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
June
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Monday 29th June
I visited Martin Down this morning, where I saw 7 or 8
Dark Green Fritillaries. Most were freshly emerged
males, and were flying rapidly in wide circles in search of
females, often covering distances of up to 100 metres before
stopping momentarily to refuel at knapweed flowers. Other
species seen included 5 Small Tortoiseshells, 2 very old
female Brimstones, and about 20 Marbled Whites. The hot
sunny weather made the butterflies very active and almost
impossible to approach for photography.
In the afternoon I revisited Bentley Wood, and spent about
half an hour at the wych elms, watching White-letter
Hairstreaks. In total I had 10 sightings. At one stage I
had 4 sparring males in view flying above the tallest elm. I
counted 19 elms, and estimated that each tree probably had
about 4 or 5 adults present. Unfortunately none of them
descended to nectar at the nearby brambles. Elsewhere in the
forest butterflies of all species were generally scarce,
presumably because they were resting in the shade to escape
the blazing sunshine. Those seen included 8 Small Skippers,
60 Large Skippers, 2 Small Whites, 1 White Admiral, 1 Red
Admiral, 1 Comma, 25 Silver-washed Fritillaries, 5 Speckled
Woods, 3 Marbled Whites, 100 Meadow Browns and about 200
Ringlets.
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Sunday 28th June
I witnessed another life or death encounter today - this
time it was a freshly emerged Red Admiral, which flew
straight into the web of the spider
Araneus marmoreus, stretched
across the branches of an oak sapling in Bentley Wood. As
soon as the butterfly struck the web the spider emerged from
its retreat above, and dashed towards the butterfly. It was
a race against time, but luckily the butterfly was able to
struggle free just in time to escape. I watched the
butterfly flying around afterwards - it appeared to be
unharmed after its ordeal, which had left scratch-like lines
across its wings where the scales had broken loose and
adhered to the silk of the web.
My reason for visiting the site was to find and photograph a
mating pair of Silver-washed Fritillaries to illustrate the
website, but most of the visitors were of course searching
for the Purple Emperor. My species list for the day
comprised of an estimated 500 Large Skippers, 2 Large
Whites, 1 Small White, 1 White-letter Hairstreak, 3 White
Admirals, 1 Purple Emperor ( in flight ), 2 Red Admirals, 1
Painted Lady, 3 Commas, about 50 Silver-washed Fritillaries,
12 Speckled Woods, 3 Marbled Whites, about 200 Meadow
Browns, and somewhere in excess of 1000 Ringlets.
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Silver-washed Fritillaries, Bentley Wood, Wiltshire |
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Saturday 27th June
Until today I didn't realise that hornets were predators of
butterflies, but at Alice Holt forest I watched one chasing
after Ringlets and Meadow Browns, although it failed to
catch any. Later however, when I was attempting to
photograph a White Admiral nectaring at bramble, another
hornet suddenly shot down and snatched the butterfly from
the flower. In a split second it had grabbed it, dived down
into the undergrowth, bitten off its forewings, and used the
butterfly's hindwings to wrap the corpse up into a tight
ball. Moments later, carrying the White Admiral in it's
mandibles, it flew up to the top of a small oak, where it
consumed its meal. Unfortunately the whole sequence took
place so quickly that I was unable to get any photographs.
In the afternoon I visited Botany Bay in Surrey to look for
Purple Emperors. Despite the warm sunny conditions I saw
none, either on the ground or in flight. I did see about a
dozen White Admirals, some of which settled on the ground to
imbibe moisture. I saw a similar number of Silver-washed
Fritillaries nectaring at bramble, but noted that the
population is now considerably smaller than it was a decade
ago, at which time it was quite common to see half a dozen
on each bramble bush.
While at Botany Bay I also saw 2 Painted Ladies, and spent a
few minutes watching one oviposit. The butterfly was totally
unperturbed by my presence, laying 19 eggs as I watched.
Each egg, pale green in colour, was laid singly on the
upperside of a leaf - 16 of them on small spear thistle
plants, and the remainder on leaves of greater plantain
Plantago major
- a foodplant not previously recorded in the UK for this
species.
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Friday 26th June
By far the commonest butterfly this afternoon at Stansted
Forest was the Ringlet, of which I saw well over 100, all in
very fresh condition. Meadow Brown numbers are also building
up - I saw about 80 on a 2 hour walk. Marbled White has
increased and expanded it's range at Stansted in the last
couple of years and now occurs in 3 discrete colonies, each
comprising about 20 adults. Silver-washed Fritillary and
White Admiral numbers were about average for this site, with
5 of each species seen. Also seen were 4 worn Speckled
Woods, 6 Small Skippers, 25 Large Skippers, 2 Large Whites,
1 Small White, 1 very old Painted Lady, and 2
hutchinsoni
Commas.
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Comma Polygonia c-album,
f. hutchinsoni |
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Tuesday 23rd June
Today's warm sunny weather stimulated the emergence of the
first Purple Emperors, with 3 males reported this
afternoon from Hampshire. I've also received reports of Gatekeeper, Small
Skipper and Essex Skipper - all recorded in Hants
and West Sussex on 21st.
