Monday 24th
July 2006 Garden Dumpton Thanet
Butterfly
numbers have been good the past week in my garden at Dumpton Thanet I have
recorded 9 spices of Butterfly. Meadow
Brown, Gatekeeper, Large White, Small White, Comma, Red Admiral,
Panted Lady, Peacock Holly Blue, But where are all the Small
Tortoiseshell’s? Only had
two in the garden all year to date, on the 21st July 2006 my 1st
Migrant Hawker in the garden on honeysuckle and the Buddleia has supported good numbers of Silver Y moths. (Gadget)
Sunday 23rd July 2006 Kingsgate & Pegwell
A morning wander around the Golf Course at Kingsgate revealed that
virtually all the Dragonflies had gone with just 2 Migrant Hawker
and 3 Common Darter. Butterflies were much as normal although more Small
Blues and Purple Hairstreaks. Silver Y's still very common but
significantly fewer than yesterday. Returned in the late afternoon in rather cloudy conditions and saw very
little until a Swallow-tail Butterfly floated by. Having
seen this I decided to check the coastal strip at North Foreland estate
and found a very well marked male Yellow-winged Darter and
amazingly another (clearly different) Swallowtail feeding on
Knapweed flowers. Silver Y's were extremely numbers as were the
typical grassland Butterflies. Midday
visit to the Hoverport produced numerous Painted Ladies and Peacocks
with good numbers of Red Admirals and 2 Clouded Yellows.
(F Solly)
Sunday
23rd July 2006 Railway path Minnis to
Reculver
I walked along the railway path this morning - sill
masses of wild flowers though the orchids are nearly over. Huge numbers of
butterflies – Meadow Browns and Gatekeepers, Red Admirals,
Peacocks and Painted Ladies all super-abundant. Also Small
(or are they Essex?) Skippers, a few Commas and Common
Blues, and a single Marbled White. I did the same walk during
last week with much the same results, except no Marbled White, less
Gatekeepers, more Commas and a single Small Tortoiseshell.
In my butterfly collecting days (here I'm talking of the fifties in
Cliftonville) the Small Tortoiseshell was, apart from Whites
and Meadow browns, overwhelmingly the most common butterfly - more
than Red Admirals, Peacocks, Painted Ladies and Commas added
together. I've hardly seen any this year - is this just me?
Incidentally I watched the lone Small Tortoiseshell for over five
minutes. It was flying in close formation with a Painted Lady, and
every time the latter landed on a flower (quite often) the Tortoiseshell
tried to land on top of it. This pairing was only broken up when a Red
Admiral joined in, and the Tortoiseshell transferred its
attention and tried the same with the Red Admiral. The latter,
however, was too powerful a flyer and eventually shook it off. Is this
behaviour the cause, or the effect, of the lack of Tortoiseshells?
(Bob Hinge)
Friday 21st July 2006 Garden Dumpton Thanet
The steamy conditions continue, so another pre-work session in the
garden. The buddleias are attracting large numbers of insects, mainly
butterflies, hoverflies and bees, but there are also good numbers of day
flying moths - particularly Silver Y's. Comma, Red Admiral,
Peacock, Small White, Meadow Brown, Gatekeeper and Painted Lady
have all been recorded this morning plus the surprise visit of a male Common
Darter Dragonfly. Just goes to show that there's always something to
see if you keep your eyes open! (Dylan)
Friday 21st July 2006 Kingsgate Thanet
Having
finished the Kingsgate trap at 06.30, I decided it was warm enough to try
checking the Golf Course for migrant/wandering Dragonflies despite the
time, in the 1/2 hour I had spare between Moth Traps. Although there is no
water up here, a couple of spots tend to attract Dragonflies if any are
about. Almost immediately there were several Common Darters, a Ruddy
Darter and Azure Damselfly. Shortly after, a Four-spotted
Chaser - only the 3rd that I have seen in the area and finally the
'target' species a Yellow-winged Darter a migrant that I have not
seen for many years. In total, there were 17 Yellow-winged Darters,
1 Black Darter (also a migrant) 6 Ruddy Darter, about 40 Common
Darter, single Four-Spotted Chaser, Azure and Common Blue
Damselfly. I wasn't looking very much at other things, there were
several newly emerged Common Blues, 2 Small Blues, lots of Meadow
Browns, Gatekeepers and Marbled Whites, Small Skippers
and the first Purple Hairstreaks of the year. A Hummingbird Hawk
was also whizzing around. On the plant front, lots of Longleaf in flower
was the most notable. (F Solly)
Wednesday 19th July 2006 Dumpton garden Thanet
I spent the morning enjoying the sun from the area that Bev & I
liberally interpret as our garden! Masses of Budlehia, Red Valerian,
Nicotiana & Greater Willowherb are much appreciated by the birds and
insects - just I can't see it winning any prizes at the Chelsea Flower
Show! 3 Small Skipper, 1 Meadow Brown, 2 Gatekeeper
and a number of Large Whites made up the butterfly records, whilst
numerous species of Hoverflies, Bumble Bees and Beetles were
on display (my knowledge sadly lacking). I did manage to id a damselfly
that flew into the conservatory as a male Blue-tailed. There's hope
for me yet. (Dylan)
Monday 17th July 2006 Garden
Chelsfield Kent
This looks like a female Stag Beetle to me. It was wandering
around my garden in Chelsfield, Nr Orpington on Friday 14th July at about
9.45 pm. (David
Wanostrocht)
Sunday 16th July 2006 Kingsgate Thanet
Mid morning wander around the golf course produced an abundance of
Butterflies, mostly Meadow Browns, Gatekeepers and Marbled
Whites. A number of very fresh Painted Ladies and Red
Admirals were presumably locally bred. 2-3 Small Blues and a
2nd generation Holly Blue and as you would expect lots of Whites.
Also of note were many hundreds of Silver Y's - mostly actively
feeding on Greater Knapweed flowers? (F Solly)
Sunday 16th July 2006 Garden Westgate Thanet
In
my back garden in Westgate today Baby Hedgehog (Tim Hodge)
Thursday 13th July 2006 Minnis Bay
Minnis bay Birchington approx 11.30am, I spotted a European Swallowtail
(p. machaon gorganus) on the third dune as you go from the
Margate direction. (Bernie Farrell)
Monday 10th July 2006 Garden Dumpton Thanet
As I went out to turn on the moth trap this Common Frog was on the
patio, obviously enjoying the humid conditions following the earlier
showers! (Dylan)
Wednesday
5th July 2006 Kingsdown
I popped over to Kingsdown this afternoon with Dave Coppen, in the hope of
taking a few photos of any Hummingbird Hawk-moths we might have
been able to find. Conditions were far from perfect due to a stiff sea
breeze which made photography a lot more difficult so although we did see
a couple of Hummingbird Hawk-moths it was almost impossible to get
any images of them. There were lots of Marbled Whites, a single Painted
Lady only and on the moth front lots of Silver Y's, a few Bright
Waves plus the odd common thing. I did see what I thought was a Clearwing
specie but was unable to net the darn thing unfortunately? (Phil M and Dave Coppen)
