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This should be a busy month....

My first Hedge Brown/Gatekeeper of the year seen roosting this evening at Box Hill in amongst hundreds of Marbled Whites. Dave

"Grey Ladies" lingering in sandy coastal Moray. Today in bright overcast weather.What a late summer in store when their offspring are around!

Jack

the action kicked off at Fermyn Wood today....

one Purple Emperor

there were plenty of Silver Washed Fritillaries & faded Painted Ladies.

No Purple Emperors seen at Bookham today (2 seen battling at the master tree last week) and numbers of SWF and WA were surprisingly low. I did however see 4 Black (White) Admirals... I suspect all different but no pictures were obtained but I did get pics of two seperate SWF abs. That cold spell in June seems to have had a lasting effect, hopefully it's also just caused a slowing down of emergents too. Pictures will be seen sometime soon in my PD.

If you're seeing that many Abs in your neck of the woods Paul then I reckon you're right - it must be temperature related. Would really like to see your pics of SWF abs. And yes, altho PE seem thin on the ground at the mo we should keep eyes peeled for abs here also.

That's an interesting hypothesis regarding the number of aberrations seen lately.

Perfectly plausible - it went from very cool and largely wet to dry and very hot almost overnight.

A sneak preview of my future PD, as this is too special to wait until I catch up.

I visited Alice Holt Forest after work today...
I too think the cold and damp June has caused the abs seen/reported recently.

Went for an evening stroll to my patch, about ten minutes from my pad, and was surprised to see this Large Tortoiseshell basking in the late sunshine. I see that Large Torts have now been seen at four sites on Portland. Unfortunately mine was rather inaccesible, and I was unable to get any closer because of a large thicket of bramble, so my pics ,hugely cropped, are poor.

M

Seen in the wood at Chiddingfold today,as well as 3 grounded P.E.'s by midday.
P.J.Underwood

Interesting Lee - it looks like yours is another one judging by the wing damage - I think there may be as many as six present at Alice - saw at least two today one could have been the all black nigrina. Attached are some pics, I hope they don’t mind, I was present when some were taken one is mine but the others are Pauline, Ernie and Mike Gibbons.Pauline's and Ernie's were over a week apart so whilst they look similar I think they are probably different specimens?
The weather certainly did something!

P.J.Underwood wrote:Seen in the wood at Chiddingfold today,as well as 3 grounded P.E.'s by midday.
P.J.Underwood

Look like Trevor's practicing his yoga moves

Mikhail wrote:Went for an evening stroll to my patch, about ten minutes from my pad, and was surprised to see this Large Tortoiseshell basking in the late sunshine..

Wow! Well done with that one, Mikhail. Usually these sightings occur in spring.

Marbled Whites: this is probably only of local interest but yesterday, the 4th, in the afternoon I had my first ever Marbled White flying on the Ouse Washes reserve in Cambridgeshire, in about 30 years' recording wildlife there. I know of a small, long-established, introduced colony near Ely, some eight miles away, and I think the species is present and slowly spreading in the south of the county. Also yesterday was a report of exceptional numbers on Devils Dyke, about eighteen miles distant, but the species is virtually unknown in the flat, arable fens.

So I presumed this was an individual dispersing in the hot weather - an idea confirmed this afternoon when another flew across the playing field where my grandson was participating in his primary school sports day in Sutton.

Chiddingfold Forest,
The next day in the same place.Different participants and 4 groundings of P.E.'s within an hour.

I am sure fellow arthritics know about the benefits of an articulated screen.
I would not buy a camera with a fixed screen (except perhaps a pocket compact).

Jack

Having had 2 sessions for DGF's in the latter part of June, i had to try one more time, for a female DGF!
So, 3rd time lucky at the same location in Eynsford, Kent. 2/7/19.
Plenty of males around, i almost got a shot of a female twice...then i finally got what i went for, a female DGF.
I would think that there were no more than 2 to 3 females on site.

Images are not cropped, cheers Paul.

This might be an Essex Skipper too?

We went to Bookham Common yesterday. Much more cloud than forecast but very warm.

The first butterfly I saw as we left the train was a Purple Emperor flying in the car park + disappearing over some trees. In the early afternoon we had good views of 2 males in the traditional viewing area.

We saw 16 species in totals. The meadows were full of Ringlets + Meadow Browns with good numbers of Small + Large Skippers as well as more Marbled Whites than normal. They are now really common in the meadows of west London outer suburbs + had my first garden record a couple of days ago. Also 3 Small Heath here.

White Admirals seemed low in number with only 3 seen. Silver-washed Fritillaries seemed to be in similar numbers to recent years + i counted 18 of these. good numbers of Purple Hairstreaks with 2 low down.

One Painted Lady whizzed through + a few Red Admirals + Commas noted.

Chiddingfold Forest.
Plenty of action today,especially by the Sallows.I have a photo of one on my boot,and a new photographer's movement for Jack.It looks like a forward flip with a rotation.Why not try it? As a matter of interest there has hardly been any dog poo around and this is the first time I have seen a P.E. getting stuck into a fern.
P.J.U.

Chiddingfold Forest.
Plenty of action today,especially by the Sallows.I have a photo of one on my boot,and a new photographer's movement for Jack.It looks like a forward flip with a rotation.Why not try it? As a matter of interest there has hardly been any dog poo around and this is the first time I have seen a P.E. getting stuck into a fern.
P.J.U.