Receiving a photo of a Silver-studded Blue, on the wing at the earliest date for the ten years this website has been recording, led us to look at other emergence dates. We have had 33 species recorded so far, and at least 21 of those are earlier than last year. To give a few examples or our less common butterflies, the figure given being the number of days it is early compared to 2024.

It must be borne in mind that 2024 was a bad butterfly year, but generally speaking, this year’s first sightings seem better than those of 2023 as well. We need to hope that the various species have managed to synchronise with the growth of the plants on which their caterpillars need to feed.

If you want to see first sighting dates for the last ten years, go to our First Sightings page in our web sightings archive (accessed via the Record tab) and if you haven’t yet browsed our Gallery page, you are missing a real treat