Just when you think it's all over!!

[Paul]

After some breathtaking days of new species, thought there was nothing left to see, when......




I have had a Blues fest, bring some to you in due course!! ( for anyone who's interested, watch this space)

[Padfield]

Wonderful, Paul! Now you've finally seen one you'll start picking them up all over the place!!

I think you were very lucky with this individual - by June the hibernators are mostly back with their maker.

Guy

[thepostieles]

be nice to see the cb established in this country

[Padfield]

be nice to see the cb established in this country

So far as I know, it never has been, and there's no reason to believe it will be in the near future. The UK is surrounded by countries where it breeds, to the south, east and north, and migrants regularly reach Britain, but it just hasn't stuck. HOWEVER, several of us here in Switzerland have noted that it is exceptionally numerous this spring (unlike its cogener, the large tortoiseshell, which we all agree has been scarcer this spring), so if all goes well, and if the pattern is repeated in the rest of Europe, it might be one of those years...

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

I can report the same story from the far south of France. Overwintering Camberwell Beauties are turning up all over the place in the oak forests near the coast, in eight locations so far, including the odd one or two gliding around our patio. Never stopping for a photo of course, and very nervous when on the ground so you did well to get these great photos Paul. The only photo I got was of a rather battered individual.

The numbers seem rather greater than in previous years, although we normally see one or two. I have tended to acquire the habit of looking upward in their known haunts, and maybe there are more than we think, just circling around the canopy. I have got several stiff necks watching their majestic gliding.

Large Tortoiseshells have been comparatively scarce compared to previous years, too, reflecting the Swiss reports, so maybe there are some general factors at play here, rather than just local climatic etc conditions.

[Padfield]

That's interesting to know, Roger.

Believe it or not, the Camberwell beauties were still on the wing today, 13th June, when Matt and I saw two different individuals (at widely separated sites). Here's one of them, perched most unhelpfully on the top of a post well above head height!!





I presume he (or she) can't have emerged later than August last year (I normally see fresh ones in July) and so he (or she) has probably been around ten months at least by now. What a marvellous life-span for a butterfy!

The summer butterflies are creeping out now, but many of the spring species are still around too, albeit tatty and in diminishing numbers. This 'cusp' helped us to 65 species today (if I haven't left anything out of my accounting), despite a general feeling we both had that butterflies were not numerous!!

Guy

EDIT
I've just checked and my previous record seems to be this very tattered CB I photographed on 10th June 2006: