Hertfordshire & Middlesex Branch
Saving butterflies, moths and our environment
Small Tortoiseshell. We had a Small Tortoiseshell yesterday (4/3/25) in our South Mimms back garden. [Posted by Terence Wood]
Woodberry Wetlands LWT - Brimstone. Pleasantly surprised to see my first Brimstone of the year. As well as 1 x Red Admiral. [Posted by Nicholas Barnett]
Batford Springs Nature Reserve, Harpenden. One Comma flying somewhat lethargically in the sunshine - my first sighting of 2025 [Posted by David Hunt]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. The sunshine continues! A Comma and a Red Admiral seen on my local patch today, the latter butterfly being a different individual from those seen so far this year as it had the white spots of the bialbata variation (therefore likely to be female I believe?). [Posted by Dave Miller]
Fairlands Valley Park, Stevenage. Early afternoon stroll in the park yielded my first butterflies of the year. Although only 10c there was brilliant sunshine and light winds prompting a male Brimstone to fly and a Comma to bask on the ground [Posted by Peter Clarke]
Brimstone braves the cold. Only 9? and the ice from the bird bath still frozen on the lawn: but the first male Brimstone of the year flew into our Harpenden garden this morning. Good numbers of honey and bumble bees - and a bee fly. [Posted by Alan Jackson]
Brimstone in my garden. Male Brimstone in my garden in St Albans at lunchtime for the second day running. On both occasions it carefully searched round the evergreen bushes near to the Purging Buckthorn, even flying into them, presumably searching for females. In contrast I walked 5 miles through countryside and didn't see any others. It would make sense for the overwintering sites to be fairly close to suitable foodplants. Also I have up loaded the video of last weeks hissing Peacock to the Herts & Middx BC YouTube channel [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. Following what was possibly an even colder night, the temperature rose to close to 14 degrees by the afternoon on my local patch. I found four butterflies on my usual walk, including an immaculate Brimstone, a Red Admiral that may well have been the one seen two days earlier, plus two Commas - my first of the season. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Peacock and Red Admiral. Sightings from Wareside Sunday 2nd March 2025 Peacock - 1 Red Admiral - 1 Disturbed from hibernation in ivy whilst clearing up a fallen tree. [Posted by Philip MacMurdie]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. Another glorious day following another frosty night in the Heathrow area. I found a Peacock close to where the M25 spur road crosses the River Colne (the first butterfly I've seen in this particular area this year) and then back nearer home I found a Red Admiral circling a sheltered spot that the species often frequents in the summer. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Brimstone. Wareside - TL396156 Brimstone - 2 [Posted by Philip MacMurdie]
Prestwick Meadows Brown Hairsteak egg return. We were hoping that we could turn the egg rescue return into an official branch event at Prestwick Meadows but it wasn't to be. Rick and myself went out this sunny afternoon and tied in those stems with eggs on. Each stems were either left with the original markers and tied in but with the ones marked with plastic and a couple of the wool ones we decided to remove and remark. The plastic was removed to save removing later and environmental reasons. The yellow wool was also removed on a couple of the eggs returned. The reason for this was possible restrictions for a hairy caterpillar to cross. All eggs are marked and have GPS locations recorded. We shall look forward to relocating the returned eggs at Prestwick Meadows to find out how many hatched and hopefully discover if any actually make it to a bud. All the GPS locations will be sent to Liz Goodyear to log into the survey. A special thanks to Rohan Harris who located a good number of these rescued eggs in the first sweep at Prestwick Meadows. [Posted by Peter Fewell]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. Another Brimstone today on my local patch, flying strongly in the midday sunshine after another chilly night. A little later, a Red Admiral made an appearance in a sheltered spot close to the River Colne. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. Another male Brimstone seen today in the sunshine, despite lowish temperatures. [Posted by Dave Miller]
My first sighting this year. St Albans - Red Admiral on the Gorhambury Estate at lunchtime. Four Peacocks still hibernating in my shed. One waking up today, opening it’s wings and hissing at me [Posted by Malcolm Hull]
First Red Admiral of the year in Northaw. On cherry blossom [Posted by Sam fuller]
Sightings from Stanwell Moor. After the overnight rain, the sun shone strongly around lunchtime and on a walk around my local patch near to Stanwell Moor and the M25 I managed to find three Brimstones, a Red Admiral and a Peacock. [Posted by Dave Miller]
Peacock at Park Farm, Enfield. 1 Peacock at Park Farm near Duncan's Wd/Enfield Chase [TQ286984] - seen in flight & settled from 1157 to 1200 GMT - my first butterfly of the year. [Posted by Robert Mark Callf]
Brown Hairstreak egg search South Oxhey. Following last years egg rescue at Prestwick Road Meadows, we (Pete Fewell and myself) went back yesterday to see what had been done and where we could return the eggs, there were plenty of viable places, and the ones we had left were still in place. Now we're just waiting for the go-ahead to put them back. After slopping through the mud there, we went to slop through some different mud at South Oxhey Playing Fields. After a while, as the light was getting worse Pete managed to find one egg at TQ10270 93844. Today we carried on, this time a look at Fishers Field, but we had no luck there. Next to it is a former Golf Course that has a good border of blackthorn, so we set to work searching. After a few moth eggs, I finally spotted one that we had missed last year, as It had a hole and had hatched. Then I came upon one that hadn't, after a couple of rubbish photos and looking through Petes extra magnifying lens, we concluded that it was actually a Brown hairstreak egg, though a little smoother than usual at TQ12654 97292. At least we found another at a new location, we carried on till we got fed up with the cold. Roll on Spring! [Posted by Rick vickers]
My moth journey - Liz Goodyear. Maybe a better description is 'My Moth Adventure' but our next free Zoom presentation is this Wednesday evening (5th) at 7.30 - Full details can be found here: https://www.hertsmiddx-butterflies.org.uk/winter-zoom.php. [Posted by Liz Goodyear]
