May 2024

[David M]

Please, please can we have some warm weather!!

[Jack Harrison]

Try these in May. You never know!

Cotswolds early 1970s A few memories. The locations are as best I can recall.
The Small Blue and Duke to the west of Cowley are the most likely to be wrong, but I think not.
The area on the map is to the south of Cheltenham. As always, click for larger image.

Jack

[Jack Harrison]

1s May. My fourth species of the year, Peacock (others: GV White, Orange Tip, Small Tort. Seen on Forget-me-Not outside the window.

Jack

[bugboy]

A little something to get May off to a pleasant start!

[Katrina]

Beautiful Bugboy

[Allan.W.]

The Small Coppers are still emerging at Dungeness ,bit later than last years first brood ,understadably i suppose .Didn,t count them but probably around 70 seen in fine warm (19C) weather .I did glimpse a single Grizzled Skipper plus 1 Peacock and several Large and Small Whites . Several Hairy Hawkers around and my first two Damselflies of the season.

Allan.W.

[David M]

The Small Coppers are still emerging at Dungeness ,bit later than last years first brood ,understadably i suppose .Didn,t count them but probably around 70 seen in fine warm (19C) weather...

Great tally, Allan, although perhaps not surprising given the location and the temperature, which, incidentally, is higher than here in Andalusia right now!

[Chris L]

Best day of 2024 for me today in terms of numbers:

21 Orange Tip
7 Brimstone
5 Speckled Wood
4 Peacock
3 Green Veined White
3 Large White
2 Holly Blue
1 Red Admiral
1 Comma

And for most on the forum the numbers and species varieties will probably be considered crap

[Charles Nicol]

the Grizzled Skippers are out at Little Paxton Nature Reserve

i saw about 6

there was some sunshine, but mainly cloud + high humidity

[millerd]

Best day of 2024 for me today in terms of numbers:

21 Orange Tip
7 Brimstone
5 Speckled Wood
4 Peacock
3 Green Veined White
3 Large White
2 Holly Blue
1 Red Admiral
1 Comma

And for most on the forum the numbers and species varieties will probably be considered crap

That sounds pretty good to me, Chris - nearly 50 butterflies and 9 species is a decent tally at the moment!

I had another look at Denbies Hillside on the North Downs today - light overcast with some reasonable brightness in the middle of the day, and it was noticeably warmer at the foot of the slope. Around one o'clock (when the veiled sun was at its highest), down at the southwestern corner, I finally found both a Grizzled Skipper...

...and then a Dingy Skipper (my first of 2024).

I'm guessing that if the sun had tried a bit harder, there would have been a few more of both - and one or two other things as well.

Dave

[Bertl]

At last some orange tip butterfly on a sunny day in Aberdeen.

[Chris L]

the Grizzled Skippers are out at Little Paxton Nature Reserve

53693976828_80b075505e_c.jpg

53693765026_cea75735b2_c.jpg

i saw about 6

there was some sunshine, but mainly cloud + high humidity

Hmm, I looked to see where this was. 85 miles away from me. Have Grizzlies, will travel.

[Charles Nicol]

the Grizzled Skippers are out at Little Paxton Nature Reserve

53693976828_80b075505e_c.jpg

53693765026_cea75735b2_c.jpg

i saw about 6

there was some sunshine, but mainly cloud + high humidity

Hmm, I looked to see where this was. 85 miles away from me. Have Grizzlies, will travel.

you can have a lovely day out ! there is a splendid visitor centre with friendly helpers, inexpensive beverages & second hand books etc.
the large free car park has recently been mended.

[David M]

..And for most on the forum the numbers and species varieties will probably be considered crap

Not at all, Chris. That's a very respectable tally.

[David Lazarus]

Site Visit 01/05/2024 Langdon Hills - Johnson's Meadows

I went on my second site visit of the year, this time to Langdon Hills Country Park near Basildon in Essex where I was hoping to catch a sighting of a Green Hairstreak. Unfortunately, I struck out.

However, it was still a worthwhile trip. After a slow start in muggy conditions the Green-veined White started flying:

Green-veined White 01/05/2024 Johnson's Meadows

Followed shortly by the Orange-tip. At last I managed to find a female Orange-tip with 'normal' apical tips. Rather than the pale grey markings of the 5 females I have encountered in Chelmsford, 4 of which were in Meadgate Fields Open Space and 1 along the River Chelmer, some 2 kilometres away, the female Orange-tip at Langdon Hills had the usual black apical tips and very bold discoidal spots:

The following were taken with the same iPhone 11 Plus with the same settings and very similar light conditions:

Orange-tip 29/04/2024 f Meadgate Fields Open Space

Orange-tip 01/05/2024 f Johnson's Meadows

It could well be that, for some reason, the female Orange-tip that I have encountered in Chelmsford are, as Allan and David have said, Anthocharis cardamines ab. decolorata. I find it hard to believe that every female Orange-tip in Chelmsford is an aberration and will continue to hunt down the species. I will update you.

