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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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Click on
thumbnails to see more photos, and detailed descriptions of the
distribution, habitats, lifecycle and behaviour of each
illustrated species......
2008
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
July
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Friday
4th July
I was very
fortunate to have several sightings of Purple Emperor
at Alice Holt forest this morning - at one stage I had 3
males and 1 female in sight simultaneously. On 2 occasions
different males flew down and settled on the path,
displaying their purple sheen in all it's glory. The first
male appeared at about 09.45am and settled to feed on a fox
scat for a few moments before returning to perch high up in
an oak tree. The other individual came down several times
during the course of the morning, and was last seen at about
12.30pm. One, or possibly 2 females were seen in flight, one
of which settled at the top of a sallow tree where it
remained for about an hour. Other species seen included 50
Ringlets, 50 Meadow Browns, 2 Purple Hairstreaks, 1 fresh
Green-veined White, 2 Speckled Woods, 5 White Admirals,
2 Red Admirals, 3 Commas, 30 Large Skippers and about 25
Silver-washed Fritillaries. Most of the latter were males,
but there were at least 6 females, including the aberrant
form
confluens.
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Thursday 3rd July
This afternoon
I visited a woodland reserve in Wiltshire where
Silver-washed Fritillaries were abundant until 3 or 4 years
ago. Unfortunately numbers have dropped considerably, and I
only managed to see about 20 today, including 2 mating
pairs. White Admirals were also well down in numbers, with
only 3 seen. The small population of White-letter
Hairstreaks seems however to be stable, with sightings
of 3 adults flying around the top of a wych elm in the
centre of the wood. Other species seen included 2 Marbled
Whites, 50+ Meadow Browns, 80+ Ringlets and about 20 Large
Skippers.
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Wednesday 2nd July
During a walk
around Whiteley Pastures between 7.00 - 7.30pm, I counted
173 Purple Hairstreaks in flight around the tops of
oak trees. The mature broad-crowned oaks produced the
highest counts, with between 8 - 12 seen in flight above
each tree, while the smaller and more spindly trees
typically hosted at least 3 or 4 specimens. These figures
represent butterflies seen in flight, and it can be safely
assumed that for each specimen in flight there must have
been another 3 or 4 at rest which escaped detection. During
the limited time available I was only able to look at about
0·5% of the oaks in the wood ( i.e. those along a half-mile
stretch of one particular track ). If my mathematics are
correct this means the total population of Purple
Hairstreaks at Whiteley Pastures today was possibly in
excess of 103,800 butterflies ( multiply 173 x 3 to get an
estimate of butterflies along the section of track that I
visited, and multiply that figure by 200 to include the
total number of oaks in the wood ).
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Sunday 29th June
I spent about
2 hours this afternoon in one of the Inclosures at Alice
Holt forest, and found butterflies were in surprisingly low
numbers - just 18 Meadow Browns, 35 Ringlets, 2 fresh
Red Admirals ( one of which was being chased
incessantly by a confused Ringlet ), 6 White Admirals,
5 Large Skippers, 1 Small Skipper and 11
Silver-washed Fritillaries including a mating pair.
Later I took my dog for a walk in my local wood Stansted
Forest, where I saw 1 Large White, 20 Meadow Browns,
6 Marbled Whites, 4 Ringlets, 4 Large Skippers, 17 Small
Skippers, 4 White Admirals and a 6-spot Burnet moth.
Finally, my garden in Havant produced my first summer
generation Holly Blue and Comma.
Reports from
other observers this week indicate that Dark Green Fritillary, High Brown Fritillary,
Purple Emperor, Purple Hairstreak,
Gatekeeper, Brimstone and Small Tortoiseshell have all begun
to emerge in the last 3 or 4 days.
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Saturday 28th June
Having been
defeated by the awful weather last Sunday, I returned to
Whixall Moss today determined to get some better photographs
of Large Heath for the website. In total I saw about 15
flying, but most were inaccessible due to the very
treacherous nature of the boggy terrain. A lot of
determination and patience was needed, which was eventually
rewarded when 2 individuals settled near the edge of the
tracks and allowed me to take a few snaps. The only other
butterflies seen were about half a dozen Large Skippers, but
I also saw several Common Heath moths and 2 fully grown Oak
Eggar larvae.
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Sunday 22nd June
Call me crazy
if you like, but this afternoon I spent an hour with a
friend trudging around Whixall Moss ( a Shropshire peat bog
) in the midst of
a storm, trying to photograph Large Heaths. Branches
were being ripped from trees by fierce 60mph winds, and it
was difficult to stand without being blown over, but
amazingly we found 3 Large Heaths, all disturbed from rest
along the edges of the dry tracks that run through the
reserve. Unfortunately trying to follow them to take
photographs was impossible in the hurricane-like conditions.
We left the site via a relatively sheltered track through
woodland, where we managed to find a couple of roosting
Large Skippers and 4 Speckled Woods.
Later in the
afternoon we
visited the Butterfly Conservation reserve at Prees
Heath, by which time the storm had eased slightly. The
heathland habitat there is very degraded, but is slowly
being restored in the hope that the tiny population of
Silver-studded Blues can be maintained. An hour of
searching produced a total of 4 males and 2 females, all in
fresh condition. All were found at roost on sheltered clumps
of heather or cross-leaved heath.
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Sunday 15th June
I saw my first
Marbled White of the year today at Stockbridge Down
but butterflies were generally scarce - the only other
records being of 1 Large Skipper, 6 Common Blues, 1 Brown
Argus, 1 Grizzled Skipper, 9 Small Heaths, 4 Meadow Browns
and 4 Forester moths.
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Saturday 14th June
This morning I
visited a site in Essex where I saw about 90 fresh Heath
Fritillaries. The butterflies were concentrated in 2
main groups centred on small glades within the sweet
chestnut coppice habitat. Most were seen basking on low
foliage or sitting on grass stems with their wings shut.
Despite sunny conditions they were very lethargic and only
became active when temperatures exceeded 15C. Both sexes
then fluttered lazily around the glades nectaring at
hawkbit, bramble, lesser stitchwort and buttercups. I
observed several attempted matings, and found 3 copulated
pairs. Other species seen included 2 Meadow Browns, 4
Speckled Woods, 1 Brimstone, 2 Large Skippers, a Blood-vein
moth and a larva of Yellow-tail moth.
Reports from
other observers indicate that the first Black Hairstreaks of
the season have been sighted in Oxfordshire, and Large Blues
are now flying in Devon. Several other species are just
beginning to emerge including Ringlets, Marbled Whites and
Silver-studded Blues.
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Text and photographs protected by Copyright © Adrian
Hoskins 2007-2008, and must not be reproduced or published in part
or in whole elsewhere in any form without written permission from
Adrian Hoskins. Breach of copyright will be pursued by litigation.
Website designed, produced and owned by
Adrian Hoskins
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