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Rosalyn:

I hope you and Mike had a fruitful afternoon, Jack.

Indeed we did. See my diary: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4056&start=500#p85681 But no Pine Martens (you lucky devils!).

But yesterday on Mull did get a "black-veined white"

Little clue about finding Chequered Skippers. If you are not attacked by millions of midges, then it's not CS habitat (too dry I guess).
But not of course the other way round, ie millions of midges doesn't guarantee CS otherwise Mull would be swarming with the butterfly

Jack

At Cotley Hill near Warminster yesterday and today I saw approx 50 Marsh Fritillaries If you plan to visit take your Wellies as the track up to the hill is very muddy indeed.

And at Bentley Wood, Eastern Clearing, today I saw about 12-15 Small Pearl Bordered Fritillaries (And it's rather muddy there too, so take your Wellies with you!)

Happy Hunting,

Hoggers.

A lovely hour late this afternoon on Fairwood Common, Gower, saw me stumble upon a Fritillary 'hot-spot'.

Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary 30-40
Marsh Fritillary 20-30
Small Heath 5-10
Common Blue 2
Green Hairstreak 1

Restricted to my local patch, I still can't get enough of female Common Blue (and I got a new toy - Nikkor 105mm macro - to play with)....

A quick visit after work to East Blean Woods in East Kent produced 1 Heath Fritillary on the wing.

Marc

www.marcheath.blogspot.com

Heath Fritillary on the wing at Haddon Hill today too!

Excellent stuff. I may well take a trip to see Heaths if the weather's favourable.

I had a great couple of hours in the middle(ish) of Milton Keynes at the Blue Lagoon reserve, with the aim of seeing Small Blue, which seem to be hanging on by their wing tips there. One definite sighting, along with some lovely Common Blues. But no photos that seem worth posting. On the way out I did spot this skipper. Is it in contention for the Dingiest Skipper so far this year?

Chris

I've seen worse!

Nick B,

Love your female common blue photo. I think they are one of the most stunning butterflies to be found in Britain. Little beats seeing the first freshly emerged example of the spring.

Regards
Kev

I finished work early today so popped in to East Blean Wood for the Heath Fritillaries. I saw only two in the car park area Hopefully more will be appearing there soon but with the help of a KWT Warden I saw about 12 more Heaths in a clearing not far from the car park ( I've put some directions in my diary for anyone who wishes to find the spot)

Best Wishes,

Hoggers.

Visited Strumpshaw RSPB reserve this morning. The main aim was to see the Swallowtails in "the Doctors Garden," and two were indeed showing very well.

However, even more exciting for me was finding five or six Clouded Yellow's right next to the main Strumpshaw RSPB visitor centre. Most looked fresh so I can only presume that they'd all come from a single brood. They were showing well in the sunshine and nectaring on some planted flowers. I was chuffed!!!

A fantastic ending to a lovely two weeks off work, and an amazing week in Suffolk.

Visited Bonchurch this morning half expecting to see no Glanville fritillaries, but was pleased to see 7 GFs and about 12 common blues. Some of the GFs were very fresh.Perhaps due to the luxuriant ribwort plantain- the LFP.
First large skipper and meadow brown of the season seen at Afton Down car park this afternoon.
Good views of a cream spot tiger moth too- stunning colours.
Ian

selbypaul wrote:
However, even more exciting for me was finding five or six Clouded Yellow's right next to the main Strumpshaw RSPB visitor centre. Most looked fresh so I can only presume that they'd all come from a single brood. They were showing well in the sunshine and nectaring on some planted flowers.

Promising signs, Paul.

Given the abnormally mild winter it may well be that home grown CYs occur in greater numbers than usual in 2014.

Strumpshaw with Roasalyn and Phil yesterday; more photographers than butterflies flocking to the good doctor's garden! We went looking for Swallowtails elsewhere; 10+ seen. including this one on the field next door and a female on the Resrve. Lots of fresh Small Tortoiseshell, with Painted Lady, Peacock and Red Admiral, along with Large, Small and GV White, Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Brimstone. A very warm and fruitful day...

NickB wrote:Strumpshaw with Roasalyn and Phil yesterday; more photographers than butterflies flocking to the good doctor's garden! We went looking for Swallowtails elsewhere; 10+ seen. including this one on the field next door to the Reserve. Lots of fresh Small Tortoiseshell, with Painted Lady and Red Admiral, along with Large, Small and GV White, Large Skipper, Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Brown Argus and Brimstone. A very warm and fruitful day...

Great photos. I have visited Strumpshaw Fen as one of my sons lives in Norwich but he is getting married 6 weeks today and is moving to Leicestershire, so I will have to swap the swallowtail for the purple emperor and black hairstreak!
Ian

We wish you could have been there too Neil, you could have deflected some of the midges away from us.
On the whole the Scottish trip was a successful one despite the weather, we don't like to make it too easy, although I imagine in hot weather the Chequered Skipper is hard to pin!!!! down.
With Black Hairstreak due to appear any time now we headed off south and had a lovely sunny day at Strumpshaw with Nick B. His report is above so I will only add.....

Bill (Willrow) would this be the rare and elusive Norfolk Hawker? Could this, along with the Swallowtail, ever tempt you to venture east? Another highlight of our day at Strumpshaw was to see this ovipositing Small Tortoiseshell.

Rosalyn wrote:Bill (Willrow) would this be the rare and elusive Norfolk Hawker? Could this, along with the Swallowtail, ever tempt you to venture east?

Indeed it is a Norfolk Hawker...and your really taunting me with such iconic dragonfly species Ros I've never seen the species, must say between that and the temptation of Swallowtail I could be swayed into the long journey east though...perhaps next year

You and Phil are certainly doing some travelling, and coming back down from the highlands to sea level so quickly - you could just get altitude sickness (in reverse )

Best Wishes,

Bill

"When in doubt...venture out"

Large numbers of both Small Pearl Bordered and Marsh Fritillaries seen again on Fairwood Common, Gower, between 12.15 and 2.15pm today. A Dark Green Fritillary sighting was something of a surprise, and Painted Lady and Meadow Brown were also firsts for the year for me.

Green Hairstreaks still around in fair numbers too.

Rosalyn wrote: Bill (Willrow) would this be the rare and elusive Norfolk Hawker? Could this, along with the Swallowtail, ever tempt you to venture east?

Norfolk Hawker 140606 157.jpg

Ah, good - you got a picture of the brown one! Norfolk Hawker goes down on the tick-list.....