May 2024

[David M]

Good to hear that things seem to be improving on the butterfly front in the northern part of Scotland, Jack.

I wonder whether things are still marginal for species like Comma though. Wet, cool springs are probably not what this species ideally needs at that latitude.

[David Lazarus]

Site visit 11/05/2024 - Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

I managed to take my first ever proper photograph of a Wall Brown - there were five on the path north of West Johnson's Meadow and one at the bottom of the slope:

Wall 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

Just two of the 20+ photos I managed to capture of 3 of the 6.

And I arrived at just the right time to experience the mass emergence of Small Heath on the slopes of the West Johnson's Meadow - 59 in total;

Small Heath 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

There were none last week.

And to top all that, at last I have seen a Green Hairstreak which jumped out of the shrubs and landed just in front of me where it sat for 10 minutes or so while I took a load of happy snaps and looked at the wonderful colours of such a handsome butterfly. Now I just need to find one in Chelmsford

Green Hairstreak 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

And I even managed to get a little bit of upperwing:

Green Hairstreak 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

A bit battered but my first ever Green Hairstreak will be fondly remembered

Also, there were 5 species of moth as well as loads of Small Heath [Common Carpet, Burnet Companion, Grass Rivulet, Latticed Heath, and Silver Y - also hundreds of Green Oak Tortrix larva hanging from threads coming down from oak trees]. A great day butterflying, the third of 4 20C+ days in barmy Essex.

[Charles Nicol]

i had a busy day today

i) car boot sale at Huntingdon Racecourse.... left 1100

ii) fete at Clophill, Bedfordshire....arrived 1215 left 1300

iii) butterfly hunt at Totternhoe.... arrived 1330 left 1700

there were lots of Dukes of Burgundy doing energetic things in the Chalk Pits.

i had a look round Maiden Bower where i have found Grizzled Skippers in previous years, but nothing today.

i had better luck on the way out in the Totternhoe Nature Reserve where there were plenty of Dingy Skippers

cheek by jowl with a few Grizzled Skippers.

no sign of Small Blues yet....

[bugboy]

Curiously, a few miles northwest of Millerds location today, there were no Grizzled Skippers but quite a few Dingies. No blues of any description but I did find two Marsh Fritillaries, only one had wings though...

[Devon Dave]

BLUES ARE OUT IN DEVON.
A rather late start this year ,but at last I saw my first Common Blue of 2024 at a local site in Devon yesterday.
Dingies on site were early and out for a few days now, its a spot where I got a Long Tailed Blue last Summer, so fingers crossed for another this year !

[David M]

Saturday 11th, Merthyr Mawr, nr. Porthcawl:

Brown Argus 8
Sm/GVW Whites 7 (2 ID'd as GVW)
Large White 3
Orange Tip 2
Common Blue 1
Grizzled Skipper 1
Brimstone 1 (female)

[zigzag_wanderer]

Was due to meet a pal for a spot of lunch at Shoreham Airport's Hummingbird Restaurant on Friday, but unfortunately that got canned at the last minute, so I decided to take a stroll down to Wolstonbury Hill instead. That place is a magnet for me on a fine day.

Loads of Brimstones, almost rivalling the Common Carpets and their allies in number (I won't do the gag again), lots of Large/Small/GV White, c. 10 each for Orange Tip, Small Heath and Holly Blue, 6 Speckled Wood, 5-6 Red Admiral, 2 Dingy Skipper, 2 Peacock and singles for Comma and Small Tortoiseshell. It (like me) has seen better days, but it's taken me until the second week in May to see my first Small Tort of the year. No other blues seen, nor Wall nor Grizzled Skipper.

What was great though, was to sit down for an hour or so just watching Green Hairstreaks doing their Billy Whizz impressions. They'd combine to see off a Holly Blue or Speckled Wood and then get back to scrapping amongst themselves.

So I may have missed out on the Hummingbird, but Green Hairstreaks more than made up (...just don't tell my pal).

[Katrina]

Superb GH shots Zigzag!

[David M]

Sunday 12th, Siccaridge Wood, nr. Sapperton, Glos:

Pearl Bordered Fritillary 15-20

[millerd]

Despite much cooler and cloudier conditions today (13th) I saw two new species for the year - both without going any further than my local patch close to Heathrow. After initially finding that every blue butterfly on the birds'-foot trefoil was a female Holly Blue, one on the medick turned into what I'd been hoping to see - a fresh male Common Blue.

Then right at the very end of my walk, in a short burst of sunshine, I came across a Painted Lady.

More details (and some other butterflies) in my PD before too long...

Dave

[Jack Harrison]

First solo flight. I knew him as an egg on my garden Sweet Rocket!

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

David M: PBF - Siccaridge Wood nr Sapperton.

That is a most encouraging sighting in an area where the butterfly has struggled in recent years.

Jack

[zigzag_wanderer]

Superb GH shots Zigzag!

Thanks very much Katrina, the late afternoon light definitely helped ! Just to have Wolstonbury pretty much to myself was treat enough, but the GH made it a very special afternoon.

