We’ve got some preliminary result in about the butterflies seen in Dorset during 2021. Continue reading
In all the years that people have been recording butterflies in Dorset, there are only two days of the year when no-one has so far told us that they have seen a Red Admiral. Continue reading
We are working on bringing you the full 2020 Butterfly Report, which has sent us trawling through our database of butterfly records. The number of butterflies counted from the mid 1990s to May 2021 is 5,608,000, Continue reading
Compared to last year, most of this year has been better, though mid-June was actually down on last year’s totals. However, the recent spell of sunny weather has changed that with numbers being up by 38% Continue reading
The exceptionally mild weather of the last few days (this is being written on 26 February) has taken our sightings-so-far-this-year to an incredible level. Continue reading
Bob Ford describes this amazing sighting:
Impossible to count how many, but on one scan across a single field I counted 100 individuals in flight and settled. And there were two more fields like this! All were feeding on knapweed, not dispersing. All were fresh-looking. No helice females were seen at all.
If you see a Clouded Yellow on the wing, they are very distinctive – a mustard yellow, quite different from the bright lemon yellow of the Brimstone.
The sighting was on 22 September. Langton Herring is north-west of Weymouth. Photo: Bob Ford.
[Update to the article below: as of 5 July we have had six separate reports of Continental Swallowtails in Purbeck, all around the St Alban’s Head area. There seem to be certainly two and probably three individual butterflies. The Continental Swallowtail is different to our native species, which is now only found breeding in Norfolk, where habitat is managed to provide the foodplant needed by its caterpillar, which is Milk Parsley.]
We had several reports of Swallowtail butterflies in Dorset last year, including one of caterpillars on carrot leaves in a garden in Wimborne, suggesting they might be breeding. You might also have seen on Springwatch that the Continental Swallowtail definitely bred in Sussex last year.
Swallowtail butterfly
We have been waiting to see what would happen this year, and two separate reports of Swallowtails have just come in from St Alban’s Head (also called St Aldhelm’s) in Purbeck. On 28th June a group running orienteering relays saw one pitched on the path and on 29th June a watchkeeper for the National Coastwatch Institution at St Alban’s Head saw two circling around; she had recently seen them in Switzerland and was very confident of the identification.
We do not know if these are migrants, have bred locally or are releases, deliberate or accidental, but we would like to know of any other sightings, with a photo if possible. Please send your sighting to news@dorsetbutterflies.com
Orange Tips are out! We have had sightings reported from Poole, Marnhull and Monkton Wylde. Spring really is here!
Fresh Orange Tip. Photo: Brian Arnold
Keep up with all sightings on our Recent Sightings page or check our First Sightings page to see what has come out.
It seems reports that Small Tortoiseshells were exhibiting courtship behaviour in late February and early March were correct: Andrew Cooper has now photographed one laying eggs on 15 March at Pamphill.
Small Tortoiseshell laying eggs. Photo: Andrew Cooper
Small Tortoiseshell eggs on the underside of a nettle leaf. Photo: Andrew Cooper
This is a month earlier than we would normally expect, which is presumably a reflection of the mild winter and the good weather we are having now. Let’s hope this means we are going to see lots of this butterfly later in the year!
We have had two reports of pairs of Small Tortoiseshells showing what may be mating behaviour amazingly early in the year.
Mike Ridge described two as “pairing” on 24 February in Lyme Regis, while Mark Spencer reported he saw:
2 Small Tortoiseshells today [28 Feb] courting each other high up in the sun at 12.15 p.m. in a garden half way up Glenferness Avenue in Bournemouth
Lyn Pullen also saw two showing interest in each other on 9 March.
Tortoiseshells. Photo: Lyn Pullen
Dorset Branch Records Officer, Bill Shreeves said:
Small Tortoiseshells don’t usually mate until late in the afternoon. Once the male has found a possible mate he has to follow her all day through thick and thin in order to mate, but it may be if it is cold the process can be speeded up. Small Tortoiseshells flying high might be males jousting with each other rather than courtship.
Whatever they were doing, let’s hope we see lots of them this year!