www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

2 Speckled Woods and the briefest glimpse of a Comma in my cemetery today. A family of 10 or so Long Tailed Tits was a lovely sight.

The strangest thing was the amount of wasps though, there were hundreds everywhere.

LH

My daily check of the Gloster Birder website often turns up interesting butterfly sighting in Gloucestershire. Yesterday's sightings included a Clouded Yellow in the Fretherne area. The recent weather mix has sometimes been almost a case of all four seasons on one day locally. Today and one or two others have provided glorious warm sunshine with clear blue skies in all directions as far as the eye to see. Clouded Yellows do not often show up here in Gloucester so far from the south coast except in CL years...

Also of interest were details of the prey study of the Peregrine Falcons breeding in Cheltenham. A pair also breed regularly on the main tower of Gloucester Royal Hospital.

The Peregrine's prey report listed a varied check of bird species including this remarkable bird :~



A Great Grey Shrike... A predator predated... I consider myself reasonably observant when out and about but, have never positively identified a Great Grey Shrike anywhere in the UK in all my years.

Red Admirals have been regular visitors to my garden recently as well as the occasional Peacock. My large potted Arbutus unedo ( Strawberry Tree ) is coming into flower now and this alwasy proves a favourite for Red Admirals to feed from even well into December in some years.

Late afternoon 11th October, my local patch South Cambs.

Three Speckled Woods. With low sun, they perched high in the trees to be in the sunshine.

Jack

At last some Clouded Yellows. First one a female feeding on Michaelmas Daisies just west of the Manor Steps zigzag, Boscombe, then another apparently male also near Manor Steps. Then a male patrolling midway between Gordon's zigzag and the Bistro on the Beach, Southbourne. On my return walk there was a female here. Finally 2 or 3 east of the Bistro. None seen on the two previous days in even warmer conditions. The photo is the first one seen and the only one to have ventured near enough.

Misha

Misha - Are these immigrants or do you think they may have been Bournemouth-bred from earlier in the year?
(Given that Guy has seen a fresh Green Hairstreak (in Switzerland) and I saw a couple of recently-emerged Holly Blues, it does seem a rather topsy-turvy end to the year!
...Nice capture, BTW)
Nick
Edit - You'll have Gibster down there in flash, I would think ....

Nick, I think they must have come from elsewhere, not necessarily from overseas. They were not in pristine condition and I'm sure I would have seen them earlier if they had emerged locally.

Misha

NickB wrote:Edit - You'll have Gibster down there in flash, I would think ....

Did somebody mention Clouded Yellows???? I'm free on Thursday....eek!
Plus a Monarch in Wales today. Things are getting lively again, at last

Gibster (ie the chap who still needs Clouded Yellow for my Big Butterfly Year - see my website for best of the rest)

Nice warm afternoon and my tally today along the coast path near Meadfoot at Torquay was one each of Speckled Wood, Red Admiral and Small Copper, also found a couple of colonies of Ivy Bees and a Carder Bumble Bee.

Gibster wrote:Plus a Monarch in Wales today.

Do you mind saying where? Not that I've got time to be venturing out, but I could be persuaded...
Michael

Any chance the Monarch is from a butterfly release for a wedding or such like? Or is a captive-bred release I wonder?
Or really just a migrant that lost its way?
N

That Monarch could well be a natural vagrant. The wind patterns had been extremely favourable up to last Thursday when the direction swung round to the southeast and now east.

But that doesn't rule out all the other options. However, I had thought that the wedding butterfly of choice here is Painted Lady as that's far easier to breed in quantity than the Monarch which does not have any indigenous foodplants in Britain.

Jack

Jack Harrison wrote:That Monarch could well be a natural vagrant. The wind patterns had been extremely favourable up to last Thursday when the direction swung round to the southeast and now east.
Jack

I guess we have had a lot of deep depressions over the west atlantic that ran up to the west of the UK...
N

Pretty certain that would be a genuine vagrant...they often accompany a surge in sightings of rare American land birds and the last week or two has seen all manner of Nearctic vagrants in Britain (and further afield, notably Brittany & as usual the Azores). The culprit seems to be a very deep (though slow maoving) low languishing in the eastern Atlantic but now perhaps dispersing.

We had a lovely week of sunny weather in Lancashire starting in October when I took these pics of Small Tortoiseshell on my neighbours Verbena. They came every day until the 12th, when inspite of the nice weather they stopped. We also had Speckled Wood and Red Admiral, they didn't stay long. The Picture of the ST is taken on the 12th Oct.Goldie M

At last some Clouded Yellows. First one a female feeding on Michaelmas Daisies just west of the Manor Steps zigzag, Boscombe, then another apparently male also near Manor Steps. Then a male patrolling midway between Gordon's zigzag and the Bistro on the Beach, Southbourne. On my return walk there was a female here. Finally 2 or 3 east of the Bistro. None seen on the two previous days in even warmer conditions. The photo is the first one seen and the only one to have ventured near enough.

Misha

Well i'm well gutted,,, late or what.... Too late for me mate,,,, got my bird lens on. Ahh! well,,,, maybe next year. Great picture tho.

I think tonight could be the 'Maginot Line' beyond which butterflies cannot cross. Looks like ground frost for most and coupled with the severe lack of nectar sources around right now, I daresay sightings will henceforth be few and far between.

My last butterfly was seen on Tuesday 12th October, a Vanessid (probably Small Tortoiseshell) flying across the Ramsey to Sulby road at Lezayre in the Isle of Man. Sadly, I don't expect to see any more.

Roll on next April.

A very nice fresh looking Speckled Wood at Hollicombe Park near Paignton this afternoon.

Currently on Isle of Barra in the Hebrides 15 degrees and one small tortoiseshell seen. Possibly the furthest west butterfly in Scotland!

web4160 wrote:Currently on Isle of Barra in the Hebrides 15 degrees and one small tortoiseshell seen. Possibly the furthest west butterfly in Scotland!

Oddly enough, I'd expect there to be more butterflies visible in locations such as this as the cooler climate will no doubt see more plants flowering a week or two behind their more southern counterparts.

I went out today for an hour and there were practically no nectar sources to be seen (except for Himalayan Balsam, which I've never seen a butterfly nectaring on).

Despite the cold of just 3c last night there was a Humming-bird Hawk at about 10.30 in the garden at my parents house, Kingston near Lewes.
Also 1 Speckled wood 1 Red admiral .

Birds include House martin flying NW,flocks of Redwing/Fieldfare, Starlings and a Herron on the neighbors roof looking down at the fish in their pond .

It is interesting about the lack of nectar sources in Wales:

David M wrote: I went out today for an hour and there were practically no nectar sources to be seen (except for Himalayan Balsam, which I've never seen a butterfly nectaring on).

Unlike some previous years, I think there is a surprising range for the time of year in the Lewes area, better than some previous Sept & Oct, as far as I remember - not that much but a good range. Here is a list of what I have seen today:
Marjoram, Gt Knapweed, Lesser Knapweed, Field Scabious, Small scabious, a few Rock rose blooms, Horseshoe vetch blooms, Thyme, Yellow wort things,....
Just taken a few photos of each - may post them later when I get home.

Crispin