Category: Butterflies & Moths

Tim Miller clearly has the gift of summoning up the sun for his annual parties, and with the warm weather came a huge influx of painted ladies (not Tim's guests, the butterflies). There must have been a hundred or more in SS this morning, mainly feeding on the red valerian. With them were some humming-bird hawk-moths, hovering like little birds, as the name suggests, to probe for nectar. Both these species are immigrants from the continent or possibly from North Africa, and their arrival suggests there is more warmweather on the way. See our gallery for some images.

Quite a few butterflies out on the seawalls this afternoon when it warmed up: common blue, small heath, painted lady and red admiral all on the seawall leading to East Lane. And ther were two singing corn buntings near the Martello half-way and, interestingly, a pair of avocets prospecting the pools.

Amazingly warm for the time of year (up to 13 degrees C). Things are already sprouting in the back garden and if we get a day of sun it wouldn’t surprise me to see the first butterfly of the year emerging from hibernation (probably a small tortoiseshell, brimstone or possibly even a peacock) – please look out everyone. There are certainly a few moths out at night (not sure which ones until I get my moth trap out again).