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David M wrote:Lovely Adonis images, Paul. Well done.

Painted Ladies have now reached Swansea with two seen this afternoon, including one which took a liking to my neighbour's roof.

Thanks very much for the compliment David, Im trying to improve my Butterfly image quality/content/composition this season, and finding a couple of fresh female Adonis Blues on that day, helped "the cause".

This last Saturday (11/6/16) saw me return to Darland Banks, for a good butterfly session. Not much sunlight, but it did shine enough...until the heavy rain came in the afternoon!!!
Species seen were - Common Blue, Brimstone, Adonis Blue, Small Blue, my 1st 2016 sightings of both Small Heath(just the 1) and several Meadow Browns. Pyramidal Orchids were just starting to show off their purple colour, so Marbled Whites should be on the wing soon enough.

Location - Darland Banks, Kent. Cheers Paul.
Image is not cropped. Image is not cropped. Image is not cropped.

Sorry for belated news but we saw our first Heath Fritillary of the year at East Blean Woods (Kent) last Wednesday (8th). Only two, despite an extensive search. Hopefully lots more to follow.

Is snail feeding on a Brimstone caterpillar? The lily leaves are adjacent to the buckthorn plant on which several Brimstone larvae were feeding in the last month.

ATB

Peter

Er... I'd say not. I think what you can see there is actually snail excrement.

Dave

millerd wrote:Er... I'd say not. I think what you can see there is actually snail excrement.

Dave

Thanks Dave. I hope not too but the green bit makes me think it could be unless my ageing eyes are deceiving me

ATB

Peter

The Forecast for this week was very poor and we had pretty much agreed Black Hairstreak would not be seen until the weekend, if then. Yesterday wasn't too bad with mainly sun, a little windy at times and rain staring around 4pm. Today looked promising also so Phil, Imogen and I headed off to Monks Wood (Cambs) with a little hope we may get a couple of hours of blue sky. As it turned out most of the day has been sunny and we were rewarded with sightings of 3 or 4 Black Hairstreak, flying high initially but getting lower as the afternoon wore on. The only one that settled for a few minutes just within range was spotted by my granddaughter Imogen! Age 3. Possibly just a coincidence, I had sent her off up the ride to look and she came running back saying she had found one. I was dragged along ( I admit I was sceptical and I was watching a couple in the back of the hedges) she pointed to some bushes 'In there'. It took me a few minutes to see it but yes one was perched on a leaf where she said

Well done, Rosalyn (and Imogen). Always nice to see this butterfly and a sure sign of midsummer!

My first Meadow Brown of the year is the 4-spotted version on my local patch . I don't know if it is male or female.

ATB

Peter

We had our first White-Letter Hairstreak on an Elm today at Chapel Bank, which normally has them emerge mid-late June.

More Swallowtails.
We returned again in the second week of their emergence,and were rewarded with many more sightings.At the late Dr George's garden we saw five in 30 mins,and we were entertained for several hours at Strumpshaw fen with close ups in the garden.The swallowtail was the commonest butterfly we saw over the two weeks and we found it to be widely distributed over the fens.We saw them at Ranworth Broad,How Hill,Strumpshaw fen,Dr Georges(deceased) garden,and Upton fen.
Our first sighting was on June 5th,and we think this coincided with the first day of emergence,as the specimen was pristine,and stayed still on a reed for some 20mins drying off.

I didn't know Dr. George had recently passed away. Very sad news.

I found this obituary online:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/tributes_ar ... _1_4577947

Thank you for that David,what an amazing fellow he was.
Philip

A true gentleman who wanted everyone to enjoy the Swallowtails. I spotted the first Green Hairsteak in his garden, he was delighted. One good turn deserves another

David M wrote:I didn't know Dr. George had recently passed away. Very sad news.

I found this obituary online:

http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/tributes_ar ... _1_4577947

I hadn't realized that Martin George had passed away. I shall remember him fondly.
He very generously gave me written permission to use a picture of his garden in my book British and Irish Butterflies...
When first we met and introduced ourselves, it 'bugged' me that I had heard the name somewhere before. It was several days later that I realized I was thinking about the late Beatles manager George Martin!
Adrian Riley
http://www.bugalert.net

"Grabbed" an hour after work yesterday afternoon(16/6/16) in order to search for some local White-legged Damselflies!

Sighted my 1st Large Skipper of the season, along with just the 1 male Common Blue, 1 Meadow Brown, and 1 Red Admiral.

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

Image is not cropped. Image is cropped some. Male Common Blue.
Sighted both male and female White-legged Damselflies, but here is an interesting/amusing image of one of the females.

Image is not cropped.

It was several days later that I realized I was thinking about the late Beatles manager George Martin!

Adrian - I hate to correct you, but George Martin was the Beatles producer and arranger.
Their Manager was, of course Brian Epstein, who may have been the "Aintree Iron" referenced in the Scaffolds hit, Lilly the Pink.

Rogerdodge wrote:

It was several days later that I realized I was thinking about the late Beatles manager George Martin!

Adrian - I hate to correct you, but George Martin was the Beatles producer and arranger.
Their Manager was, of course Brian Epstein, who may have been the "Aintree Iron" referenced in the Scaffolds hit, Lilly the Pink.

Thanks Roger
I stand corrected (with a chuckle ). But you get my drift.
Best regards,
Adrian

While traversing on grassland on my local patch at 6pm in dull conditions, I disturbed a Marbled White

A sign of good things to come I hope.

ATB

Peter

The second brood of Small Coppers at Dungeness began to emerge today And judging by this, the third brood is well in hand!

Hoggers.

I was fortunate to find a Large Skipper with wings opened wide - the cloudy conditions probably helped

ATB

Peter