essexbutterflyer

[essexbutterflyer]

Hello fellow butterfly enthusiasts!

I've made this diary as a space to note down my butterfly musings.

As the winter draws in, and the season wraps up, there is perhaps no better time for some reflection. I thought i'd begin by considering my "species of the year". Admittedly I don't have a clear criteria for this... something involving a mix of experiences, photography, population but also just "vibes" .

The first contender is the Comma. This species was present the whole year - from blackthorn to bramble berry season . No other common large nymphalid matched this, with their populations either being concentrated early (Peacock), later on (Red Admiral), or barely there at all (Small Tortie, Painted Lady). Many a time I would come across a lonely Hutchinsoni, a friend when the other nettle-loving species were few. And they posed nicely too .

Comma, One Tree Hill, South Essex

The second contender is the Silver-washed Fritillary. My first year seeing them, and a species that is almost purely here from an awe of them. They turned up at an EWT nature reserve much closer to home than where I first began looking for them, which gives them bonus points (who doesn't love when butterflies surprise you?).

Male SVW, South Essex

Female SVW, South Essex

[Wurzel]

Lovely set of images Essexbutterflyer Welcome to the PD's on UKB

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David Lazarus]

From a fellow South Essex butterfly enthusiast, Zayed, welcome to PD - I look forward to reading your musings.

[essexbuzzard]

A warm welcome from west Essex, too! And I agree. Commas are always lovely to see...

[essexbutterflyer]

Thanks everyone for your welcomes!

[essexbutterflyer]

2024 Winners and Losers

It's the first of December and the cold, rainy weather really reflects it. By this point last year I had accepted I wouldn't see any butterflies for the winter, however this year, despite the overall poorness of the season, recent butterfly sightings have given me hope that perhaps the odd decent spell of weather may tempt out a red admiral...

Regardless, I thought I'd reflect on what species did well this year and what did particularly (the list otherwise would be too long ) poorly.

The species I'm most concerned about is the Brown Argus. This butterfly was completely absent (to the best of my knowledge) in my local haunts - in fact I only saw a handful all year. The only site they seemed to be plentiful at was not even in Essex - I bumped into them at Queendown Warren, Kent whilst looking for other blues. Last year they were very easy to find, equal or even greater in population to common blues. Since 2024 is only my second year butterflying, i cannot yet tell whether 2023 was simply an exceptionally good year or 2024 was terrible (without of course looking at data) - either ways i hope they make a return next year.

Brown Argus, female second brood, Gunners Park Shoeburyness

With the notable exclusion of Ringlets, it seems that the year was poor in general for grassland butterflies. Meadow browns were certainly down, but Gatekeepers were the second biggest concern for me. I'm hoping that I merely missed them due to a busy few weeks in August, as opposed to an actual vast drop in numbers.

Lastly, Painted Ladies were another massive concern. I only saw one in Essex, at Shoeburyness East Beach (which I have to add also had very butterfly low numbers compared to last year, but did have brown argus and wall brown). I did see a few others, including 1/2 in Brighton (also down on the couple I saw last year) and one at Chobham Common.

Painted Lady, Amex Stadium, Brighton 2023

[David Lazarus]

2024 Winners and Losers

The species I'm most concerned about is the Brown Argus. This butterfly was completely absent (to the best of my knowledge) in my local haunts - in fact I only saw a handful all year. The only site they seemed to be plentiful at was not even in Essex...

Your observations of butterfly species abundance within Essex align with mine, Zayed. I was, however, fortunate to come across 20+ Brown Argus at two sites that I would recommend: Benfleet Downs on the 28th August & Wallasea Island on the 29th, but like you numbers were low here in Chelmsford. I say fortunate because both broods seemed to be very short-lived also - here and gone within a week to 10 days.

Very disappointing

[Wurzel]

The Brown Argus is definitely a bit of a concern as people from various parts all seem to be saying the same thing. Hopefully it'll be the 'bust' bit of their cycle and we can get back to a 'boom' soon. As for the Painted Lady they were a bit thin on the ground this year but again they also seem to be on a cycle that last a good few years so again fingers crossed! Cracking shots by the way

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Welcome from me too, essexbutterflyer.

Like you, I too have been alarmed at the lack of Brown Argus this year. I think practically all those species that thrive on terrain with relatively sparse turf did poorly.

Fingers crossed that 2025 proves somewhat more conducive.

[Jack Harrison]

Not entirely relevant, but I didn't find Northern Brown Argus in my usual spot at Grantown-on-Spey.

After a wet spring, the general vegetation was probably too lush (as remarked on by others about the Brown Argus).

Jack

[essexbutterflyer]

Your observations of butterfly species abundance within Essex align with mine, Zayed. I was, however, fortunate to come across 20+ Brown Argus at two sites that I would recommend: Benfleet Downs on the 28th August & Wallasea Island on the 29th, but like you numbers were low here in Chelmsford. I say fortunate because both broods seemed to be very short-lived also - here and gone within a week to 10 days.

Very disappointing

That's disappointing to know David, but good that there were some colonies with good numbers. And perhaps the short length of their broods was mirrored in my local colonies - I suppose there is a slight chance they may have escaped my hunting from them in that case, especially considering my local colonies were not as strong as those mentioned even last year.