[PhilBJohnson]

Red Admiral Timing
May 13th 2024 17:03pm Red Admiral Migrant (or long distance flyer) to a Lincolnshire Garden
I thought this was the first Red Admiral I had seen this year, near Lincoln and I thought I had not seen one since about, last November:

May 13th 2024 1703pm
Local Weather App forecast 21°C by 18:00pm
Full sun and part white cloud. Wind speed 18mph from South, south east
Today I saw my first Red Admiral butterfly of the year, near Lincoln. In fact, I think I had not seen one since, about November, so I guessed that many were not life cycling this far north in England, through a UK wet winter. Today perhaps some Red Admirals reached Lincolnshire’s coastal areas around Skegness, from Norfolk or further a county or a Country.

Near Lincoln, BBC, weather forecast temperature at 6pm on May 13th 2024 was sunny, 21°C with suitable 18mph migrating winds from the South, south east.
Noted
This post mainly, was about general air temperatures and wind direction, that received long distance flight of Red Admiral butterflies in May/June and hopefully a help with an understanding about which Lincolnshire coast to go and view them incoming from about this time of year, in such conditions.

[David M]

First solo flight. I knew him as an egg on my garden Sweet Rocket!

Bravo! Well done, Jack.

[David M]

Sunday 12th, Rodborough Common, Glos:

Dingy Skipper 20-25
Duke of Burgundy 13
Small Heath 10
Brown Argus 4
Green Hairstreak 2
Green Veined White 2
Large White 1

[Ian Pratt]

First painted lady seen by me this year. Feeding on valerian in my front garden.

[millerd]

My local patch today... Very wet grass after overnight rain, completely cloudy skies with the merest hint of brightness - not ideal. However, a single butterfly braved the conditions: a shining new Small Copper.

Worth going out I'd say.
Dave

[David Lazarus]

Moths

I was at Terling in Essex yesterday visiting one of my WCBS squares, and there wasn't much to see. Apart from, that is, some more interesting moths. I have noticed that this Spring I have come across a variety of moths in all sorts of places, maybe because I have been hunting butterflies in particular habitats which are also favoured by the following moths.

It was a good year for Silver Y in 2023 and the migrants are flourishing in the grasslands of Essex already in 2024:

Silver Y 13/05/2024 Terling, Essex

Another beautiful moth in the grass yesterday was a Mother Shipton:

Mother Shipton 13/05/2024 Terling, Essex

And walking along the River Ter in some wet woodland, out popped a new one on me - a really good-looking Clouded Border:

Clouded Border 13/05/2024 Terling, Essex

In the hedgerow among the cow parsley and nettles was a Blood-vein:

Blood Vein 13/05/2024 Terling, Essex

And it made me think about previous encounters this Spring, five species in Johnson's Meadows at Langdon Hills on the 11th May. As well as the Silver Y, there was my first sighting of a Burnet Companion in 2024. As with most moths, I find it more difficult to get a quality photograph than most butterfly encounters. This particular one wasn't very companionable and quickly disappeared. However, I was able to capture a Common Carpet:

Common Carpet 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills

and a Grass Rivulet:

Grass Rivulet 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills

There was also one of my favourites in the open grasslands, the Latticed Heath:

Latticed Heath 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills

Other notable moth encounters included the wonderful Speckled Yellow at Danbury Common the day before:

Speckled Yellow 10/05/2024 Danbury Common

where I also saw my first Brown Silver-line along the woodland edge and heathland:

Brown Silver-line 10/05/2024 Danbury Common

And earlier in the week on my local patch, there was a Muslin Moth:

Muslin Moth 09/05/2024 Baddow Meads

I also came across a Ruby Tiger hanging in a spider's web so I rescued it and it rested on the tip of my finger as I walked through the flood plain before it revealed its ruby tiger stripes after half an hour, recovered enough to fly off for a bit more life:

Ruby Tiger 08/05/2024 Baddow Meads

Maybe some of you have experienced this as well, a mass movement of both the Green Oak Tortrix and Brindled Twist larva from up in the canopy of oak trees to the ground at both Danbury Common and Langdon Hills. So many were hanging by threads that it was very difficult to walk under an oak without being covered in caterpillars:

Green Oak Tortrix 10/05/2024 Danbury Common

Brindled Twist 11/05/2024 Langdon Hills

One of the Green Oak Tortrix caterpillars even escaped Langdon Hills on my shoulder and came home with me on the bus. I might as well add my snout, who I rescued from impending doom and released in my garden:

Snout 02/05/2024 Baddow Meads

And in my garden at dusk yesterday evening there were 12 Silver Y humming over the Red Valerian Centranthus ruber nectaring to their heart's content - a lovely little display to conclude Moth May 2024.

[Jack Harrison]

I went into the higher ground today in the Nethy Bridge area.  The weather was cloudy but warm at 18C.  Orange Tips were seen near Dorback at 330 metres / 1,000 feet above sea level.  That is amazing when I remember that in the 1980s when I lived in the Dee Valley to the west of Aberdeen, I had to make a real effort to find Orange Tips, and then they were more or less confined to boggy areas.

But perhaps the most exciting thing today was hearing a CUCKOO, the first since 2022.  They are really scarce up here and confined to the moorland edge.

Jack