Monday, 7 Sep 2026
A mostly cloudy, humid and rather windy morning. Counting the butterflies today was easy – 3 Small Heath and just one each of Small Copper, Speckled Wood and Common Blue. The only other insect of note was a 4th instar nymph of the Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina) on a Buckthorn leaf. Otherwise, my focus today […]
Saturday, 8 Aug 2026
I only walked paths along woodland edges today, so my observations of butterfly abundance would be strongly influenced by that. Meadow Brown made up about 90% of total sightings, with a handful of Small Heath, Common Blue and Chalk Hill Blue, and one each of Gatekeeper, Red Admiral, Small Copper, Brown Argus and Ringlet. The […]
Saturday, 13 Jun 2026
The butterflies are back, in such large numbers that I counted species today, not individual butterflies. Meadow Brown and Marbled White are the most numerous, with dozens of each. Other species noted were Speckled Wood, Common Blue, Brown Argus, Small Blue, Small Heath, Red Admiral, Large Skipper, Small Skipper (Thymelicus sylvestris), my first Dark Green Fritillary […]
Thursday, 28 May 2026
The record May temperatures continued, with a slightly stronger breeze to take the edge off the heat. Not that the butterflies noticed, with only Brimstone about in any great numbers. There were a few Speckled Wood and Small Heath, a couple of Common Blue, and one each of Painted Lady and Grizzled Skipper. Staying with […]
Friday, 22 May 2026
A much hotter day today, which even as I started my walk was already close to being the hottest day of the year. Much more sun than yesterday too, but still very windy. Butterfly sightings were few with the same species seen as yesterday, Brimstone, Speckled Wood, Brown Argus, Holly Blue and Common Blue. Like […]
Tuesday, 12 May 2026
Despite it being a warm, sunny day with only light winds there were still not many butterflies to be seen. For the first time Brimstone was not the most numerous, that honour went to Holly Blue. Apart from these two I saw just one each of Speckled Wood, Green Hairstreak and Small Heath. One day-flying […]
Friday, 8 May 2026
A rather cloudy afternoon and a much-shortened timeframe for my walk today. I stuck to a route that kept me off the main grassland area, so not unsurprisingly I recorded just 3 butterflies, single Brimstone, Holly Blue and Dingy Skipper. I managed to find the rather uncommon Yellow Weevil (Lixus iridis) at a second site, […]
Thursday, 16 Apr 2026
A cloudy morning with intermittent showers, so I waited until after lunch to get onto the Downs. At least the sun was shining, but it was quite windy. Butterfly numbers well down on two days ago with just a few Brimstone and Speckled Wood about, and a single Peacock. Last year was a bumper year […]
Saturday, 14 Feb 2026
First up today, as a follow-on from yesterday’s post I have a further image showing the sepals of the Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) confirming the ID. The image clearly shows that the sepals are reflexed (bent downwards), are blunt-ended and have a fimbriate margin (fringed or ragged edge), all of these factors separating Cherry Plum […]
Tuesday, 20 Jan 2026
Jelly-ear fungus and Hart’s-tongue Fern were my reward for visiting the south-western corner of Banstead Downs this morning. My walk began with a train ride. Bit of a cheat, but I wanted to get down to that south-western corner, a part of the Downs that I don’t visit too often. So, I hopped onto the […]
Friday, 19 Dec 2025
In the past week I have come across many small groups of Birch Catkin Bugs (Kleidocerys resedae) huddled together overwintering on either large leaf buds of sycamore or on holly and ivy. They seem more numerous on the latter two, as these evergreen plants must provide more protection for them. I know of only […]
Saturday, 13 Dec 2025
Lovely sunshine again, but much colder this morning. The temperature firmly in wintry single digit territory. I tried peeling back a piece of bark on a dead birch tree and was rewarded with mixed age group of variably coloured Common Rough Woodlouse (Porcellio scaber) and my first ever sighting on the downs of a Common […]
Thursday, 11 Dec 2025
Lovely sunshine but a windy day. Both a Kestrel and a Buzzard were cruising over the main grassland area, the latter being harried occasionally by a pair of crows. An interesting find was a cluster of pupal cocoons, probably of an ermine moth (family Yponomeutidae), on the underside of a large holly leaf. Unusual, as […]
Friday, 21 Nov 2025
Over a week since my last visit and what a change! The unseasonal warm weather is a thing of the past. We’ve had rain, strong winds, snow flurries and frost. The wind is now from the north-east and it is definitely more wintry than autumnal. There are still fungi to be found and […]
Tuesday, 14 Oct 2025
I reached the Downs this morning with a song bouncing round in my head from the year I graduated from university – this will give away my age. I was hearing Maddie Prior singing the opening line from a 1973 Steeleye Span song, “One misty, moisty morning, when cloudy was the weather”. It just described […]
Monday, 6 Oct 2025
It looks like ‘Fall’ has started. After some rain and very strong winds in the last few days the ground is becoming covered in leaves. It is a great time of year for spider webs too, as the low angle sun picks them out very well. By far the most common insect […]
Friday, 13 Jun 2025
On a very hot humid day with only a gentle breeze Dark Green Fritillary (Speyeria aglaja) are still present in large numbers along with Small Heath (Coenonympha pamphilus) but today outnumbered by Marbled White (Melanargia galathea) which seems to be reaching peak numbers. Some new additions were Artichoke Beetle (Sphaeroderma testaceum), Silver Y (Autographa gamma) moth and […]