Belated Happy New Year All
It's taken 11 days but finally I have a butterfly sighting - two in fact!
Yesterday, 11th Jan, I was wandering Epsom Common when a flash of movement caught my eye...a Red Admiral, flushed from a sunlit head of dead bracken. Amazing, an active Red Admiral in early January! It soon settled and allowed a quick snap with the camera before wheeling upwards into and over birch canopy. Incredibly it was joined by a second Red Admiral and they headed off at quite a height. Superb!
One thing of note (other then the crazily early flight season) is that this particular part of Epsom Common is a long way from any human habitation, outhouses, sheds or even derelict buildings. There are a number of veteran oaks nearby and I can only assume they have been hibernating in a tree hollow? Certainly no rabbits on site, so underground seems unlikely.
My friend also reported a single Red Admiral flying in Kensington Gardens in inner London - also on the 11th. Maybe that individual found a nectar source, the two on Epsom Common must have retired hungry - all I've seen flowering are Common Gorse and the occasional Daisy.
Cheers,
Gibster.