Saturday, 17 Oct 2026
A surprising first photo of the day was a Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) butterfly. Flight season for the second (summer) brood of Holly Blue ends around the first week of September, so to see one today implies that this is from a third brood. A third brood only occurred 9 times in the whole of […]
Wednesday, 14 Oct 2026
I don’t see too many Orange Ladybird on the Downs, but today I found an Orange Ladybird (Halyzia sedecimguttata) pupa on the underside of an Ash (Fraxinus excelsior) leaf. The adult ladybird will surely emerge soon as ladybirds overwinter as adults. Whereas most adult ladybirds feed on aphids, the Orange Lady bird is a fungivore, […]
Sunday, 11 Oct 2026
Two new species added today, an ichneumon wasp and a lauxaniid fly. It was another sunny autumn day with very little wind, which meant lots of insect activity. Particularly noticeable now are the Vespidae wasps, especially Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) and German Wasp. They can be seen in any tangle of brambles, flying in and […]
Tuesday, 6 Oct 2026
A lovely warm and sunny early afternoon on what is billed as our last day of summer temperatures. There are still a few butterflies about. Today’s count was 4, with 2 each of Small Copper (Lycaena phlaeas) and Speckled Wood. The Small Copper are in very good condition and may be around for at least […]
Friday, 25 Sep 2026
My walk today was badly timed, with the cloud cover only giving way to sunshine as I arrived home. As a result, there was not much insect movement. There was only one butterfly seen. That was a Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria), which was last recorded almost 3 weeks ago. There were no Ivy Bees on […]
Wednesday, 23 Sep 2026
The butterflies are easy to count now. Today’s total was 3, but all different, Small White, Small Copper and surprisingly the first Brimstone recorded since 31st July, almost 8 weeks ago. However, my primary focus today was to try and get a good photo of an Ivy Bee (Colletes hederae) collecting pollen from ivy flowers. […]
Friday, 18 Sep 2026
Well, the total butterfly count today was a single Small Copper. We are definitely approaching the end of flight season. A pair of Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) circled over the Downs for the entire 2 hours that I spent there. One came low enough to get a (not completely in focus) shot. The markings on […]
Monday, 14 Sep 2026
A morning that must have been close to 100% humidity – without a moderate breeze we would probably have had a mist. There was a heavy dew on everything. There was not a butterfly to be seen, but I managed to stir up a single Rush Veneer moth (Nomophila noctuella) from the grass. I came […]
Friday, 28 Aug 2026
Twenty-four hours since the first meaningful rain in 9 weeks and there is definitely a fresher look to the Downs today. I suspect that this has more to do with the rain washing away a 9-week dust accumulation than it has with any new foliage growth. Butterfly numbers are still well down and likely to […]
Friday, 21 Aug 2026
A pleasant day for walking, with the maximum temperature forecast at the lowest for at least a month, only 20°C, and a cool northerly breeze that helped to reduce the effect of the high humidity. Insect numbers were again poor, even the butterflies well down on two days ago. Meadow Brown is still the most […]
Wednesday, 19 Aug 2026
Hardly drought-breaking rain, but a few light showers overnight end exactly 8 weeks without rain. Apart from a few water drops still sitting on the upper surfaces of some leaves you wouldn’t know it had rained, so well has the little rain that did fall been absorbed into the parched surface. On a cooler, yet […]
Monday, 20 Jul 2026
Butterfly numbers around the same as Saturday with 90% of those seen being either Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) or Chalk Hill Blue. The Gatekeeper still outnumbers the Blue overall, but on the northern part of the main common Chalk Hill Blue is dominant. This is where I managed a photo of the two species on adjacent […]
Wednesday, 15 Jul 2026
The Downs desperately needs some rain. All the grass is now straw-coloured. But that has not stopped the butterflies from visiting the flowers. Gatekeeper remains the most numerous, just ahead of Chalk Hill Blue (Lysandra coridon), while the numbers of the rest seem to be dwindling. A few Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Common Blue (Polyomattus icarus), […]
Friday, 10 Jul 2026
Not quite as hot as yesterday and a little more insect activity. Another good day for butterflies too. The Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) remains the most abundant, but a sudden surge in numbers puts the Chalk Hill Blue (Lysandra coridon) in second place. Meadow Brown and Ringlet are still fairly prominent and I noted maybe a […]
Wednesday, 8 Jul 2026
This was essentially just a long hot walk. Apart from butterflies, greenbottles, flesh flies and the odd hoverfly, as well as the continuing Red Soldier Beetle invasion, there was very little insect activity today. The grass of the common is already beginning to take strain under the baking heat, which is forecast to last for […]
Friday, 3 Jul 2026 – New Forest and adjacent areas
Just back today from a week away, based in West Wellow, Hampshire, on the north-eastern edge of the New Forest. It proved a good base for walks not only in the New Forest and locally along the River Test, but also on the Dorset coast and near Salisbury in Wiltshire. As I have done previously […]
Monday, 22 Jun 2026
Another scorcher, but a steady breeze just to take the edge off the heat. Not a cloud in the sky except for a criss-cross of aircraft contrails. I set off early to beat the ramping up of the heat and was home by 10:30. There were plenty of butterflies around, but not quite in the […]
Tuesday, 16 Jun 2026 – London Wetland Centre
Something different today. I spent a few hours at the London Wetland Centre, exactly a year to the day since my last visit there. I’m only posting a gallery of the species that you are very unlikely to see on Banstead Downs. […]
Monday, 15 Jun 2026
Back to the overcast breezy conditions again this morning. Only butterflies on the wing were Meadow Brown and Marbled White, still by far the most numerous, with dozens of each. The other butterflies seen were all disturbed from their resting places in the low vegetation as I walked past. These comprised Common Blue, Brown Argus, […]
Friday, 5 Jun 2026
Four days since my last excursion onto the Downs, during which time there has been some much-welcomed rain. Hogweed flowers on which I was photographing insects at waist height just those four days ago are now eye-level! I spotted my first Common Swift (Apus apus) of the summer over the main grassland, at least 4 […]