April 2020

[Allan.W.]

On my "exercise " walk this morning ,I used the car (first time for about a month ) to visit a Grizzle site just outside my "new local "patch ( 5 minutes by car ,about 20 minutes by bike ,which I,m now going to switch to !!) ,was pleased to see on arrival ,the ground in front of the site ,was a carpet of Ground Ivy ,and normally late in their (Grizzles ) flight season they seem to cotton on to these plants ,and fly over the raised bund ,which divides their little colony ,in their area on the other side ,was very little nectar sources ,but positioning myself beside ,half a dozen
Dandelion heads ,finally paid off ,and my first Grizzle of the season showed up ,a female ,spent about 45 minutes on site ,and found one other a male.

Allan.W.

[Jack Harrison]

Hazards of Butterflying

In the prison exercise yard, (aka garden) I saw my first “white” of the year today 23 April. GV or Small ? (GV the more likely). It landed on a Dandelion. Unfortunately, it was on the far side of the garden sprinkler.
I got rather wet confirming GV White.

Jack

[David M]

Saw two Wall Browns at the top of Kilvey Hill in Swansea on 22nd. Such a joy to see their playful flight, particularly in view of the fires that have been raging up there lately:

[Stevieb]

The usual suspects on my walk today. I wish I could go further afield and get the Grizzles and Green 'streaks but alas not to be.

Female Orange-tip 23rd April

Male Brimstone 23rd April

Comma 23rd April

Female Orange-tip 23rd April

Red Admiral

[Padfield]

Following the holly blues, the orange tips have now started laying in our garden. I found an egg on most garlic mustard plants when I looked today. Two of the plants I had transplanted yesterday from inside the fruit cage, where butterflies couldn't reach them. These eggs, therefore, are today's - and both are white, like this one:



All the others were orange, implying they were laid yesterday or before:



I spotted my first green hairstreaks of the year on the sandlings - two males, tumbling above a hawthorn tree but sadly always alighting the far side, out of view.

Here is a speckled wood, also enjoying hawthorn but elsewhere on the same walk:



Still haven't come across one of these large tortoiseshells yet!

Guy

[Vince Massimo]

In the past few days I have been finding Small White and Orange-tip eggs in the garden, all on garlic mustard. Yesterday the Orange-tip egg looked like it was about to hatch so I monitored it for a few hours and got some shots.

Orange-tip egg preparing to hatch - Crawley, Sussex 22-April-2020

Orange-tip larva emerging - Crawley, Sussex 22-April-2020

Orange-tip larva consuming egg shell - Crawley, Sussex 22-April-2020

I also spent some time watching a mason/mining bee making use of my bee hotel.

Mining Bee - Crawley, Sussex 22-April-2020

Vince

[aeshna5]

Your bee is a Red Mason Bee, Osmia bicornis. They really take to these tubes. Great shots of the hatching Orange Tip egg. I watched a female Brimstone laying some eggs in my garden on some Alder Buckthorn this morning.

[Padfield]

Hi Vince. What part of the plant is that? I only find orange tip eggs on pedicels, tucked away in the inflorescence, but that looks as if it's on a stem or leaf stem.

Guy

[bugboy]

My lunchtime walk at work today (central north London) turned up a male Brown Argus. Of note for 2 reasons, 1 it's rather early and 2 its my first record of this species at work, my 22nd species on record here. Pics in a few days

[Vince Massimo]

Your bee is a Red Mason Bee, Osmia bicornis. They really take to these tubes. Great shots of the hatching Orange Tip egg. I watched a female Brimstone laying some eggs in my garden on some Alder Buckthorn this morning.

Thanks for the information Aeshna. She capped off that tube today and was carefully selecting another from the box.

Capped cell

Bug box

Later there was a smaller bee working in one of the tubes, possibly a Blue Mason bee.

possible Blue Mason bee

Then an even smaller one investigating all the holes. I suspect a Cuckoo Bee of some sort.

possible Cuckoo Bee

I'm still waiting for Brimstone eggs on my Buckthorn.

Hi Vince. What part of the plant is that? I only find orange tip eggs on pedicels, tucked away in the inflorescence, but that looks as if it's on a stem or leaf stem.

Guy - The egg was on the middle of a side stem which is a very unusual position in my experience. There were no other eggs on the plant which had lots of leaves and flowers. Here is an un-cropped image showing the location and another of the plant, which is in a pot.

Location of egg

This post was edited with the addition of extra images on 24th April

Vince

[Pete Eeles]

I decided to get some exercise by lugging 2.5 tonnes of camera equipment up a hill to get the shot below Holly Blues are doing really well, and it was great to spend a good chunk of time watching a female splatter this Holly bush with her eggs, which I'm hoping to follow through.

Cheers,

- Pete

[David M]

Very nice, Pete. Worth the weightlifting.

[Padfield]

Thanks for the bigger picture, Vince. The cat doesn't have too far to go to reach a seed pod.

Fantastic pictures, Pete. As David says, well worth the body-building!

On a different heath from yesterday, I found some more green hairstreaks today. This one was parading on gorse but not nectaring:



In the garden, I assumed this was a female holly blue laying until I looked at the photos. It is a male nectaring on holly flowers, high up in the tree:



The egg I found three days ago is now clothed in what looks like a spider's snare. Is this deliberate? Will the emerging larva be OK? Caterpillars are usually good with silk but I have seen them wrapped up by spiders so they can't escape:



Guy

[Stevieb]

Just a few from my lunchtime wander.

