June 2022

[Vince Massimo]

A few bits from me for June.

There have been very good numbers of Small Tortoiseshells on the coast at Lancing, mostly females egg-laying.

Small Tortoiseshell eggs - Lancing, Sussex 24-June-2022

A few Painted Ladies have also turned up, so I checked the Common Mallow rosettes for eggs and found two, which I collected for a friend. The following day that area was mown by the Council.

Painted Lady egg - 26-June 2022

Another advantage of the coast is that there is a good chance of a fine sunset, this from 15th June.

Lancing sunset 15-June-2022

Back in Crawley today a young vixen enjoyed the sun on the back lawn for most of the day.

Vixen - Crawley, Sussex 30-June-2022

Vixen - Crawley, Sussex 30-June-2022

Also a White Admiral on one of the Gatwick transects a few days ago.

White Admiral - Gatwick, Sussex 28-June-2022

Vince

[Pauline]

Stunning photos of the fox Vince - you are sooo lucky

[zigzag_wanderer]

She looks amazingly comfortable on your lawn Vince. What a beauty !

Superb sunset too.

I used to work close to the South Terminal (from 1993 to 2015). I really wish I'd caught the butterfly/insect...err....bug during that time. I saw quite a few things on my lunchtime walks, but I hope I'd have remembered seeing something as stunning as a White Admiral.

On one of his walks this week, my brother managed to catch this buzzard apparently having twenty winks.

[David M]

...Back in Crawley today a young vixen enjoyed the sun on the back lawn for most of the day.

Lovely image, Vince. She looks right at home there.

[Vince Massimo]

Thanks Pauline, I'm still waiting for a badger...

Thanks zig-zag, there are two transects at Gatwick. One is behind a security gate, but the other is in woodland abutting the local sewage works, where White Admirals, Silver-washed Fritillaries and White-letter Hairstreaks can be found.

Thanks David, the den is under the neighbour's shed and they (the foxes), have punched a hole in the fence, which is fine by me.

Cheers all,
Vince

[zigzag_wanderer]

Thanks Vince - very interesting to know there were transects so close to me.

I had a few lunchtime routes. One was to nip out onto the Balcombe Road, go south until Taylors Pitstop, turn right on to Radford Road, try and ignore the Greyhound Pub beer garden (home of the British and World marble championships), walk past the Beehive and sneak through the distribution centre car park to walk along the Gatwick Stream and then back through the South Terminal.

So basically doing a circle around the woods you're talking about.

That walk (just about) fitted into an hour but it was amazing how it could take your mind off work completely. Well, most of the time anyway.

I didn't appreciate I was so close to so many butterfly species though...

[David M]

Tuesday 14 June, Fairwood Common, Gower:

Large Skipper 20
Marsh Fritillary 5
Small Tortoiseshell 4
Painted Lady 1