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With the gales and rain of the last few days here in Sheffield, I certainly wish I was in sunnier and warmer southern Europe right now! 61 days and counting...

20th to 26th March – Tenerife, list of butterflies seen…

Whilst overall numbers of butterflies were rather poor compared to last year, the range of species was excellent, with Tenerife Green Striped White the only target missed (and that was due to poor conditions at altitude that lasted the entire week).

1. Canary Skipper
2. Southern Brown Argus
3. Geranium Bronze
4. Long-Tailed Blue
5. Canary Blue
6. African Grass Blue
7. Small Copper
8. Monarch
9. Plain Tiger
10. Canary Speckled Wood
11. Painted Lady
12. Canary Red Admiral
13. African Migrant
14. Clouded Yellow
15. Canary Brimstone
16. Canary Large White
17. Small White
18. Bath White

A few days after arriving home, it became clear that another butterfly had made the list. One of my travelling companions sent me the image below and asked if I could confirm its identity:
Needless to say, I was dumbfounded. The image was taken from distance and not comprehensively scrutinised until after the trip. I recall seeing what I thought was an in-flight Painted Lady at the same site that day. Whether it was the same butterfly I’ll never know.

Oh wow! Those Tenerife based American Painted Ladies! After my own experience with that species back in 2022 as well. You must be more than dumbfounded David!

selbypaul wrote: ↑Wed Apr 10, 2024 5:16 pmOh wow! Those Tenerife based American Painted Ladies! After my own experience with that species back in 2022 as well. You must be more than dumbfounded David!

Yes, Paul. I may have seen it myself in flight as I was fairly close by to where it was photographed when I saw what I assumed to be an 'ordinary' Painted Lady in flight.

I will see this butterfly in Europe if it kills me!!

Saturday 30th March – Coming to life…

My first opportunity to get out locally since returning from Tenerife. I was in two minds whether to risk going to Cwm Ivy, but decided on nearby Park Wood as the clouds were obscuring the sun for about 60% of the time and I needed to arrive on site before that percentage edged nearer to 100!

I was pleasantly surprised by butterfly activity though, with 8 Brimstones seen, including 2 females:
A couple of Peacocks were about too:
Two Commas completed the list, including this one nectaring from catkins:

You've had some great shots whilst on holiday David, love the Festoon shots Goldie

Goldie M wrote: ↑Fri Apr 12, 2024 12:13 pmYou've had some great shots whilst on holiday David, love the Festoon shots..

Presume you mean the African Migrants, Goldie?

Festoons will come in a fortnight!

Sorry about that David, I don't know how I got that wrong, needless to say when I lived abroad I wasn't interested in Butterflies ,I could kick myself now because of that, the only ones I've shots of up to now are all British.

May be I'll get a long tailed Blue this year I can call it foreign Goldie

Sunday 31st March – Easter Sunday…

Weather conditions were largely cloudy again today, but this time I drove down to Cwm Ivy given I’d ducked out of the journey the previous day.

Sadly, the clouds barely lifted, with only a few minutes here and there when the sun shone through some of the thinner, hazy stuff.

Unsurprisingly, just four butterflies were seen. The first of these was one of two Commas I spotted:
The other two were male Brimstones. One kept on flying but the other settled in the cool, cloudy conditions and was unable to generate any lift to take off again:
The month of March has, for the second year in succession, been awful.

Monday 1st April – First Specklies, but little else…

Today was actually a bright, sunny affair, leading me to think I might see quite a few butterflies.

Sadly, that theory proved false, although the morning got off to a good start when the first butterfly I encountered was a Speckled Wood on Lower Kilvey Hill, my first of the year:
Despite doing a full circuit of the adjacent cemetery, the only other butterfly seen was a male Brimstone paying a visit to a patch of bluebells:
I moved on to nearby Crymlyn Burrows on the coast. It was hard going as the site was waterlogged in places, and all I saw were two more male Brimstones and a couple of Speckled Woods in the lightly wooded area.

Really nice Brimstones David, at least you saw some thing I've yet to get a shot of a Brimstone but it's so windy here the Butterflies are hiding Goldie

Thanks, Goldie. Always plenty of Brimstones round here. Like you, I'm fed up with it being windy almost every time it's sunny.

Monday 1st April PM – Thinnish pickings…

Although mainly cloudy, there was still enough brightness in the skies to tempt me out to nearby Park Wood in the afternoon.

