Butterfly and Moth Society
Covering Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Surrounding Areas
Butterfly and Moth Society
Covering Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Surrounding Areas
Magdalen Hill Down. Our normal trips to Magdalen Hill Down are characterised by back-breaking struggles up steep slopes pushing wheelbarrows full of heavy tools, so it's a real pleasure to make the occasional visit during peak season. Wonderful to see so many Adonis Blue on the slopes and between one and three Clouded Yellow (difficult to tell, given their mobility) amongst the clouds of Chalk Hill Blue, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Large White and Small White. Other species noted were Green-veined White, Holly Blue, Red Admiral, Painted Lady and Peacock. We're looking forward to the restart of the autumn working parties now ! [Posted by Rupert & Sharron Broadway]
Chalk Hill Blues at Old Winchester Hill. It was a warm, overcast morning on Old Winchester Hill, with the sky seemingly on the verge of getting brighter at any moment but without the sun actually breaking through. There were several bleached Dark Green Fritillary, pale shadows of their peak-condition selves; a fresh Marbled White, which was a surprise as I thought the heat waves earlier in the month had done for them; and, best of all, a Wall, which was the first I’ve seen at OWH this century. Fifteen species were seen in total, with the morning belonging to the Chalk Hill Blue, seen in very good numbers around the reserve. [Posted by Kevin Freeborn]
Itchen Abbas farmland. Farmers often get a bad press, but most of our local farms do what they can to encourage biodiversity, particularly by leaving wide margins with plenty of wildflowers. The butterflies have really benefited this year with many of the common grassland and hedgerow species plus the odd gem, such as this Clouded Yellow which I've seen in pretty much the same spot over the last two days. [Posted by Rupert Broadway]
Duke of Burgundy. It sure is a crazy year for butterflies - looking for Brown Hairstreaks with my flutterby friends today and found instead a lovely fresh second brood Duke of Burgundy. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Clouded Yellow - Danebury Hill Fort. Delighted to find my UK Butterfly #50 for 2025 today at Danebury Hill Fort - a lovely male Clouded Yellow. It has been through the wars a bit but still lovely to watch and photograph. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Clouded Yellow at Itchen Abbas. We were treated to a high speed flypast by a Clouded Yellow in our Itchen Abbas garden this afternoon: the 23rd species recorded this year and the 27th in the two years we have been living here, far exceeding our expectations. [Posted by Rupert Broadway]
A lovely 'Blue Day' - Magdalen Hill Down Nature Reserve. Made an early start to Magdalen Hill and the weather turned out a lot better than forecast. Lots of blues around including; Common Blue, Adonis Blue, Chalk Hill Blue and Small Blue. Also saw Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Peacock, Red Admiral, Small Tortoiseshell, Painted Lady, Dingy Skipper, Small Skipper, Brimstone, Brown Argus and a surprise Dark Green Fritillary - 19 species in total. Had a lovely peaceful day and even came home with a large pot of blackberries. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Silver-spotted Skippers. A frenzy of activity on Perham Down with 50 plus Silver-spotted Skippers. We saw several mating pairs and many males fighting for females. I have never seen so many at Perham - they were even spread into areas where I had not seen them before, fabulous to see. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Brown Hairstreak (m) - Shipton Bellinger. Lots of Brown Hairstreak (m) battling each other high up in several Ash trees throughout the area. Sadly none came down for any good photo opportunities but it was great to watch them and try and get a few images. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Yew Hill reserve walk. Good turnout at the Yew Hill BC reserve walk this morning, both in terms of participants and butterflies. Gatekeeper were present in uncountable numbers, covering every patch of marjoram. There were many Chalk Hill Blue, Common Blue, Meadow Brown, Small Heath, Small White, Large White and Green-veined White; along with several Brimstone, Brown Argus, Speckled Wood and Comma, a couple of Small Skipper and a very fresh Painted Lady. Conspicuous by their absence were some of the early summer species such as White-letter Hairstreak, Marbled White, Ringlet and Peacock, which had clearly completed the relevant stages of their life cycles early due to the hot sunny conditions.. Compensation came in the form of single Dark Green Fritillary and Small Copper - both generally difficult species to find at this site. Finally, a single Red Admiral flew by as the group was dispersing making 17 species recorded in total. [Posted by Rupert Broadway]
