Trevor

[trevor]

Cheers Paul. The jungle grapevine was working well on Wednesday.
By early afternoon I had learned from other visitors that ' Bugsy ' ie you!, Neil H, Mark Colvin,
and Billy Rosenberg + others had chosen Faggs Wood to explore, and some success had been achieved.
Amazing that a butterfly most of us would only stumble across by accident occasionally could easily
be seen in some numbers on the same day!

PS Pleased you had a lift back to Ashford,

A few shots from the Cuckoo Trail. One butterfly of note was my first ( non stop ) Small White.
Also my first Bee fly of the year was found today.

[Wurzel]

Great to see more of the Large Torts Trevor but also the female Brimstones starting to show up

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

Cheers Wurzel. More Brimstones today, after the Large Torts it's now back down to earth with a bump!

With bright sunshine and warmer air to match I was pleased to find my first two Speckled Woods
of 2025 this morning. The first one gave itself away by seeing off a passing Brimstone, otherwise
it could have gone unnoticed. Also seen this morning, two Commas. a Red Admiral, four male Brimstones,
and a probable Green Veined White, judging by shape and flight pattern.

[trevor]

Among all the usual suspects today along the Cuckoo Trail was my first Large White
of the year. Also seen were two Small Whites, four Commas, two Peacocks, and a single Speckled Wood.

[millerd]

A great little mix of species, Trevor. I'd guess you'll have Orange Tips any day now, a probably Holly Blues soon afterwards - plenty of sunshine forecast!

Cheers,

Dave

[trevor]

Thanks Dave. The Cuckoo Trail always delivers at this time of year.
I had my first fly by Holly Blue yesterday, but that site is seldom early for Orange Tips.

I had a strange encounter with a pair of battling Speckled Woods this morning.
Instead of going their separate ways after a long sparring session both landed
side by side on some Ivy.

[Wurzel]

Cracking shot of the two Specklie Trevor A nicely growing collection of species as well - OT's must be only days, if not hours away now

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Nice image of the Speckled Woods, Trevor, and great to see a Large White so early. Been May before I've seen my first these last two years. Hopefully there'll be an April one very soon.

[trevor]

Cheers Wurzel. The Cuckoo Trail is usually a late site for OT's, but with all this sun who knows.

Thanks David, I've seen a few more Large Whites this week.

Another Specklie duo today, but this time they were flying horizontally close to the ground,
a sure sign of a male chasing a female. When they landed she closed her wings and started
to 'die ' but something spooked them and they shot off leaving me with one poor image.
On the way back to the car I found a female Brimstone nectaring on Celandine.
Peacocks and Commas were also seen. No OT''s yet.

[Wurzel]

"No OT''s yet." can't be long now Trevor...there were loads round this way today Cracking Brimstone

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

I'm sure Orange Tips will be out imminently round your way, Trevor.

Been a strange couple of weeks with the west of the country having the best of the conditions, which is very unusual.

[trevor]

Cheers Wurzel & David. Caught my first sight of a male OT today.
Too busy to land though. But it's a start!

A few shots the last few days at the Cuckoo Trail.

[John W]

Cheers Wurzel & David. Caught my first sight of a male OT today.
Too busy to land though. But it's a start!

Hi Trevor,

I've been seeing them in Wiston for a week now. Very flighty though in the wall to wall sunshine. Managed to get a couple of pics today when the weather was a bit more hazy.

Cheers
John W

[trevor]

Cheers John, I've seen your OT shots on facebook, I would have been happy to have taken
them myself. Great stuff. I guessed either Billingshurst or Wiston.

For my apology of an OT shot today, I apologise, but when there was a choice
of one patrolling male Orange Tip flying under a clear blue sky, in full sun with only
four Herb Robert flowers along the entire path for him to pause on perhaps I was lucky!
But at least they have started along the Cuckoo Trail. With so much patient waiting around
for a single OT to behave, my only other butterfly today was a rather nice Red Admiral.

[Wurzel]

You have to take your chances when you can with OTs Trevor so no apologies necessary I often find that after I've got a few shots on the memory card things get a little easier? Lovely Green-veined from the post before

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Going to go cooler and cloudier these next few days, Trevor. That usually makes things much easier with Orange Tips.

They've been bombing around like F16s in this warm sunshine.

[trevor]

Multitasking Green Veined Whites.

As well as getting on with the job of producing the next generat8on,
this mating pair are also sampling the surface of the bramble leaf.

[trevor]

I had an excellent day at the Cuckoo trail today. The Cow Parsley is in flower and the
Orange Tips have appeared, with five males seem.
Holly Blues numbers have built and were seen at all four of their ' Hot Spots ' along the trail.
A clear blue sky and the many Speckled Woods did make life difficult and challenging today though.

[Wurzel]

Lovely set of Holly Blue Trevor - I've just been bemoaning about how they've been tricky on Goldie's PD so it seems they're proving even more trickier for me judging by your shots Marshies are out at Compton Down, Dorset but no news from The Hill yet...

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[trevor]

Cheers Wurzel. Good to read of Marshies being seen already.
I don't yet know if I will get to see them this Year.

The beautiful weather clashing with ' that law '.

While making lunch about 10 days ago I came over very ill.
Phoned for an ambulance and was whisked off to intensive care, with lights and sirens.
It turns out I have an internal infection, which thinking back has been there for a while,
causing my body to believe it has symptoms of various ailments.
One convinced me and a doctor that I had arthritis It was all there, including painful joints.
all cleared up now.
Any way on the mend now.