www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Thank you for the comments, chaps - the Comma is now sitting in the ab. section of the species-specific album as suggested. Another interesting one not spotted until after the event.

It was great to find the Brown Hairstreak eggs too, and to picture the butterfly that must have laid them fluttering around the blackthorn with the many visitors to Ryton probably walking past oblivious to its presence. People miss out on so much...

30th September

I left work at half past four with just enough time to pop into Bedfont Lakes Country Park. The sun had come out (though very low now) and despite a breeze it was quite warm. I saw three butterflies: a male Green-veined White that was impossible to approach, a female Meadow Brown nectaring on a scabious (one of the few flowers left), and a very new male Common Blue. The colour was almost worthy of an Adonis Blue in hue, but Common Blues just never match the Adonis in intensity. I would judge this to be a third brood individual: the second brood were out here at the end of July/early August, giving enough time for the cycle to go round again I think.

Dave

6th October

As luck would have it, with everyone gazing upon LTBs along the south coast, I was in Yorkshire for the weekend. Sunday's weather was glorious, and I saw five Small Tortoiseshells, two Small Whites and a Speckled Wood all enjoying it in and around the middle of Holmfirth. Dave

I spent the weekend in a different part of Yorkshire this time. Arriving on Saturday, I found a selection of Large White chrysalids under the eaves of my sister's house, including some from previous years. I think this is a new one, but I'm not 100% sure. They apparently stripped the nasturtiums bare this year. On Sunday, we were having a drink at lunchtime in a pub in Pocklington, when a Small Tortoiseshell crossed the bar and fluttered against the window. I managed to get it to the door and the pleasantly warm sunshine - hopefully it will have found somewhere else to hibernate. Today, with sun again, but barely ten degrees instead of Sunday's fifteen, I spotted a Red Admiral high up on ivy in Wilberfoss village. It then flew off strongly southwards.

Dave

Your Large White Chrysalis certainly looks fresh to me Dave, nice find.

All the best, Nick.

Great stuff with the Large Whites Dave I'm trying to work out whether that Small Tortoiseshell is looking to get out or somewhere to bed done for a few months? My mate Bob (Small Tort) attached himself to my ceiling in September and hasn't moved since so hopefully Bob will see me through the winter, expect a November sighting .

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Both, probably, Wurzel. It was very active and would have exhausted itself fluttering against the window if I hadn't popped it outside. It's always worth looking for Large and Small White chrysalids under the eaves of outhouses and sheds when you've had your cabbages or nasturtiums shredded earlier in the year. I always found them as a kid growing up in North London - but never got to see one hatch out.

Around lunchtime today (2nd), I took advantage of a burst of warm sunshine to look around my local patch for the first time in ages. Very few flowers of any type are left, just the last of the ivy, which was attracting good numbers of bees. I had pretty well given up on seeing a butterfly, but right at the completion of my loop a Red Admiral buzzed me at high speed. I watched it set off after a large bumble bee before it curved back round again to settle ahead of me on the grass. I managed a couple of distant shots, and was gradually approaching it when a gaggle of four unruly dogs annoyingly disturbed both butterfly and myself.
Dave

Blooming Dogs Still to cheer you up get over to Tescos four beers for a fiver including Crafty Old Hen

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Four for £5?! I shall indeed - stocks are running low... Thanks, Wurzel!

3rd November

A different kind of day - clear blue sky, windy, and the temperature a few degrees cooler, though contrarily the sun felt a bit stronger. I walked my local route again, and spotted some kind of dragon/damselfly alight on a bramble by the path. I assume seeing these in November is about as likely as seeing a butterfly at this time of year - I really ought to find out more about these attractive creatures. Coming to the end of the circuit, in exactly the same spot as yesterday, I disturbed a Red Admiral. This one was much more worn than the one I saw on the 2nd, and was definitely not the same insect. This piece of grass, narrow and sheltered between bramble, hedges and trees festooned with ivy, is a reliable hotspot for Red Admirals throughout the year, and its peculiar attraction obviously remains right until the end of the season. Dave

Hi Dave, congratulations with your Red Admirals

Nice bit of sun around here today as well but some fearsome gusts of wind with it that even kept the bees and hoverflies grounded most of the time.

Your Dragonfly looks like a Common Darter, they can often still be seen quite late in the year.

Cheers,

Neil.