I was quite surprised to see double figure numbers of butterflies, with the first being this male Small White that I had hoped might be my first Orange Tip of the year when seen from distance:
Seven Brimstones and a Comma were seen as well, along with half a dozen Peacocks, including this lovely specimen that posed nicely on the ground during one of the many cloudy spells:
If things ever do warm up and the sun returns for long periods, I strongly suspect butterfly numbers will multiply enormously.

Apart from ' long periods ' your last sentence came true around here
when we had a few near perfect days last week. My local site went mad on Friday.
On the other hand we had a gale with heavy horiizontal showers and hailstones yesterday.

Wednesday 3rd April – Impatiently waiting…

Yesterday had been an awful day, and today didn’t start much better. However, it brightened up around lunchtime so I headed down to Cwm Ivy, arriving much later than normal, at 2pm.

Whilst it was nice to see a blue sky, the site is more waterlogged than I’ve ever seen it. Normally, this area on the dunes has dried out by this time of year:
Just 9 butterflies seen, with Brimstones being most numerous with a paltry 4. There were 2 Red Admirals though, which was a pleasant surprise:
A couple of Commas were about, and the other butterfly was this Peacock, basking on a stretch of sand which attracts them year after year:
It really does still seem like early March at the moment.

trevor wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 6:12 am...when we had a few near perfect days last week. My local site went mad on Friday...

That's what I thought was going to happen last Friday when we finally had a warm, sunny day. Still saw fewer than 50 butterflies though.

Thursday 4th April – Hurry!…

So far this year, it’s been either a case of grab your hour in the morning before it clouds over or wait until after 1pm when skies clear.

Today was one of the former, so I ended up at Lower Kilvey Hill at 1020am due to cloud being forecast from midday.

Once again, I didn’t see much – just 3 Brimstones, 3 Speckled Woods, a Small White and just my second Small Tortoiseshell of the year:
Never before can I recall waiting so long for one decent, fine full day.

Friday 5th April – Purgatory…

Yet another highly marginal day, when the sun was out for no more than 20% of the time.

With Orange Tips & Holly Blues on my radar, I took a risk by driving to Cwm Ivy and got lucky by finding this single male Holly Blue prior to the skies clouding over for the afternoon:
The dismal conditions put a stop to any further sightings, with just 2 Brimstones and 2 Peacocks seen before bad light stopped play.

Lovely photos David. I particularly like the Peacock in the sand as that is a lesser seen backdrop for a butterfly photo and it is a nice pristine specimen too.

I can feel your despair with the weather and your spiritual starvation in the words that you type.

Tuesday 9th April – Chance visit…

When I got up this morning, I hadn’t factored in a drive out to look for butterflies.

However, around midday it was 11c and sunny so I thought there was nothing to lose by heading down to Park Wood, which is less than 10 minutes’ drive from my house.

Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a great deal about, but in the field adjacent to the car park there was a White flying, and when I went over to investigate it was my first Green Veined White of the year:
Once again, few other butterflies around: 5 Peacocks, a Comma and a random Holly Blue, which briefly fed on the cuckoo flower near the GVW.

Chris L wrote: ↑Fri Apr 19, 2024 8:35 am...I can feel your despair with the weather and your spiritual starvation in the words that you type.

It's been awful, Chris, especially given last spring was largely the same.

Friday 12th April – Taking no chances…

With today promising to be the first genuinely warm one of the year, I wasn’t prepared to risk things turning cloudy in the early afternoon by staying on the Gower.

So, off I went to Lavernock, on the Cardiff coast, to enjoy temperatures into the sixties and the abandonment of my fleece.

Not much was around when I first entered the meadow. A Peacock was first to appear followed by a couple of Speckled Woods in the lightly wooded area that leads towards the sea:
I’d found a small patch of cuckoo flower on my way in and hoped there might be a first Orange Tip of the year when I returned, especially when a chap I got talking to said he’d seen one some 10 minutes earlier.

I duly hung around for a few minutes and it wasn’t till I turned to walk back to the entrance gate that I saw that familiar dainty flight so loved by all we butterfly enthusiasts.

The price to be paid for this wonderful moment was to briskly walk around after him as he was in no mood to settle. The best I could do was this:
Another male appeared and the pair chased one another while I willed at least one of them to come down.

Those wishes went unanswered, but it was lovely to finally see this butterfly again and a real sign that spring is firmly here to stay.