www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

What we need is a June like last year.....sunny & warm!!

I have just been reading about Relativity and Time Dilation.  Also, something today on a science website about Quantum time shifts  - very much over my head.

But I thought that I might have begun to get a grasp of some of these weird concepts when I saw the thread 'June 2024' - posted on 31st May

Jack

No butterflies today apart from a few GVW always on the move.

However found alot of dragonfly out at a pond on deeside.

Bert.

Does anyone know if this is an Angle Shades larva? I am not blessed with the ability to identify one green caterpillar from another. It is around 4-5 cm long and hanging on a grass stem, at a site with plenty of bramble, oaks, other shrubs, as well as a long grass meadow.
Update: This was verified as an Angle Shades final instar

With almost perfect timing at the start of meteorological summer, I saw my first Meadow Browns of 2024 today - firstly at Denbies......and then later on my home patch near Heathrow.There was plenty of other butterfly activity at both spots - to follow in my PD.

Dave

This Sunday just gone, a trip to Queendown Warren in Kent, target species were Large Skipper...3 males an 1 female seen.
At least 25 Adonis Blue seen (8 females, some super fresh!) but thats another story!....6+ hours out in the field, wall to wall sunshine!
No images are cropped, cheers Paul.

One of the males nectaring on Red Clover. Another male nectaring.
The female at rest. Same female nectaring.

i have been intrigued for a while by a site called Sunbower Pit near Sewell in Bedforshire. The name itself made me want to go there. as you can see from the satellite pic it is covered in a mixture of scrubby trees/bushes with open areas.
so today i took the plunge. i found a nice place to park next to the car disposal business

this was a few yards from the entrance to the site which consists of Suncote Pit & the larger Sunbower Pit.

on the ground you find yourself in a labyrinth of narrow pathways linking small grassy areas. the surrounding vegetation is above head height, so you cannot see where you are. i got lost several times....

the weather was overcast until 2:30 pm when the sun finally broke through.

i only saw a few butterflies, including the Orange Tip & Small Blue in the pics:
i am sure there are other species there such as Green Hairstreaks, Dingy Skippers &c.

i shall go back when the weather is sunnier.

Took a wander down to Wolstonbury again yesterday. No Adonis yet, but at least I got off the mark with Common Blue. Small Heath predominate, followed by Small Blue, but then it was down to small numbers for the other species seen (6-7 Brimstone and Common Blue, 5 Speckled Wood and Dingy Skipper, , 2 Holly Blue, 1 Red Admiral, 1 GVW). It was quite windy higher up the hill which may have kept numbers down.

In terms of moths, I saw slightly more Yellow Shell than Common Carpet, numbers of the latter now dropping off considerably.

I only got one shot at snapping the female Common Blue, she was getting a lot of attention from the males. Her wings on the right side still look slightly crumpled.

Was in clackmannanshire today. Common blue butterfly were on the wing. Seen my first painted lady butterfly of the year.

A few more dragonfly and a common lizard.

Bert.

Bertl wrote: ↑Mon Jun 03, 2024 8:02 pm
Was in clackmannanshire today... ...Seen my first painted lady butterfly of the year.

Bert.

That's a good sighting, Bert - they've been few and far between everywhere this year...


After my first male Meadow Browns yesterday, I followed up today with the first female on my local patch.There were several more males as well.

Dave

I came across a very dark male Meadow Brown in my local park yesterday - quite a stunner:

I'm currently spending a week in Pembrokeshire, based in Saundersfoot.

Sunday 2nd was a glorious, sunny, warm and still day. A perfect June day for butterflies, I would have thought. Despite walking through decent habitat, my grand total over 6 hours in the sunshine was two butterflies. One Speckled Wood, and one Small White.

Monday 3rd was overcast for most of the day, but warm and still, with about an hours worth of sunshine in total. I spent it on Caldey Island, which has some superb habitat. Sadly, despite 5 hours on the island, I saw just three butterflies. One Speckled Wood, one Large White, and a newly emerged female Large Skipper.

This really is the worst spring I can remember for butterflies. I can only imagine that the terrible weather in March, April and May has really set things back for so many species. As the first post in this thread states, here's hoping for a glorious June!

selbypaul wrote: ↑Tue Jun 04, 2024 7:30 am
This really is the worst spring I can remember for butterflies. I can only imagine that the terrible weather in March, April and May has really set things back for so many species. As the first post in this thread states, here's hoping for a glorious June!

I concur Paul - I cannot recall a previous stretch of such prolonged damp, cool, miserable weather here in Lincolnshire. We had a few successive days of warm sunny weather in early May, but other than that it seems to have been winter since last October!

Agreed. Last year was pretty bad, and so far this year is worse!!

Butterfly numbers are really struggling and we desperately need a run of fine weather like we had this time last year.

At least the foodplants are in no danger of desiccation! That's the only positive.

A muggy, warm overcast day in early June, that's got Black Hairstreak written all over it! About half a dozen seen today. At least they don't require a sunny day to be active and neither do Meadow Brown, here's my first of the year also seen on Epsom Common. Small Heath were relatively numerous but other than that there was little else on the butterfly front.

Monday 3rd, Crymlyn Burrows, Swansea:

Common Blue 30-40
Small Heath 30-40
Small Blue 5
Brown Argus 4
Small Copper 1
Orange Tip (fem) 1

I'm still in Pembrokeshire. The weather was poor on Tuesday, but the last two days, despite being cooler than normal, the weather has been generally sunny, and certainly warm enough for butterflies to be flying if they were around.

Yesterday, (Wednesday 5th), I was at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. All sorts of lovely flowers rich in nectar, in the formal gardens, and not a single butterfly all day, not even a White. They also have some extensive wildflower meadows, where I did see about six Common Blues. But that was it, all day!

Today, (Thursday 6th), I was walking at the National Trust Colby Woodland Garden and surrounding villages. Again, there was a good wildflower meadow, plus extensive semi-wild fields, and flowering verges. In the whole day I saw just two Common Blue's, two Speckled Wood, and one Small White!

I'm literally in shock at how bad things are for butterflies this year in the UK.

I visited one of the prime sites in the west of the Isle of Wight today and saw just one dingy skipper. Also, one female common blue on the coast path. Nothing at all seen in Farringford Garden which is still worth a visit for the gorgeous flowers.

One Tree Hill, Essex 06/06/2024

Quiet apart from sexual reproduction activity:
Also, first Large Skipper sighting for 2024. Half the density of Small Heath since last visit a fortnight ago - 69 seen. Still a female Brimstone flying around and one of the male Wall Brown still in his position but looking a little tatty these days:
And, 1 female Small White, 15 Meadow Brown - all male; 4 Speckled Wood; and 3 Holly Blue. Unusually, no male Common Blue sightings, or Small Copper and still no Brown Argus.

Saw my first Painted Lady of the year on Wednesday, just outside our digging area for archaeology.

At work today, a Speckled Wood was taking a leaf out of other insects' books and resting on the fine-gauge green mesh side of House #4, with its wings firmly closed. It's very unusual for me to see a butterfly resting on the outside "walls" of our greenhouses - flies, beetles and moths yes, butterflies no.

Aside from accidently flushing a Small Heath, I saw no other butterflies. Green and Yellow Oak Tortix moths were both present on the green mesh sides as was a Marbled White Spot.

This beauty was lurking under a tray of Cosmos.....might be why I'm seeing fewer Smooth Newts !

EDIT: Forgot to add that we have had an explosion of very small froglets (or Trevors as one of my colleagues calls them) at the nursery. Thousands of them. So very easy hunting for the Great Cresteds (and other predators) right now.