Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Double-striped Pug & L-album Wainscot at Gordon Hill Station & Light Emerald at Enfield Chase Station. 1 Double-striped Pug & 1 L-album Wainscot [a new species for me] at Gordon Hill Station & 1 Light Emerald [fresh] at Enfield Chase Station this afternoon. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Box-tree Moth at Southgate. 1 Box-tree Moth at ASDA Southgate this afternoon. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Red Admiral on ivy. Red Admiral on flowering ivy Whittington Lane Stevenage. Hopefully more to see this autumn after a poor year so far [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Long-tailed Blue near Heathrow. While following my usual walk on my local patch near the western end of Heathrow Airport, between the M25 and the River Colne, I spotted a pale worn butterfly chasing Small Heaths and a Common Blue. It settled and only after looking at photos I took of it was I able to confirm that it was a male Long-Tailed Blue. [Posted by DAVID MILLER]
Copyright on News form. The vast majority of photos are of butterflies which require copyright. However, there are some which do not, like the two images below. Clicking the 'Initialise Copyright' button fills the Copyright fields at the bottom of the page below the Caption fields with the Name specified. The Copyright fields can be amended or cleared (as in this example). There is no need to clear the Copyright fields for photos not to be uploaded e.g. if only Photo 1 is used to upload, the Copyright fields for Photo 2 and Photo 3 can be left unchanged. [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Common Marbled Carpet at Enfield. 1 Common Marbled Carpet seen in flight & settled at a private site near Trent Park this morning. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Garden, Ebury Way and Croxley Moor. While Pete was off on Merry Hill again, I was enjoying the sunny delights of my back garden, which was quite full for a change, with Large and Small White, Red Admiral and Comma (one of each seen). That was just the morning, afternoon came and we decided to check some of the places in-between where eggs or adults had been seen of the Brown Hairstreak. So, from Riverside Road we walked down towards Hampermill Lane, then back up the Ebury Way - plenty of Blackthorn, but no BHS seen. We did see plenty of whites, mostly Large, (10+) and Speckled Woods (5+) and a Comma, before we got to Croxley Moor. When we got to the Moor, it was quite the hive activity with 12+ whites, 5 Red Admiral, 5 Holly Blues (more than I've seen all year!), 2 Small Copper, 1 Speckled Wood, 15+ Meadow Brown and 30+ Small Heaths. [Edited by Peter Clarke] [Posted by Rick Vickers]
Merry Hill Bushey. On a quick scout from my flat in Bushey to Merry Hill, first searching the area I found a female B Hairstreak on Friday. I wasn't successful in that zone only seeing 4 Small Heath, 2 Meadow Brown. I then backtracked towards the upper entrance of Merry Hill and explored the bit that is closest to my flat. There wasn't so much blackthorn to explore but found a suitable patch nice and sheltered. Clocked a butterfly over bramble which I expected to be a Meadow Brown, well it turned out to be Brown Hairstreak. Whether it was the same female I saw Friday is debatable as she was in similar condition. I couldn't get a focus on her egg laying but in this photo her left palp indicated the direction of travel, which happened to be in the out of bounds zone the other side of the hedge. She seemed to deposit an egg just over 2ft off the ground at TQ 1363, 9421. Other butterflies seen 1 Red Admiral, Whites 7 mostly Large with a further 6+ sighted along Merry Hill Road. I even managed to get a photo of a Large White not to far from the B. Hairstreak sighting. They don't often stay still enough for a photo! [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Enfield Town. 1 Painted Lady, 1 Red Admiral & 1 Small White at Town Park, Enfield this afternoon & 1 Red Admiral along New River at Enfield Town, 1 Snout near Parsonage Lane, Enfield Town. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Adonis Blues on Therfield Heath. Perfect morning on Therfield Heath today - warm, sunny, still. There were good numbers of Adonis Blue males about plus plenty of very tatty looking male and female Chalkhill Blues. Looks like the 2nd brood are faring better than the first! [Edited by Peter Clarke] [Posted by Paula Moore]
