Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Sightings at Enfield & Trent Park. At private sites near Trent Park - 1 Clouded Yellow & 2 Jersey Tiger. At Trent Park - 2 Clouded Yellow. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Another Silver Washed Fritillary on Therfield Heath SSSI. I saw my first Silver-washed Fritillary for 3 years on the Therfield Heath SSSI in the non-common land woods just beyond the end of the Church Hill Transects. This was not as tatty as the one seen by Martin Johnson on 14th July judging by the photo on his blog. Whether this is two dispersing individuals or there is a small colony in Jubilee Wood is not clear. Just over 100 butterflies on the transects; similar selection to last week (30th July). No Adonis Blue seen but we were working on the other side of Church Hill mostly. [Posted by Nick Keep]
Stafford Road / Ickenham Marsh. I arrived noon in sunny breezy conditions at Stafford Road soon meeting up with 3 cheery photographers enjoying the presence of several Brown Hairstreaks on the plentiful bramble. Sadly the big fields are not in flower due I guess to little rain since the July cut. No small heath today. The tally of my 2 hour 4 mile route over to Ickenham was;- 5 Brown Argus, 7 Common Blue, 3 Small Copper, 2 Holly Blue, 1 Comma, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Peacock, 5 Speckled Wood, 2 male Brimstone, plenty of whites, Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper, 1 brown coloured hairstreak in an elm and 22 Brown Hairstreak mostly males in locations throughout with all but 4 low down mostly on bramble with some feasting on blackberries enabling plentiful photo opportunities even on my basic phone. 3 seen in the field corner south of Austins Lane where a good amount of eggs were found 18 months ago and a further 3 along the brookside path which are both a first in these locations for me. [Posted by Nick Furtek]
Sightings at Enfield & Oakwood. At private sites near Trent Park - 1 Clouded Yellow, male Common Blue, 4 Comma nectaring on buddleia, 2 Red Admiral, 2 Large White & 2 Jersey Tiger. 1 Old Lady at bus-stop shelter at Bramley Road, N14 - my first of the year [FOY] & first one for many years. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Bishops Stortford. 14 Clouded Yellows around the Lucerne fields west of Bishops Stortford on the Hadham road, roughly TL456199 lunch time. [Posted by Laurence Drummond]
Sightings at Trent Park & Enfield. At Trent Park - 2 Red Admiral [1 nectaring on white buddleia at Water Grdn & 1 at Shaws Wd Cottages], female Clouded Yellow nectaring on willow herb, edge of Water Grdn & Icehouse Wd, 1 Purple Hairstreak settled edge of Icehousw Wd [worn & tatty]. At a private site near Trent Park - 1 Red Admiral. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Sightings at Enfield. At private sites near Trent Park - female Brown Argus & 2 Jersey Tiger. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Merry Hill Butterfly Walk Bushey. My apologies for my late arrival to those who came there was some confusion with what I saw on the eventbright site, I was seeing it put down to a 12pm start! Although prepared for 11am start I relaxed a bit and took more time. Anyway hope all is forgiven as we had a good walk once we got started and despite the cloudy weather we did get to see some butterflies. All those that arrived on time started without us. This included Janet who has volunteered for a long time with the RSPB. Small Copper 1. Thanks Janet! There were also a few Purple Hairstreak noted before we arrived as well as few other sightings of butterflies such as Gatekeeper. Once we finally got rolling we made our way to the field where we had our first sighting in 2024. At that spot a few more Purple Hairstreaks were seen and I just managed to get one photo of one. Overall the count for Purple Hairstreak about 6+. At this stage of the walk we hadn't sighted a Brown Hairstreak. We did start to see more butterflies in this area . The thistle patch we found a male on Saturday we found Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown. A little further down from there and bingo! A fresh female spotted by Chris Newman on a gone to seed thistle. It almost seemed to happen at the right moment when all of the group were close enough to see, I hope all who took a photo captured a good one! It was a lovely moment for our first butterfly walk at Merry Hill and I can't thank Chris enough for spotting in cloudy conditions and is likely to be the first those on the walk had seen in Hertfordshire. We tried to find a Small Heath to get the species count to 10. I thought I had cracked it but I was mistaken it turned out to be a lighter coloured Gatekeeper. Chris also thought we had a Small Heath but I think on closer inspection it was probable a stunted Meadow Brown. Butterfly list for the walk as follows Meadow Brown and Gatekeeper estimated at over 20, Small Copper 1, Purple Hairstreak 6+, Brown Hairstreak 2 as a male was sighted by afew members of the group on the return journey, Holly Blue 4, Speckled Wood 3, Common Blue 4-6 sighted, Large White 1 (may of missed some of the whites) and probable sightings of Jersey Tiger moth. As it hadn't actually rained Rick and myself had a brief look over at Prestwick Road Meadows after unfortunately no sightings of brown Hairstreak but we did see 2 Speckled Wood , Gatekeeper, Large and 1 Small White, 2 Comma, 1 Meadow Brown. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Stafford Road Open Space, Ruislip. Whilst visiting the in-laws an opportunity opened up for some impromptu butterflying. The weather was mostly dark clouds, very muggy with faint sunny spells but always the imminent threat of a downpour, fortunately this proved excellent weather for finding and photographing Brown Hairstreaks. I found a female egg laying within the first 30 seconds which is a great start to any session, I had 18 sightings in total between 13.00 and 15.30. Most of the sightings were seen feeding on overripe blackberries, the remainder were resting, leaf walking or basking and most of those were females. Also seen on the ripe blackberries were 2 Holly Blue and a single Purple Hairstreak. [Posted by Nathan Ellis]
