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Took a walk out at Drum castle on Deeside today. It was a bit windy but still a few butterflies on the wing. Managed to see my first speckled woods of the season. There were still a few common blues around. Plenty of worn ringlets and meadow browns. Very few tortoiseshells and no sign of any commas or painted ladies quite yet.

Took a wander round the local fields again this afternoon.

There are, I'm estimating, 8-10 times as many summer brood Common Blues. I may be underestimated the spring numbers but I didn't see many at all.

The really big numbers amongst the blues seem to be Brown Argus though. They must outnumber CBs by 2 to 1. I keep hoping one may be a Small Blue. But all the ones I track are BAs. I don't think there's any kidney vetch in the fields anyway.

The biggest thing for me was seeing a Small Tortoiseshell again - people elsewhere must think that's mad, but this is the first I've seen for a good few weeks.

Gatekeepers by far the biggest numbers now albeit some starting to look a bit faded. MBs in good numbers too. 4-5 Ringlets, 2-3 GV and S whites, still a few skippers, although I only saw one Large. Great to see some Small Heath again too.

My first 2020 Brown Hairstreak at Bookham this morning - a male some distance away sitting on top of the bracken (probably newly emerged from the undergrowth beneath). As soon as the sun came back out, it took off for the trees. Apologies for the rather fuzzy photo. Dave

Walked all the way round Grafham Water this afternoon

Saw this Comma basking on a wooden bench:

millerd wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:45 pmMy first 2020 Brown Hairstreak at Bookham this morning - a male some distance away sitting on top of the bracken...

Nice find, Dave. Let's hope they have a better flight season than last year.

July 22nd - plenty of Chalkhill Blues on Portland:
Lulworth Skippers about too:
Over 20 species seen in a single morning without too much effort. I reckon it's possible to top 25 here at this time of year if you search thoroughly and enjoy a bit of luck.

millerd wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 9:45 pm My first 2020 Brown Hairstreak at Bookham this morning

Great find Dave - definitely just emerged; love the frilly bits on the tails Hope there's a few more shots to come sooner rather than later

Good numbers of Gatekeepers and Small Whites nectaring and chasing in the garden over the past few days. There are a few rather small male Gatekeepers which I keep mistaking for Small Coppers (which are not having a good year locally). The Gatekeepers have come out earlier than the fleabane on which they usually nectar, but are finding a big stand of small scabious to be a more than adequate substitute.

There are freshly-emerged Peacocks, too, which have been out for a couple of weeks, rather low numbers at any one time but the emergence seems to be over a more extended period than usual. Like the Gatekeepers, their preferred nectar source (buddleia) is not properly in flower yet.

Great stuff from Dorset David, well done on the LT!

Recent from East Sussex, 2nd brood Dingy Skipper.
Male Wall.
Two males and a female.
She escaped their attentions.
Clouded Yellow.
Looks like a male.

Andrew555 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 28, 2020 12:15 pmGreat stuff from Dorset David, well done on the LT!

Thanks, Andrew. Was a privilege to see it.

Well done with the Cloudie. I was looking out for them on Portland but without success, sadly.

The good thing with my WFH lunch hour is I get to walk round my local fields for 50 minutes.

The bad thing is it is only 50 mins. So when you see your first ever male Brown Hairstreak towards the end of that time and it decides to fly up higher then you can't really hang around waiting for it to possibly come down lower again.

Nipped back there straight after work at 5pm. Plenty of Gatekeepers and an Oak Eggar, but definitely no Brown Hairstreaks on show.

An excellent day out today, 2 male Brown Hairstreak nectaring on thistles plus a third male and a nice female taunting us from up in the Ash master tree at Bookham, looks like it's going to be a bumper crop of them this year . Then off to Box Hill where I found good numbers of Silver-spotted Skipper zooming around in the sun .

My first Graylings of the year seen at Bracelet Bay on the Gower this morning:

Unusual visitor to our lawn a couple of days ago in North Yorkshire... perfectly healthy, just a little cool. Had one before a couple of weeks ago... I was grubbing around in the bottom of a hawthorn hedge whilst fencing (not pleasant) and saw something move on the ground right next to me... same species!!!!

A nice female there Kip. D'you have Elm close to you?

Annual trip to the south of the county for Silver-spotted Skipper and Brown Hairstreak.

A few pictures from Kent ,a day or two back ,mostly from Temple Ewell ,near Dover ,a wonderful downland reserve ,i tried one or two new (for me ) areas which i,ve rarely visited ,an early start paid dividends ,the Chalkhills were just waking ,and sitting in the grass stems ,with wings wide open ,as i moved along ,and my shadow hit them they flew up in some numbers . (click once )
Although the new area was ideal for the Chalkhills and the Common Blues ,the grass was maybe a little long for the Silver -Spotted Skippers ,that said
I still managed to find five ,all males as far as i could see. While i was strolling about i stumbled across a pair of Plume moth (sp;) enjoying the sun . Although i managed to find 6 Small Blue at Temple Ewell
my Small Blue picture was taken at near by Samphire Ho.And finally a Willow Emerald Damselfly ,taken this morning along the Royal Military canal
a fairly recent colonist. Regards Allan.W.

Scotch Argus

I have been checking every day for the past week or so.  Clearly today, 31s July, there was a mass emergence.  Males only and very active so couldn't photograph.

A Tortoiseshell came indoors to hibernate but I lost it somewhere in the house.  My usual practice is to catch, box them in a cool spot and then  towards the end of the year, put them in the fridge to ensure proper hibernation.  I never seem to lose any by this method and it's more successful than leaving them hiding behind curtains in a centrally heated house.

Found this active one today (feeding on Devil's Bit Scabious) at about 1,000 feet / 300 metres above sea level. Small Tortoiseshells are abundant up here and I am fairly sure that they are routinely double brooded but some from the first brood go into hibernation (good strategy -  Wall Brown take note!)

Jack

Took a walk through St. Abbs NNR today. Lots of small copper and meadow browns on the wing, a few Grayling, some large skippers and a few walls that wouldn’t land for a photo.