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
November-December
Compton Down,
West Sussex, 18th December
Friday 18th
December
As Xmas approaches, snow and bitterly cold winds are keeping adult
butterflies deep in hibernation. Commas will be spending the
winter in wood-stacks or hanging from the boughs of trees; Peacocks will be tucked
away inside rabbit burrows or hollow tree trunks; Brimstones will
be hiding amongst clumps of ivy, bramble or pendulous sedge; and
Small Tortoiseshells will be overwintering in garden sheds.
Sometimes they enter houses, and I'm often asked what people
should do with them to help them survive. The best course of
action is to gently transfer them to a sheltered dark place
outdoors such as pile of logs that will be undisturbed until
spring, or better still a hollow tree trunk. Place them
high enough up to be out of reach of shrews, and out of sight of
birds.
Apart from a couple of failed attempts to locate hibernating
Brimstones in my local wood, most of my spare time recently has
been spent adding photographs and articles to the website, which I
hope will help to pass the cold winter days and dark evenings
while we wait for spring to arrive. Several more articles about
Malaysian butterflies have been added, including one about the
delightful little
Wavy Maplet
and another about the stunning
long-tailed hairstreak
Drupadia ravindra. I've also now been
able to identify several more of the fascinating moths seen in
Peru last year, with the kind assistance of Kevin Tuck and Martin
Honey, curators of Lepidoptera at the Natural History Museum,
London. See
Moths of the Amazon & Andes.
Saturday 5th
December
Another cold, damp and overcast day in my part of Britain kept
me indoors again, but gave me the chance to edit the website code
to enable pages to download more rapidly. I've also now begun to
write up the species articles resulting from our trip to Malaysia
earlier this year. You can see the first of these articles
here.
Sunday 29th
November
I returned to Stansted Forest today to see whether the Brimstone (
see 22nd November entry ) was still at roost beneath its bramble
leaf but unfortunately all that remained was a set of dismembered
wings. I suspect that the insect was eaten by a shrew, as
insectivorous birds usually fly off with their prey intact, and
dismember them elsewhere.
Wednesday 25th
November
It may be late November, but so far there have been no frosts in
southern Hampshire, and despite very wet and windy weather there
are still a few butterflies to be seen when the sun manages to put
in an appearance. Today for example I saw a Peacock flying on an
industrial estate in Waterlooville, and earlier this week there
were reports of Red Admirals from Hampshire and Sussex.
Sunday 22nd November
I had a surprise this afternoon when I took my dog for a walk in
Stansted Forest. I certainly wasn't expecting to see any
butterflies, as it was cold, blustery and had only recently
stopped raining, but to my amazement I spotted a pristine female
Brimstone sitting on a larch trunk. I guess it got blown down this
morning or during the overnight gales from its hibernating place (
probably among ivy on a nearby tree ), and crawled up the tree
trunk. I can't see it having flown there as it's been too cold and
windy for anything to fly. The butterfly looked very vulnerable
sitting on the tree trunk, so I transferred it to a safer location
beneath a nearby bramble leaf, out of sight of birds.
Saturday 21st November
learnaboutbutterflies.com is about to celebrate it's 3rd
birthday, so I decided it was time to make a few changes.
For some time I've been dissatisfied with the slightly old
fashioned appearance of the original site, so I've replaced
it with a modern and more visually appealing design. There
were a few technical difficulties during the change-over
period yesterday which kept me busy all through the night,
so I apologise for any disruption. I've also changed my
website-hosting provider, switching to a company which
promises to offer a more reliable service. I hope you all
enjoy the new-look site !
Saturday
7th November
A fine sunny day, but with temperatures struggling to reach
11C, resident species such as Brimstones, Peacocks, Commas
and Small Tortoiseshells remained deep in hibernation.
Migrants however do not hibernate in the true sense, and
often fly on sunny days even when temperatures are low, so
it came as no surprise to see singletons of Clouded Yellow,
Painted Lady and Red Admiral flying this afternoon at Beachy
Head. At Stansted Forest however it was a different story -
two years ago, on 9th November 2007 when the temperature was
only 8C, I counted 12 Red Admirals in a small area of the
wood, and estimated that at least 150 were present in the
entire forest. Today there were none. Surprisingly, I
received a message telling me that a Red Admiral was seen
today flying in Northumberland - a long way north for any
butterfly to be active at this time of year !
Wednesday
4th November
After a wet and windy start to November, it would be easy to
believe that the butterfly season is over, but there are
still at least 11 species flying at the moment : I saw 2 Red
Admirals in the New Forest on Monday morning, and another
today at Bolderwood. Reports from Sussex indicate that
Clouded Yellows are still emerging, copulating and laying
eggs; several Painted Ladies were seen yesterday at Beachy
Head; 4 Common Blues were seen on Monday at Mill Hill; and
on the same day Speckled Wood, Small Copper, Small
Tortoiseshell, Peacock, Comma, Brimstone and Holly Blue were
seen in Hampshire !
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Red Admiral, Bolderwood, Hampshire |
Monday
2nd November
When researching items for the website recently I found a
fascinating report which sheds new light on the migration of
Clouded Yellows, Red Admirals, Painted Ladies, Queen of
Spain Fritillaries and other species that fly to Britain
from southern Europe or north Africa :
I found that recent research on Monarchs has revealed that
their annual mass migration from Canada to Mexico is
controlled by a "time-compensated sun compass" that uses
light receptors and a circadian clock, both of which are
built into their antennae ! A "circadian clock" employs
rhythms of biochemical, physiological or behavioural
processes which control daily, seasonal and annual
activities - including migration. When
scientists removed the antennae from one group of Monarchs
they flew strongly but in random directions, but a control
group with their antennae intact all flew in the same
direction - their south-westerly migration route. In another
experiment the antennae of some were painted with black
enamel, and these butterflies when placed in a flight
simulator all flew together, but in the "wrong" direction
compared to their normal migration route. Another group had
their antennae painted with transparent paint, and these all
migrated together in the right direction.
Click on these links to read all about
Monarchs and
Butterfly Migration.
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