Ipley Cross and Dibden Bottom

First visit this year to one of our regular sites in the New Forest: Ipley Cross and Dibden Bottom. 

Just after leaving the car park, we were welcomed by a very fresh-looking red admiral; hopefully a good omen?

Plenty of water still in Rushbush Pond, so that looked promising. Ipley Stream had dried up in places, and we didn't see a single odo where there was some water still. So focus on the pond!

Loads of common blue damsels skirting the surface, and many emerald damsels as well (first ones this year). The blue-tailed damsels were indeed blue-tailed (and not scarce blue-tailed) ... Black-tailed skimmer was by far the most common dragonfly, but we also saw broad-bodied and four-spotted chasers. Of course, an emperor was patrolling its empire as well. 

On to the large pond on Dibden Bottom! Still plenty of water, even though it has been much bigger in previous years.

Again, many emerald damsels, many black-tailed skimmers, a few emperors and several four-spotted chasers.

Walking across the heathland between the ponds, we saw a few large skippers ...

... but the absolute highlight of the day: the hundreds and hundreds of silver-studded blues everywhere. Sometimes, it felt we were walking through clouds of them; I've never seen so many together there (or anywhere else, for that matter).

The silver-studded blue population at Dibden Bottom is clearly thriving!

Today's tables (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Crockford Bottom & Hatchet Pond

Final day of the May bank holiday, and another gorgeous one. Given that we went butterflying the day before yesterday, it's only right that we go damseldragonflying today, isn't it?

We decided to combine two sites that are close to each other, just like we did two years ago, but with the order reversed now. 

So Crockford Bottom first!

Plenty of water in the stream, and the beautiful demoiselles didn't disappoint. I never get tired of trying to take pictures of them!

A few keeled skimmers were flying around on the heath.

And we saw a fair few southern damselflies along the stream, exactly where we saw them two years ago. They really are smaller than azures and common blues (neither of which we saw; all 'blue damsels' we could identify were southern).

And then up the road to Hatchet Pond!

Broad-bodied chasers, a hairy dragonfly, a black-tailed skimmer and a downy emerald were seen, as well as azure and common blue damsels.

Thirteen damseldragonfly species across the two sites, so not a bad day at all. As to today's butterflies, we only saw a few brimstones around Crockford Bottom and a single green hairstreak near Hatchet Pond. Today's tables combine the two sites (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Martin Down

May bank holiday and a beautiful weekend forecast, so off to a new (for us) site to do some proper butterflying: Martin Down!

Information on the interweb suggested the best area to see butterflies is Bokerley Ditch, so that's where we headed upon arrival, and we walked back and forth along the ditch for several hours. Diversity in terms of flowers was certainly higher there, which was promising. 

Even before we got to the ditch, we'd already seen several skippers, and both dingy and grizzled skippers proved to be very common.

Plenty of brimstones wherever we looked.

Also, our first green hairstreaks of the year!

Staying with lycaenids, common blues and small blues were busy making sure there would be more of them in the future; blues porn?

We really love small blues: such dainty little butterflies! And we were happy to see a few 1st generation adonis blues among the common blues. 

And then the butterfly we were really hoping to see: marsh fritillary, a new species for us!

So that's the second new species of the year, another fritillary, after we saw a pearl-bordered fritillary in Bentley Wood a few weeks ago.

Pretty good day, with twelve species in total! Here's today's table (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Bentley Wood

Our very first official butterflying trip, in August 2020, was to Bentley Wood. Back then, we mostly focused on the rides through the forest. This time, our focus was on the East Clearing, hoping to see one particular, new-to-us, species ....

Although the forecast was for clear blue skies and warm temperatures, there was a lot of cloud cover, and it felt as if things just weren't properly starting up. Seeing very few butterflies over a period of a few hours, we bumped into two butterfly enthusiast, who had seen our target species a little while ago, and kindly pointed us to where they had seen it.

And, after maybe an hour of walking back and forth, there it was:

Pearl-bordered fritillary!

And, as icing on the cake, just as we were about to leave, a grizzled skipper buzzed away and then posed for a picture.

Despite the low numbers, a good day butterflying, and the first new species of the year. Here's today's table (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Hillier Gardens

Last year around this time, we visited Hillier Gardens for our first 'proper' day of butterflying, and we thought we'd give that a go this year as well during our Easter break. Like last year prior to our Easter Hillier visit, we've seen three species of butterflies so far this year: brimstone, red admiral and peacock. With a bit of luck, we should be able to add one or two species to our 2023 year list!

Due to the time of year, many plants weren't yet flowering, but the magnolias were out in force. 

In terms of butterflies, plenty of brimstones, a few peacocks, a few orange-tips and a small white. The latter two were the first of 2023 for us (and the first of the species that do not overwinter as adults). 

And, just like last year, we kept a close eye on the vegetation around the various ponds, hoping to see the first large red damselfly of the year, but alas and again, no luck ...

Here's the usual table (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Butterflies are waking up!

Last week, on a beautiful spring-like day, I saw my first butterfly of 2023: a male brimstone. Today, it really felt like spring again, and walking in the New Forest on this gorgeous day, I saw another brimstone, as well as several red admirals sunning themselves.

The butterflies are well and truly waking up!

The very first table of 2023 (one = 1; few = 2-4; several = 5-9; many = 10+):

Recap of 2022

As we're approaching the xmas break, time to wrap up 2022! Obviously, this year was never going to be as good a year for new species as last year, when we saw 24 new species (9 new butterfly species and 15 new damsel/dragonfly species). 

But we did see some new species! 

Butterflies first. We saw a total of 37 species (exactly the same number as last year), which included four new species: dingy skipper, essex skipper, lulworth skipper and duke of burgundy. The 'poster' below shows which species we saw this year (species names in red means we saw them in a previous year, but not this year).

And then on to damseldragonflies. A total of 26 species (one more than last year), which included three new species: willow emerald damselfly, white-legged damselfly and ruddy darter. Here's the 'what we saw this year' poster (again, red names mean we have seen the species before, but didn't see them this year).

So still seven new butterdamseldragonfly species in total, and one more species overall compared to last year! Nevertheless, numbers per species were clearly lower than last year, and the season just felt shorter. No doubt the heat and drought over the summer played a big role in that ...

In terms of our garden list, we saw fewer species (and clearly lower numbers) compared to last year: only 11, as shown in the table below.

Among those was this gorgeous peacock, sunning itself.

Not much point to publish a table of damseldragonflies seen in the garden this year, as that was just a single large red damselfly.

I mentioned before that I regard hawk-moths as honorary butterflies. We saw hummingbird hawk-moths in several places (but so far haven't managed to get a picture of one) as well as a caterpillar of a lime hawk-moth on the leaves of a lime tree in Dorchester.

What will 2023 bring? One way to find out!