Zayed

[essexbutterflyer]

The Brown Argus is definitely a bit of a concern as people from various parts all seem to be saying the same thing. Hopefully it'll be the 'bust' bit of their cycle and we can get back to a 'boom' soon. As for the Painted Lady they were a bit thin on the ground this year but again they also seem to be on a cycle that last a good few years so again fingers crossed! Cracking shots by the way

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Thanks Wurzel, that Painted Lady picture has to be one of my favourites!

Ah, I didn't know that Brown Argus have a boom and bust lifecycle - that's slightly relieving to know! I do hope 2024 was the bust then.
Thanks for your input!

[essexbutterflyer]

Welcome from me too, essexbutterflyer.

Like you, I too have been alarmed at the lack of Brown Argus this year. I think practically all those species that thrive on terrain with relatively sparse turf did poorly.

Fingers crossed that 2025 proves somewhat more conducive.

Thanks David, and I agree wholly.

Zayed

[essexbutterflyer]

Not entirely relevant, but I didn't find Northern Brown Argus in my usual spot at Grantown-on-Spey.

After a wet spring, the general vegetation was probably too lush (as remarked on by others about the Brown Argus).

Jack

An interesting point, and something I have certainly noticed but had not considered before. I will have to keep an eye out for their food plant next year. Hope you find them next year!

[essexbutterflyer]

2024 Winners and Losers

Yesterday I waffled on about the losers of 2024, today I'll look at the better-off species!

In general specialist species seem to do well, but in my neck of the woods there aren't very many of these, and not any that I previously saw last year.

So the species that tops this list is the Ringlet - I was simply flabbergasted at the numbers of these compared to last year. This may in part be due to the discovery of a new local site, Folkes Lane Woodland (where I also found brilliant numbers of Marbled White, more on them later), where I easily found hundreds of them, but even in my local sites they did very well. I even managed to find a few at a park I was unable to find any at last year (the displays claimed they were present, and the habit seemed ideal). I suppose the wet cooler weather that hurt so many other species was perfect for Ringlets - I'm glad I could spend more time with them .

Ringlet, Folkes Lane Woodland

Second on the list has to be the amazing third brood of Walls. First a handful turned up at Rainham Marshes, which in itself was lovely news considering they have been on-and-off in the past few years but always in very low numbers i.e. the odd one or two (or so I hear), but then went on to produce a stunning third brood at other sites. At Tilbury I must've seen a good 50 in one day - roughly 10x as many as I'd seen the rest of the year! I'm hoping a female turned up at Rainham, but we shall have to see.

Wall Brown, 3rd brood male, Tilbury

Wall Brown, 3rd brood male, Tilbury - living up to its name :)

Third on the list is probably Marbled White. A very similar story to Ringlets, new site where they did spectacularly etc. But they even turned up at other local sites, albeit in low numbers, where I a. hadn't seen them before and b.wasn't expecting to see them. Whether these were "explorers" as i like to call them, or whether there were already small colonies that I missed I do not know, but regardless it was very pleasing to see them closer to home .

Marbled White, Folkes Lane Woodland

[David Lazarus]

Once again, Zayed, it reflects my own findings as we have mentioned in other posts.

The Ringlet was a big winner in 2024 for me also after a very poor year last year. They formed a main part of one of the seasonal ride profiles at Hatfield Forest where I was seeing 100+ along the rides within the wet woodland during their peak flight period. Highly recommended butterflying site.

And of course the Wall - I am glad you managed to experience the amazing emergence of 3rd brood Wall along the Thames Estuary Path at East Tilbury.

And there were indeed females at Rainham Marshes. So I am looking forward to searching for the results during Spring 2025.

[Wurzel]

Lovely shots Zayed It's interesting that you had a good year with Ringlets as I had a 'blink and you missed them' one with that species I think that is down to the different weather that the West got this year being generally cooler, wetter and grayer than further east?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

[David M]

Here in south Wales, Peacocks did well in spring, but after that, everything was around in smaller numbers than usual except Small Whites, which had a huge rally toward late August and through September.

[essexbutterflyer]

Once again, Zayed, it reflects my own findings as we have mentioned in other posts.

The Ringlet was a big winner in 2024 for me also after a very poor year last year. They formed a main part of one of the seasonal ride profiles at Hatfield Forest where I was seeing 100+ along the rides within the wet woodland during their peak flight period. Highly recommended butterflying site.

And of course the Wall - I am glad you managed to experience the amazing emergence of 3rd brood Wall along the Thames Estuary Path at East Tilbury.

And there were indeed females at Rainham Marshes. So I am looking forward to searching for the results during Spring 2025.

Are there Purple Emps at Hatfield David, or any specialists? Thanks very much.

Looking forward to spring! Also planning to visit Rainham soon to search for the eggs of another butterfly...

[essexbutterflyer]

Lovely shots Zayed It's interesting that you had a good year with Ringlets as I had a 'blink and you missed them' one with that species I think that is down to the different weather that the West got this year being generally cooler, wetter and grayer than further east?

Have a goodun

Wurzel

Ah that's a shame! I must admit i'd normally be a little jealous because of some of our Western species but in this case i'm very glad we had better weather . Hope 2025 is sunnier for us all.