April 2012

[NickB]

A 4 day weekend. Not a sniff of a butterfly. At all.
Enough cold and drizzle to ruin the whole weekend. Not enough rain here in East Anglia to do any good.

You've got to be joking?
There's been enough rain in S. Wales today to replenish every reservoir in the bloody south east!!
The local golf course was waterlogged by early afternoon today!

That's the problem - you're stealing our water, again

[P.J.Underwood]

Joy of Joys from Botany Bay today!A nice orange tip and my first Wood White hiding from the breeze and just coming out in the sun.The black on the top of the wing is a shadow!
P.J.U.

[Debbie]

.

[badgerbob]

Undecided where to go today so I stayed local!! Although sunny a stiff cool breeze was blowing. By the time I had met up with Nigel doing his transect I had found a couple of grizzled skipper at the base of High and Over. We then found a couple more before seeing just a single Orange-tip and a Small White. 3 of the Grizzlies were in very good nick.

[Hoggers]

Early finish at work, so took the dog out and we found our first Green-veined White of the year:

Also saw a male Orange Tip and two Small Whites. Back home, the Holly Blue I saw on Good Friday was still bimbling about in the garden together with a Speckled Wood.

[Dave McCormick]

Was at Killyneather Wood in north Down today (its mostly beech/oak/hazel woodland with some larch, cherry and scot's pine trees and has large walled in open area with hazel trees and wildflowers), was sunny for a while before it rained then hailed. I had a look in a walled in hill with cuckoo flowers, a wildflower patch and hazel trees and didn't see any orange-tips but only saw a GV white. Started to like using my Canon 55-250mm IS lens for butterflies if I don't have time to switch to Sigma 105mm lens

Green-Veined White and Hoverfly

Cuckooflowers

[David M]

first Wood White hiding from the breeze and just coming out in the sun.

Good spot, PJ! Yet another species makes its 2012 bow.

[NickB]

Toured local sites on my bike; just 3 Small White, a Comma and an OT. Still waiting for Holly Blue locally; I have generally seen one in the Cemetery by now. But with the drought, even the ivy is showing signs of dessication and I am wondering if that has happened to a lot of butterfly pupae too....?
N
Some compensation to see a nesting Peregrine and Kestrel though

[Matsukaze]

Hi Rebecca,

For Green Hairstreaks in Somerset, I would try the Blackdowns - Buckland Wood or Thurlbear Quarrylands (if there is still public access at the latter site). They seem to be widely distributed on Exmoor as well, though I don't know of any specific sites (and they surely will not have emerged there yet in any case). They ought to fly on the chalk in Wiltshire and Dorset, and possibly in the Blackmore Vale at places like Alner's Gorse - can anyone confirm this?

Edit - just checked the Somerset transect returns for 2011 - I would try one of the following, depending on where in the county you are - Hatch Hill in the Poldens, Bossington on the coast near Minehead, or Walton Common between Bristol and Clevedon.

Hello Matsukaze. I'm in the East of the county. It does look as if the green hairstreaks are all over to the western side. Thank you for your help.

I have found them in a few places around Frome, which is about as far east as you can get in Somerset - but only in ones and twos, and I can never count on seeing them regularly when I visit the sites; I don't think I have ever seen them at the same place twice. Further south they have turned up at Carymoor recently, so must have turned up from somewhere nearby.

Green hairstreaks ought to be the easiest of the three hairstreaks local to me to find, but I find them the hardest - I can usually see purple or white-letter if I make a deliberate effort to.

[NickB]

Speaking of GH, I saw 2 or 3 today, before it clouded over this morning.....

EDIT:
Only other thing I saw though, was NOT a Lattice Heath Moth....but a Common Heath...see below...

[Neil Freeman]

Hi Nick,

I am probably going to get this wrong but could your Latticed Heath be a Common Heath? I know that both species can be variable.

Cheers,

Neil F.

[Dave McCormick]

Hi Nick,

I am probably going to get this wrong but could your Latticed Heath be a Common Heath? I know that both species can be variable.

Cheers,

Neil F.

Yes that would be a female common heath for me. Latticed heath has more of a chequered appearance on its wings

[Wurzel]

Three whites - one definitely a Small, Peacock and Speckled Wood in the garden around lunchtime.
Single male Orange-tip at Martin Down - and that was it this afternoon!
Female Orange-tip in the garden this evening.

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[NickB]

Thanks guys for the ID -I'm no moff expert....
Also saw a couple of OTs and 3 Small White this afternoon...
N

[MikeOxon]

Typical 'April showers' today in Oxon - bright warm sun much of the time and then a few short, sharp hailstorms!

Several Speckled Woods visited my garden, basking in sunspots when these were available.

Abingdon, Oxon - 12th April 2012
Nikon D300s with Tamron 90mm Macro - 1/350s@f/9.5 ISO400

Although they were always ready to engage with another SW, whenever one appeared, and even sallied out for a falling brown leaf on one occasion, the following individual was quite happy for me to make a close approach with my camera for this 'mug shot':

Abingdon, Oxon - 12th April 2012
Nikon D300s with Tamron 90mm Macro - 1/350s@f/9.5 ISO400

Mike

[millerd]

The Devon BC website has a record of a Pearl-bordered Fritillary seen on 1st April in the west of the county at Marsland. Very nearly Cornwall to look at the map, but very early indeed and only just an April Fritillary!

Dave

[Dave McCormick]

a wildflower patch and hazel trees and didn't see any orange-tips but only saw a GV white

Hold on, is my photo actually of a small white? Just saw it again and noticed it.

[Padfield]

It looks like a male small white to me, Dave. There's a little broken dark down the outer margin but no more than you get on small white and much less than on a typical spring brood green-veined white.

Guy

[Wurzel]

Female Orange-tip at the top of the garden first thing this morning

Possible Green Hairstreak, Brimstone and Peacock at Sopley Common around lunchtime

Large White, Small White, Speckled Wood, Brimstone and male Orange-tip (normal) in the garden this afternoon.

Some images to follow on PD later

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[legless2007]

I thought it was going to be a butterfly free week with the weather, but I nipped to the park in between showers and spent 1/2 hour watching a beautiful male Orange Tip.

Jo