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I had my first butterfly of the year yesterday with a Red Admiral in the garden at lunchtime. Melksham, Wiltshire

As everyone should know, it's a good idea to clean out your birdfeeders.

Yesterday, 26th January, I was in the garden doing exactly that, when 2 Red Admirals were suddenly flying around my head. As I watched them, my first butterflies of the year, they landed next to each other on the wall of the house, and proceeded to mate!!

Red Admirals are very rarely seen mating, and for me, I certainly can't remember seeing this before. They remained in situ for at least 30 minutes, before I left them in peace, as I was going Bearded Tit watching.

I was very glad I decided to clean those birdfeeders or I would probably have missed this.

Superb sighting, Bob - something I've never seen myself. And so early in the year too!

Cheers,

- Pete

Similar findings here in Kent to Vinces findings in Sussex ,with many reports of Brimstone and Red Admirals being reported ,particularly on the Kent facebook page .........for any interested.
Further to" Devon Daves" hearing a Cuckoo ,it may be worth mentioning that a male Golden Oriole has overwintered in Cornwall .Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs overwintering these days is now not unusual. And in recent times there have been Willow Warbler and Turtle Dove (Rye ) recorded as spending the winter with us .............admittedly not every winter ........but interesting ,all the same.
Allan W.

badgerbob wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:51 pm ...2 Red Admirals were suddenly flying around my head. As I watched them, my first butterflies of the year, they landed next to each other on the wall of the house, and proceeded to mate!!

Red Admirals are very rarely seen mating...

That has to be one of the most extraordinary sightings I've seen reported anywhere, Bob. No wonder they are such a successful species if they make to most of a surely most unexpected opportunity!

Dave

badgerbob wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:51 pm...Red Admirals are very rarely seen mating, and for me, I certainly can't remember seeing this before. They remained in situ for at least 30 minutes, before I left them in peace...

Hands up, Bob, that's one of the finest sightings anyone can make.

This whole family is rarely seen in cop, and Red Admirals particularly so.

In all my life, I can only think of half a dozen times (max) when I have seen this reported.

badgerbob wrote: ↑Sat Jan 27, 2024 5:51 pm Yesterday, 26th January...2 Red Admirals were suddenly flying around my head. As I watched them, my first butterflies of the year, they landed next to each other on the wall of the house, and proceeded to mate!!

Well done Bob , this is an extraordinary image of an extraordinarily adaptable species. I never thought I would ever see this event recorded in winter (it being rare enough in spring and summer). Up until now, I and many others could only assume that the rare examples of winter eggs reportedly laid after December came from winter pairings, but lacked the evidence.

I have already exchanged messages with Bob and he has supplied me with another image which shows the upper side of the butterfly at the top. This turns out to be the female, which is in quite fresh condition apart from some bird-strike damage. Had she been old and worn, then the possibility of this being her second-pairing could have been worth considering.

Vince

This is the other image that Vince referred to in the previous post. This was taken by a panic stricken Badgerbob on the mobile phone when he realised what was happening as the camera was already in the car ready for the trip for Bearded Tits and the macro lens was upstairs in a cupboard. It was a case of, will the butterflies stay in position whilst I get the camera and lens sorted. Well, there was no need to panic as they stayed for well over 30 minutes in cop on the wall. However, the open wing was only for a few moments as they both had closed their wings on the warm wall almost immediately. My partner, Lisa, was on her way over to me for the Bearded Tit walk. Fortunately, she had also packed her camera and macro lens, as she too was able to witness this rare event.
I have also included the original image in a landscape mode instead of portrait as I'm not sure which I prefer.

Wow! Would have been amazing to see that in spring or summer, but to do so in the month of January is off the scale.

You might be the first to ever witness such a thing.

What a superb start to the year Bob! Good luck topping that over the next 12 months…..

Benjamin wrote: ↑Mon Jan 29, 2024 9:59 am...Good luck topping that over the next 12 months….

....or 12 years.

I am off the mark for 2024 with a Red Admiral laying low with wings tucked tightly on a pallet that someone had carelessly thrown away in the back field behind my house. I was out with my dogs at lunchtime and had left my phone on the kitchen side so I couldn't take a record snap of it but we are off for 2024

A queen bumblebee in the garden today, which is ridiculously early for these parts.

I was in Croydon at the weekend and was entertained by flocks of green parrots, at one point flying fast and low just above car height like iridescent green kingfishers.

I just wanted to add another 'Wow!' to Badgerbob's amazing red admiral pair. Like most of those commenting, I've never seen this, in 53 years of butterflying.

For what it's worth, I prefer the portrait picture, because such a rare event should be recorded as it actually was - i.e., in this case, on a vertical, not a horizontal surface. In winter, when the sun is low, this makes a difference : they were mating in full sun.

Guy

I would also add my congratulations to Badgerbob for obtaining such great images of this very rarely observed event - excellent job!

In 50+ years of butterflying I have only witnessed this once. It was a sunny afternoon last July around 5pm. I was sat in the beer garden of my local pub, near the end of my second pint, when two Red Admirals crashed into an ivy-clad brick wall at great speed in rapid succession. I jumped up to investigate, suspecting that they were about to pair up. They took some spotting. God knows what the rest of the beer garden clientele thought of my behaviour, staring for ages at a wall like a drunken lunatic...

Unfortunately my phone is crap at close ups, so all I managed was a blurry record shot, but it was a memorable moment!!

Mating Red Admirals..... in January , I hope you splurged on the lottery!

Friday 26th - Coincidentally, I saw two Red Admirals myself, in Park Wood near my home. Alas, they were not in-cop but seen separately, with the first one active in the area where a line of snowdrops is situated under a hedge in a clearing: