www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

Not often I say this, but a little rain would be welcome (maybe even a lot).

Even in south Wales things are starting to look a little parched, so a cooler, damper spell would set things up nicely for the prime period of the season towards the end of the month.

My first Marbled Whites (9) and Dark Green Fritillaries (6) of the year.

Lovely to see my first fresh Small Tortoiseshell of the year this morning at Alfriston in East Sussex.

And then later on a half dozen or so Dark Green Fritillaries in Friston Forest.

Agreed about the weather David!

Stevieb wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 5:16 pm My first Marbled Whites (9) and Dark Green Fritillaries (6) of the year.

Great stuff, Stevie! You're in a purple patch right now.

I was wondering when the first Marbled White would appear on these pages.....now I know!

Wow ! That's what a Marbled White looks like then. What a fantastic and quite quirky looking butterfly. I can see why it gets its name. Wonderful photo Stevie (and all of the others on the June page thus far). Every photo on this website is awesome.

Otep wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:59 pm Wow ! That's what a Marbled White looks like then. What a fantastic and quite quirky looking butterfly. I can see why it gets its name. Wonderful photo Stevie (and all of the others on the June page thus far). Every photo on this website is awesome.

Yes. They are remarkably beautiful, Otep, like flying chequerboards!

They can be very common too in the right places. I'm sure there must be one such place not that far from you.

Some previously embargoed news from Cambridge. The local branch of Butterfly Conservation and Wildlife Trusts have revealed that Small Blues are confirmed in Cambridgeshire. There have been rumoured sightings over the years, but until last year nothing certain since the 1980's. A small colony has now been seen in Trumpington Meadows nature reserve just outside Cambridge. We have been monitoring them since mid-May, and egg-laying has now been witnessed.

This morning I decided to keep faithful to my "local lockdown " walk ,and managed to add three new species for the lockdown list
which I,ve decided to try to walk once a week for the rest of the season , I added Large Skipper (3) , Meadow Brown (3), and two early Small Skipper,
bringing the local species list to 18 ,highlights this morning ,being 6 Small Tortoiseshell ,16 Small Heath and the two early Small Skippers.
I also came across a nest in two clumps of (not certain on this of either Small Torts/Peacock) ,the ones pictured seem to have lost their way a bit,and were crowding around two grass stalks .
An early start yesterday morning ,to a local Adonis site ,where the first brood is slowly winding down , was a very dew laden morning ,and within about twenty minutes ,my trainers and trouser bottoms were soaked ,was pleased to find my first Meadow Brown of the year also my first Marbled White , and an Aberrant Adonis female. Regards Allan.W.

Dark Green Fritillaries very obliging this lunchtime. (Beacon Hill). Just sat by a clump of thistles and let them come to me

Otep wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 7:59 pm Wow ! That's what a Marbled White looks like then. What a fantastic and quite quirky looking butterfly. I can see why it gets its name. Wonderful photo Stevie (and all of the others on the June page thus far). Every photo on this website is awesome.

One for you Otep

Stevieb wrote: ↑Tue Jun 02, 2020 2:06 pmDark Green Fritillaries very obliging this lunchtime. (Beacon Hill). Just sat by a clump of thistles and let them come to me..

That's the way to do it in this hot weather, Stevie.

Tuesday 2nd - With today being the last hot day forecast for a while, I thought I'd take the short trip to the Alun Valley, Wales' only site where High Brown Fritillary can be found.

Over 3 hours or so I counted around 3 dozen Frits. 4 were SPBFs, 7 were positively ID'd as Dark Green and 6 as High Brown. The remainder could have been either Dark Green or High Brown.

Getting near them was tricky, so I had to employ a good deal of patience and identify the hotspots which they kept coming back to:

A visit to Bookham Commons this afternoon (2nd June) gave me sightings of my first White Admirals of 2020. I saw four or five individuals, but they were very active and spent a great deal of time flying in and out of trees and bushes from light to shade and back again. It's no wonder they don't stay pristine for very long! There are only a few bramble flowers open here yet, but the Admirals did find them once or twice - but nowhere near the path! A couple of shots for the record of what must be a pretty early date for my first sighting of the species. Dave

It appears to be a very early season. A trip today to a Black Hairstreak site showed them in profusion - I could have counted over 50.

They were all highly active in full sunshine but disappeared into the bushes at the slightest hazing over.

This female was taking honeydew, I assume.
I didn't notice at the time, but it looks as if the two white circles may be BH eggs.

Yesterday I was pleased to find my first local-west London suburbs- Clouded Yellow- a fine male in our local country park. Initially seen in flight it then spent some time perched on some Alsike Clover.

Then proceeded to a local golf course which has some excellent ponds for Odonata. Amongst the first sightings here were my first two pristine Marbled Whites. Fairly good numbers of Meadow Brown + Large Skipper on the wing here & 3 Brown Argus were looking rather worn.

Also 2 Cinnabar, 2 Mother Shipton & several Burnet Companion.

01-06-2020 The day promised to be very hot but never the less I succumbed to the temptation to visit Collards Hill , it's practically on my doorstep, in the hopes of seeing the Large Blues,
I  made an early start in the hopes of seeing the blues perching on a blade off grass or a early morning nectar feed, but no such luck, however five Large blues were sighted but all seemed to be avoiding the heat flying of when disturbed and vanishing from sight.
I was compensated by a superb newly emerged Small tortoiseshell, Small Heaths were everywhere.
Cattle grazing during the wet spring have left the hillside in a poor state for visitors, the earth is baked hard, large cracks everywhere, as a result my ankle and knees suffered.
Whilst waiting hoping to see the Large Blues I just sat and enjoyed the magnificent view.

https://jamesgibbs6929.zenfolio.com/

Nice views, Jim, but a shame that the site is in poor condition. Looks like Large Blue will be off the agenda for many this year with Daneway reportedly closed as well.

Lovely photos everyone. I was quite taken with the White Admiral and the Dark Green Fritillaries and the Marbled White still fascinates. It's a great hobby is this with the cast of the show seeming to change each month. You can probably imagine how fascinating this is for me in my first season.

Just for the record, on the last day of May (100% sunshine) I walked one of my transects which is about 50 minutes of walking alongside woodland, farmland and meadows. It was done at about 11.30am. I saw 12 butterflies. Yes, I did not leave a digit off - 12. They were 5 whites (small, large and green veined), 4 Specked Wood and 3 Small Tortoiseshell. I do have other butterfly sites that I visit but I thought that pitiful tale was worth sharing.

Otep wrote: ↑Wed Jun 03, 2020 5:52 pm Lovely photos everyone. I was quite taken with the White Admiral and the Dark Green Fritillaries and the Marbled White still fascinates. It's a great hobby is this with the cast of the show seeming to change each month. You can probably imagine how fascinating this is for me in my first season.

It's ever changing, Otep, and it's probably more exciting for a newcomer than it is to a hardened enthusiast as there is so much more that is 'new' to discover.

Even now, after 12 solid years of this, I still get a high when I visit a new area of Europe and see species for the first time.

Tuesday (after work) I tried my luck for some DGF's an possibly a Marbled White. No Marbled Whites found, but 3 DGF's were sighted.
Tuesday was forecast very high hayfever, so even though I had suffered at work, I still went out late afternoon/early evening.
I really should not have gone, i had something fly in my eye, then whilst trying to remove that, I "kicked off" my hayfever even worse!!
So still on site, I found some shade, washed my eye out, an just sat it out until it cooled down, an my hayfever calmed down a bit.
Anyone who suffers with hayfever, will know that the last place you should be, is in a hot sunny area, with long grasses all around you...but hey, I do like to punish myself!
Anyway, still found some species, but numbers were low, cheers Paul. No images have been cropped.

One of the 3 DGF's. A Small Skipper.

My first Small Skipper of 2020 seen on my local patch today too. This is as early as I've ever seen one: last year it was 25th June, in 2018 21st June and in 2017 it was 10th June.Relatively cool, cloudy and breezy today as well.

Dave