Butterfly Diary
- field notes by Adrian Hoskins
my earliest
sightings of each brood are highlighted in bold type
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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.
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2009
Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Jun
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Jly
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Aug
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Sep
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
February
Saturday 28th February
A cool and dull day to
end the month, so no butterflies to report. There are
several newly reported moth sightings however, including
Yellow Horned, Common Quaker and Small Quaker, all from the
New Forest, Hampshire. Pale Mottled Willow and Dark Chestnut
have been reported from Berkshire.
Sunday 22nd February
Today was cloudy with no real chance of seeing adult
butterflies, but I decided it might be worthwhile visiting a
site in Wiltshire to search for caterpillars. My gamble paid
off as I was able to locate 6 nests of Marsh Fritillary
larvae. 5 of these nests each contained about 40 larvae,
but the other contained at least 100. In each case they had
abandoned the silk webs, and were clustered together basking
on dry grass blades, dead bracken, or fallen oak leaves.
Saturday 21st February
The first really sunny day of Spring has been a long time
coming, but well worth waiting for, so rather than taking
the dog for a walk in my local wood, I decided it was worth
us going
a little further afield to search for butterflies in a
better locality. Hence I spent much of the day enjoying the
gorgeous sunshine at Crab Wood in Hampshire. Within a few
minutes I found my first butterfly of 2009 - a male
Brimstone seen at rest amongst dry grasses. During the
course of 3 hours I
counted a minimum of 19 Brimstones, all males. Most
were searching actively for females among clumps of bramble
and ivy. I also saw a Comma avidly nectaring at hazel
catkins, and 2 Red Admirals - one basking on a path
and the other on a tree trunk. You can click on the photos
below to see a selection of full size photos, and to read
all about the ecology and behaviour of each species.
Wednesday 18th February
It seems that there was
some truth in my Saturday prediction that Spring is "just
around the corner",
as a Small Tortoiseshell was observed at Goring on
14th, and 2 Brimstones were reported from Fordingbridge on
16th. There have also been several reports of
first-of-the-season moths including Small Magpie, Satellite,
Chestnut, Hebrew Character, Oak Beauty, Clouded Drab,
Shoulder Stripe, March moth and Dotted Border.
Saturday 14th February
Last night's hard frost was followed by a beautiful clear
sunny morning so I took advantage of the sunshine and spent
a couple of hours walking in Stansted Forest. There were
plenty of signs that Spring is just around the corner -
hazel catkins were much in evidence, bird song filled the
air, and there were even a few dandelions and celandines in
flower. No butterflies yet though.....
Sunday 8th February
Despite continuing cold conditions and reports of heavy
snowfall over much of Britain, a few areas escaped the worst
of the weather, and amazingly a report has surfaced of a
Peacock butterfly, seen basking on a wall in a garden on the
Isle of Wight on 5th January ! No butterfly or moth
sightings have been reported in the last week.
For anyone interested in statistics, you might like to know
that there are now no less than 681 pages of information and
photographs on this website. I'm aiming to finish the text
on the last of the few remaining uncompleted species
accounts by late March, in preparation for a busy season
ahead. Meanwhile, I've added a new section called
Lepidoptera and the Evolutionary table, which shows in
tabular form the relationship between butterflies and moths
in evolutionary terms.
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