Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Hibernating Peacocks in St Albans. What better activity for a rainy day than to check on the Peacocks hibernating in my shed. There has been a total of five in residence since mid July. Today the total has reduced to three. No evidence of any being attacked by predators and I think most likely that they have temporarily emerged from hibernation for a top up feed before winter. I have observed this happening in previous years when we get a late hot spell, it was over 30 degrees here over the bank holiday. In fact I saw a Peacock flying locally only yesterday, the first time I've seen one on the wing for 6 weeks. Sadly still no Small Tortoiseshells in hibernation here this year [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Sightings at Enfield & Trent Park. At private sites near Trent Park - 3 female Meadow Brown, 1 Small Heath, 2 Green-veined White [pair mating], 1 Small White. At Trent Park - 1 Small Heath at North Lawn by lower lake, 1 Green-veined White nectaring on buddleia, edge of Water Grdn & 1 Speckled Wood edge of Water Grdn. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Sightings at Trent Park. At Trent Park this morning - 4 Green-veined White [2 at North Lawn by lower lake & 2 edge of Icehouse Wd], 3 female Meadow Brown at North Lawn by lower lake & 3 Speckled Wood [1 edge of Icehouse Wd, 1 edge of Williams Wd & 1 near Shaws Wd]. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Sightings at Enfield. At private sites near Trent Park - 2 Meadow Brown & 1 Green-veined White. At Bay Farm, along 'London Loop/Jubilee Path' - 1 Small Copper. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
South Oxhey Playing Fields and Croxley Moor. On this rather hot bank holiday Monday Rick and myself explored South Oxhey Playing fields before going onto Croxley Moor late afternoon. On arriving at our first destination a great deal of the grass area had been cut back leaving a dead and barren landscape. But the edges and a few spots were left long and we did get to see some butterflies. The first butterflies sighted were the Whites as to be expected Large and Green-veined identified among those seen. Meadow Brown numbers low but 5 seen. Common Blue 3 seen including another mating pair. Small Heath 2 overall. It was at TQ1047 9366 were I first sighted a Comma but the other butterfly first confirmed by Rick turned out to be a Brown Hairstreak. This is near where Rick found an egg and took video footage of an adult last year. That at least does confirm consistency in this location. Comma count 2, Small Copper 5, Purple Hairstreak 1, Red Admiral 1, Speckled Wood 3. We arrived at Croxley Moor around 3pm. Like a lot of places it was looking dry and sparse but there were flowers there in the damper spots. We counted 19+ Meadow Brown, Small Heath 12+, Common Blue 6+, Small Copper 4, Holly Blue 1, Speckled Wood 1 and of course a good number of Whites seen also. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Clouded Yellows nr Maple Cross TQ 03243 93484. Whilst having a walk and a cup of tea at Woodoaks Farm (SW Hertfordshire) I checked the two nearby Lucerne fields for Clouded Yellows. The crop is low at the moment but half a dozen seen just in the closest lower corner, doubtlessly more around. They were far too energetic for a photograph so will have to check back in on a cooler day. In related news, yesterday I saw a single male Clouded Yellow rapidly passing through my Brickendon front garden. Hoping for a bumper year. [Posted by Nathan Ellis]
Sightings at Enfield, Trent Park, Oakwood & Southgate. 1 Clouded Yellow at a private site near Trent Park. 1 Comma nectaring on buddleia, edge of Water Grdn, Trent Park. 1 Orange Swift at bus-stop shelter at Bramley Road, N14. 1 Light Emerald & 1 Straw Underwing at ASDA Southgate. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Clouded Yellows at Albury. Three Clouded Yellows in the lucerne field below Albury Church, as well as good numbers of Common Blues. No Clouded Yellows were seen in the other lucerne fields in the area. Otherwise very quiet, but a rather late Gatekeeper at Braughing allotments and one Small Copper at Braughing Friars. [Posted by Andrew Wood]
Clouded Yellow in Greenwood Park. I was working on the Chalk Bank in Greenwood Park this afternoon, with Malcolm Hull and Nigel Floyd when we all saw a Clouded Yellow fly past an couple of times and land on some flowers in the nearby Community Garden. Other sightings in that area were 2 Small Copper, 1 Small Heath, 1 Meadow Brown, 2 Small White, 1 Large White and 1 Green-veined White. I have recorded these sightings on iRecord butterflies. [Posted by Mandy Floyd]
Brown Hairstreak. I saw a female Brown Hairstreak this morning at Shafford Road Open Space. [Posted by Michael Robinson]
