Butterfly Diary
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field notes by Adrian Hoskins
note :
earliest
sightings of each brood are in bold type
2012
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
Friday 29th June
The first
Purple Emperor of the season was seen today at Bookham
Common in Surrey.
Tuesday 26th June
Silver-washed
Fritillaries, White Admirals and Purple
Hairstreaks are now emerging at their usual sites in
Hampshire, Sussex and Surrey. The first Ringlets of
2012 were seen yesterday at Bentley Wood on the Hants / Wilts
border. Currently I have received no reports
of Purple Emperors, Large Heaths or High Brown Fritillaries
from any of their sites, although all are due to emerge very
soon.
Wednesday 20th June
Sunny days
have been rare in Britain this summer, so a second consecutive
day of clear blue skies provided me with a good
excuse to extend my mini-tour of eastern England. My target
this time was to visit Hockley and Belfairs woods in
Essex. Both sites support small introduced colonies of the
rare Heath Fritillary. In the morning dozens of males
could be seen patrolling back and forth along the trails,
investigating any object that could potentially have been a
female. Often I found groups of 4 or 5 males frenetically
buzzing around copulating pairs. At the end of the afternoon
as temperatures dropped the butterflies basked for a while on
bramble, hornbeam and sweet chestnut leaves before finally
settling on grass-heads, sedges and willowherbs to roost for
the night.
Heath
Fritillary Mellicta athalia,
Belfairs Wood, Essex ©
Adrian Hoskins
Other
sightings for today include the first White Admiral of
the year seen at Park Corner Heath in Sussex, and 2 Black
Hairstreaks seen at Whitecross Green Wood in Oxon.
Tuesday 19th June
I spent a
very enjoyable day today
in sleepy Norfolk, where I visited Strumpshaw Fen and How Hill
in search of the beautiful and elusive Swallowtail. Sightings
were fairly infrequent and in most cases were of fly-pasts by
males flying over the reed beds, searching for females.
Nevertheless I saw at least 20 Swallowtails during the course of
the day, and struck lucky when a beautiful fresh female
alighted momentarily to nectar at a marsh thistle, giving me a
couple of seconds to snatch the photo below. Other species seen included 2 fresh Small
Tortoiseshells, 2 Peacocks, 3 Speckled Woods, 1 Meadow Brown, 2
Holly Blues, 3 Brimstones, 6 Small
Whites and 2 Large Skippers. Caterpillars seen included a 1st
instar Peacock larval web, and fully grown larvae of Vapourer
and Drinker moths.
Swallowtail
Papilio machaon, River Bure,
Norfolk ©
Adrian Hoskins
Small
Tortoiseshell
Aglais urticae, River Bure,
Norfolk ©
Adrian Hoskins
Sunday 17th June
A
White-letter Hairstreak was seen today near Cosham in Hants.
In Sussex a Ringlet was seen at Lancing Ring, and the
first Silver-washed Fritillary of the year was seen at
Rewell Wood.
Wednesday 13th June
Despite
continuing poor weather the mid-summer species are beginning
to emerge, albeit in small numbers, with Silver-studded Blues,
Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns and Small Skippers being
reported from several sites in the south. There has also been
a report of Dark Green Fritillary, seen today at
Friston Forest on the Sussex coast. Currently there have been
no records of Black Hairstreak or Heath Fritillary, although
both should be expected within a few days.
Sunday 10th June
Almost all of
the UK suffered another dull, cold and wet weekend again, but
in Sussex a brief sunny spell yesterday was enough to
encourage a Marbled White to put in an appearance at
Bevendean Down. Also from Sussex came a report of the first
Meadow Brown of the year, seen yesterday at Levin
Down, and the first Silver-studded Blue, seen today at
Iping Common. The first summer generation Small
Tortoiseshells were also reported from Hampshire and
Sussex this weekend.
Friday 8th June
Surprise
surprise, it's raining again, so here to hopefully cheer you
up are a few photos taken when I
visited the sunny south a couple of weeks ago:
Brown Argus
Aricia agestis male, Cerne Abbas,
Dorset ©
Adrian Hoskins
Small Copper
Lycaena phlaeas, Cissbury Ring,
Sussex ©
Adrian Hoskins
Dingy Skipper
Erynnis tages, male, Cerne Abbas,
Dorset ©
Adrian Hoskins
Sunday 3rd June
A Meadow
Brown was reported today from Newtown meadows on the Isle
of Wight. There have also been several reports of Glanville
Fritillaries from Compton Chine and other sites on the Island,
but indications are that the butterfly is currently only
emerging in very low numbers.
Friday 1st June
The first
Large Skippers of the year were reported a couple of days
ago from sites in Hampshire, Dorset and Sussex, and
Swallowtails have now begun to emerge on the Norfolk
Broads.
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