Red Admirals sail in

4/7/2020

Because of the changeable and largely unfavourable week's weather we held out for Friday being the best day for our transect, and in doing so we inadvertently skipped week 13 as we passed the Wednesday to Wednesday transect-calendar week.

Our walk-around started in the face of strong gusty wind, cloudy sky and barely suitable temperatures but it obviously didn't deter our butterflies because in Section 1 (where sightings are usually sparse) we counted five Marbled Whites and ten Meadow Browns. We went on to have a very successful transect seeing butterflies from 15 different species, including five Red Admirals and our first Silver-washed Fritillaries of this season. As in previous weeks, we saw no Blues (Small, Common or otherwise) on our walk but maybe we'll see a second brood from the Common Blues and, of course, we're only two or three weeks from the start of the Chalkhill Blues' flight season.

Count details:
146 Marbled White
102 Ringlet
99 Meadow Brown
24 Small/Essex Skipper
5 Red Admiral
4 Comma
4 Dark Green Fritillary
4 Large Skipper
2 Silver-washed Fritillary
2 Small Copper
2 Small White
1 Speckled Wood
1 Small Heath
1 Brimstone
1 Peacock

Total: 398 Butterflies from 15 species.
Click on butterfly names for more info.

New bloom: Marjoram, Hill Wood Field

Survey by Graham H, Graham K, Brian Gardner and Roger Vye
submitted to Butterfly Conservation (UKBMS).
Report by Brian G.
Pics by Brian G & Graham K.
Click on pics to enlarge.