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Monday 22nd June
Black Hairstreaks are one of Britain's most elusive
butterflies - their range is restricted to a narrow strip of
land lying roughly between Oxford and Peterborough, where
they are found along blackthorn hedgerows and thickets where
the bushes grow tall and untrimmed. At these sites they only
occur in very localised areas and are notoriously difficult
to find, as they spend almost all of their adult lives
sitting motionless at the top of the tallest bushes. Under
certain conditions they will descend for short periods to
nectar at privet or bramble blossom however, and over the
years I have been fortunate to capture a few individuals on
film.
Unfortunately scanned film images do not reproduce well
enough to publish on the website, so during the last
fortnight I've made 4 separate trips to various localities
in Oxon, Bucks and Northants to try and obtain some decent
digital images. The first 3 trips resulted in brief glimpses
of butterflies in flight above the bushes, but no close up
views. I had almost given up hope as their flight season is
almost over, but today I travelled with 2 friends to
Northants and we struck lucky, seeing 3 individuals which
came down from the bushes to nectar at a clump of bramble.
Two of these were old and faded with damaged wings,
but the third was an immaculate female which settled long
enough to allow a series of photographs to be taken,
including the one below.
More images can be seen on the
Black Hairstreak species page.
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Black Hairstreak Satyrium pruni,
female, Northants |
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Saturday
20th June
Butterflies were scarce at Bentley Wood this morning due to
cool and overcast conditions, but the sun occasionally broke
through the cloud and encouraged a few species to take to
the wing. I saw 6 male and 2 female Silver-washed
Fritillaries, 2 very worn Small Pearl-bordered Fritillaries,
1 Marbled White, and about 40 Large Skippers, 30 Meadow
Browns, and 50 Ringlets including the scarce "blind Ringlet"
ab. caeca.
After leaving Bentley Wood I stopped briefly at Stockbridge
Down, arriving at about 6 p.m. Conditions were heavily
overcast and there was nothing flying so I spent about half
an hour searching among the coarse grasses along the
roadside for roosting butterflies. There I found a Small
Heath at rest on a plantain flower, a few Meadow Browns
tucked down in the grasses, about a dozen pristine male
Marbled Whites roosting on flowers and grass heads, and
amazingly another Ringlet ab.
caeca !
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Ringlet Aphantopus hyperantus, ab
caeca,
Bentley Wood, Wiltshire, England |
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Friday 19th June
This afternoon I spent about 3 hours
at Alice Holt forest in Hampshire, where I saw at least 8
fresh male Silver-washed Fritillaries, nectaring at bramble
and thistle flowers. I also saw a minimum of 5
pristine White Admirals, and 4
hutchinsoni
Commas. The commonest species as might be expected
was Meadow Brown, with at least 80 seen, all of which were
males. Speckled Woods were also very common, with about 35
seen, most of which were showing signs of wear and had
probably been flying for several days. Other species
included 1 Ringlet, 3 very worn Painted Ladies, 18 Large Skippers, 3
Green-veined Whites and 1 Large White.
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Silver-washed Fritillary, male, Alice Holt forest, Hampshire |
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White Admiral,
Alice Holt forest, Hampshire |
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Monday 15th June
This morning, on hedgerows near Waterperry Wood I watched 2
Black Hairstreaks flying around the top of the tall
blackthorn bushes, and later I visited Finemere Wood hoping
to get closer observations. By the time I arrived however the sun had disappeared behind a mass of
grey cloud and apart from a few Speckled Woods and Large
Skippers the only adult butterflies seen were 3 Small
Tortoiseshells and a Green-veined White.
Rumbles of thunder warned of an approaching band of rain so
I started to walk back to the car, but on the way I noticed
an unusual caterpillar resting on a bramble leaf. It was
clearly a Fritillary larva, but the pattern of grey stripes
on a dirty whitish ground colour, orange head, and orange
spikes along the back and sides were unlike those of the
Silver-washed or Dark Green Fritillaries which were the only
species that were likely to be present. To satisfy my
curiosity I photographed the larva and when I returned home
I consulted various resources to identify it. I was very
surprised to discover that it was the larva of the Marbled Fritillary
Brenthis daphne. The pattern,
colour, anatomical features and the fact that it was found
on a bramble leaf confirmed its identification beyond any
doubt. After consulting a
local entomologist I discovered that Marbled Fritillary had
been deliberately introduced to Finemere - a fact that I
found disturbing. This species has never occurred naturally
in the UK, either as a resident or migrant. It's natural
range extends from the north of Spain, across southern
France and from there across the warm temperate areas of
Europe and Asia to China and Japan. The fact that it appears
with the advent of global warming to be capable of surviving
the British climate is significant. However it should be
noted that the deliberate introduction of an alien species
is totally against the policy of all conservation
organisations, and furthermore it is a criminal offence
to release ( or allow to escape ) any animal of a kind that
is not established naturally in the wild in the UK.