Merry Hill egg laying Brown Hairstreak TQ 1350, 9411. I managed to get out of work early enough to see how long it would take to reach the last sighting of a Brown Hairstreak on Monday. That went out of the window after entering Merry Hill from the entrance closest to my flat. After passing a good cluster of ash trees and clocking some good potential blackthorn I thought I'd better check that out first. I was just noting down the first Small Heath sighting and Meadow Brown. To my astonishment I found another Brown Hairstreak less than 15 minutes walk from my flat! An egg laying female and I observed her for a few minutes probing the blackthorn before losing sight. I'm not going to put her best side up in the photo's as this one shows a bit of expected scale loss, but otherwise you would assume a reasonably fresh specimen. After walking to the other points we had seen Brown Hairstreak no further sightings. I did see 1 Small Copper the first I'd seen at Merry Hill this season. Otherwise 6 whites seen on route with a further 6 at Merry Hill, 2 Large White noted on return in garden on return. Small Heath 12+, Meadow Brown 18+, Speckled Wood 2, Red Admiral 1. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Trent Park. Female Large White along bridle-path near Merryhills Brook/Trent Park, 2 Red Admiral near Shaws Wd/Trent Park [one settled & another in flight], 1 Comma near Water Grdn/Trent Park & 1 Small Heath at 'Old Golf Course' Trent Park. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Butterfly and Bug Festival in Greenwood Park. Join Chiswell Green Community Gardeners on Sunday 8th September at their butterfly and big festival. There will be advice sessions on how to attract more butterflies to your garden. The event takes place from 2-4pm. See their poster for info on other activities. The location is next to our chalk bank in Greenwood Park and is best accessed by the park entrance next to Midway Surgery, 93 Watford Rd, Chiswell Green, St Albans AL2 3JX [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Hibernation watch. A third Peacock now hibernating in my St Albans shed. I’ve seen none on the wing for the last ten days, so it’s likely they are now all in hibernation. So a good time to take stock of the season. 3 Peacocks compares to an average of 5 over the last decade. So below average, but there have been 4 years with lower totals, so not disastrous … unlike Small Tortoiseshell. Hibernating total for that species is still 0 compared to an annual average of 19 and a previous low of 5. I’ve seen one on the wing for over 6 weeks. The only positive spin I can put on this is that it is a vey variable species which continually surprises me! [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Red Admiral at Southgate. 1 Red Admiral at Southgate Chase Allotments this afternoon. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Clouded Yellow - Alexandra Park. A return visit to my old local patch this morning, yielded a good but brief view of a Clouded Yellow at the top of Anthill Meadow in Alexandra Palace Park. [Posted by Gerry Rawcliffe]
Red Admiral at Southgate. 1 Red Admiral at Chase Side, N14 this afternoon. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Brown Hairstreak in London Borough of Hackney. Allens Gardens, Hackney. Female seen on the ground at very close range (I could have easily have potted it if I had a pot on me). Unmistakeably a Hairstreak from the distinctive white lines on the underside, on an orange/brown background. The habitat is a small urban woodland with scrubby areas and borders a railway line (which greatly increases the chances of getting a migrant or other wanderer). There is a wide variety of mature trees with Ash predominating. [Posted by Chris Farthing]
Southern Country Park, Bishops Stortford. My first visit to this attractive flower rich chalk grassland site. Met with Bob Clift and Jim Hook to discuss suitable locations for a new butterfly bank. Common Blues doing well with at least 15 seen. Also Brown Argus, Small Heath, Painted Lady (Bob's first for the year), Red Admiral, Comma, Meadow Brown, Small and Green-veined Whites [Posted by MalcolmHull]
Comma at Trent Park. 1 Comma near Water Grdn/Trent Park this morning at 0940 BST. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]