Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
White Admiral & Purple Hairstreak in the Knebworth Woods. In the mid-morning sunshine, a White Admiral flitting close to the ground by the north-south public footpath west of Newton Wood (TL22392253) - a hot-spot for this species. Also a Purple Hairstreak flying over the top of a tall oak by the track at Norton Green. One more species to go! [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Purple Emperor, Silver-washed Fritillary and White Admiral all flying at Bricket Wood Common. I arrived at the canopy gap in Murchetts Wood at 1pm, the sky cloudy and overcast. A brief glimpse of sun at 1.40 pm activated 3 Purple Hairstreaks and then a Purple Emperor, cruising along the edge of the canopy, then gliding across the gap. No further sun, but a White Admiral was Nectaring on bramble along gas pipe ride. Chris Newman reports 4 White Admirals and 4 Silver-washed Fritillaries from this weeks transect. Note if you visit this site, the best part of gas pipe ride is currently closed due to pipeline maintenance works [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Scales Park. Purple emperor female feasting on salts on my leg. 3-4 silver-washed fritillaries. Speckled wood and ringlet probably the abundant species. Large skipper quite common. Lots of pierids and a few meadow browns. [Posted by Hugo Rainey]
Purple Emperors at Heartwood Forest. After visiting daily for a week I can finally report sightings of adult Purple Emperors. But as you can see, my first of the year was a freshly hatched female - now that was unexpected!! (The sex was confirmed by none other than the great PE guru Matthew Oates). I was about to head home at midday after 2 hours of fruitless searching in near 30 degree heat, when I decided to check up on the one remaining pupa of the two I reported on the 15th (the other hatched some time on Thursday). Imagine my surprise when I couldn't see the pupa, and thought it was hidden by a leaf, only to realise that the leaf itself was the butterfly drying its wings! My oh my, that was exciting! And then the icing on the cake - ten minutes later I finally spotted my first male. It was touching down repeatedly but irregularly along the ride along the north-west edge of Langley Wood, and then landed practically at my feet. Sadly I only got a fleeting few seconds to fire off some souvenir shots before it flew off, but hey, beggars and choosers etc, and Heartwood is now definitely tinged with purple! [Posted by Andrew Neild]
Lime Avenue, Whippendell Woods, Newland Springs and Dell Wood. We did set up a table for the Purple Emperor today along the Lime Avenue Cassiobury. However after 2 and a half hours we got our first sighting of probably a lone early one here so far as we did check other high points but no further sightings so far. Rick did at least get a bit of video footage although a bad angle. This Emperor decided to get a bit more active probably briefly about 1pm as we were packing down as it was clouding over and possible rain expected. Other butterfly species seen along the Lime Avenue. Red Admiral, Comma, Meadow Brown, Whites, Large and probably GV White, also 1 Hairstreak spotted, my bet would be White-Letter with this as I should have seen a bit more silver looking underwing if it was a Purple. After packing down the table we ventured into Whippendell Woods first and saw 2 White Admiral, Comma, GV White and Large, Ringlet and Meadow Brown to start with before moving on towards Dell Wood. To get there we had to go through Newlands Springs Wood by the Rousebarn Lane car park. Butterfly sightings at Newland Springs Wood. Ringlets, Meadow Brown, whites, Comma 2, Speckled Wood 1. including return journey. We did reach Dell Wood although cloudy and spots of rain until 4pm. Butterflies seen. Whites galore, Large and Green-Veined identified, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper, Comma. Also I'm about 90% certain a White Admiral was seen in Dell Wood. It was on the path outside Dell Wood which turned out to be the highlight of the day for me. I narrowly missed treading on this emerging Purple Hairstreak on the Summer Solstice! Fortunately Rick spotted on the path behind my steps an insect that turned out to be this emerging Purple Hairstreak. This one didn't get squashed along the path and thanks Rick for another rescue! We really didn't get to see many Silver-Washed action today until about 6.30pm. 2 sighted in Whippendell Woods, about 4 White Admiral sightings today in Whippendell Woods along with at least 12 Comma, Ringlets, Meadow Brown, Large Skipper, Speckled Wood. And lots of Whites. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Purple Emperors at Heartwood Forest. After visiting daily for a week I can finally report sightings of adult Purple Emperors. But as you can see, my first of the year was a freshly hatched female - now that was unexpected!! (The sex was confirmed by none other than the great PE guru Matthew Oates). I was about to head home at midday after 2 hours of fruitless searching in near 30 degree heat, when I decided to check up on the one remaining pupa of the two I reported on the 15th (the other hatched some time on Thursday). Imagine my surprise when I couldn't see the pupa, and thought it was hidden by a leaf, only to realise that the leaf itself was the butterfly drying its wings! My oh my, that was exciting! And then the icing on the cake - ten minutes later I finally spotted my first male. It was touching down repeatedly but irregularly along the ride along the north-west edge of Langley Wood, and then landed practically at my feet. Sadly I only got a fleeting few seconds to fire off some souvenir shots before it flew off, but hey, beggars and choosers etc, and Heartwood is now definitely tinged with purple! [Posted by Andrew Neild]
