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Showing posts from June, 2019

Friday 28th June 2019

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Butterfly Species: Marbled White (15) Meadow Brown (30) White-letter Hairstreak (2) Ringlet (8) Large Skipper (1) Speckled Wood (3) Small Tortoiseshell (1) Painted Lady (1) White Admiral (1) White Admiral Butterfly - Midford/Wellow Path - 28-06-2019 The weather was much improved this Thursday when I set off down the path. The temperature was maxing out at 26 degrees C and it was almost unbroken sunshine. Just before I entered for Combe Down tunnel, I paused to look at the Wych Elm that hangs over the parapet near the tunnel entrance. It was here last year where I saw a single White-letter Hairstreak butterfly darting round the top of the tree. I was pleasantly surprised to see two Hairstreak like butterflies chasing each other around the Ash tree next to the Wych Elm. I believe these to be the first two White-letter Hairstreak butterflies of my year. Marbled White - Tucking Mill 28-06-2019 At the other end of the tunnel at Tucking Mill, there were many more butterflies on...

Friday 21st June 2019

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Butterfly Species: Small Tortoiseshell (1) Red Admiral (1) Marbled White (3) Meadow Brown (4) Ringlet (3) Damselfly - Tucking Mill 21-06-2019 It has been almost three weeks since I last took a walk along the cycle path between Tucking Mill and Midford. The weather has been bad and other things have kept me away for a week or two. However, it was a warm sunny day and the temperatures were about 19 degrees C and the weather was fine, so I was anticipating seeing quite a few butterflies on this trip. Damselfly - Tucking Mill 21-06-2019 My first encounter was not actually a butterfly but damselflies. There were several on the embankment near Tucking Mill. They appear to be Azure damselflies, although I can't be sure. It was on this stretch of path I found the first Ringlet butterflies of the season. They were flapping about lazily in the shade as they normally do. They were accompanied by several Meadow Browns. These I expected to see as I'd seen them in other locations...

Saturday 1st June 2019

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Butterfly Species: Red Admiral (1) Small White (1) Peacock (1) Brimstone (2) Holly Blue (1) Peacock Butterfly - Midford 01-06-2019 It's the 1st of June and the temperature was around 24 degrees C as I set off down the path. I was hopeful of seeing a good number of butterflies. I was surprised therefore that I got all the way to the Midford viaduct before seeing any butterflies at all. Here I managed to see an ageing Peacock butterfly which was nectaring on the Valerian flowers that were growing there in great profusion. This butterfly would have emerged sometime around July/August last year. Definitely a veteran! This lack of butterflies reminds me that I was I need to do is to compare the actual numbers of butterflies recorded this year against the numbers recorded in the same week last year. My impression so far is that although I'm seeing the same species this year that I saw last year the numbers of each are lower this year than last. Once I've done this...