The sunshine we’ve had recently has been welcomed not just by we humans but by the butterflies too.
The season started slowly: we had just 27 adult butterflies reported by 25 February, plus 5 caterpillars (3 Marsh Fritillary and 2 Clouded Yellow), plus 1 White Hairstreak egg. As of now (5 March) we are up to 423 butterflies of nine species.
You can tell which stage is being reported on this home page by a number at the end of the name of the butterfly species. On the full list of sightings scroll down for the ‘Sightings details’ list and the number is in the column to the far right. 0 = adult, 1 = pupa, 2 = larva, 3 = egg.
| 2026-01-25 | Clouded Yellow | 2 | Southbourne Undercliff | Southbourne | 2 |
| 2026-01-16 | Peacock | 1 | Bumpers Lane Wildlife Area | Wakeham | 0 |
| 2026-01-16 | Red Admiral | 1 | Garden | Wimborne | 0 |
| 2026-01-16 | Red Admiral | 1 | Our Garden | Hinton St Mary | 0 |
| 2026-01-14 | White-letter Hairstreak | 1 | Footpath | Wimborne St Giles | 3 |
We like to hear of stages other than the adults, as adults may have flown in from other places, while eggs, caterpillars and chrysalises indicate the species is breeding. This is not so relevant for the common butterflies, especially those who are very mobile, but can be very useful for the less common and less mobile species.
Clouded Yellow Caterpillar Photo. Gary Holderness
The data received early this year, for example, told us that the Marsh Fritillaries were breeding near Buckland Newton (in Frogs Bottom Meadow – what a great name), that Clouded Yellows are continuing to breed in Bournemouth and White-letter Hairstreaks are present in Wimborne St Giles. Graham, who sent in this last sighting, also told us that these were in a tree where adults were seen last year, but another area of elm nearby was searched without result.
Keep your sightings coming, whether they are of adult butterflies or the other stages, and do report common species as well as rare ones. Thank you for all your efforts to help butterflies and moths.