Tuesday, 7 Apr 2026
A beautiful, cloudless sunny day with only a light breeze. Heading for over 20°C and the hottest day of the year so far, and the first day that I have ventured out in short sleeves without a jacket or sweater. These conditions have brought out the butterflies again after 12 days absence, not that there […]
Saturday, 4 Apr 2026
The first day for quite a while that I have not been able to find anything new to report. So, I will have to be satisfied with posting images of species already recorded on the Downs, hopefully better than the first time. I got the day off to a start with a male Tawny Mining […]
Thursday, 2 Apr 2026
Cooler again and a gusty wind. Largely overcast like yesterday, but what I missed in insects on the wing I made up in what I found on leaves. I began with an unidentified tiny (3.5mm) ‘looper’ or ‘inchworm’ caterpillar of the first larval stage, probably of a Geometer moth (family Geometridae), found on a newly […]
Wednesday, 1 Apr 2026
Warmer weather this morning, and only a light breeze, but annoyingly overcast, which would yet again restrict the insects on the wing. Several first sightings of the season today, including Common Carder Bee (Bombus pascuorum) on Green Alkanet (Pentaglottis sempervirens), Curled Rose Sawfly (Allantus cinctus) on Cherry Laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) and Harlequin Ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) […]
Monday, 30 Mar 2026
A chill wind blowing again this morning, strong enough to make close-up photography quite challenging. Usually, individual leaves can be held reasonably steady to photograph whatever little creature happens to be the subject. Today, though, even a hand-held leaf was still shaking in the stronger gusts of wind. I did manage to get images of […]
Saturday, 28 Mar 2026
Much colder this morning. As I set out the temperature was reported as 8°C (feels like 5°C taking the wind chill into account) and with a wind blowing I thought I may not see too many flying insects. That was true for butterflies, not even one. However, the bees more than made up for this […]
Thursday, 26 Mar 2026
A sunny, but cold day. The March winds continue again limiting the number of butterflies on the wing. Total count was just 2, a second Orange Tip to add my first from three days ago and the first Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria) of the season. Hoverflies were represented by a Variable Duskyface Fly (Melanostoma mellinum) […]
Tuesday, 24 Mar 2026
A very windy and overcast day, so not much in the way of insects on the wing. No butterflies, 2 bumblebees and 1 hoverfly, although there were plenty of small flies around on the woodland paths. Most prominent of the insects now is the Seven-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata), which I found on Cow Parsley (Anthriscus […]
Monday, 23 Mar 2026
Just like two days ago butterflies were all but absent today, with my total seen only 2. However, these were 1 Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) and 1 Orange Tip (Anthocharis cardamines), with the latter being the first butterfly of the season from those species that overwintered in the pupal form. The Orange Tip chrysalis from which […]
Saturday, 21 Mar 2026
Another day of glorious sunshine, but the temperature yet another 1° cooler. While butterflies were all but absent again it was a good day for flies and bees. I had to look no further than the now fully developed catkins of the Goat Willow (Salix caprea). This was where I found the only butterfly of […]
Friday, 20 Mar 2026
Today marks the Vernal (Spring) Equinox, the official start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. Having spent 40 years south of the Equator I still have to remind myself of that. A cooler morning with hazy sunshine and a touch of light frost in sheltered areas of the Downs. After two days of butterflies flitting […]
Thursday, 19 Mar 2026
Yesterday’s warm weather and sunshine continued today, but while there were still a lot of Brimstone on the wing numbers were well down on yesterday. Like yesterday I added a single Comma, this one, though, in pristine condition, as well as 2 Peacock (Aglais io). That leaves only the Red Admiral of the overwintering butterflies […]
Wednesday, 18 Mar 2026
A cloudless, warm morning, with weather forecasters predicting the hottest day of the year so far. The insect population of the Downs has responded. The first Brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) butterfly appeared during the warm spell in the last week of February and for a few days the weather coaxed a few more out of hibernation, […]
Monday, 16 Mar 2026
Today, a search of evergreen leaves turned up this tiny (+/-2mm) sub-adult female(?) Bleeding Heart Spider (Nigma puella) on an ivy leaf. Also found was a tiny cynipid gall wasp on a cherry laurel leaf, which I believe to be an Andricus sp. Species of this genus are responsible for Marble, Artichoke and Knopper galls, among […]
Sunday, 15 Mar 2026
Another sunny yet windy morning – the ’March winds’ are definitely upon us. That didn’t stop me from finding something new. On the same sycamore sapling I found two new species on the undersides of adjacent leaves. The first was a leafhopper. Although there are several small similar-looking green planthoppers some can be ruled out […]
Wednesday, 11 Mar 2026
A nice, sunny but windy morning. Again, not too many insects on the wing, apart from queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees either collecting pollen from goat willow catkins or flying grass-top level over the open areas, occasionally hovering over a particular spot. The former have no doubt already found a suitable nest site to establish a new […]
Monday, 9 Mar 2026
Many trees and shrubs are now starting to show leaf buds opening. Most advanced seem to be honeysuckle vines, wild privet shrubs, cherry plum and common hawthorn. The larger trees generally have only a small proportion of their leaf buds ready to leaf. Noticeable, though, is that while established sycamore trees are still only at […]
Thursday, 5 Mar 2026
The Brimstone butterflies are back and in much larger numbers this time. A single Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) was also spotted. A surprise was a small flock of Redpoll (Acanthis flammea cabaret), a bird I had not seen on the Downs before today. Best of all was that I did not miss out on a photo as […]
Wednesday, 4 Mar 2026
Another sunny day, but not much new to report. Still just the same few bee species around and not much else on the wing. After that first flush of Brimstone butterflies I have seen no more. Walking past two Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) trees today I noticed that they looked somewhat different. One, the predominant […]
Tuesday, 3 Mar 2026
Today the Goat Willow (Salix caprea) catkins were attracting the attention of three different bees, Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera), a few Buff-tailed Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris) queens and a single Early Bumblebee (Bombus pratorum) queen. Another Buff-tailed Bumblebee was seen searching in a grassy area for a nest site to establish a new colony, potentially […]