10th November

This would be monotonous if it wasn't so good to keep seeing them! I walked around my local patch today - chilly (nine degrees, maybe ten at a stretch), but very sunny. In the usual place there was a Red Admiral, sunning itself on the grass. After a few reasonable poses for me it took off like a rocket, excited by that best of all targets, another Red Admiral. The two sparred for a while and then disappeared high over the hedge. After a few minutes, a butterfly returned and settled on the brambles: it was the other one. Considering the weather lately, with wind, heavy rain, cold and very little sun, they must tuck themselves away pretty well. And it doesn't take a great deal to rouse them, either.
Difficult to say for certain, but I think at least one of these two is not either of those seen last weekend. Maybe neither are!

Dave

Hi! Dave, good to know the RA are still here, I always thought they took off for abroad in October, looks like these have decided to stay Goldie

It's exactly four months since the last time I posted anything - almost exactly four months between the last sighting of 2013 and the first of 2014. Yes, at last I've seen my first butterfly this year.

Saturday (8th) was brilliantly sunny, and there was warmth in the air too. I'd missed out on Friday by being at work on suitably warm day, but now there was a chance. After a leisurely stroll locally, I had almost given up, but on arriving home, there on the front wall of the building was a Small Tortoiseshell.
Later in the day I drove up to see a friend in Holmfirth in Yorkshire. On the Sunday, it was another beautiful day, quite warm enough to have lunch outside, and as we sat and ate, a series of Small Tortoiseshells passed through the garden, including two sets of amorous pairs. One stopped long enough on some flowering Heather for me to get a distant photo. Today was equally sunny, but much, much colder - nothing appeared that I saw, but no doubt in more sheltered spots more Tortoiseshells were to be found. Home again now - hopefully there will be chances to get out locally during the week before the weather cools again.

Dave

Great to see you're off the mark Dave here's to many more (raising my Crafty Old Hen ). The first shot is lush colour wise and the second is a nice and unusual angle

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks, Wurzel - lovely to see them again.

Today I was up in the Rugby area with the full brood of boys, so we took advantage of yet another lovely day to pay the first visit of the year to Ryton. We stayed in the country park area, but on our gentle stroll around we came across six Peacocks, three Small Tortoiseshells, two Commas and one male and one female Brimstone. Unfortunately the ploy of offering small rewards for whoever spotted butterflies first resulted in several squabbles and frequent misidentification of a number of dead leaves. And there was no bonus for the dead rat. Most of the Peacocks were congregating on one particular flowering prunus (or "snow tree" as Elliot decided to call it). The last one above was in contrast taking minerals from a muddy patch. All the butterflies were very active, and the nectaring shots were full zoom at arms length. This does capture the real feel of the glorious spring sunshine - which culminated in the colourful sunset Neil (nfreem) captured beautifully in the photo in his diary. We saw that too, but from the car somewhere near Southam on the way home.

Dave

Hi Dave, lovely photos from Ryton

Looks like you benefitted from the blue sky that I could see in the distance, unfortunately just that bit too far for me in the time I had available today...

Cheers,

Neil.

Lovely Peacock shots Dave, places them nicely in their environs I wold have given a prize for the dead rat though

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks, Neil and Wurzel. There might have been more reward for the rodent if Elliot hadn't proposed taking it home and cooking it...

Sunday 16th March. On an absolutely brilliant sunny day, Elliot and I walked around the local patch for the first time this year uninterrupted by water. The paths were still quite muddy where the Colne had overflowed onto them, but the standing water had gone. We were out between about 1100 and 1230, and the first thing we saw was a Comma just warming up in the sunshine. Gradually other butterflies began to appear, and by the time we had returned home we had seen eight or nine Brimstones (all male), five or six Peacocks and around the same number of Small Tortoiseshells. Commas are always slower to emerge here after hibernation, and we only saw one other after the initial sighting. Near home, but too far away to identify for certain, I glimpsed what could well have been a Small White.

Dave

More great stuff Dave I'd count the Small White Love the Peacock shot

Have a goodun

Wurzel

millerd wrote: Near home, but too far away to identify for certain, I glimpsed what could well have been a Small White.

If it was flying in a largely urban location, I'd be pretty certain it was a Small White. I saw one myself in Ewenny on Sunday, though it flew right by my car so I was able to rule out Green Veined.

I think it was almost certainly a Small White, David. The local area hosts good numbers of both Small and Green-veined, but the former are always out first around here. So I shall count it, Wurzel, as you suggest!

Dave