|
Home |
|
|
|
Butterfly Diary
- field notes by Adrian Hoskins
my earliest
sightings of each brood are highlighted in bold type
|
|
Sightings
policy - details of certain sites where visitor pressure
or trampling may pose a threat to butterflies or alienate
landowners are excluded from these pages.
|
2009
Jan
|
Feb
|
Mar
|
Apr
|
May
|
Jun
|
Jly
|
Aug
|
Sep
|
Oct
|
Nov
|
Dec
April
|
Sunday
26th April
Grizzled Skippers were the most abundant species today at
Stockbridge Down, with an estimated total of 40 individuals
seen. Other species included 7 Green Hairstreaks, 6 Small
Coppers, 1 Dingy Skipper, 1 Painted Lady, 2 Peacocks, 6
Speckled Woods, 1 Small White, 3 male Orange tips and 7
Brimstones. It was interesting to watch a female Brimstone
attempting to oviposit while being harassed by a male. She
got so distracted that she laid an egg on a dead
hawthorn twig instead of the usual buckthorn ! At Noar Hill
in the afternoon I witnessed another species ovipositing on
the "wrong" foodplant - this time it was a Duke of Burgundy,
which ignored nearby cowslips and instead carefully laid 2
eggs under a low growing bramble leaf. There were at least 40 Duke
of Burgundies flying in the warm sunshine - many of them
already appearing quite worn and faded. Other species at
Noar included 1 Dingy Skipper, 5 Speckled Woods, 3 Orange
tips, 4 Brimstones and 1 Comma.
|
|
Saturday
25th April
Today's cool and blustery conditions were far from ideal for
butterfly watching and very difficult for photography. I
spent about 2 hours in the early afternoon at Noar Hill, and
saw only 3 species, namely 3 male Orange tips, 5 Dingy
Skippers ( including a mating pair ), and about 20 Duke of
Burgundies. I also visited a woodland in the west of
Hampshire where I saw my first 3 Pearl-bordered Fritillaries
of the season, 3 Speckled Woods, and a very fresh Small
Copper.
Reports from other observers included
Brown Argus seen in Hampshire and Bucks, Wall Browns
in Dorset, Sussex and IoW, and
Common Blue at Swanage. New additions to the 2009 moth
list include Peppered moth, Poplar Grey, Poplar Hawk, Mother
Shipton, Cinnabar, Green Carpet, Mottled Beauty, Dark Sword
Grass, Oak-tree Pug, Small Purple-barred, Red Twin-spot
Carpet and Small White Wave.
|
|
Tuesday
21st April
Warm and sunny weather today brought several more reports of
"first of season" sightings including
Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Small Heath in
Sussex, and Wood White in Bucks. Small Copper,
Duke of Burgundy, Dingy Skipper, Green Hairstreak and Holly
Blue have now been reported from several sites, and several
Painted Ladies have been seen this week in Hampshire,
indicating a small migration. Newly emerged moths reported so far
this week include Pebble Hook-tip, Latticed Heath, Hebrew
Character, Treble-bar, Dotted Chestnut, Sallow
Kitten, Powdered Quaker, Spectacle, Swallow Prominent, Lesser Swallow
Prominent, Common Wave, Maiden's Blush and Small Magpie.
|
|
Sunday 19th April
Butterfly enthusiasts often have difficulty distinguishing
between the various "white" species when they are seen in
flight, so it is interesting to note that even the
butterflies themselves occasionally have the same problem.
At Magdalen Hill Down this afternoon I watched a male Orange
tip intercept a female Green-veined White. The latter
immediately signalled her disinterest to his advances by
settling on a leaf, flattening her wings and raising her
abdomen - a signal normally given by unreceptive females to
males of their own species. There was no doubt that both
butterflies were convinced that the other was of their own
kind, and it was only after several seconds that the Orange
tip gave up and resumed the search for a female of its own
species.
The highlight of the day for me was without doubt the
sighting of a male Small Tortoiseshell which was vigorously
defending its territory against a couple of Peacocks which
had the temerity to intrude into its domain. The total
species count included 4 Green Hairstreaks, 18 Grizzled
Skippers, 5 Brimstones, 15 Orange tips, 7 Green-veined
Whites ( including 2 mating pairs ), 1 Large White, 8 Small
Whites, 12 Peacocks and 2 Commas. Moths included a Ruby
Tiger and "first of season" sightings of Dark-barred
Twin-spot Carpet, Garden Carpet and Burnet Companion.
|
|
Saturday 18th April
Stockbridge Down is currently swathed in a carpet of ground
ivy, but despite the abundance of nectar there were few
butterflies to be seen due to the cool breeze. There were no
signs of Green Hairstreak or Small Copper yet, but I saw 6
fresh Grizzled Skippers - 4 males and 2 females. The weak
sunlight was barely strong enough to persuade them to fly,
but during spells when the temperature became slightly
warmer they could be seen nectaring at ground ivy or basking
on low herbage. The only other species seen were 1 Comma, 4
Peacocks and a male Brimstone.
|
|
Thursday 16th April
The first Dingy Skipper of the
year was reported yesterday from East Sussex, followed
quickly by a report of this year's first Duke of Burgundy
( a female ) from Noar Hill in Hampshire.