Although I did not see my target species I did encounter my first ever 'confirmed' Wall with a photograph; and also the first Small Copper of 2024, making 14 species for me in 2024 so far. Both females were not very obliging and would not provide me with a happy snap. Record images only, highly cropped - sorry:

Wall 01/05/2024 f Johnson's Meadows

Small Copper f 01/05/2024 Johnson's Meadows

and for the second time this year, which must be very lucky, I encountered a female Speckled Wood ovipositing on what appeared to be Red Fescue Festuca rubra subsp. rubra which is not listed as a larval food plant. I suspect she knows what she is doing and there must be some Cock's-foot, False Brome, or Yorkshire Fog close by:

Speckled Wood f 01/05/2024 Johnson's Meadows

Results: 12 Peacock; 1 Comma; 12 Green-veined White; 10 Orange-tip; 1 male + 1 female Brimstone; 1 male + 1 female Speckled Wood; 1 Wall; and 2 Small Copper. 41 of 7 species plus my first Silver Y of 2024.

[David Lazarus]

Site Visit 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits NR

Unexpected good weather near the Essex Coast meant I jumped on an early train for my second site visit of the week- really spoiling myself - in search of Green Hairstreak again as one had been reported at Great Holland Pits, and obviously I struck out again - two strikes in a week is not a very good streak

After a very slow start to the day during which I only encountered a Latticed Heath:

Latticed Heath 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

and a couple more Silver Y which have obviously started to enter Essex from the continent:

Silver Y 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

The muggy weather was replaced by hot sunny conditions at midday and the butterflies duly responded for the couple of hours I was there. The first to show were a Speckled Wood, and then a Comma attempting to warm its wings up:

Speckled Wood m 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Comma 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Soon, there were numerous Green-veined White, Orange-tip, and Brimstone everywhere. They even obliged me by nectaring on the dandelions, daisies, and speedwell. Particularly pleasing was one of each, male and female Brimstone:

Brimstone f 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Brimstone m 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Green-veined White f 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Green-veined White m 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

The female Orange-tip once again were the species with black apical tips as opposed to the ones on my local patch - I wasn't able to photograph any of them.

Orange-tip m 02/05/2024 Great Holland Pits

Results of a couple of hours butterflying: 7 Peacock; 4 Comma; 3 Red Admirals; 29 Green-veined White; 14 Orange-tip; 1 Large White; 8 female + 20 M Brimstone; 2 Speckled Wood; and a solitary Holly Blue; with a single Orange-tip, Large White, and a Red Admiral flying eastward very rapidly on the road to the reserve. 82 sightings of 9 species.

I was still in the mood, so I took myself to The Naze NR for a late afternoon stroll where the butterflies were still active for a couple of hours in the warm, sunny conditions. A further 17 Peacocks; 1 Red Admiral; 12 Green-veined White; 6 male Orange-tip [one particularly tiny]; 1 female Brimstone; and the highlight was seeing 11 Small White fluttering around the rape on a large mound of earth with some Orange-tip during which I managed to get some action shots:

Peacock 02/05/2024 The Naze

Red Admiral 02/05/2024 The Naze

Orange-tip m 02/05/2024 The Naze

Small White 02/05/2024 The Naze

[zigzag_wanderer]

I saw a few more butterflies during lunchtimes at work this week. No Brimstone or Orange Tip, though I'm sure they were around at times, but Holly Blue and GVW were definitely more to the fore.

The eyebrows of this Peacock's owl face look a little browner than usual, maybe just more worn/faded. Also a Harlequin ladybird with one much darker elytron (could still see the spots underneath the darker wash though). My first damselflies of the year too. All seemed to be Common Blue with equal numbers male and female, but all still that wheat colour of juveniles.

Also an early instar looper caterpillar with distinctive splayed out hind legs. Looking online, November Moth cats look very similar, but so do many others I'm sure.

[Bertl]

Down in Clackmannanshire late afternoon today. Overcast but warm weather meant a few butterflies were around. Orange tip, GVW and a real early speckled wood (for me).

[Vince Massimo]

News from Crawley:

Of the eight Brown Hairstreak eggs laid in the garden last year, four were lost and only one of the remaining three has hatched. This was on 10th April, which is about average for this species in this area. A casual inspection of the Blackthorn on 2nd May found a 5mm long larva very close to the site of the hatched egg.

Brown Hairstreak larva - Crawley, Sussex 2-May-2024

Very close by on the same plant was a moth larva, which looks to me like a Sprawler.

Sprawler larva - Crawley, Sussex 2-May-2024

The studies of overwintering Red Admiral larvae is nearing an end for another year. Having recently lost track of the final two 5th instar larvae at the study site at Ifield Meadows, all that remain are two rescue individuals which were reared in the open in the garden. The first was from a rescue egg which hatched on 14th January and is now a fully grown larva which is suspended in a rather modest-sized shelter and should be pupating in the next few days.

Red Admiral pupation tent - Crawley, Sussex 1-May-2024

The other is a rescued 5th instar which would have hatched from an egg in late November or early December which pupated outside on 24th April.

Fox news: Our resident vixen looks like she has given birth to cubs, but they have not been seen yet. She spends most of the day asleep in the garden where she knows she will not be disturbed. However, yesterday she was woken by a Magpie who was picking something from her fur.

Vixen and Magpie - Crawley, Sussex 4-May-2024

Also, I have finally got round to planting some peas in my seaside garden in Lancing, with the hope of attracting egg-laying Long-tailed Blues later in the year. I had a male there last year, so fingers crossed.

Garden - Lancing, Sussex 29-April-2024

Vince

[millerd]

Highlights of a beautiful sunny morning near Heathrow.

A brand new Speckled Wood...

...a Holly Blue laying on goats' rue...

...and my first Small Copper of the year.

Sometimes there's just no need to go any further afield...

More in my PD soon.

Dave