www.ukbutterflies.co.uk

May I extend fulsome New Year wishes to all UKB members (albeit 2 hours before Big Ben sounds its chimes) and one hopes that 2018 brings many delightful moments for everybody.

Meantime, good luck hunting in this most austere of months. Hopefully, in 6 weeks time we'll all be getting some early action.

No butterflies about at the moment, and none likely any time soon, but there are early stages to find and observe. Today, the nettle plants that I have been monitoring in the shelter of a south-facing cemetery wall in Crawley produced a Red Admiral larva emerging from its egg.
There are also still scores of unhatched eggs.

The temperature today was 6C in sunny conditions, but with a cold wind.

Vince

A more detailed report is here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9581&p=127279#p127279

Hear, hear!
Adrian Riley and all at Bugalert.

Red admiral on the wing yesterday at Romsey seen whilst looking for the Hawfinches.

Red Admiral reported yesterday (16th) at Dungeness Bird Observatory ! Regards Allan.W.

Whilst monitoring Red Admiral eggs in Crawley today, a Red Admiral flew across my path at 12.20 but did not stop. At the time it was slightly cloudy and the temperature was 9C. I then completed my egg count and managed to find 20 unhatched eggs.
Vince

Encouraging stuff given the time of year! It's been mild lately, and today I saw my first snowdrops and I'm sure within a week we'll have our first daffodils flowering. It was 11c today and in the sunshine it felt more like early March. I hope we can avoid extremes in the next few weeks as I fear spring is already about to burst forth, unseasonably early yet again.

My son spotted his first butterfly of the year,sunning itself on the school wall.An overwintering Red Admiral,in Edgware London no less

Red Admiral in Winter Gardens at Anglesey Abbey, Cambs today

Nick

Great effort, Nick! A butterfly in January is a precious thing indeed!

We'd rather things developed a little more slowly, but given that spring is imminent, one hopes that there will be no late winter extremes to do damage to this early awakening.

A visit to the winter flowerbeds in Tilgate Park, Crawley today produced 3 different Red Admirals at 1pm.
The sun had been shining all morning after a slight overnight frost and the temperature reached 9C (with a slight southerly wind) before the cloud rolled in. This is the same location where they were seen last winter.

Vince