It was a Fantastic Super Saturday for Buttterflying at Totternhoe nature reserve. For me I had two of my earliest ever records, (Six) Duke of Burgundy and (Four) Dingy Skipper - This probably meant I could have even missed the first sightings by 3 or 4 days. Today also were my first Grizzled Skipper...

The last two days in Houghton Regis, I have achieved my goal with sightings of the main five over wintering butterflies. After their dreadful 2024 the most welcoming sightings have been the Three indivdual Small Tortoiseshells. The Red Admirals and Brimstones were all very active on the wing, and no...

Sorry, I have also had to choose not a favourite photo, but my favourite butterfly for 2024. The Small Blue holds a special place in my heart with many special memories recorded in 2024. I am extremely proud to have been informed by our county recorder from Bedfordshire, that I hold every single Sma...

Yesterday in Houghton Regis I was up and running with a Peacock. Today in Totternhoe, I had my first couple of Brimstone sightings.

I had a similar situation as Goldie in my neck of the woods. The White Admirals were few an far between. There was just the one opportunity that arised to take a photo. That's my lot for 2024 with 33 photo's from 35 different species of butterflies seen in my county Bedfordshire. 20240628_113129 Whi...

The Silver-washed Fritillary did not have a very good 2024 locally. I had to go to kingswood, Heath N Reach to guarantee at least a few sightings. This one was the only half decent photo that I managed to take.

Until I got this photo of a Peacock and Gatekeeper together, I didn't realise how much smaller the Gatekeeper actually is. It is slighly behind the Peacock which probably gives a slight ilusion that it appears slightly smaller than it actually is. Still it does look very small in comparison. 2024080...

I don't get much clearer images than this with my current mobile phone. These two get the nod as my favourites.

Unusually the first Orange Tip of 2024 happened to be a female. I would normally expect to encounter a few males for a few days before the first encounter of a female. I have therefore choosen this first of the year female Orange Tip as my favourite.

Just in Houghton Regis quarry alone, good numbers of Meadow Browns were continuing to emerge right up until the last week of September. on the 1st September I recorded 78 individuals with 3 pairs. The last visit of the month on the 27th September produced a count of 27 individuals and 1 pair. My ver...

This one is from my local patch. Numbers were OK in 2024, but well down compared to 2023.

As is normally the case with Large Whites, the numbers tend to build up slowly throughout the season with each generation. In 2024 the late summer generation exploded into life from late August into early September.

Not many of these to be found locally in 2024. A few miles up the road at KingsWood, Heath N Reach, I had my largest daily count of 53 on the 28th June.

All my photo's this year were from the spring brood. After that there were very few sightings, the last sighting was an out of the blue sighting on the 16th October.

After a disastrous year in 2023 locally, the Grizzled Skipper made a slight recovery in 2024. This one I liked as my favourite.

I have selected this as my favourite photo. This one has been choosen as this was the last mating pair of the day out of SIX other mating couples that were recorded on my walk through Sewell and Totternhoe nature reserves. This was also my own personal record count in one day for mating GV Whites. I...

The Green Hairstreak had a very poor season in my part of country. Despite very low numbers I have selected three favourites. The reason I have choosen the first two, is because they are photos from two previously un-recorded 1k square grid locations. I had a total of three single sightings in three...

My favourite is this pair of GateKeeper's from my local patch on 17th July 2024. This photo was taken when on a slow stroll to work.

I like this one as my favourite. It is a front view, and I also like the way that it has been captured by its surroundings.

Only half of a Duke of Burgundy, but this goes down as my favourite due to the importance of the find. This is Bedfordshires second rarest butterfly, and this photo was taken in a previously un-recorded location in Houghton Regis quarry. The quarry is massive, but the area where it was found is only...