Female Green-veined White 24th April

Male Green-veined White 24th April

Green-veined White 24th Aril

Male Brimstone 24th April (love all the yellows!)

Male Orange-tip 24th April

Red Admiral 24th April

[Neil Freeman]

My take on how the eleven species I've seen locally are doing so far:

Peacock - exceptionally good, including a count of 45 in one day
Comma - good, especially early on
Small Tortoiseshell - worryingly few seen compared to last spring (and that was very average)
Red Admiral - no overwinterers seen, but numbers have just started to pick up (immigrants//emergences?)
Speckled Wood - average, but better than the poor spring showing last year
Brimstone - quite poor, with hardly any being seen at the moment
Orange Tip - very good, with daily counts of 20+ regularly currently
Small White - picking up a bit, but nothing exceptional
Green-veined White - slowly increasing, but nothing special
Large White - very few, but this is not unusual in spring on my patch
Holly Blue - reaching the 30-a-day mark, with plenty of new males still emerging. A good year so far, but I can't remember the last poor one here

The unusually sunny and warm weather has no doubt played a part following a winter barely worthy of the name. Only half a dozen air frosts (one of which was at the start of April!) and the average day maximum temperature for each of the three winter months Dec/Jan/Feb was above 10 degrees. I think a few flakes of wet snow might have been spotted in November before my last Holly Blue sighting on 27th. That was winter. (Heathrow weather observations)

Dave

Seeing Dave's thoughts on these, I thought I would add my tuppence worth based on my local area here in Solihull.
My observations are obviously based on a limited sample seen at 1) My garden, 2) Regular walks to a patch of rough ground adjacent to a local park and 3) A couple of longer walks to a local Country Park.

Peacock - Good numbers, especially last week of March and early April.
Comma - Low numbers but regularly seen.
Small Tortoiseshell - Highest spring numbers for a long time. Backed up by other midland reports I have seen.
Red Admiral - None seen yet but that is normal for my patch.
Speckled Wood - Seems average so far. Numbers still building.
Brimstone - Few males and no females seen so far. Often hit and miss around my patch.
Orange-tip - Seems about average so far.
Small White - Seems to be average numbers but now being overtaken by Green-veined White.
Green-veined White - Seems about average but numbers still increasing.
Large White - Too early to tell yet here. Just 2 seen so far.
Holly Blue - Very poor. Just 1 female and 3 or 4 males seen in my garden. None anywhere else.

The big standout differences between the two lists is Small Tortoiseshell which has had a very good spring here and Holly Blue which so far is having a very poor one. Both cases are the opposite to what Dave has seen.

Cheers,

Neil.

[David M]

Just a few from my lunchtime wander.

You really have tamed those Pierids this spring, Stevie.

[Stevieb]

Just a few from my lunchtime wander.

You really have tamed those Pierids this spring, Stevie.

Thanks David, more luck than judgement though

[aeshna5]

For me in west London suburbs my impressions so far:

Peacock- very good numbers, best spring for some years for them
Red Admiral- no overwinterers. First seen earlier this week & 1 or 2 daily since
Comma-low numbers Just 1 or 2 almost daily
Small Tortoiseshells: small numbers around. Similar to last couple of seasons
Painted Lady- 1 sighting earlier this week. Fresh looking, difficult to say whether genuine migrant or a release from one of these educational rearing packs
Speckled Wood- fair number about
Holly Blue- after slow start, numbers building nicely. At least 3 in the garden.
Small White - numbers building up this week
Orange Tip- excellent numbers & most garden sightings ever (combination of superb weather & being around more due to lockdown)
Brimstone- good numbers. Female egg laying in garden on Alder Buckthorn
Green-veined White- numbers slowly building
Large White-just one sighting to date

[David M]

Here's how things have been round my way so far:

Peacock - Excellent showing. Seen more of these than any other species
Comma - Saw quite a few early doors but not too many lately
Small Tortoiseshell - Not great in all honesty. The odd one pops up here and there but they are fairly infrequent
Red Admiral - Only two seen as of yet
Speckled Wood - Normal numbers. Nothing spectacular
Brimstone - Far fewer than last year, though there were plenty about in late March and early April
Orange-tip - Good numbers. Commonest species at the moment
Small White - About normal for the spring brood. A few here and there
Green-veined White - Scarce at first but this last 10 days or so I've seen plenty more
Large White - Decent. Last year there were hardly any but I reckon I'm into the twenties this spring.
Holly Blue - Very good again. I must have seen almost 100 thus far.

[jenks]

My sightings almost mirror that of yours, David. Living c40 miles further east than you perhaps that`s not surprising but there are some small differences; Small Tortoiseshell nil. Where are they all ? Holly Blue, just 1, but I haven`t been able to visit any of the local cemeteries which are normally productive for me in seeing this species. They`re all locked up. Large White just 1, yesterday. Peacock the most numerous for me this year, followed by Brimstone and Orange Tip.
For my exercise walk yesterday I took the Taff trail northwards and then took a path up onto the hillside above Pontypridd where old coal spoil is covered by Gorse. Had a good search hoping for Green Hairstreak but no luck. Perhaps still a little early for this species? I`ll have to re-visit this area though as it may yet yield this plus Skippers, Small Copper etc. There were other compensations though. Whitethroats and Tree Pipits singing and displaying plus Sedge Warbler in one damp area plus a fine male Redstart which I wasn`t expecting. And heard (but not seen) Cuckoo some way in the distance.

Jenks.