Yesterday also produced the first 2009 records of several
moth species including Ruby Tiger, White Ermine, Common Heath,
Tawny Pinion, Clay Triple Lines, Yellow-barred Brindle,
Mullein, Speckled
Yellow, Currant Pug, Least Black Arches, Shoulder Stripe, Grey Dagger, Scalloped Hazel and
the beautiful purple and gold micro moth
Pyrausta purpuralis.
|
|
Monday 13th April
I visited Woodhouse Copse on the Isle of Wight today. There
were a few of the commoner species on the wing - 2 Peacocks,
3 Brimstones, 5 Commas, 2 Orange tips, 1 Green-veined White,
1 Small White, 2 Large Whites and about a dozen Speckled
Woods; but there were no signs of the Large Tortoiseshell
which 2 or 3 other recorders have been so lucky to see in
the past 3 weeks. Woodhouse Copse seems to be an unlikely
breeding site for this very rare species, and it seems more
likely to me that it breeds somewhere else in the vicinity
but migrates to "hill-top" at Woodhouse. This
mate-locating strategy is employed by several of the larger
Nymphalids e.g. Purple Emperor and Painted Lady, which
conduct their nuptial activities up to 2 or 3 kilometres
away from the egg-laying sites.
|
|
Sunday 12th April
Cool and wet weather has prevented butterflies from flying
this weekend, my only sighting being of a possible Small
Tortoiseshell in flight in my neighbour's garden. Many nocturnal moths
however actually seem to like these
conditions - Newly emerged species reported in the
last few days include Streamer, V-Pug, Brimstone moth,
Purple Thorn, Red-green Carpet, Waved Umber, Mullein, Chocolate-tip, Lunar
Marbled Brown, Frosted Green, Nut-tree Tussock, Shuttle-shaped Dart,
Flame-shoulder, Pine Beauty, Angle Shades, Lead-coloured
Drab, Muslin, Eyed Hawkmoth, Pebble Prominent, Coxcomb
Prominent, Scarce Prominent and Great Prominent. There have also
been several records of Britain's only wild silkmoth, the
magnificent Emperor.
|
|
Sunday 5th April
April is probably my favourite month of the year to be in
England - the woodlands are carpeted with primroses,
celandines, violets, ground ivy and wood anemones; sallow
trees are adorned with catkins, bluebells are just starting
to appear, and best of all there are now plenty of
butterflies bringing new life to the countryside. The
ex-hibernation Brimstones, Commas, Peacocks and Small
Tortoiseshells have now been joined by the new generation of
Speckled Woods, Orange tips, Small Whites, Small Coppers and
Holly Blues, and the early spring has already brought
reports of the first Green Hairstreaks and
Grizzled Skippers, both of which were seen yesterday at
Magdalen Hill Down in Hampshire. Also the first Painted
Lady of 2009 was reported from the same site on 2nd
April.
I visited Dunsfold in Surrey this afternoon, having been
tipped off by a friend that Orange tips were flying. The
cloud cover was broken by brief spells of sunshine, which
immediately prompted several butterflies to awaken from
their roosts and seek out nectar from the abundant cuckoo
flowers. I saw a Small White, my first Green-veined White of
the year, 2 Brimstones, 2 Speckled Woods, 2 Peacocks,
3 Commas and a total of 5 Orange tips - 2 males and 3
females. It was interesting to note that 2 of the
latter were substantially undersized - one in fact was no
larger than a Holly Blue.
|
|
Orange tip
Anthocharis cardamines,
Dunsfold, Surrey. More Orange tip photos
here |
|
Saturday 4th April
Speckled Woods were flying in good numbers at Ballard Down
this afternoon - I counted a minimum of 19, flying and
basking in areas of dappled sunlight beneath trees at the
bottom of the hill. I watched several territorial sorties
where males encroached into each other's territory and
engaged in dog fights to resolve "ownership" of a sun-spot.
One of these battles lasted for over 2 minutes and resulted
in the intruding male being chased a distance of at least 20
metres before it gave up and departed. It was quite amusing
also to watch one particular male repeatedly engage a noisy
bee-fly that dared to enter it's domain. The bee-fly had the
last laugh though, when a Peacock came along and promptly
chased the Speckled Wood out of the area ! The total species
count for the afternoon was 19 Speckled Woods, 8 Peacocks, 3
Commas and a Small White.
|
|
Peacock
Inachis io,
Ballard Down, Dorset
|
|