Sightings at Trent Park & Oakwood. At Trent Park - 10 Comma [7 at 'New Fields' & 3 near Water Grdn], 4 Ringlet, 1 Brimstone Moth edge of Church Wd. At Bramley Road, N14 - 1 Riband Wave. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Hertford Heath. Male Purple Emperor holding territory around Oaks in the Roundings, 13.30 to 13,50. [Posted by Laurence Drummond]
Sightings at Town Park, Enfield. At Town Park, Enfield [1445 to 1510 BST] - 1 Red Admiral & 1 Holly Blue. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Silver-washed Fritillary at Norton Green. On the two Knebworth transects I encountered my first Silver-washed Fritillary of the year at Norton Green down the track close to the 'meadow' and Small Copper in Knebworth Park. Nearly 280 butterflies counted with Meadow Brown the most abundant and Marbled White not far behind [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Northaw Assembly area. At about 1.15pm the first Purple Emperor flight was observed followed soon after by a second individual joining in the fun briefly. For the rest of the afternoon until about 3pm a single emperor made regular flights across the usual gap but although hot there wasn't many sunny spells [Posted by Laurence Drummond with Liz Goodyear]
White-letter Hairstreaks having a good year. This morning I tried a new site, Bedmond Lane Meadow on Mayne Avenue - multiple sightings of male WLH clashes and a good view of an individual perched in the canopy of a 50 foot high tree. More variety in the summer grassland species with Marbled White (50) and Ringlet (30) now outnumbering Meadow Brown (20). Numbers of skippers still low with just 2 Small Skippers seen. This delightful scrub mosaic meadow boasts hundreds of pyramidal orchids and a Lizard orchid, but is sadly threatened with development [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Small Blood-vein at Southgate. 1 Small Blood-vein at ASDA Southgate at 0145 BST - my first of the year [FOY]. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Cassiobury Park, Lime Avenue and Whippendell Woods.. Rick and myself had a late afternoon/early evening trip into Whippendell Woods from Cassiobury Park. The neck straining season has begun with 1 Purple Emperor sighted along the Lime Avenue canal end. Although we have arranged to put on the Purple Emperor event Saturday 28th June we will also be there this Saturday to try a warm up experiment. If anyone is interested in joining us on Saturday you will find us on the Lime Avenue 10.30 onwards. Other butterflies seen today Meadow Brown now quite numerous with 40+ seen in the park alone with the Lime Avenue and Whippendell Woods probably 80+. Ringlets are just getting going with 3 confirmed. L Skipper 10+, Comma 11+, S. Wood 1, Red Admiral 9, White Admiral 4, SW Fritillary 1, Numerous Whites seen with several Large white identified, and one unidentified flying Hairstreak either White-Letter or Purple. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Painted Lady in Stevenage. My first Painted Lady of the year in my Stevenage garden basking on the ground at 0745 hours [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Sightings at Trent Park & Southgate. At Trent Park [1600 to 1700 BST] - 1 Small Tortoiseshell near Oakwood entrance, 1 Small Copper near Triangular Wd, 1 Ringlet & 3 Comma. At ASDA Southgate - 1 Brimstone Moth. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
More White-letter Hairstreaks in Verulamium Park. Another 8 WLH's this morning at two different locations in the park, both on King Harry Lane. At least three individuals seen in flight and at rest on elm by the entrance to the former golf course. A new site for me was by the Causeway entrance where I saw two pairs of males clashing on nearby trees and a single WLH at rest high in the canopy. Most unusually, the elms here are 50-60 feet high, very unusual for Herts! [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Sightings at Enfield & Southgate. 1 Large White & 1 Red Admiral at Lakeside, EN2. At ASDA Southgate - 2 Common Emerald, 1 Riband Wave & 1 Treble Brown Spot. 1 Comma at Southgate Chase Allotments. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Adonis Blues on Therfield Heath. An early start for Bob and I at Therfield Heath on the lookout for Dark Green Fritillary in particular. The area we searched was the slopes either side of the main path southwards from the cafe towards Icknield Way. It wasn't long before we found a Dark Green Fritillary skimming over the vegetation but like the others we saw it just would not settle for a decent photograph. In all, there were at least 20 in addition to 4 Adonis Blues (surprised to see these this late for this year's spring brood anyway), 100+ Marbled White, 50+ Meadow Brown, 5 Small Heath, 3 Comma, male Brimstone, 2 Large White, 2 Holly Blue, 2 Ringlet and a Small White. Small Tortoiseshell (my first of the year) was seen flying past when savouring coffee and cake at the cafe. Also a mature Peacock larva on a nettle leaf. We were unsuccessful with our other target species - the White-letter Hairstreak - to be found just off the Icknield Way towards Therfield village - maybe it was too hot for them to be flying around. [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Tracks around Danemead HMWT. Hot day so I stayed on the wooded tracks for a afternoon walk around 16.30. Luckily I saw two White Admiral silhouettes ascending into the Fir tree canopy. I gave chase and eventually found the Hornbeam outpost where he returned to again and again. I was busy fiddling about with the shaky zoom on my phone when another White Admiral landed on the bramble next to me. Also seen 2 SWF flying full throttle. This morning I saw 1 White Admiral at Balls Wood HMWT near the bridge during a very very quick walk around but that's all I saw. [Posted by Nathan Ellis]