Nomansland Common. Disappointing numbers of Small Coppers today, only 4 seen. 19 Small Heath, over 100 Meadow Browns and a few Common Blues and Brown Argus. Popped next door to Heartwood East and was able to repeat Andrew Steele’s sighting of a Clouded Yellow. Although most sightings of the species in Herts this year have been associated with Lucerne, this one was in a field rich in Birds-foot Trefoil [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Prestwick Road Meadows. After seeing a photo of a Brown Hairstreak from this site( informed by Caroline Craing) Rick and myself were itching to go and investigate Prestwick Road Meadows. I parked up on the corner of Ashridge Drive and Prestwick Road and the first butterfly we encountered was a Small Copper on the corner verge there. It turned out to be the only Small Copper seen and the afternoon became persistently overcast. We were seeing white butterflies, Large, Green-veined and probably small. Rick managed to spot the only Brown Hairstreak seen of the day which stayed put long enough for a photo before ascending over the blackthorn. Rick also found a mating pair of Common Blue with a total of 4 at Prestwick Road Meadows and another in the fields we explored towards Oxhey Woods. Speckled Wood 3, Small Heath 1 at P R Meadows a further 4 across the fields. It does look like the Brown Hairstreak will continue to thrive at this location! [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Holly Blue at Town Park, Enfield. 1 Holly Blue at Town Park, Enfield this afternoon. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Sightings at Enfield & Trent Park. At a private site near Trent Park - 2 Clouded Yellow, 2 Common Blue & 1 Brown Argus. At Trent Park - 5 Green-veined White [3 by lower lake, 1 near Water Grdn & 1 edge of Icehouse Wd]. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Branch Walk On Therfield Heath. Fifteen people gathered for the walk on Therfield Heath today. We were blessed with a couple of hours of sunshine, which has been in short supply this week. Everybody got to see smart Adonis Blue, both males and females, maybe around 50 individuals in total. Meadow Brown and Small Heath were also present in good numbers (several tens). Common Blues, including some very fresh ones, were found, particularly at the bottom of the Rifle Butts bowl (above 20 individuals). In contrast, the Chalk Hill Blues had almost disappeared (compared to the hundreds in July). I saw barely a handful of males, often flying around fast, and I am not sure we managed to show them to everyone. A few more females were fairly confidently identified and a fair proportion of the 'too faded to be sure' 'blue' females were probably Chalk Hill Blues. A couple of Brown Argus were seen by some people. Small White, Green-veined White and Large White were present, but numbers were not tracked. My personal highlight was the two Small Coppers, which most people saw at least one of. I have only seen them on the Heath twice in the last 5 years and I am a very regular visitor. [Posted by Nick Keep]
Common Blues at Sutton’s Farm. Overcast all afternoon with no sign of sun. Despite this my trip to the old gravel pit in Hatfield was rewarding. Common Blue (33) were out in numbers. Small Heath (11), Brown Argus (4) and Small Copper (2) were also flying. Meadow Brown (91), Small White (34), Large White (12), Latticed Heath (1) and Purple Mint moth (1) also spotted [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Batch Wood St Albans. 12 Small Coppers at William Bird OS in my timed count for Wilder St Albans this afternoon. Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Heath, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper, Large White and Small White all still flying. On the far side of the wood, Brown Argus were dominant in the fallow field with a total of 11. Holly Blue and Green-veined White also present Looks like being a good year for Small Copper. Half todays individuals were nectaring on Knapweed, one on Yarrow and the rest on Ragwort [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. Much of the day was cloudy, but was redeemed by sunshine after three o'clock. On my local patch near Heathrow the highlight today was a trio of Clouded Yellows - a rather worn female egg-laying and two males. The smarter of the two males discovered the female and spent quite a while trying to persuade her to mate but ultimately failed. This bit of behaviour produced some interesting photo opportunities. Overall, I counted 150 butterflies of 13 different species: Meadow Brown (30), Small Heath (30), Common Blue (25), Small White (20), Green-veined White (20), Brown Argus (8), Large White (5), Small Copper (4), Clouded Yellow (3), Speckled Wood (2), Holly Blue (1), Red Admiral (1), Peacock (1). [Posted by Dave Miller]
Sightings at Enfield & Southgate. At a private site near Trent Park - 1 Latticed Heath. At Southgate - 1 Small Blood-vein attracted to kitchen light last night. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Branch walk at Clothall Common. A grey start for a group of ten. We found a Lime-speck Pug larva on Mugwort at the group assembly point . A short time after the start of the walk a Meadow Brown appeared followed by a number of others and then Small Heath and Common Blue. There were a few Small Whites and Large Whites and particularly on the plateau area, in a short spell of sunshine, a good number of Chalk Hill Blues, about 90% female. The few males were still trying to court the females. The group also found two adult Lime-speck Pugs in this area to go with the larva. Other moths recorded were Turnip Moth, and the larvae of Cinnabar Moth and Brown-tail and some emerged 6 spot Burnet pupae. [Posted by Andrew Wood]