Large White, 6 Brimstone, 1 Clouded Yellow, 34 Common Blue, 29 Adonis Blue, 1 Holly Blue, 3 Brown Argus, 1 Green Hairstreak, 1 Small Copper, 1 Red Admiral, 3 Speckled Wood, 2 Wall and 14 Small Heath. These were mainly on the lower slopes.

Grizzled Skipper - Mill Hill, Sussex 27-May-2023

Mill Hill, Sussex 27-May-2023

Vince

[David M]

Sunday 14th, Rodborough Common, Glos:

Dingy Skipper 10-15
Brown Argus 10-15
Duke of Burgundy 5
Small Heath 4
Green Hairstreak 3
Orange Tip (fem) 1
Small White 1
Large White 1

[bugboy]

Spent the day exploring some hills in the general vicinity of Warminster.

Phone pic.

[millerd]

Out on my local patch today near Heathrow, all the many blue butterflies (bar one) flying over the extensive flowery meadow areas were not male Common Blues as you might expect, but female Holly Blues. A significant number of the many clumps of Goats' Rue had one on or around them, looking to lay eggs. The laying imperative on first brood Hollies is such that they will lay on a wide variety of plants (as long as they have some sort of bud!). However, this example was a first for me. I initially thought that this was just "oviposturing"...

...but close scrutiny after the event revealed the egg tucked into the flowering head of the grass.

Whatever next? It appears that there is still plenty to discover about this ordinary UK butterfly...

Dave

[Ian Pratt]

Seen today on a BC walk at Compton Chine Isle of Wight.

[MrSp0ck]

The Glanvilles now appearing in numbers at Hutchinsons Bank, hopefully a good year now. Here is a fresh male from yesterday.

[Lawts]

A couple of Black-veined White seen in recent days. One near Dover, and another near Portsmouth. Both photographed. Per Twitter.

[Matsukaze]

Small Blue in the garden here Somerset today; also Common and Holly Blues. The second time we have had the butterfly here; they breed a few miles away.

[millerd]

Aston Rowant, Oxfordshire today 28th:

A dozen or so Adonis Blues flying alongside perhaps twice that number of Common Blues.

male Common Blue

male Adonis Blue

female Adonis Blue

Both species were however considerably outnumbered by Brown Argus, but there were very few other butterflies. Most worrying was the complete absence of Small Heaths, which can be numerous here at this time of year.

Dave

[Chris L]

The Glanvilles now appearing in numbers at Hutchinsons Bank, hopefully a good year now. Here is a fresh male from yesterday.DSC05610.JPG

This news had me looking to see where Hutchinson's Bank was and then wondering whether I fancied the drive there and back. A Glanville is on my list of butterflies never seen.

I was also interested in the news that Swallowtails have started to appear. Not on my never seen butterflies list but still worth the long drive.

Lovely photos everyone. A real joy to look at.

[bugboy]

Hormones were running rampant at Chiddingfold today, not just with the Wood Whites but more of that in my PD in due course but I did find (re-find, presumably the same one as seen by Badgerbob) a female SWF, no doubt completely desperate to find a male by now.

[zigzag_wanderer]

I'm taking part in an archaeological dig on Saturdays which is reducing my general wandering, although I do walk home if the weather is good. The chosen aftershave is ready, but I've got to find something significantly more interesting than I have to date to get that invite into Prof Roberts' tent.

On the butterfly front, I can definitely say there was a Small Heath explosion from Saturday 13th (none) to Saturday 20th (loads) in the field we're digging in. On my walk home over the Downs last Saturday (20th), I saw 30+ Painted Lady (including three individuals involved in a tight tussle along a boundary fence) and around 15 Walls. Yesterday in similar conditions and timeframe I saw one Painted Lady and 4 Walls. I saw one Common Blue yesterday - my first of the year.

Managed a Wolstonbury walk today. Not too much about barring lots of Dingy Skipper and Small Blue. I also saw my second Common Blue and first Small Copper.

The nettles at work have healthy numbers of beautifully coloured Phyllobius weevils. They really do look like Clangers to me. Starting to see quite a few moths now too.

My next-door neighbours kindly invited me into their garden last Saturday evening as they had a mating pair of Poplar Hawk-moths on their weeping willow.

Good news was our first badger in our garden in over a year on Friday, since they capped off their sett to build a foot tunnel under the rail track.

[Chris L]

Fantastic cluster of photos ZZW. That is interesting to see the badger out in broad daylight. The Broad Bodied Chaser is a bit creepy looking close up, like some Dr Who creation of the Tom Baker era.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Thanks Otep.

Great to see you back by the way. I was beginning to wonder if our favourite Spring arrival had been as affected by the weather as some of the butterflies

[Chris L]

Thank you ZZW. I had a rather torrid time in my life with all manner of tragedies and challenges thrown at me.

I often think of your user name when I am out in the field and I do the zig zag wandering. It is such a brilliant and apt way to describe what we do. I wonder what others must think when they see us. The beauty of it is, I don't care.

Last week I was chasing a Small Copper in the heat on a site where there are no human beings to be seen. I was only wearing a pair of shorts. A helicopter flew overhead unexpectedly. I wonder what conclusions are drawn from those in a helicopter when they see a zig zag wandering man in just a pair of shorts.

[zigzag_wanderer]

Well at least you did have that pair of shorts on, Otep. I should imagine the helicopter pilot has seen all manner of things from his lofty vantage point !

Yes, I'm actually a Neil (another one), but when I joined I thought I'd give myself some kind of moniker and Zig Zag Wanderer fitted the bill on 3 fronts. My less than linear walks, the flying style of some of my favourite butterflies and my liking for Safe As Milk era Captain Beefheart.

Very sorry to hear that you've endured a torrid time. All I can say is it's great to see you back posting and I hope you're feeling some restorative effect by getting out and about in the Derbyshire countryside looking for those butterflies. It's very clear you get a lot of pleasure (as I do) from seeing what other posters are finding out there.

[Chris L]

Thank you for your kind words ZZW / Neil. It is actually awful for butterflies in my corner of South Derbyshire. Really bad. When one has it bad to begin with. and then one finds oneself more than 50% down on the preceding year, it is really bad. Maybe that is what the aforementioned helicopter was doing, taking desperate measures to try and see a butterfly.

I went out with a rubbish Sony camera today having not used it for a few years. I scraped the dust off it and told myself 'It can't have been that bad' It was actually worse than I remembered it. I went to a local brownfield site and saw a few Small Copper, Common Blue, Brown Argus and a Dingy Skipper. Pretty much all of them were in one tiny corner of the site squabbling with each other constantly - and laughing at my rubbish camera.