Still trying to sort out what's happening with this year's Green Hairstreaks at a local site. Having had 'several' reported to me by another observer, I have revisited the place on three occasions - first mid-afternoon when it felt too hot (in April), so then at 09.00 in sunny more comfortable condi...

The picture of the wood whites steals it for me.

Slowly the season is developing here - I'm not seeing numbers of anything yet. A morning walk was in order as at three o'clock yesterday afternoon it was apparently too hot for much to be flying, which seems odd in April. A few stretches of the Ouse Washes flood banks are less intensively managed; t...

Hello Guy, and thank you. A small resistance group is already forming. I've fought a number of these battles before and usually lost, but there will be a fight to save at least a part of what has become a good butterfly (and bird) site, especially for the county of Cambridgeshire,

Rob

The truly bizarre things to me is this - all over these isles we hear of proposed and actual re-wilding schemes, where land is supposedly given back to nature, and the cost involved can be considerable. Here on the airfield is a site of hundreds of acres which has rewilded itself over many years - i...

Good to see that the Green Hairstreaks discovered on a disused airfield at Mepal in Cambs a few years ago are still present, though not in great numbers yet this year. We must enjoy these while can as there are rumours the place will be developed soon - for developed, of course, read destroyed. _DSC...

A fresh female Holly Blue is one of our most attractive butterflies - excellent images of one there.

My first butterfly of the year today in Cambridgeshire, VC29 - a Brimstone.

I've finally managed a few pictures of the Green Hairstreaks on a local disused airfield site. I'm convinced that they have not always been there but the habitat has apparently become ideal. They particularly favour the the edges of the scrub, where they fly quite low down in amongst mixed shrubs am...

After a rather dismal spring, it's such a pleasure to see butterflies in the garden, and several species at a time. Red Admirals made their presence known on the 16th of May, when four appeared together, and today there are at least six. Silver Ys have also arrived in significant numbers over the pa...

Warmer weather and some butterflies at last, if not in spectacular numbers. A morning visit to the old airfield site saw several Small Whites, much attached to dandelions. 80031DB7-B688-44F4-8D7B-58D7FC377DFB.jpeg I worked steadily along the old roadway as this has produced Walls in the past - there...

Lovely pictures of the Green Hairstreak - so far this year, all mine have been disappearing over hawthorn bushes. It's interesting that one can feel nostalgia for a place that has become one's home as well as for the place one grew up. I knew the word's etymology but looked it up anyway and was surp...

Many thanks, Wurzel. It seems you are spot on - I managed brief views of 3 yesterday morning at the site between 10.30 and 11.00, in spells of intermittent sunshine. I've found them easily enough on gorse and broom in Norfolk, but this Cambs site has extensive areas of scrubby hawthorn and they seem...

A photo of the Speckled Wood which would not upload earlier:

A sunny day at last but still plenty of annoying winds. I'm still struggling to find any number of butterflies at all. In the garden a Small Tortoiseshell was very welcome, and Orange-tips and Green-veined Whites appear whenever the sun shines. I visited a site where Green Hairstreak has recently ap...

Those are interesting thoughts about how altitude will affect the impact of unusual weather. I imagine that this will not apply in most of the UK! I'm in just about the flattest part of the country - my house is six feet above sea level. I can say that locally this has been a very poor spring for bu...

No need to comment much further on the season so far, at least not in my area. Some sunny spells this afternoon but just two butterflies appeared in the garden. One odd thing is that according to my fairly empty notebook, I've seen four times as many female Orange-tips as males, which must be, at th...

At last! Many thanks to Millerd and Bugboy for solving the mystery - this is surely the most likely explanation. I'm not aware of any site in Cambridgeshire which has the food plants to sustain even a small population. Releasing Marsh Fritillaries here would be a pointless exercise but the one I fou...

Thanks for the wine information - I drink both!

As for the photos, it's almost like you're on another planet.

It feels like a poor season here in Cambs. We've had only brief and infrequent spells of sunshine, during which a few butterflies appear, but the number of species is behind for the date. On the 13th of April, there was a longer spell of sunshine. I went to my local churchyard and managed six specie...