Brown Hairstreaks Stafford Open Space. Mainly in one spot, 10 in total over the course of a three hour visit. The blackberries were the main draw which made them easy to observe. Saw more females than males. It was very overcast with the occasional glimmer of sun when they opened their wings. [Posted by Dee Cullen]
Return to Sutton’s Farm GP, Hatfield. Took my last chance to look for second brood Dingy Skippers. Overcast afternoon and no luck with that. I did spot a single Small Tortoiseshell, an even rarer species this year. Still dozens of Meadow Browns, also Common Blues (21), Small Heaths, Brown Argus, Small Copper, Latticed Heath and 6-spot Burnet flying. Off to look for butterflies further afield tomorrow [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Millhoppers’ butterfly walk August 2nd 2025. In spite of the rather overcast weather, we had an excellent butterfly walk today, enhanced by the enthusiasm and knowledge of the five adults and a child who joined the walk. The young boy, Edmund, who has eagle eyes and a keen interest in the natural world, spotted quite a few butterflies and moths for us, and altogether we saw 9 butterfly species and over 6 species of moths. The butterflies on Millhoppers reserve included: 2 Small Heath, 10 Gatekeeper, 5 Green-veined White, 2 Small White, 4 Common Blue, 4 Brown Argus, 1 Large Skipper, 5 Speckled Wood, 19 Meadow Brown and more than 30 Peacock butterfly caterpillars. Moth species seen were: Blood veined moth, Dingy Footman, Yellow shell, Mother of Pearl, Straw Dot, Common Plume, and the trails of various Leaf Mining moths on the Black Poplar leaves. [Posted by Christine Ridley]
Merry Hill Bushey. Rick and myself went to check out Merry Hill this afternoon as time and weather hadn't been on our side for more visits sooner for our butterfly walk tomorrow. Although cloudy when we arrived the sun did start to breakthrough after 2.30pm. We didn't see many butterflies to start with but the number of Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown numbers started to build and there were well over 20 of each species present. Just after 2.30pm we wee in the field that contained the most Brown Hairstreak eggs earlier in the year not far from our first male last year we did get to see our only confirmed B Hairstreak of the day. This male was the first we had seen there feeding on thistle flowers so far as all the sightings last year were not on flowers. This individual was still feeding on the same patch after surveying the fleabane and coming back on ourselves 20mins later. The photo of Common Blue was seen during the sweep we had a count of 8+ C Blue over all. Rick found the only confirmed Purple Hairstreak of the day feasting on ripe blackberry. Other butterflies seen Green-veined White 4, S White 1, L White 7+ with a couple of others unidentified. Small Heath 6, Comma 2, Speckled Wood 2+ and a few sightings of Jersey Tiger moth. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Second Generation Dingy Skipper near Great Gaddesden. First time in ten years of transect walking that I've noticed a second generation - rather poor photo with iPhone. [Posted by Paul Cross]
Sightings at Enfield, Oakwood & Southgate. At a private site near Trent Park - 1 Red Admiral. 3 Jersey Tiger [1 at Bramley Road, N14, 1 at Chase Road, N14 & 1 at Southgate Chase Allotments]. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Brown Hairstreak on garden Plum tree. While picking some early ripening plums on the garden Plum tree, I disturbed a Brown Hairstreak. A first record for the garden here in Kenton. This is in the midst of suburban Harrow. In the photograph, the butterfly is actually on a Hazel leaf, but the Plum leaves and plums are all around. [Posted by Leslie Williams]
Sightings at Enfield. 2 male Common Blue along 'London Loop/Jubilee Path' at Bay Farm. 1 Red Admiral at Enfield Chase Station. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Sightings at Enfield. At private sites near Trent Park - 2, male & female, Common Blue, 1 Brown Argus & 1 Jersey Tiger. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Lots of Chalk Hill Blues at Clothall Common. An estimated 200-250 Chalk Hill Blues were roosting or flying around when I visited Clothall Common this evening: quite a good showing this year. The vast majority were west of the A505 Baldock bypass, near the footbridge. Also seen were small numbers of Common Blues and Brown Argus. Surprisingly few Gatekeepers were seen here. A late Essex Skipper was present and at least three Painted Ladies were feeding voraciously on either side of the footbridge. [Posted by Martin Johnson]
Bishops Stortford. 7 Clouded Yellow over Lucerne fields north of Hadham road , west of Bishops Stortford at lunchtime. [Posted by Laurence Drummond]