January 2024

[David M]

Good luck during this trickiest of butterfly-spotting months.

There doesn't seem to be any cold weather on the horizon for the next 10 days or so, meaning that there's a chance of an early sighting if we get some sunshine.

[David M]

Friday 5th:

Red Admiral (in reasonable condition) seen today at Limeslade Bay on the Gower:

[Wolfson]

Saturday 6th in the garden.

[David M]

Great stuff, Wolfson.

Given the cold forecast, it might be a while before eny more are seen.

[David M]

Had a very pleasant walk around Port Eynon prior to the clouds rolling in at 12.30 today.

No butterflies, sadly, but several bees and flies, and my first flowering daffodils which no doubt benefit from a particularly mild microclimate being no more than 50m from the beach:

[Vince Massimo]

Today a Red Admiral egg hatched at my winter study site at Ifield Meadows, Crawley. It was found coloured-up and ready to hatch on 5th January and the larva started to chew through part of the top of the egg on the 7th. This activity stopped due to colder weather and the egg shell remained partially open until this afternoon at 1pm, when in bright sunshine and with an air temperature of 5C, the larva completed its emergence.

Red Admiral egg (un-opened) - Crawley, Sussex 5-Jan-2024

Red Admiral egg (partially open) - Crawley, Sussex 7-Jan-2024

Red Admiral larva emerging - Crawley, Sussex 10-Jan-2024

Red Admiral larva emerging - Crawley, Sussex 10-Jan-2024

Red Admiral larva with eggshell- Crawley, Sussex 10-Jan-2024

Red Admiral larva with eggshell- Crawley, Sussex 10-Jan-2024

Another egg hatched some time between 24th December and 5th January and now around 10 viable eggs remain. Three of these are fully coloured-up and should hatch soon.

Red Admiral eggs x3 nearing hatch - Crawley, Sussex 9-Jan-2024

There were also several larvae out in the open in the sunny conditions.

Red Admiral larva (3rd instar) - Crawley, Sussex 9-Jan-2024

Plus a couple of other interesting insects.

Leafhopper - possibly Eupteryx urticae - Crawley, Sussex 5-Jan-2024

16-spot Ladybird - Crawley, Sussex 9-Jan-2024

And not forgetting our new resident vixen on the roof of a neighbours shed.

Fox - Crawley, Sussex 9-Jan-2024

Vince

[zigzag_wanderer]

No butterflies yet, but right in the middle of a major ongoing housing development here in Hassocks, I finally caught up with waxwings in good light (Friday).

If there's hawthorn berries to be had, waxwings don't seem to care what level of pandemonium is going on around them.

[David M]

So envious, ZZW. I'm not a birder but I'd love to see this one!

[Vince Massimo]

A hopeful visit to my winter Red Admiral hot-spot in Tilgate Park, Crawley produced one butterfly at 12.05, nectaring on Daphne. The sun had been shining all morning and the temperature was around 9.5C at the time of the sighting.

Red Admiral - Crawley, Sussex 26-Jan-2024

Vince

[David M]

Excellent, Vince. That site sure is productive for you.

[Devon Dave]

No Butterflies seen in my part of Devon yet, but believe it or not I had a mega surprise yesterday afternoon whilst visiting my mother on the outskirts of Plymouth. Just as I returned to my car to go home I heard the distintive call of a Cuckoo !!!
It called "Cuckoo" twicE with about a 20 second interval between the two calls.I often hear them from late April onward but in January its truly outstanding.
It was a dim grey, foggy afternoon with a lot of drizzle and about 10 degrees, some snowdrops and crocuses out in my mothers garden but a Cuckoo calling could never be expected. Has anyone else experienced one in January before ?

[Allan.W.]

Hello Devon Dave Many years ago the wife and I were working in the garden ,around late January and we too heard a Cuckoo ,it called twice
and repeated it after a short interval ,our "Cuckoo " turned out to be a..................... Starling ,superb mimics !
Allan.W.

[Devon Dave]

Hi Allan,
and thank you for that most interesting reply, it could be the simple answer, but the only thing is I have lived in the area for about 50 years and have never seen a Starling around here ever. But it must be the answer as I cant see anyway that a Cuckoo would migrate to the UK in the last couple of weeks especially due to the freezing temperatures.My only other thought was is there anyway one might be resident over Autumn and Winter.But once again that seems far fetched theroy.
So for now I am going with the Starling answer, unless I see the Cuckoo itself in the next few weeks ! Camera is ready !
David.

[bugboy]

A Brimstone on the outskirts of Burpham this afternoon gets my season off to an early start, also notable as my first January butterfly for several years

[KeithS]

Not a sighting of “on the wing” butterflies, but I went up into the tower of my local church to do a bit of maintenance on the bells a couple of days back, where I noted 15 hibernating Peacocks and 9 Small Tortoiseshells - and these were the easily visible ones. The noise of the bells being rung is deafening within the loft yet it obviously does not seem to bother the butterflies.
Curiously, I found a couple of Peacocks perched inside one of the bells. They were quite torpid but I picked them off and persuaded them to hang onto the wall near one of their fellows. They surely cannot have been inside the bell when it was being rung.
A lone Peacock has taken to flying up and down the aisle during Sunday service for the past couple of weeks. The church heating has woken it up I guess.

[David M]

A Brimstone on the outskirts of Burpham this afternoon gets my season off to an early start, also notable as my first January butterfly for several years.

Fabulous sighting, Paul. Well done.

Things are slowly awakening.

[Vince Massimo]

Excellent, Vince. That site sure is productive for you.

Thanks David, I stumbled across that spot a few years ago and it usually gives me my first sighting of the year if conditions are right.

I would also draw everyone's attention to the superb list of sighting on the Sussex BC website today:

https://sussex-butterflies.org.uk/sightings/

Vince

[David M]

That's a remarkable list of sightings for January, Vince.

We've another couple of days set fair so I strongly suspect there will be a few more.

[aeshna5]

I had my first on Wednesday- 2 Red Admirals at Kew Gardens, a week after the icy blast. Noticed quite a few butterfly images on FB that day-mostly Red Admirals, but also Brimstone, Peacock & Comma. Small Tortoiseshell reported yesterday in London, though quite a fresh breeze.

[Allan.W.]

Also a local had a Small Tortoiseshell in their garden in Shadoxhurst ,Kent a couple of days back . Nothing for me as yet though !
Allan.W.