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This month should see a fair bit of variety...

My first male Orange Tip of the year today (2nd April) at Dry Sandford Pit, Cothill, Oxon. Hopefully many more to come, soon

Mike

Took one of my young Grandsons out today, for a 5 hour "wildlife trek".
He's keen for an 8 year old! he even has one of my old Panny FZ38 cameras to use.

We saw 5 species of butterfly on the day, just the 1 Brimstone, at least 2 Comma, 4 plus Peacocks, over 6 Small Tortoiseshells...and 2 sightings of a "White", The White would not land for us though...Im thinking it was a GVW or perhaps a Small White??

Good numbers of Chiffchaff, A male Blackcap, 9 Common Lizards, 2 Juvenile Water Voles, 2 Pike! and a Large Carp in very shallow water!
Lots of Bee-flies about too.

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

PS. yesterday i came home from work and found both Comma and Peacock in the garden, so the garden year list is off to a start! Although my youngest son saw a Peacock in the garden over a week ago!

This looks like a possible courting pair of Small Tortoiseshell? they flew/landed in tandem for some time.

Image is not cropped. Nikon V1/FT1 adapter/Nikon 300mm f/4D lens used.
One of the Juvenile Water Vole, this one had just emerged from the water.
Image is not cropped. Same camera/set up as above.

Great picture of the water vole, that. Must have been a treat to see.

Brimstone and Small White in the garden today; the latter was around yesterday too and may have been the same individual I saw over a week ago now.

essexbuzzard wrote:Great picture of the water vole, that. Must have been a treat to see.

Thanks for that, yes it was a treat to see these in action...Unfortunately, i returned to the same location yesterday, because it was the turn of my other Grandsons(the twins) to also join me on a "wildlife trek", but we didnt find a pleasant scene!!! 2 dead Water Voles, one of them a Juvenile, the other an adult. I would say that the probable cause of death, would have been one of the many dogs that are walked in this area.
Its not the dogs fault, but the owner of the dogs...if a dog sights a small furry animal, then it will give chase, and on occasion, kill the animal.
I have dogs myself, but best to keep them on a lead, in certain locations.

On a brighter note, i did manage to find another Juvenile Water Vole in the same location, so as promised, the twins got to see one up close.

Butterflies seen were - good numbers of Small Tortoiseshell, Peacocks, another "White", and in the afternoon, a lovely male Orange Tip.

Back home in the garden that day (3/4/16) whilst taking a pic of a Peacock, a fresh Holly Blue landed on a clump of Ivy on my garden fence! Just couldnt capture a photo of the Holly Blue though, it flew off before i could even point the camera its way!

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.


A couple of the Small Tortoiseshells.

Blimey! with all that incredible butterfly activity going on in Kent I'm feeling rather short-changed here in South Wales just the solitary Small Tortoiseshell seen yesterday...it was the first of any species for the home garden this year!

Bill

No work today(rain stops play!) but for a couple of hours this afternoon, it was quite sunny/warm! in between the rain/hail that is!

So whilst "garden watching" i was hoping for that Holly Blue to return to my patch of Ivy on the fence. But no, a fresh Large White flew over my fence and landed on my flowering Cowslips! But even before i could unclip my Raynox 250 macro lens(I was photographing a Queen Wasp at the time) the large White flew back over the fence, and was gone!

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.

Willrow wrote:Blimey! with all that incredible butterfly activity going on in Kent I'm feeling rather short-changed here in South Wales just the solitary Small Tortoiseshell seen yesterday...it was the first of any species for the home garden this year!

Bill

They do say that Kent is the "Garden of England" ...or something like that!

Hope it picks up for you in South Wales soon.

Cheers Paul.

Not much to report,in my part of Kent,at least not since the weekend, but looking through a few pics that I did manage to get I found this odd ,double spotted
male Brimstone, Regards Allan.W.

Did see a Brimstone in the garden day before yesterday (6/4) in Newport so maybe South Wales is now waking up!

Kevin.

Two butterfly species seen today at the Bronze-age burial mound, Woking. Only my 2nd and 3rd species so far this year, the first being Small Tortoiseshell in Sunderland on Good Friday. Things slow to get started around here. Moth catches are very much down too. Phil

My first orange tip of the year was seen today as I was driving into my village near Horsham, West Sussex at lunchtime. Later in the afternoon I was at Cissbury Ring and there were half a dozen or so of peacock and small tortoiseshell around, many brimstones, some small whites. It was lovely to see a pair of each peacock and small tort courting. Best of all I saw my first swallow of the year.

report today of a Painted Lady on heather in a garden near Southend-on-Sea. Also a female Brimstone, same venue.

Dungeness today They're back!

Hoggers.

Hoggers wrote:Dungeness today

IMG_5936.JPG

They're back!

Hoggers.

Well done, Hoggers. Incredible that the one, assuming only one, you saw was ab. caeruleopunctata. How common is this aberration at Dungeness?

ATB

Peter

Hello Peter, although it's a fairly common aberration down here I most certainly was surprised that my first Small Copper of the year turned out to be both female and a fine Blue Badger!

Best wishes

Hoggers

Finally saw some pupal hibernators yesterday in the Swansea area, with a dozen or so Speckled Woods seen, along with 3 male Holly Blues and 2 Large Whites.

My first Holly Blues today near Heathrow. Dave

Yesterday (13/4/16) i visited a local "Bluebell Patch"(after an early finish at work!).
Masses an masses of Bluebells, along with a huge amount of Wood Anemone could be seen. I was hoping for some Orange Tips in this location, but none were seen!...What i did see were large numbers of Peacocks, there must have been at least 25 to 30 on site.
Also seen were - Comma, Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, a Speckled Wood, an a Green veined White.

Today at work, 2 "Whites" were also seen on the wing.

Back on the 10/4/16, whilst concentrating on taking some images of a Peacock, i heard a rustling of the leaves, and to my surprise a Common Lizard joined the Peacock in the same basking spot!! The Peacock didnt want to be on the Lizards menu, and took off fast, but not before i managed to capture a couple of images

Location - Kent, cheers Paul.


Peacock with Common Lizard. Image is not cropped.
Speckled Wood from yesterday, image is cropped some.