Purple Emperor Early stages. After spending many fruitless hours in Alice Holt forest looking for Purple Emperor eggs I decided to give West Wood a look - and I am glad I did. Shortly after exiting the car I came across a very surprising butterfly - a Wall. No photo unfortunately but I had a good clear view and apparently a very unusual occurrence for this site. They do have a habit of popping up in strange locations. However after the initial excitement I started the laborious task of examining likely sallows for the 1mm diameter egg. After two hours of eye boggling examination I checked a nice broad leaved sallow in semi shade and came across what I thought was an egg. However whilst trying to locate my hand lens I lost it! In the process of trying to relocate it I found a L1 larva and then relocated the egg! After all that effort - like buses two came along at once. Shortly after I found another larva so all in all a very successful day. [Posted by Mark Tutton]
Small Tortoiseshell bonanza. Having not seen a single Small Tortoiseshell in my walks around Hampshire this year, I was really pleasantly surprised to count 30+ on a two-mile section of the Limestone Way from Monyash towards Lathkill Dale in the Peak District on Saturday. In fact, there was a profusion of butterflies along the old drove road, with the small torts feasting on the wayside thistles and scabious in company with: small skipper, large skipper, large white, small white, green-veined white, speckled wood, small heath, ringlet, meadow brown, gatekeeper, dark green fritillary, red admiral, peacock, small copper and common blue. [Posted by Kevin Freeborn]
Stockbridge Down. Highlight of a very hot walk at a baked Stockbridge Down this morning was a few Dark Green Fritillary, all looking well past their best. Other species recorded in varying numbers were Brimstone, Green-veined White, Large White, Small White, Brown Argus, Chalk Hill Blue, Common Blue, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, Gatekeeper, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Small Heath and Speckled Wood. [Posted by Rupert & Sharron Broadway]
Micheldever Wood. We made the short trip to Micheldever Wood today in the hope of catching the last days of the Emperor. Results were inconclusive as we witnessed three treetop flyovers but were unable to convince ourselves that they might not be high-flying White Admirals. More experienced Emperor observers would have nailed it one way or the other! That apart, butterflies there were in profusion, including Large Skipper, Small Skipper, Large White, Green-veined White, Brimstone, Purple Hairstreak, Holly Blue, Brown Argus, Comma, Peacock, Red Admiral, White Admiral (two only), Silver-washed Fritillary (including a single Valezina), Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Ringlet and Speckled Wood. [Posted by Rupert & Sharron Broadway]
Hawkhill Inclosure & Magdalen Hill Down. A morning at Hawkhill Inclosure looking for Grayling and the afternoon at Magdalen Hill Down looking for Chalk Hill Blue. Huge success at both sites, we saw Grayling within minutes of arriving on the heathland and Chalk Hill Blue within minutes of arriving on the hillside at Magdalen. We usually have to search for the early Grayling but the heathland was full of them and we lost count after 20 plus. We also saw Large White, Small White, Gatekeeper, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper, Silver-studded Blue and a Fritillary but it was going so fast we could not ID it. At MHD we saw 15+ super fresh Chalk Hill Blue - had forgotten how lovely they are when they have newly emerged. There were also Large White, Small Skipper, Brown Argus, Common Blue, Gatekeeper, Meadow Brown and Brimstone. [Posted by Sheila Anne Williams]
Good day for garden butterflies. Good day for garden butterflies in Itchen Abbas today with 12 species recorded, including our first Large Skipper competing for basking space in the evening sunlight with two Comma and a Red Admiral. Other species recorded during the afternoon were Small Skipper, Large White, Small White, Common Blue, Peacock, Marbled White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Ringlet. [Posted by Rupert & Sharron Broadway]
Alice’s Emperors. Over the past week I have made several visits to Alice Holt forest to observe Purple Emperors. It seems they are having a very good season with numerous encounters and nice low down views of males taking ‘salts’ and more dubious substances! One count of twenty three males and a single female in Straits Inclosure is my best count for over ten years, and Ashley and I watched almost continuous activity at Abbots Wood for a period of thirty minutes, including four in a vista and a ‘follow me’ chase of a female leading a male off to make more Emperors. Sadly I lost ‘Flossie the Emperor dog’ back in March but have acquired a new pup ‘Beau’ who is in training and he encountered a nice male on his very first excursion into the woods. I have also noted two Valezina form of the Silver-washed Fritillary which have proved difficult to photograph, but I did manage a snap of one low down in vegetation before she disappeared back into the shadows. It would seem the ‘butterfly emergency’ does not apply to all species? [Posted by Mark Tutton]
