November 2011 sightings

[Ian Pratt]

Today in Wootton on the Isle of Wight I saw a brimstone and a red admiral. Crazy!

[Jack Harrison]

And in another Wootton, this one near King's Lynn, Norfolk, my partner saw a single Red Admiral lunchtime Sunday. Four more days to December; that is the only month when I have never seen a butterfly (adult) in UK, so here's hoping.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

30th November, NW Norfolk.
Red Admiral flew through garden at 1100 hours, bright sunshine, temperature 8°C. Although it didn't land, it looked remarkably fresh.

Now to see one in December, the only month of the year when I have never seen a butterfly in Britain.

Jack

[David M]

Now to see one in December, the only month of the year when I have never seen a butterfly in Britain.

Jack

I reckon it's odds on, Jack. There's no sign of cold temperatures in the south for at least the next 5 days,

[millerd]

Assuming that November is now over, I thought I would trawl through the various BC local branch sightings pages (plus this thread) to come up with a very rough idea of what this very late season has actually looked like. Here are the latest sightings of each species seen in the UK during November distilled from this admittedly somewhat haphazard data:

Red Admiral 30th Norfolk
Brimstone 27th I.o.W.
Peacock 25th Herts
Speckled Wood 25th Hants
Holly Blue 25th Herts
Comma 23rd Sussex
Small Tort. 19th Lincs
G.V.White 19th Middlesex
Painted Lady 17th Hants
Small White 16th Hants
Large White 15th Bucks
Clouded Yellow 14th Hants
Small Copper 13th Devon

All amendments/additions/comments about the lack of a life gratefully received...

One thing that became clear from doing this is that butterflies were seen on almost every day in November somewhere in the UK.

Dave

[Jack Harrison]

Dave said:

All amendments/additions/comments about the lack of a life gratefully received...

So presumably not on the picket line yesterday Dave if you had time to produce that summary?

Jack

[FISHiEE]

My local nature group reports a Large White spotted on Portsdown, Hants 23rd Nov so that's just stretched those out by another week