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Sunday 14th June
I visited two Large Blue sites in Somerset today. In the
late morning at "site H" - a private grassland reserve, I
estimated a total of about 10 Large Blues across the site.
It's difficult to be precise because Large Blues are very
mobile, making it easy to inadvertently double-count. To
illustrate their mobility, I spent about 15 minutes closely
following one particular female, which flew a distance of
almost a kilometre from one side of the reserve to the
other, periodically pausing to lay her eggs on young thyme
flowers. Other species at the site included 4 Large
Skippers, 2 Small Whites, 4 Common Blues, about 40 Meadow
Browns, 5 Speckled Woods, 3 Painted Ladies and 5 Small
Tortoiseshells - the latter are being seen by myself and
other observers in small numbers at almost all sites visited
throughout southern England since the beginning of June,
indicating a strong recovery from the disturbing nadir of
the last 4 years.
In the afternoon I visited the well known Large Blue colony
at Collard Hill, and estimated that about 10 males and 8
females were present on the site. As at "site H", most were
very active and difficult to approach, but I saw several
females ovipositing on the flowers of small inconspicuous
thyme plants, while larger and more obvious plants were
ignored. Other species seen at Collard Hill included about 6
Large Skippers, 3 Small Whites, 4 Common Blues, 5 Painted
Ladies, 6 Small Tortoiseshells, 5 Small Heaths, at least 30
Meadow Browns, and 6 fresh male Marbled Whites.
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Large Blue, female, Collard Hill, Somerset |
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Large Blue ovipositing ( note egg already laid on lower
right of thyme flower ), "site H", Somerset |
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Wednesday 10th June
In southern England we are now entering what is
traditionally known as the "June gap", a period when the
flight period of the spring brood butterflies is almost
over, but the summer butterflies have barely started to
emerge. In fact the June gap is largely a myth, as there are
more butterfly species found in June than in any other month
of the year ! Unfortunately seeing many of them means having
to travel long distances - currently there are plenty of
Swallowtails on the Norfolk Broads, Northern Brown
Argus is on the wing in Cumbria, Graylings have been
flying for several days at Great Ormes Head in north Wales,
and
Chequered Skippers are delighting visitors to the Scottish Highlands !
Here in the south, things should pick up rapidly in the next
couple of weeks - Black Hairstreaks are just
beginning to emerge in Bucks and Oxon, Silver-studded Blues
are appearing in ones and twos on the New Forest heaths,
Marbled Whites and
Purple Hairstreaks are just beginning to show in Sussex,
Large Blues have started to emerge in Somerset and
the first Silver-washed Fritillaries and Ringlets of 2009 has just been
reported from Surrey. Within a few days these will be joined
by White Admirals, Heath Fritillaries, White-letter
Hairstreaks, Mountain Ringlets
and Large Heaths at their respective
sites across the UK.
Moths too are making news, with Common Swift,
Map-winged Swift, Flame Shoulder, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Heart
& Dart, Heart & Club, Miller, Burnished Brass, Beautiful
Golden-Y, Dew moth, Blood-vein, Yellow Shell, Peach Blossom,
Puss, Poplar Kitten, Scarlet Tiger, Elephant Hawk, Small
Elephant Hawk, Privet Hawk, Eyed Hawk, Hummingbird Hawk and migrant Striped
Hawk and Convolvulus Hawk all reported last week.
Following our fabulous butterfly-watching tour of Malaysia,
I have now begun adding more photos to the
Butterflies of Malaysia and Borneo gallery, and many
more will be added soon....
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Saturday 6th June
I had yesterday off work and made the mistake of wasting
petrol and time, visiting Magdalen Hill Down and Noar Hill
in cool, cloudy weather, and failed to see a single
butterfly - not even a roosting Dingy Skipper ! It happens
to us all. Today was just about warm enough to get a few
butterflies flying, and although it was breezy I decided to
risk a visit to the windswept grasslands of Martin Down.
There I was lucky enough to see no less than 6 Small
Tortoiseshells including an ovipositing female. It was like
being reunited with an old friend, and so nice to see this
beautiful butterfly recovering from its previous precarious
position. Other species seen included about 30 fresh Small
Heaths, 4 Meadow Browns, 2 Speckled Woods, 8 male
Large Skippers, 2 weather-beaten Grizzled Skippers, 2 Large
Whites, about a dozen battered old Small Blues, 1 Brown
Argus, 10 male Common Blues, 8 Adonis Blues, 1 Marsh
Fritillary and 5 Painted Ladies. One of the latter was so
ragged that it must have flown through every bush between
Martin Down and its home in north Africa ! There were also
several moths on the wing including Wood Tiger, Cinnabar,
Burnet Companion, Narrow-bordered 5-spot Burnet, Mother
Shipton and Common Heath. I also saw several moths flying
rapidly just above the tall grasses as dusk approached -
they appeared pinkish orange in flight but never settled for
identification, but my best guess is that they were females
of Clouded Buff.
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